Japanese model railroading traditions

[Barobutt]

One thing I've noticed since getting into some japanese trains is that there seems to be a total aversion to paint and glue amongst japanese model railroaders.  It's rare to see buildings or trains painted in any way let alone weathered.  Many products come pre-built.  Everything seems to come ready out of the box and people seem content with coloured plastic.  I understand many japanese layouts have to be temporary and that makes them much more "toy like" but that still doesn't explain the lack of any painting of weathering.  It's not as if the japanese don't have a well developed model building and painting hobby culture, but it seems to not extend to the world of trains.  Obviously fully detailed japanese layouts exist with wonderfully painted buildings, weathered and detailed trains, and proper scenery, but they seem to be rare exceptions.

 

Can anyone provide some insight as to why this is or do I have an incorrect impression of japanese model railroading?

[bill937ca]

First of all you seem to completely miss the cleanliness of Japan.  Prototype trains are for the most part very clean.  Many trains are cleaned inside while on the line during layovers. Service personnel wear white gloves including train crew. A good percentage of the trains are run by private companies that take great pride in the appearance of their fleets and properties.  Even freight trains are very clean by North American standards. This doesn't just happen by chance.  Much of the cleanliness is rooted in the religions of Japan and interwoven into the everyday routine without people paying much attention to its origins. Japan is very much a single homogeneous culture.

 

In general the built environment is much newer in Japan.  The rebuilding after WWII, was replaced with bigger structures as the population boomed in the post war years.  Earthquake resistant design standards often mean shorter building life's.  The average age of houses in Japan is supposed to be about 15 years. Older buildings really only survive outside the major cities in places forgotten by the mainstream economy.

[David]

bill937ca has already covered why weathering seems unknown in Japanese train modeling (it is however practiced by the more involved modelers of steam, but unlike the US they are a minority compared to those modelling modern trains).

 

As for paint and glue, there is actually plenty of that - GreenMax is the most popular company for train kits, and I would argue that there is a lot more scratch building of trains in Japan then in the US. The difference is that these persuits are large enough to warrent their own designation/group. The Japanese interest in trains is simply big enough for them to branch off. In a similar fashion Japanese railfans are not one singular group - you could stay with one group and think that all Japanese railfans do is seek cab rides, or stay with another and think they all stand on platforms taking photos and never board a train. There are actually some Japanese terms for each type of railfan, but I don't remember them.

[Barobutt]

I guess I just saw so many kato tram cities with the plastic unpainted roads and plastic pre-made buildings and plastic unpainted ballast and assumed this was the norm.  My issue isn't so much that everything is too clean, but too plastic.  It doesn't need to be dirty, but a crisply painted structure looks very different from a coloured-plastic building.

[CaptOblivious]

Plus, lots of model railroaders in Japan have only space for their toys on the floor, creating a demand for models that can be laid out and picked up easily and quickly.

[Mudkip Orange]

It doesn't need to be dirty, but a crisply painted structure looks very different from a coloured-plastic building.

 

You are of course correct. As others have noted, most Japanese do not have space for a large permanent layout. Tomix and Kato are primarily geared toward this market, which is why most of what they sell is preassembled and/or snap together. It's not just a matter of time; glued-together, kit-build buildings are more fragile and more likely to fall apart if they're constantly being set up and taken down, whereas the Kato/Tomix-style buildings with integral bases are of substantially hardier construction.

 

However if you look beyond these there is a very robust market in kits as well. Greenmax is the largest manufacturer of assemble-it-yourself structures, and almost all of these kits come unpainted.

 

Hobby Search's Greenmax structure inventory:

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/list/569/0/1

 

You should also check out the Tomytec structures. Tomytec buildings *are* handpainted, and preassembled at the factor. They're surprisingly affordable as well - you can thank Chinese labor for that.

 

Hobby Search's Tomytec structure inventory:

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/list/1223/0/1

[marknewton]

...Even freight trains are very clean by North American standards. This doesn't just happen by chance...

 

A very good point, Bill. Japan would be the only place I've seen where the freight cars get put through the wash-plant.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[David]

You should also check out the Tomytec structures. Tomytec buildings *are* handpainted, and preassembled at the factor. They're surprisingly affordable as well - you can thank Chinese labor for that.

 

American 'built up' models are often made in China too. The difference with TomyTec is that they're actually using a much cheaper to form type of plastic (it can't be molded as accurately or sharply as the harder plastics normally used) but they pre-assamble most of the detail parts (what's left is essentially flat pack panels that snap together, saving on packaging/shipping) and do a very good job painting to create both a realistic weathered look and to create an impression of depth - from a foot away TomyTec beats about anything short of hand made super details structured. It's only if you put your nose right up to them that you can see the cruder molding.

[marknewton]

bill937ca has already covered why weathering seems unknown in Japanese train modeling (it is however practiced by the more involved modelers of steam, but unlike the US they are a minority compared to those modelling modern trains)

 

Some nice examples of weathered models can be seen here:

 

http://homepage3.nifty.com/syomonai/index.htm

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Tenorikuma]

Some good comments have already been made. My own impression is that in trains, like in many things, Japanese embrace what seem to be opposite positions. On the one hand, modern rolling stock is kept exceptionally clean. Not just trains, but trucks and other machinery too. Influenced by minimalist aesthetics and cultural cleanliness norms, Japanese railroaders seem to like the the unspoilt, plasticky look and will build even permanent layouts with little or no painting or weathering, keeping everything like it just came out of the box.

 

On the other hand, there are many hardcore modellers who scratch-build all their own trains or build realistic dioramas, and they'll often go to great lengths to achieve realistic painting and weathering. (Although many of them try to build models that look like they just came off a store shelf as well.)

[Nick_Burman]

If one still feels that one's models are still too "plasticky", nothing stops from spraying them with some matt varnish. Goes miles towards improving looks...

 

Cheers NB

[westfalen]

Any issue of Japanese magazines "RM Models" and "Hobby of Model Railroading" has examples of painting, weathering, scratch building and modeling in general that would hold their own against or surpass anything in Model Railroader. It's there, it's just not often seen outside Japan.

[spacecadet]

Personally, I feel like a lot of weathering of Japanese railroad models often looks unrealistic.  In addition to the cleanliness of Japan itself and the trains, I feel like modern Japanese trains, at least, do have kind of a plasticky look themselves.  I'm not sure how they're actually built but if you look at something like the 531 series trains, the ends definitely look like they're made of some sort of high strength plastic.  So the "plastic" look of many of the models doesn't bother me, because I feel like that's how the real trains look too.

 

I think a lot of Japanese layout roadbeds could be made more realistic with ballast, and rusting of the wheels and car undersides would also be realistic, but going beyond that probably wouldn't be.

 

(One other way you can weather Japanese trains is by dirtying the roofs of shinkansen trains - they don't seem to be washed anymore.  But who would really want to do that when you're spending all your time looking down on your trains?)

[Samurai_Chris]

Well, I am a model builder, and once I settle back in Australia, I plan on building the most realistic layout I can, including weathering.. In my part of Japan. Stations are very run down, and weathered.. Including inner city stations.. Our trains get dirty, including Shinkansens, but I am sure they are well looked after.. Some of our 800 Tsubames are looking a little worse for wear in a few pics I have seen of late...

[Martijn Meerts]

I'm also planning on weathering everything, including rolling stock, but the weathering will be very subtle. Just a quick bit of dusting and a clear coat to seal the dusting as well as stickers/transfers. The glossiness of the clear coat depends a bit on the train, the Rapi:t prototype for example is quite shiny, so the model might get a more glossy clear coat, whereas a regularly used steamer is most often not shiny at all, so those would get a flat coat.

 

Like others have said, even just adding a flat clear coat will help get rid of much of the plastic-ness of any model. A quick and easy black wash also helps make things look better, even if it's barely noticeable, the small details pop out just a tiny bit more which helps the overall look.

[Lawrence]

I have never had the good fortune to visit Japan (one day perhaps) so cannot comment from personal experience however, and you may think I am playing Devils Advocate here or being 100% cynical, some of you seem to be saying that Japan is such a clean place that locomotives or buildings straight out of the box are prototypical or at least a very accurate representation of Japanese city life, yet, every time I see any news footage or documentary on Japan, everyone is wearing masks to protect against pollution.

 

Now come on guys, you can't have it both ways!

[Martijn Meerts]

Actually, in a lot of cases the people wearing masks have a cold or the flu or something, and wear the mask to minimize the risk of infecting others. Of course, there are also those who wear it to protect themselves ;)

 

Anyway, pollution has to be REALLY bad before wearing a mask makes any difference. I happen to have read a report recently in a Norwegian online newspaper, saying that the city center of Oslo was one of the more polluted places in the world. I've never seen anyone walking around there with a mask. Also, Amsterdam during a hot summer day with all the mess and canals there.. Not pretty, and the canals smell like sewage ;)

 

Like you, I've never been to Japan either, so I can't speak from experience, but from pictures and videos I do believe the Japanese are better at cleaning up after them than most other countries.

[bill937ca]

I have never had the good fortune to visit Japan (one day perhaps) so cannot comment from personal experience however, and you may think I am playing Devils Advocate here or being 100% cynical, some of you seem to be saying that Japan is such a clean place that locomotives or buildings straight out of the box are prototypical or at least a very accurate representation of Japanese city life, yet, every time I see any news footage or documentary on Japan, everyone is wearing masks to protect against pollution.

 

Now come on guys, you can't have it both ways!

 

The reason people wear masks in Japan is so they will not sneeze in public. This time of year is allergy season. When trains are carrying loads that are 200% of capacity people are packed in so tight that you cannot raise your hands to your face. Even if you aren't on a train sneezing in public is highly uncouth in Japan.

 

Even the BBC knows this. Even the  most cursory Google search would have found this.

 

More links.

 

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hppTQpGHbb3-zj-j9O_7hzjwX1RA

 

http://www.accessj.com/2011/02/japans-face-masks-real-deal.html

 

http://boingboing.net/2009/02/13/japanese-surgical-ma.html

[Samurai_Chris]

Pollution is very bad here, and also for us here in Kyushu, we get our trade winds from China. So we get all sorts of crap, and sand from the Asian mainland..

 

Believe me, Japan is anything but clean.. You may not see lolly rappers on the ground, but the place is very old and gray..

 

You also have to remember that Japan has no building zones, so a factory can be built right next to a housing estate, or high rises can be built around a small house that obviously doesn't want to sell.. In fact near my work, there is a cement and gravel supplier that sits open, with no covers next to a Chinese restaurant.. How that works I don't know, but I wont be eating there any time soon..

 

Lastly.. Japan is built for practicality, not pleasure. So aesthetically, Japan is actually an ugly place to look at in the city.. Out in the country where I live, we have mountains, rice fields, and beautiful old homesteads.. But the cities are just polluted and run down.. Some parts of Tokyo may look nice, but that is about as far as travelers will go.. But day to day people just get through their day as best they can.. My daughters school for example hasn't seen a coat of paint in 30 years, and to save power they turn off the lights in all the hallways.. In winter it makes for a very cold, dark and miserable place that never gets any maintenance.. I cant wait to get her into school in Australia in the sunshine and modern facilities in May when we return...

[Tenorikuma]

Actually, in a lot of cases the people wearing masks have a cold or the flu or something, and wear the mask to minimize the risk of infecting others. Of course, there are also those who wear it to protect themselves ;)

 

Anyway, pollution has to be REALLY bad before wearing a mask makes any difference. I happen to have read a report recently in a Norwegian online newspaper, saying that the city center of Oslo was one of the more polluted places in the world. I've never seen anyone walking around there with a mask. Also, Amsterdam during a hot summer day with all the mess and canals there.. Not pretty, and the canals smell like sewage ;)

 

Like you, I've never been to Japan either, so I can't speak from experience, but from pictures and videos I do believe the Japanese are better at cleaning up after them than most other countries.

 

 

I've been to Asian cities where people did wear face masks because of pollution. Japan is not nearly that bad these days. In fact, I don't notice any in Nagoya, a major industrial city, compared to my hometown in Canada, which frequently stank from pulp mills and had dangerous particulate levels each spring.

 

In Japan, as Bill notes, people wear masks for two reasons. One is to relieve allergies during the spring, and the other is as a courtesy not to spread your cold. Most people put on a mask as soon as a cold hits.

[marknewton]

Any issue of Japanese magazines "RM Models" and "Hobby of Model Railroading" has examples of painting, weathering, scratch building and modeling in general that would hold their own against or surpass anything in Model Railroader.

 

I've noticed this myself, although I reckon that it wouldn't be too hard to surpass some of the work featured in some recent issues of "Model Railroader".

 

Martin makes a good point about subtle weathering being most appropriate for models of Japanese trains. Observation of the real thing is the key to creating a convincing weathered model. One thing I notice with a lot of weathered models of North American trains in magazines and online is that the person building them merely copies the weathering they've seen on other models, rather than trying to replicate what real trains look like.

 

As a result there are many weathered models that look ridiculously overdone, utterly unrealistic and just like everybody else's efforts. It reminds me of the way that the "Verlinden style" of painting and weathering seemed became the de-facto standard in the military/scale modelling circles some years ago. I couldn't abide models painted that way, much as I can't abide railway models that are "artistically" weathered without any reference to the real thing. Models of steam locos that have been daubed with various colours and washes for no rhyme or reason really irk me!

 

A number of posters have noted that for most Japanese trains, weathering should be limited to brake dust and lubricant stains on the running gear, and a bit of roof dirt. About the only exceptions I can think of to this are their steam locos. They seem to be either quite well-kept and clean, or absolutely filthy.

 

My two cents worth!

 

Mark.

[westfalen]

I've noticed that about Japanese steam too, but then photos of British steam, in the post war years at least, shows the same thing, either fresh out of the paint shop or so filthy you can't tell what colour it's painted.

 

I've always thought that US layouts like the Franklin & South Manchester, (I think that's its name), that depict every single thing on the layout as run down and delapidated while modelling masterpieces are rather unrealistic. Some of the things on that layout would be brand new at the tme period modeled and be in near pristine condition.

[marknewton]

I've noticed that about Japanese steam too, but then photos of British steam, in the post war years at least, shows the same thing, either fresh out of the paint shop or so filthy you can't tell what colour it's painted.

 

Very true. I'm always amazed by the way BR went to all the effort of designing and building the Standard classes, which were a huge improvement on pre-nationalisation types, yet didn't provide any modern infrastructure to service and maintain them, and then ran the poor bloody things into the ground. Talk about stupidity.

 

I've always thought that US layouts like the Franklin & South Manchester, (I think that's its name), that depict every single thing on the layout as run down and delapidated while modelling masterpieces are rather unrealistic. Some of the things on that layout would be brand new at the tme period modeled and be in near pristine condition.

 

Yes, that's its name. I have very strong views about that layout, but everytime I express them in a forum I seem to start an almighty shit-fight. The main reason I was banned from the MR forum was my comments about the F&SM, and it's inspiration the Gorre & Daphetid. So I won't mention either of them, other than to say I agree with your observation. Not everything in a New England mill town of the early thirties would look as run-down and rooted as portrayed on the F&SM.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[KenS]

Although the Japanese do care more about cleanliness than westerners, particularly in important public locations, I have to agree with Chris.  Even though I've never been to Japan, I've spent a lot of time looking at photos of the urban environment, particularly around Tokyo, on Flickr and other photo sites. I've seen litter, broken/bent fencing, old and rusting structures, and similar things. In comparison to U.S. cities, my impression of Tokyo is that it's a lot cleaner and neater, even in the "out of the public eye" locations that get more run down. But it's hardly "out of the box" pristine.

 

That said, the trains are incredibly clean. A little dust on the roof or lower sides is the most I've seen. And the front of the E231/E233/E531 does look like it's made of plastic. 

[spacecadet]

Not everything in a New England mill town of the early thirties would look as run-down and rooted as portrayed on the F&SM.

 

I had never seen that layout before (I'm not really as into American layouts as I was when I was a kid, so don't follow them much), but looking at the photos I found in a Google search, it is like an exaggerated example of why I was pushed away from US model railroading and into Japanese modeling.  I'm not usually a big fan of historical modeling anyway (I like trains from the pre-1960's, but not much else), and then the layer of grime that a lot of western historical layouts have just turns me off.  All the pictures I saw of that layout were just brown, brown, brown.  How can you look at that all the time and not get depressed?

 

Although the Japanese do care more about cleanliness than westerners, particularly in important public locations, I have to agree with Chris.  Even though I've never been to Japan, I've spent a lot of time looking at photos of the urban environment, particularly around Tokyo, on Flickr and other photo sites. I've seen litter, broken/bent fencing, old and rusting structures, and similar things.

 

But one of the reasons people probably took photos of those things is that there's something out of the ordinary about them - not many people are going to take photos to post on Flickr of the well-kept, average ordinary structures that make up most of Tokyo.  I'm not saying you never see litter or broken fences (or even graffiti), but it's not nearly as prevalent as in most other places I've been, and it's mostly in areas *nobody* goes, which are few and far between in most of Tokyo.

 

I agree Tokyo is not "out of the box" pristine, but even the "run down" areas look relatively new and clean compared to a place like New York.  So weathering things the way most westerners would weather a western city does not look realistic to me.

 

My wife's family is from Ryu-gasaki, which is a rural town in Ibaraki, and it's pretty much the same deal there.  People just take care of their stuff.  My wife's house is probably the most run down of any house in her area, but even still she has an immaculate Japanese garden in front, a new-looking ceramic roof, and from the outside it's just the style of the house (which is kind of outdated) that makes it obvious that it's 30 years old.  Inside is a little different but they don't worry about that because only family and friends see it.  I don't remember seeing any obviously dilapidated structures on any of my various visits there.  And you do often see what looks like a brand spanking new freight train running through the countryside, which has the effect of making everything around it look newer too.