Kato - New Releases

[Das Steinkopf]

17 hours ago, katoftw said:

Koki 104 by the poor google translation have had the paint colour reviewed and now a darker blue is being used.

 

edit/ Nevermind. Just relized it is a re-release. Not new.

 

Yep and it's still missing the steps on the platform end, I guess I won't be wasting my money on them despite my constant thirst for KoKi's.

 

11 hours ago, Sheffie said:

Hmm. I see the Koki 104 is slightly cheaper than the Koki 107 on hobby search. I know the blue isn’t the right shade, but I’d rather have blue with grey bogeys than all grey. 

 

Don't worry Tomix is bound to bring out models of the ealier 100 series variants, albeit more than likely a rerelease but still better than the Kato KoKi 104's, for a bit of variety you could always go these https://www.modeltrainplus.net/collections/n-scale-freight-cars-new/products/tomix-98234-container-wagon-type-koki110-without-container , there was only 5 wagons made and this is the full set of them. The KoKi 110's are a variant of the KoKi 106, they were built as an experiment for carrying the 15' 24A series containers, the experiment was short lived but the KoKi 110's are still in service, they normally travel together but are occasionally broken up to facilitate maintenance, I have seen pictures of a DD51 pulling just the 5 wagons on a container service on the Kisei Mainline.

[Sheffie]

There will be no banana trains in my layout.

 

No banana trains.

 

I am actually sort of looking forward to the prospect of doing some ageing / weathering work on a relatively non-critical piece of rolling stock. The price of a Koki 104 is low enough that I can experiment on it without too much worry.

[Kamome]

 

2 hours ago, DanielMackay said:

 

Just ordered this beauty and the Imperial car. Love at first sight: http://www.katomodels.com/product/n/e655kei

Have a decent pin vice at the ready. The silver grab irons look great once everything is applied.

[gavino200]

49 minutes ago, Kamome said:

 

Have a decent pin vice at the ready. The silver grab irons look great once everything is applied.

 

What's the pinvice for? Is there a specific technique?

 

 

Ok. So the Imperial train is pre-ordered. I toyed with the idea of trying to resist. But who am I kidding. Better to save myself some anguish and just buy the thing now.

Edited March 2, 2019 by gavino200

[Kamome]

With the imperial car, you get 2 new front sections, skirts and grab irons along with the imperial crest and Japanese flags.

 

The dummy couplers are removed then the new front sections attach, one has holes for the imperial crest and the other is plain. Both are slightly larger to hide the gap where the dummy coupler sat. 

 

To apply the grab irons, there are very small recesses where you need to drill to attach them. Due to the colour and the curvature of the body shell, this takes some patience and some nerve. You’ll notice, after completing the back car, I didn’t do the front as most would be hidden by the crest and it was a bit of a pig.

Edited March 2, 2019 by Kamome

[Das Steinkopf]

3 hours ago, Sheffie said:

There will be no banana trains in my layout.

 

No banana trains.

 

I am actually sort of looking forward to the prospect of doing some ageing / weathering work on a relatively non-critical piece of rolling stock. The price of a Koki 104 is low enough that I can experiment on it without too much worry.

 

Why worry about it just do it, I had no hesitation in making my KoKi 110’s filthy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sheffie]

Nice!

 

No bananas though

[Kiha66]

Seems a kato store exclusive item, Concrete tie curves and switches.  Hope they do well enough to be more widely released.

 

[katoftw]

I saw those on the website last week. Concrete single track is something Kato really lacks behind on.

[Das Steinkopf]

It's about time Kato pulled their finger out and added a bit more variety to their range, given they have had to invest money into the tooling I dare say that these will be part of their regular range, they have probably done the initial release in the Kato stores with the first production batch. I hope they expand this range even more as the only pieces of concrete sleepered single track they had was the 20-875 packs, I picked up a decent number of those last time I was in Japan as I found they were near impossible to order from some places.

[katoftw]

Never noticed a shortage of S248PC before.

[Yavianice]

9 hours ago, gavino200 said:

Ok. So the Imperial train is pre-ordered. I toyed with the idea of trying to resist. But who am I kidding. Better to save myself some anguish and just buy the thing now.

My solution to applying the imperial train details? Let modeltrainplus do it.

[Das Steinkopf]

11 hours ago, katoftw said:

Never noticed a shortage of S248PC before.

 

If you were ordering from AmiAmi on a regular basis you would have.

[Welshbloke]

On 3/1/2019 at 7:06 AM, Kiha66 said:

What I find odd is for barely the price of the very basic kokuden 3 car set you could pick up the 10 car full 103 series train on YA.  Doesnt really seem like it will be a huge seller at that price, but still should be a good train for the kiddies to learn on.

I bought the orange and yellow versions last time, both got a bit of extra paintwork and the yellow one gained aircon pods and aerials to represent a Tsurumi Line unit. They run sweetly and look pretty decent after some minor tweaks, I still need to paint the windscreen dividing strips and glue the KuMoHa body/glazing/roof together for a better fit.

 

Might well look for a Yamanote green one this time as I have the full ten car set of the later variant. Did these early 103s get upgraded with aircon on their original lines or did that only happen after they'd been cascaded to other routes?

 

They would also be a good basis for some kitbashing into the various two car sets. GreenMax sell things like cab fronts and other detailing parts, that's where my aircon pods came from.

[railsquid]

14 minutes ago, Welshbloke said:

 Did these early 103s get upgraded with aircon on their original lines or did that only happen after they'd been cascaded to other routes?
 

 

As and when money was available.

 

There was certainly one Yamanote original-style 103 experimentally converted to A/C ca. 1970: https://www.mid-9.com/1m-microace/a7750.htm

 

When time permits I plan to convert my green Kokuden 103 to a set as formerly ran on the Kawagoe line.

Edited March 3, 2019 by railsquid

[katoftw]

3 hours ago, Das Steinkopf said:

 

If you were ordering from AmiAmi on a regular basis you would have.

AmiAmi has a shortage of anything the isn't a pre-order.

[JR 500系]

The 2000 series is FINALLY here for the Kato ~ Lovely train! Would that make the MA ones drop in prices? 

 

Besides, it's really cool that Kato is now doing it in a 3+1 or a 2+1 or a 4+1+2... this makes a difference as now there are more than 2 cars with lights on them and this is pretty fun so we can run them separately!

 

The Kokudens don't come with working lights too, so it's quite a shame, while they do cost slightly cheaper than a motorised Tomytec one ...

 

I didn't attach the grab poles on my E655 too... lacking both the nerve and the skill to do it... But that train is a really beauty! Think of it as a Seven Stars in Kanto!  🙂

[Welshbloke]

You could do a lot worse than adapting a Tomytec to use the Kokuden motor and trailer wheelsets. It's a standard Kato mechanism minus traction tyres, so it runs far better than a Tomytec one.

 

My thought with a Yamanote Line Kokuden is that I could field two six car sets. The full ten car won't usually fit in loops, so the extra MoHa pair and one of the SaHas could run with the Kokuden. They don't look terrible together if you paint the windowframes, destination boards and tail lights. The motor is more than capable of handling another two or three trailers on level track.

[Khaul]

I noticed a new Kato sound box. Nobody getting excited about it? It looks like it comes with some basic sounds in the RAM so it could work without sound cards.

[katoftw]

Excited about sound box = 0%

[Sheffie]

I have to say, the idea of paying for individual sounds on proprietary hardware leaves a sour taste in the mouth. Technically sounds are just data, and anyone ought to be able to create, upload and use them. 

[DanielMackay]

On 3/1/2019 at 11:31 PM, Kamome said:

With the imperial car, you get 2 new front sections, skirts and grab irons along with the imperial crest and Japanese flags.

 

The dummy couplers are removed then the new front sections attach, one has holes for the imperial crest and the other is plain. Both are slightly larger to hide the gap where the dummy coupler sat. 

 

To apply the grab irons, there are very small recesses where you need to drill to attach them. Due to the colour and the curvature of the body shell, this takes some patience and some nerve. You’ll notice, after completing the back car, I didn’t do the front as most would be hidden by the crest and it was a bit of a pig.

 

 

Well done and thanks for the detailed heads up. With a fulfillment date of July 2019, I will begin building my nerve. I've been drilling out IJN portholes in 1:700 scale for many yeas, but never on a finished model!

 

[gavino200]

On 3/1/2019 at 10:31 PM, Kamome said:

With the imperial car, you get 2 new front sections, skirts and grab irons along with the imperial crest and Japanese flags.

 

The dummy couplers are removed then the new front sections attach, one has holes for the imperial crest and the other is plain. Both are slightly larger to hide the gap where the dummy coupler sat. 

 

To apply the grab irons, there are very small recesses where you need to drill to attach them. Due to the colour and the curvature of the body shell, this takes some patience and some nerve. You’ll notice, after completing the back car, I didn’t do the front as most would be hidden by the crest and it was a bit of a pig.

 

Are there marks somewhere on the shell to show you where to drill? Or do you just have to eyball/measure it?

[katoftw]

dimples in the shell.  very easy to see.

[railsquid]

"Dimples in the Shell" sounds like the title of an anime series 😉