Sankei - "Paper" Kits

[cteno4]

Yes it is very rigid and hard stuff, it's tough to cut as well.

 

I think I know the resin impregnated chipboard used in electronics you are thinking about. I did get a little sample of a more fibrous chipboard for lasercutting that was similar, almost like OSB or gather board facing, but these don't have the nice matte paper like surface texture of nice paper. The sankei kits are the nicest stuff I've seen and my friend who does the architectural models thought it was nicer than any of the stuff he used. Granted most of the architectural models are bigger stuff and they tend not to want to get into the finished look too much, they tend to like them more perceived finish (if it's too detailed folks get locked into this is exactly what it will look like and they get into endless pointless detailed nit picking).

 

I am thinking they have had some nice custom chipboard done to their specifications. Something in the resin/binder and fiber gets it nice and stiff but still allows for a bit of surface texture and resists scorching. The surface texture is close to a low texture art drawing paper, similar to the colored art cardstock you can get but way stiffer, so something different in the fibers and binder.

 

It is much superior than the permil kit materials which is mostly a standard grade white chipboard (closer to a cardstock, smooth, with no surface texture and not any where as near as stiff) and they just print colors and patterns onto one side. Permil does laser cuts that have a medium brown singe on the edges so they are not white. While this helps hide the site edge it is a bit of an odd effect to have all the edges this brown. Printing does let them do a wider range of colors and do patterns and even a bit of weathering detail on it so that is cool. I have not yet fully assembled a permil kit yet, but it does feel as interlocked design as the sankei does and it had a little more a feel of a printed cardstock model (not that that's bad you can do great things with printed cardstock).

 

Sankei definitely is unique! Let me know if you find any leads! My dream is a small laser cutter and having good materials is a must!

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

Edited December 19, 2015 by cteno4

[tossedman]

I've been looking for similar material here in Canada as well but to no avail. I think one might need to do a search in Japanese in order to find some.

 

Jeff you need to get yourself one of these. Looks like fun.

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

[cteno4]

Neat! They are pretty vague on the software end, it sounds like you upload to thier server to have things processed and then sent to the cutter. Will be interesting to see when it comes out what more of the details are. There were a number of small laser cutters put up on crowd funding like this in the last year. Someday here I want one!

 

Inobu may have found something, but not clear if it could be got in under manufacturing quantities! But thsi stuff is only really good for a lasercutter as cutting with a blade is really tough.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

Edited December 20, 2015 by cteno4

[tossedman]

Santa (well, my lovely wife actually) brought a few new Sankei kits this morning. I also was given some Tamiya Craft Bond glue and I love it! Don't know how I ever built a Sankei kit without it. It's similar to the glue used in the diorama videos here. Very easy to apply in small amounts right where it's needed.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10043289

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd 

[cteno4]

Todd,

 

Damn your wife! She is too good! Have to try that. The similar Arleen's tacky glue dispenser is similar and can make pretty small dots, but not quite as easily as the one in the video, probably because the tacky glue is thicker and tackier. Next HS order!

 

Are you gluing away as we speak here?!

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[tossedman]

Indeed I am! Well, I'll be back to it once I finish eating and helping Noah build a giant Lego Technic wrecker.

Edited December 25, 2015 by tossedman

[cteno4]

Man that's a great holiday, sankei kit building, eating good food, and playing Legos with a 9 year old! Heaven! I bet your wife thinks she has two 9 year olds in the house today!

 

My wife often comments she has a husband and a 9 year old but lives with just one person...

 

Jeff

[tossedman]

Yeah, she says I do all these hobbies with Noah just so I get to play as well. She's not wrong on that one!

 

Todd

[nah00]

Just got my first Sankei kit, this shrine:

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10126412

 

Needless to say I amazed at the detail on this. I thought I would have to push out the holes on the doors, already done. Looks simple enough to start with too, nothing a toothpick and some white glue can't handle. 

[Madsing]

Does anyone know where to buy these Sankei kits in the Tokyo area? Tam Tam, Popondetta or Imon? I don't remember having seen them there.

[Kabutoni]

TamTam usually has these in stock, but it largely depends on the shop. Also remember that Japanese manufacturers don't have a continuous supply, but rather do limited runs of their releases. Hence, older models can be hard to get.

[cteno4]

Yeah sankei seems to come back in stock in waves. easy for them to do with kits like this as production is pretty simple!

 

jeff

[tossedman]

Has anyone tried this material? Laserboard.

http://automatedartists.com/laserboard

And apparently this is the same stuff.

http://www.rustystumps.com/proddetail.asp?prod=L1000

Edited December 3, 2016 by tossedman

[Madsing]

Thank you! I will try to get this new kit: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10434217

Urban Housing (A) Paper Kit (Pre-colored Kit)

But it may no be available next week yet.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cteno4]

This is a permil kit, not sankei. The permil kits use a cheaper white chipboard with a colored face, which can leave a white edge on corners.

 

The sankei kits use a high density chipboard with a lot of resin (therefore very stiff for its thickness) and its colored all the way thru so you get the same color on the edges as the face! They also do a lot of laminating of walls to give detail relief around openings, rabit joints at corners, and extra wall stiffness.

 

The permil kits are interesting, just not as fine in the details or finish of the sankei kits.

 

Jeff

Edited December 3, 2016 by cteno4

[tossedman]

I've asked for some samples of the Laserboard. Will report back when I get me some.

[tossedman]

And I've got some building to do. I've bought Mr. Frosty's 30 Sankei kits in a fit of insanity.

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/12079-sold-sankei-building-kits/?p=144215

[cteno4]

Has anyone tried this material? Laserboard. http://automatedartists.com/laserboard

And apparently this is the same stuff. http://www.rustystumps.com/proddetail.asp?prod=L1000

Interesting. I've searched around for similar materials that sankei uses, but never found anything really close. Inobu found some thermal insulation board that came in colors that looked similar to the sankei material but I expect it has a lot or resin in it. A friend who makes architectural models had a lot of interesting laser board materials, and some that would change shades with different laser powers when etched but none were colored thru the board like sankei or were as thin.

 

I sent an email to see about getting some little samples.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[Madsing]

Thank you! I will try to get this new kit: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10434217

Urban Housing (A) Paper Kit (Pre-colored Kit)

But it may no be available next week yet.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh. You are right. My mistake.

I see what you mean. This appears clearly on the photo of the kit. So I'll probably have to paint it.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cteno4]

so i just got the laserboard samples. nice stuff nice and dense and stiff. http://automatedartists.com/laserboard

 

there were three browns that are different thicknesses and then thin black and thicker beige samples. the brown are textures and patterning that would require painting. the black and beige are good to use directly.

 

still not quite the quality, look and stiffness of the sankei material but better density and stiffness than art papers. the extra resin though will probably make it hard for the blade cutting.

 

may pick up a few sheets to experiment with for small stuff. 

 

if life mellows out next year i hope to get a small lasercutter

 

jeff

[tossedman]

Still waiting on my samples. Also waiting on quotes for electrical and exhaust for the room we want to put a laser cutter into (the old school darkroom). Hopefully soon in the new year I'll be able to order a laser cutter for school. Got big plans for that baby, if and when it shows up.

 

Todd

Edited December 16, 2016 by tossedman

[ben_issacs]

Folks, 

I've been making Sankei buildings for quite a while.

One has to study the instruction leaflet  (all in Japanese) very carefully so as to get some of the smaller parts in the right place.

Also, the selection of the adhesive used is important,

I use PVC (white or wood working glue). This is water based, so shouldn't be applied thickly or it will warp the card, and it sets pretty quickly. so laminating parts together must be done quickly and carefully.

One thing I like to do is to put partitions in these buildings so one isn't seeing all the way through from one side to the other, and also so for floors in multi story buildings, these can all be done by ordinary cardboard.

One thing needed, especially for such things as office buildings with large glass areas is appropriate office furniture, desks, chairs, etc., and also 'office ladies and gentlemen' to use this stuff.

Also machinery for factories, workshops etc, many of these have open fronts and look very bare without a couple of benches, a drilling m/c and a lathe.

Regards, 

Bill, 

Melbourne.

 

 

[ben_issacs]

Folks, 

Further on Sankei kits, and cardboard buildings in general.

Note that the Japanese refer to these kits as paper kits, not cardboard.

Sankei seems to be the major supplier in this field, for model railways they do kits in Z, N, Japanese HO (1:80) and standard 1:87 HO scales.

They also do a line of airport buildings in the popular plastic aircraft modeling scale of 1:144, which can fit im with Japanese N at 1:150.

Yes, one might say, who has sufficient space on their layout for an airfield, but one could model just a corner with a small control tower and a couple of other related buildings. The difficulty here is getting suitable small private planes in 1:144 scale, there are plenty of military aircraft in this scale, but small aircraft such as Cessnas are hard to find.

One of their airport kits is for a very large hangar, possibly the most costly of any of their kits.

Another card kit manufacturer, with a much smaller range, is Amagi Modelling.

Their kits,  N scale, which are mainly of various Japanese railway stations, are similar to the Sankei kits, but do not have glazing.

You may ask, who wants models of twenty different Japanese stations?

I do, because I'm making a collection of them to show the varying architectural styles.

There are other manufacturers, but I wont touch on them here.

And, in my previous post, I mentioned PVC adhesive, this was an error, it should have been PVA!

Regards, 

Bill.

Melbourne.

 

 

 

[cteno4]

Welcome Ben,

 

Lots of sankei folks here on the forum. I love them and too many of them here. I especially like their quality heavy resin chipboard that has pigment throughout and their construction designs, combo makes a very construction.

 

Looking forward to getting my first Amagi, should be here in a week or so. They look equivalent to sankei in materials, will be interesting to see if different on any construction design for assembly.

 

I have a number of the permil kits, but they use cheap materials of heavy cardstock without heavy resin and only surfaced colored. They are not as careful on joints and slot/tab designs as sankei is. I also think they will need to have some stiffening done to them like regular cardstock. I’ve put them aside for now until I can play a bit more with them.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=104&cat=rail&target=Make&searchkey=Advance

 

Advanced also has some odd bits.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=104&cat=rail&target=Make&searchkey=Advance

 

you may find some interesting stuff in some of these other threads on cardstock and lasercut sets

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/5438-papercraft-models-textures/?tab=comments#comment-61196

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/2026-sankei-paper-kits/?tab=comments#comment-22646

 

Cheers

 

jeff

[gavino200]

7 hours ago, ben_issacs said:

Folks, 

Further on Sankei kits, and cardboard buildings in general.

Note that the Japanese refer to these kits as paper kits, not cardboard.

Sankei seems to be the major supplier in this field, for model railways they do kits in Z, N, Japanese HO (1:80) and standard 1:87 HO scales.

They also do a line of airport buildings in the popular plastic aircraft modeling scale of 1:144, which can fit im with Japanese N at 1:150.

Yes, one might say, who has sufficient space on their layout for an airfield, but one could model just a corner with a small control tower and a couple of other related buildings. The difficulty here is getting suitable small private planes in 1:144 scale, there are plenty of military aircraft in this scale, but small aircraft such as Cessnas are hard to find.

One of their airport kits is for a very large hangar, possibly the most costly of any of their kits.

Another card kit manufacturer, with a much smaller range, is Amagi Modelling.

Their kits,  N scale, which are mainly of various Japanese railway stations, are similar to the Sankei kits, but do not have glazing.

You may ask, who wants models of twenty different Japanese stations?

I do, because I'm making a collection of them to show the varying architectural styles.

There are other manufacturers, but I wont touch on them here.

And, in my previous post, I mentioned PVC adhesive, this was an error, it should have been PVA!

Regards, 

Bill.

Melbourne.

 

 

 

 

I'd love to see some pictures of the stuff that you're describing!