My project begins

[keitaro]

On a different note i would like to say MA light kits are great piss all over kato ones not including the subway light kit.

 

No flickering at all not too bright either unlike the kato subway lights.

 

 

 

my k set 100 series limited i have 2 sets of this

 

 

I'm starting to get the feeling that tomix is abusing the term "limited Edition" lol essentially this is identical to the 100 series fresh green except painted different.

 

In fact it's got the exact same book inside with just the numbers changed on it compared to the fresh green lol.

 

Still great model and glad to have 2.

 

can anyone tell me the reason behind tomix sending it out with 1 panto not installed and the others already installed??

 

it just doesn't make sense either have all installed or have none and let the owner do it? This is the same for the fresh green.

 

Or is there some sort of set used where maybe that 1 panto isn’t used and others do?

 

If anyone is wondering the cars are there becasue my son likes to park them in front of the shinkansen and run them down 

[keitaro]

tobu 1720 wiht lights install don't mind the flicker in the middle of vid as i am running on bare minimum power to get an inside shot passengers

 

 

also c62-2 and -3 pulling some hoki 10000 for fun, bit dissapointed in the hokis they are damaged contacted plaza japan for assistance on this.

 

[Dani]

 

If anyone is wondering the cars are there becasue my son likes to park them in front of the shinkansen and run them down 

 

 

Tell your son to try with cows, is even funnier!!!     

[cteno4]

oh no PETA is going to come in here soon! starting to feel like a monte python skit!

 

jeff

[The_Ghan]

Dani,

 

You got an "after shot" of that cow?           

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[keitaro]

tobu 1720 upgrade complete.

 

Tomix tn couplers added

Passengers

Lighting internally

Img 1 one before coupler

im2 after coupler

 

[keitaro]

[Sir Madog]

Dani,

 

You got an "after shot" of that cow?           

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

 

Here you are:

 

[keitaro]

ok well I have had time to play with my Ma 200 series.

 

Key points -

 

Pro's-

-Train is quiet much quieter than my recent tomix shinkansens.

-Great pulling power will handle my 4~% slopes pulling all 10 cars no issues and barely notice any slow down.

-Details are great but I’m not too sure about the pantographs they seem a little small or out of scale.

 

Cons-

-Every carriage has a massive printed micro ace made in china on the undercarriage. While not visible while running it does give me the shits as it makes it look cheap.

-The paint job is not as sharp as tomix / kato and some bit's look hand painted like detail parts (though I’m undecided on if this is bad or not)

-The gap between first car and second car and rear and 2nd from rear have a larger gap than the other cars. Therefore looks a bit silly to me.

 

Undecided-

-The couplers are definitely interesting. While they are pretty sizeable they do work really well and they are easy to couple and uncouple, though as mentioned in cons the gap for the front and rear is a little odd.

 

What’s good about these couplers compared to say Tomix power couplers is they spring back directly in the middle, of course then you don't have an awesome pickup system though.

 

One issue I have with the tomix ones is they don’t snap back like there TN’s do this leaves room for de-rails on points if the couplers have not straightened.

 

What I have noticed though is the Ma can handle 280 – 45 curves and even would go on the 243-45 though not recommended. I think this could be due to the extra gap so it could be a benefit for those with smaller layouts.

 

 

Other mentions-

 

-The lights front and rear light up really well, they don’t flicker either, one thing I also have issue with tomix is they still flicker some times on all wheel. I’m actually got a theory as to why the tomix flicker and I’m about to test that.

- case is normal though I wish I could fit all 10 cars into 1 case.

-stickers as per normal

 

To sum it up I would definitely buy another MA and am glad I bought this as The Ghan would know I was about to cancel this pre-order just after I ordered it then I didn’t.

Also I may purchase the 300 off them as they are doing 2 different sets and Tomix doesn’t offer both forms.

[The_Ghan]

keitaro,

 

I think you should re-post your MA 200 review in N-Scale, as a review.  This info is far too important to leave buried in your project thread, mate.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[cteno4]

its a nice model, ive enjoyed it over the years. was a bit of a grinder, but a tad of lubing and it was much more of a purr. its held up well and gotten a lot of running over the years on the jrm layout at shows. ma is not the best at couplers, but these function and look better than their usual rapido they slap on as i think they expect folks to upgrade anyway.

 

ive thought of adding a bit of a futura shine to it to make it have a bit more of that luster that you see on the prototype.

 

enjoy!

 

jeff

[keitaro]

have not done much of late on the layout.

 

but i did begin to put down some of the people.

[keitaro]

some more

[keitaro]

i need to put down many more but thats a start.

 

Also i really need to fix the fence for the baseball field...

[Mudkip Orange]

You put a double crossover WITHIN station platform limits... what are you a Brit?

[keitaro]

lack of space

[cteno4]

actually there are crossovers in some japanese stations. matthew found some pictures of prototypical ones when we were angsting over it with the new jrm layout. glory of modeling japanese rr as there seems o be a prototype for everything you might want to do!

 

jeff

[keitaro]

well it's been a while moved recently and some of the layout got battle damage. i managed to fix up this damage mostly.

 

Anyhow i actualy got a half hour of spare time and finished up the first ginza01 with a driver in the cab and all.

 

pics to come later waiting for the supa glue to dry.

 

If you put the shell on too soon the plastic windows fog up from the supa glu fumes and is near impossible to clean off!

 

Even z scale has to be chopped on the ginza even with the extra thin new lighting. Still they work awesome in Ma and most other regular models.

 

sample pics below

All carriages have similar numbers of passengers. gets pretty pricey to do this....

[keitaro]

[Martijn Meerts]

That driver in there looks especially good =)

[keitaro]

The driver is expensive to do, the kato packs only have 2 suitable figures in the pack the others are standing position and therefore cannot be used in the cab.

 

also on top of this the pack has 1 sitting with blue jacket and one sitting with out the blue jacket.

 

which makes it even more difficult to have the same in each side. I have gone for one only on one side not in the other end cab.

 

So the trains will in turn only ever travel that direction which is fine i guess. I want to put drivers in every train but....

 

i just noticed this pack has 3 but.... it's winter clothes http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10096044

 

this is the current one i have so as you can see it is hard to have matching each side with out buying alot of packs. http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10096048

[mwsteele]

2 packs would get you enough for 1 train right?

They look super good though!

 

What packs did you use for the passengers?

[keitaro]

2 packs would get you enough for 1 train right?

They look super good though!

 

What packs did you use for the passengers?

 

depends on the model

 

I use z scale sitting figures figures that are now hard to find and some z scale randon figures of ebay.

 

In most MA sets the seats are well done and allow for a full zscale figure to sit in it with out being chopped. See my video/pics earlier for the tobu 1720.

 

In the Ginza i used z scale ebay figures. they don't need to be fancy in the train cause who can tell anyway??

 

Most other kato and tomix trains do not require chopping of z scale figures either (sometimes the feet 1mm or 2mm) but the nscale ones always reguire chopping at the waist to fit in therefore zscale is a much better alternative.

 

My argument that z scale is better is if you look at most trains people sitting you can only see their shoulders / head and the zscale replicates this.

[Martijn Meerts]

It would look weird to have a driver at both ends really, especially if they both look like they're actually driving the train ;)

[ToniBabelony]

Two 'drivers' or persons in the cab isn't that strange actually. In Japan, when trains aren't 'One-Man' operated, the back is occupied by the conductor. You could even put two persons in each cab and pretend the driver has a supervisor (standing).