Layout construction begins.

[KenS]

Sorry to hear about the hitch in layout building.  But those models are a great find, particularly at that price. I particularly like the SIKI-1000 (sometimes transliterated as SHIKI). Those appear to be still in use today, although it's not clear from Japanese wikipedia if they're owned by JRF or someone else (or both) now.

[keiichi77]

Happy to say that after a several years in storage I am working (slowly) on my portable layout again.  The 5 small houses and Railway office are new, most on the lower city section was never completed before I ended up storing the layout.  I like the way this is starting to turn out. I must thank railsquid's constant Takahachikawa updates which motivated me to work on this layout again.

 

[railsquid]

Glad my witterings are of some use :D

 

I don't think I've seen this thread before (it was started well before I purchased my first Japanese train).

 

FWIW I find it useful to take lots of photographs to encourage myself that things are in fact progressing, otherwise it can end up looking very daunting.

 

 

[keiichi77]

Mini update, but hey, its progress 😉

 

I cut the base for the Tomix corner building to bring the building edge closer to the road and built a retaining wall for the house on the right, also glued fine sand down around this house to make it look like a gravel yard. I don't like the appearance of the Woodland Scenics Top Coat for the roads so they will be eventually be repainted into a light grey colour to match the Tomix road plates. Thanks squid, going to try and get some of that Amsterdam Neutral Grey 🙂

 

[keiichi77]

Slow but steady progress, I found a grey to use on the roads that close enough until I find some Amsterdam Grey.

 

Same scene facing the station area, I ordered a V15 Unitrack set yesterday.  I will have to stall progress until it arrives.

 

[keiichi77]

Had a little bit of time recently so I have been working on the roads on my layout (and a scratchbuilt building to hide a rather small city block).  The progress on the city part of the layout has been at stand still for too long.  I can't place my buildings until the sidewalks are done and I can't place the sidewalks until the roads are done.  I cut some styrene sheets to continue the roads (the level crossing in the back), I put the first coat of grey on the styrene pieces today. Once that dries I will give it one more coat and rub on the TGW lane markings.  The intersection is rather large and dull so I painted the lanes red before the stop lines and applied more TGW markings.  I am quit pleased with the result. The road going to the right is going to go into a tunnel eventually but that will be the last section of road I work on.  I am going to use the painted Greenmax sidewalks which are on order but have to make my own corner pieces to follow the curve of the Tomytec bus system corners.

 

[keiichi77]

Placed the lines on the level crossing.  That's about it, I am at a stand still until the sidewalks arrive. I plan on filling the cracks where my cut styrene pieces mate up with the bus roads but I will only do that once everything is running flawlessly. I still have to cut the pieces for between the rails, oh that will be fun to get working properly 😉

 

 

[keiichi77]

A small update while I wait for my order to arrive.  The public is now protected at the level crossing, well sort of, the maintenance crew still never paved between the rails so there is a good chance your vehicle will get stuck on the tracks then have the gates block you in for the final kill. 😉

 

[keiichi77]

Made some progress on the other large intersection on the layout.  This one had me stumped for awhile, but I think I have a plan for it. I am going on the assumption that somewhere in Japan, there is a prototype for that. I still have to apply another crosswalk and lane markings/paint for the area around the bus approaching the camera.

 

[Cat]

It's hard to lose with a bet like that.  It certainly looks very interesting!

[cteno4]

Looks great keniichi! I love modeling japan as there’s usually a prototype for just about everything! 
 

cheers

 

jeff