Japanese Pavements/Sidewalks

[Sakuranamiki]

Hi all, 

 

Looking to make some pavements or sidewalks for my new layout...

Is there a site or a file that I can download to print some off, please?

Tried a "printable scenics" company that is based here in the UK, but what the chap said was a close match to Japanese paving was about as close as the Moon is to us!

 

Thanks,

Tim

[cteno4]

Tim, 

 

The scale scenes sidewalks are larger paving stones/pattern which is not very common in Japan (although I have seen similar things). 

 

I've seen a huge range of sidewalks in japan. The joke in are Japanese train club is its great modeling Japan as there is always a prototype for something! Take a look around with google street view to get ideas of colors and pavement lines and such for the area you want to model. Many are plain old concrete sidewalks. I’ve seen asphalt ones in some towns here and there. They also can disappear for a while and start again. Some are very skinny as well.
 

Greenmax has some of the fancier sidewalks with railing and markings like bike/pedestrian lanes. They still seem to have the unpainted versions as well for more plain sidewalks. You can also look at the simple sidewalks Tomytec includes with many of their structures. They are simple with just pavement lines about 2’ square a medium concrete gray to various sized paving stones. Several other small sidewalk kits are also out there.

 

I've not seen any papercraft files for Japanese sidewalks out there, i periodically do a search for papaercraft files out here for Japanese structures and such and never ran across any.

 

It would be pretty simple with a vector art program to creat your own pavement lines and just print them. Really even pavement lines is something that you would not see at 1’ viewing distance as scale at 150’ you would not see them unless they were highly contrasting (ie light colors red concrete and black dirt in the pavement grooves). These details are usually exaggerated to be able to seem them a couple of feet away. Surface texture also is not something you see at any normal viewing distance and hard to put into printing texture as when they get small they start to sort of get crazy. I’ve had good luck with roads to give some look of texture without trying to print a texture by printing on some drawing papers that have a bit of surface texture to them in the paper. You have to use inkjet to have the texture show thru as with laser printing the fused toner smooths out any surface texture the paper had.

 

Sidewalk height is also another issue as scale it would be about 0.5mm or so high at the curb. But at that height you don’t see much of a curb to the minds eye when you look at your scene from more than a foot away. So best to try to contrast the curb color to the road color to get more visual pop or most just cheat and make them taller to stand out. This only looks odd very close up where curb comes up high or car tires or people right near the curb and you see the curb goes up to their knees. Modeling is always tradeoffs!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Kamome]

Pavements are varied so best to get some visual reference for what you want to model. Even just using some plasti-card and then scored and painting into colours from your photo reference. 

 

Downtown areas around major stations tend to be paving slabs. Also would have the yellow textured slabs for the visually impaired around crossings and along main walking routes. 

 

If more rural, pavements will tend to be concrete or asphalt on larger roads, still paving slabs near suburban stations and would have the yellow slabs too.

 

More rural again, sometimes just painted lines or nothing on narrower minor roads. Sometimes the allocated space might be painted blue or blue-green when at the same level as the road and just separated by a white line.

 

I have also seen pavements at the same level as the road with a line of raised curb stones separating it from the road. Some of the narrower roads the telegraph poles encroach across the allocated pavement space so pedestrians have to jut out onto the road every few meters.

[cteno4]

Thanks @Kamome I need to keep the scene of the sidewalks at the same height as the road and separated by curb stones in mind to model. Everytime I see them I think “I need to model that!” and promptly forget about it.

 

Yes Google streetview is your friend for these sorts of street side details as it’s something folks usually don’t take pictures of! Grant on the forum use to be great snapping pictures of all this stuff as he walked around Tokyo, but sadly his photo storage account went sound and we lost most all of his imbedded images! Kuro68000’s walking videos on his travel topics are also fantastic to get all these street side views.

 

jeff

[Sakuranamiki]

Thanks both!

I have been watching "Cityscape Studio" for some inspiration and I think that the effect I'm looking for is what is on the Kato Unitram boards. Sort of red-ish/pinkish/grey crazy paving. I remember seeing something similar when I was out in Tsukuba visiting friends.

Would it be possible (do you think) that I could scan them and print out on my trusty HP inkjet?

Just a thought...

It may be easier to stick with asphalt and concrete, because it is a downtown theme, but industrial at the same time (mid to late 1990's).  What we in the UK (well Cardiff anyway) would call the "arse end of town".

 

Tim 

[cteno4]

Tim,

 

Sure you could give it a try. May need to play with the edges some.
 

you could also play around creating some of your own files in a drawing program and tile your own. 
 

jeff

[mr bachmann]

If scanning thicker than paper , cover the scanner lid (towel/cloth) to stop stray light , it worked for me on a loco tender (just for the logo)

[Sakuranamiki]

19 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Tim,

 

Sure you could give it a try. May need to play with the edges some.
 

you could also play around creating some of your own files in a drawing program and tile your own. 
 

jeff

Thanks Jeff,

I can't get to grips with drawing programs - I find there's always far too much to take in just to do a simple or one off task!

I'll see if one of the kids can do it. Maybe it will be an incentive for my daughter to get more screen time!

 

Tim

[Sakuranamiki]

16 hours ago, mr bachmann said:

If scanning thicker than paper , cover the scanner lid (towel/cloth) to stop stray light , it worked for me on a loco tender (just for the logo)

I'll give it a try.

They're only about 3-4mm thick, but I'll cover it with a towel all the same.

[cteno4]

5 hours ago, Sakuranamiki said:

Thanks Jeff,

I can't get to grips with drawing programs - I find there's always far too much to take in just to do a simple or one off task!

I'll see if one of the kids can do it. Maybe it will be an incentive for my daughter to get more screen time!

 

Tim

Tim, he’s doing patterns from scratch is a PITA for sure. Good task for your daughter! Always best to learn by doing a project like this and manybe a way to interest her into the hobby some? Always fun when you can collaborate and mix talents with others.

 

Sakuranamiki is spot on using a cloth or towel on top of your raised item on the scanner glass will help with the light leak around the edges and keep more of the edges in good scan. Scanners have a poor depth of field, but the detail on the streets is very shallow and doesn’t have to be in crisp detail in the indents. May need to just touch up the edges some and with some touch up you can probably just duplicate chunks to make bigger strips. In a bit map program you can go in and tweak edges where things come together to help get over any contrast changes between edges butt up against each other. While having some of these is actually prototypical (pavement at different times or slightly different materials, or pressure washed up to a point) having it repeating up the street by the same increment isn’t so prototypical. Get your daughter on it, this is good screen time, learning to task thru a project and learn bits needed to solve the problem.

 

let us know how it comes out and your process, always good for the rest of us to hear and learn things that worked and things that didn’t!

 

jeff