My project begins

[KenS]

It's coming along quite well.  And the ballfield looks "real", just the color of too-green grass you'd see on a real one that's well-tended.  But I didn't see a gate in the fence.  Are the players doomed to be in extra innings forever? Will you need to add a helicopter to medevac them before starvation sets in? 

[keitaro]

i was thinking jet packs would be best soloution.

 

yeah i have to cut a gate into the shade cloth.

 

I'm not entirely happy with the shade cloth solution. I'm always on the look out for a fabric or fly screen. just havn't been bothered to go get some i will one day when i go to places that sell these.

 

the grass looks a bit greener in the video and pics then real life.

[The_Ghan]

Looking really nice mate.  I see the soup bowl has moved on ... 

 

A small quarry might look nice over against those cliffs near the rear station.

 

Nice work.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[keitaro]

Thanks mate.

 

Do you mean the right side or left?

 

I can't do left as i have the rice field there the right i could i i removed a few trees.

 

Tonight i will place down grass on the very left where the trees are then i'm planning on finishing the turf up the back at the rear station. Then i will place my farmers and fishermen.

 

i need more base ball players but theres only the one set available and it's the same as i have already.

 

Also i got a bunch of girls for the school on order in sailor suit i figure a girls only school will do it.

[keitaro]

Grassed the ground as promised.

 

If you look at the pic below you will notice the glue bottle.

 

my plan is to have over growth there on the track a deki 3 with weeds and grass over grown on it.

 

And some rusty cantenary poles with growth to look like and abandoned line.

[The_Ghan]

If you look at the video you posted on 25/10 and pause at 58s mark, that's the spot I was thinking of a small quarry - behind your second station and to the right of the farm house.  You could do this so easily with a few small sheds, a couple of excavators and a bit of paint to "freshen-up" the stone on those cliffs.  It might be a tight squeeze but that's prototypical for Japan anyway.  It also increases the importance of the second station - making it the "workers" station. 

 

An alternative, if you can fit it is, might be an entrance to a tin mine - just a couple of short lengths of z scale track, a few cheap hoppers painted a dusty grey, and a painted black tunnel entrance ...

 

You've modelled that corner of cliff too well just to leave it as the backdrop to a rice farm ... 

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[keitaro]

another video of some progress.

 

as mentioned have done the abandoned / closed line. still have to do the overhead wire and a rusted deki 3.

 

not sure if thats a definate i may just get a static old freight wagon of some sort instead.

 

can view in 1080p if required lol

 

[keitaro]

Thought i'd show the 16 car 500 series sayonara going.

 

It's about as loud as a 4 car greenmax. not that bad would be better on a proper sized layout.

 

[The_Ghan]

Keitaro,

 

That looks tops ... if you crank the speed up I reckon the cab car will catch up to the end of the train !!!

 

Nice work.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[KenS]

Nice train, if a bit long for the layout. And the layout's looking good.  The Thomas waiting at the station is a nice touch.

 

But I think you need to pan more slowly; the abrupt swings keep the camera from focusing, and a blured-out panning shot is almost worse than none at all.  It makes me ask "what was that lump we just went past?".

[cteno4]

But I think you need to pan more slowly; the abrupt swings keep the camera from focusing, and a blured-out panning shot is almost worse than none at all.  It makes me ask "what was that lump we just went past?".

 

my video producer has a nice little limerick for this:

 

If you are not a pro

Panning is a no-no!

 

she does a lot of video instruction. rarely can even pros pan well with video w/o focus and movement problems!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[keitaro]

the recording is done on my mobile. so editing isn't really an option. When i am complete i will use cam and a tripod to get some vids i will edit.

 

mean while i havn't done anything yet but i will be completing the road area at the front some time soon.

[keitaro]

Cleaned the track a bit this morning.

If you want to see the ED61 and ED62 in action see this.

 

havn't done much on the layout recently besides a bit more ballasting. Just need to ballast the 2 stations. Then on to the school and the area up the back with turf and dirt road. Then place all the people down.

 

[Bernard]

Really nice job of ballasting.....I can't tell if it's flex or sectional track.  :icon_thumright:

[keitaro]

thanks mate. If you see the ballasting in the real it's not really that great. it is pretty wide which looks strange.

 

I left it that way to add on the greenmax ats equipment bits later though.

 

i'll be pleased to finish this layout off. Wish i had room to make my next lol.

[KenS]

I don't think the ballast is unreasonably wide. It's not that uncommon (at least in the U.S.) for older ballast to spread a bit from where the track is. What it does need is more of a profile. Real ballast should be higher than the land nearby (and usually slope down at least a bit a foot or two from the track). And if not, then should be separated from non-railroad land by a small ditch, so that water will drain out of the stones after a rain.

 

But at typical N-scale viewing distance, that's a detail that can be assumed, not shown.  It's obvious in close-up photography, but close-up photography is very unforgiving.

 

It's a very good-looking layout overall, and the ballast looks good to me.

[keitaro]

so i put some passengers into my tobu 1720 car today i didn't fill it all up i need to buy bulk sitting people.

 

I used a running figure and bent his legs (the one with the crazy jacket) the actual sitting zscale people fit in perfectly.

 

I don't have lights for this set yet so here is the pic of the open shell.

[The_Ghan]

Nice work.  Z-scale sitting people are the g.o. then?

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[cteno4]

Interesting. how do the passengers look in the windows? do they look bulky enough? my only concern with the z figures would be their mass.

 

also can you see any of their legs when you look through the windows or is it only the head and torsos?

 

problem is most of the car floors and seats are just approximations and may be a bit over done to give more to see thru the windows. i think most of the floors and even the seat bases are too high.

 

i had tried a little experiment a couple of years ago trying to bend figures in very hot water and it didnt pan out. thought of trying to cut a V into their front waists to help them bend, but then I noticed that even looking really close i could no see legs when i placed a few seated chinese figures in a car. so ill probably do a curt and just chop folks off at the waist when i populate cars. could cut off at the lower torso then glue a bit of the legs onto the seat if you could see them.

 

jeff

[keitaro]

it's hard to get a good shot due to no interior lighting so heres some.

 

this trains seats are perfect size for z scale people of course models vary and isn't always the case.

 

You can sit 2 single people next to each other and they fit in the seat, 2 nscale figures are too wide to fit on the seat so zscale was very suitable. even the standing people are ok.

 

the bar that holds the light in place is 1 mm higher than the zscale person standing so it should be perfect height for z figures rather than N.

[The_Ghan]

Looks tops mate.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[cteno4]

interesting. ghan's comment on westfallen's pictures is i think very true that from normal viewing levels of trains we usually only see head and shoulders usually. since you will probably only really see the people in n scale trains if you are right down on track level really close in anyway, probably easiest to just snip off standing passengers at the right height to put them in the seats. im still thinking n scale people would be better for their volume than z. i think its just a visual effect you are going for here that the minds eye fills in the details so the more prominent the figures are to your eye the better.

 

hopefully n scale standing figs snipped off to get the right effect out the windows are still short enough to not bump their heads on the lighting bars above (those are usually above the top of the windows so it should work). snipping them off will make it a lot easier to place the figures in the seats and probably give you the room to fit them together better than with seated figures in short seats. also gives you the wiggle room for variances model to model on the seat proportions and floor heights.

 

maybe ill go do some "curting" and fill a tomytec car...

 

cheers

 

jeff

[The_Ghan]

cteno4 is referring to this post.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[keitaro]

so as i continue to fiddle about i decided to rant about somehitng else i have been doing.

 

I have broken 2 turnouts so far. well not really me, but my son anyway.....

 

I have found they are an excellent source of scrap and handy bits so much now that i am keeping a margarine container full of handy bits.

 

What i have found is turnouts are a great source of small brass stips and other handy bits open a broken one up and see.

 

Now for the fun part.... I been looking into my kiha 110 and comparing the new lighting system (subway ones) to the old one.

 

after looking the only actual difference i can see is the led looks to be sligtly larger in the new.

 

One thing i noticed is the brass strip that slides into the car is looser than in the subways.

 

 

 

So using the salvaged strips outta the turnouts i straightened them flat and slid into the brass strip area with the light system.

 

Then i bent them to slide up between the led legs and the plastic.

 

so looks like this  Bronze pickup + legs + bronze (salvaged) + plastic holder. This is a bit fiddly to get on but once the shell is on you just need to test.

 

This improves the lighting ability on the 110 kiha it still flickers a bit but does make it better.

[The_Ghan]

keitaro,

 

I know you're a busy man but a couple of photo with arrows would really help a visual guy like me understand this modification to the lighting in older cars.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan