GreenMax - New Releases

[gavino200]

I resisted the Tamper before, but this time I had to bite. I agree. It would be a nice siding piece, or a great stationary track-maintenance scene.  I'll get the ballast regulator too, if they re-release it. 

[the_weird_one]

Going to have to get the tie tamper this time to go with the ballast regulator I got first time around

[Kiha66]

The apartment building reruns are handy, I really need to pick a few up.

[gavino200]

Just now, Kiha66 said:

The apartment building reruns are handy, I really need to pick a few up.

 

I was tempted. I want apartments like that, but I'd probably want to put a whole bunch together as a complex. I don't have anything planned yet. So, maybe next time. I'm still licking my wounds over missing the transformer substation last month. I really wanted to work that into my station. It's very cliché, but I still like it. I'll have to go hunt it down one of these days. 

[Kiha66]

I'm thinking of doing similar, I remember seeing the rows of post war public housing outside Sasebo and I'd love to have it as a module.  I'm bummed I missed the aoshima apartments, those would have been great too!

[gavino200]

4 minutes ago, Kiha66 said:

I'm thinking of doing similar, I remember seeing the rows of post war public housing outside Sasebo and I'd love to have it as a module.  I'm bummed I missed the aoshima apartments, those would have been great too!

 

Totally, I love the Aoshima apartments. I've had them in mind for my layout ever since seeing Quinntopia kitbash them into taller units on his website years ago. They can usually be found with some searching. I'm going to take this as a wake-up call. I need to spend a while thinking about the public housing complex that I want, so I'll be ready to buy buildings as I stumble across them. I'll check out Sasebo. Thanks!

[Kiha66]

These were taken from what is now the Nishi-Kyūshū Line run by the third sector Matsuura Railway just west of Sasebo.  There were also some lined up like dominos along a hillside but I didn't get any photos of those.  The great thing about the greenmax apartments is you can make a very similar scene is a very small space. 

 

[gavino200]

Wow, something like that will work perfectly for the hilly side of my layout. I don't really want to make it too rural. I'm a suburban/urban child at heart. 

[cteno4]

thats the cool thing about japan you can have a suburban apartment building with a rice paddy right in back!

 

the Aoshima buildings are a good sized structures. might try the Apartment 02 pdf to play around with sizes, looks like they have a few sizes. bit more modern and interesting than the really old public ones.

 

https://paperstructure.jimdofree.com/ショップ-ダウンロード版/

 

the greenmax ones look like they could do for smaller ones. they also did one that was a tri shaped one that was pretty small footprint actually and i think they were build pretty close to each other.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[nah00]

I held off on the tie-tamper the first time around but after seeing there were no real problems with it I caved, I prefer to Totetsu color since it's different from standard yellow MoW equipment and I've seen some parked on JR East sidings. Hopefully the ballast regulator comes out again as well, if anyone has both can you run them on the same track without much loss of performance on DC? 

[200系]

@Kiha66@gavino200,

 

As one of those weird people who actually likes the (Japanese) post-war housing developments, in both an architecturally and social-historic context, I'd like to add my 2 cents with regards to the Greenmax apartment building (2612 and 2613)

 

It is important to note, that the apartment building Greenmax has announced (if the building on the poster is the one you guys are referring to) , is typically not one of the designs you'd find on a 'Danchi' or housing complex.

For the typical mid-rise (4 to 5 floor) housing complex built between 1955 and the late 1970's, there were, as far as I know, about 4 general types.

These were the: 55 (first designed in 1955), 57, 63 and 67 types. They were all based around the LDK, or Living Dining Kitchen concept, in which the dining kitchen was intended to be used as a common living area, with (a) separate bedroom(s) (still using tatami and fusuma (sliding screens) of course). This was intended to promote a new way of living in which the 'nuclear family' would start to play a much larger roll in Japanese society in comparison to the traditional extended family (and the separate bedrooms allowed for a lot more privacy for the parents than in traditional homes). There's also the 51C type, which was the first of the housing complex buildings to be designed, however most of the earliest housing complexes started with either the 55 or 57 type buildings. From the late 1960's onward they seem to either have gone for larger high rises, or variations on the 67 type.

 

The floor plan for these buildings could vary quite a bit even among the same general type, and there were some variations in terms of the location of the staircases number of floors and in later variations on the 67 type outside corridors could also be used, so it can be tricky to accurately determine the correct type/floor plan for certain buildings (especially the 63 and early 67 types are quite close to one another).  The building shown in your photos looks to be a 67N-5-2DK (1967~ type, northern staircase, 2 bedrooms plus a dining kitchen) or similar type of building. Interestingly according to google maps, to the south there are, what appears to be, two 67N-4-3DK buildings, while to the east there's a possible 67S-5-2DK type building.

 

Anyway, the new Greenmax apartment building doesn't seem to confirm to any of the designs used for housing complexes during this time period, at least as far as I'm aware of. It seems to be closer to the type of, low-rent, apartment you can occasionally still come across anywhere in Japan, usually adjacent to a small parking lot, something more akin to this: https://osumituki.com/kyotokanko/100307.html or this: https://lsk-sanin-hanbai.com/detail/?no=505, though one of our Japanese residents may have a better example.

 

If you're looking for accurate models for your model 'danchi' you have, unfortunately, only two options: the aforementioned Aoshima building (67?N/S-5-2DK) or Greenmax 2701/2702 (63N/S-5-3DK) both are out of production though.

Pro-tip, if you're building a housing complex, space the buildings about 16,7 cm (for the 5 story buildings) or 13,3 cm (for a 4 story building) apart (staircase to balcony) to keep in compliance with building regulations (this allows for at least 4 hours of sunlight even during winter, even at the 1st floor), and make sure the balcony side is facing in a globally southern direction (wherever that is for your layout 😉) for the ultimate rivet (rebar) counter experience.

[chadbag]

I don't know which version my MIL lived in, but she lived in one of these post war mass "public" housing complexes and we have lots of fond memories visiting her.  One of the things I noticed is the row of gravity fed water tanks on the top of most of these sorts of housing buildings.  Usually big round balls.     I need to get some of the sort that look like that, eventually...    The one she lived in was "reserved" for low income folks and she was subsidized somehow -- not sure of the details.

 

Eventually they built a new modern building across the street and she moved into that and they tore the old buildings down (probably have since built modern buildings there -- it has been a few years since the demolition started).

 

[JR 500系]

Some Tokyu love, and Toyama railway:

 

http://www.greenmax.co.jp/image/new_release/new_release_202104_01.jpg

 

http://www.greenmax.co.jp/image/new_release/new_release_202104_02.jpg

[JR 500系]

GM new posters for July releases are out :

 

http://www.greenmax.co.jp/image/new_release/new_release_202104_13.jpg

 

http://www.greenmax.co.jp/image/new_release/new_release_202104_14.jpg

 

http://www.greenmax.co.jp/image/new_release/new_release_202104_15.jpg

 

http://www.greenmax.co.jp/image/new_release/new_release_202104_16.jpg

 

http://www.greenmax.co.jp/image/new_release/new_release_202104_21.jpg

 

I marked myself safe again! 

 

*but that Blue liner is mighty cute... you know i'm a sucker for painted trains... 

[cteno4]

Oh crap.

 

jeff

[bill937ca]

 

[Dinosbacsi]

Looks great, always loved the look of the Tokyu trains.

[JR 500系]

New releases for GM:

 

http://www.greenmax.co.jp/gm-poster/2021/05/210512c.html

 

http://www.greenmax.co.jp/gm-poster/2021/05/210512b.html

 

http://www.greenmax.co.jp/gm-poster/2021/05/210512a.html

 

Man that Keihan premium car is SSSWWWweeeeettttt 

[railsquid]

I think I can mark myself safe from this round.

[Das Steinkopf]

1 hour ago, railsquid said:

I think I can mark myself safe from this round.

 

Likewise, it looks like a very quite second half of the year for me which is great, I have a Dapol Manor and a Planet Industrials Kerr Stuart Victory on preorder so the money I save on Japanese N scale releases will certainly be spent elsewhere.

[Yavianice]

2 hours ago, JR 500系 said:

Man that Keihan premium car is SSSWWWweeeeettttt 

$$$₩₩₩₩‎€‎€‎€‎€‎€₮₮₮₮₮

 

Fixed it for ya

[maihama eki]

1 hour ago, Yavianice said:

$$$₩₩₩₩‎€‎€‎€‎€‎€₮₮₮₮₮

 

Fixed it for ya

 

Rename GreenMax to Greenbacks.

 

(For non-Americans "greenbacks" is slang for dollars)

[cteno4]

7 hours ago, railsquid said:

I think I can mark myself safe from this round.

me three

[JR 500系]

Yeah or am wondering if i am losing interest? Didnt seem very excited with recent news more and more... Tomix just released a new batch and the only thing that still excites me are the buses~~~

[disturbman]

Your train-ogre has been satiated for the moment. You fed it enough. I'm sure the hunger will come back.

But you are a bottomless bus-pit. We all know that.

Edited May 13, 2021 by disturbman