Good building kits for small onsen town?

[scott]

Can any body recommend any good buildings for my hot-spring town? I want it to look old and small-time, not glitzy.

[bill937ca]

Tomytec has 3 onsen structures.  There is also a hot spring diorama base.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10121360

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10121358

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10121357

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10121361

 

Nothing came up from Sankei in a HS search.

[scott]

Thanks! The hotels look good, so I'll probably get one or two of those, but I don't think I need the base (especially at that price!).

 

I was also wondering if there were other structures that would be typical of an onsen town. I haven't noticed anything particular in pictures, but since I can't Japanese, I'm probably missing a lot.

[bill937ca]

Your welcome! I would be inclined towards traditional wooden Japanese buildings, but if it is a successful town the buildings could then be of almost any age.

 

Translating 'onsen town' into Japanese brought up a couple of web pages very quick.

 

http://www.town.shinonsen.hyogo.jp/page/755753ba884259805f5a27e7dd7fdafd.html

 

http://iraka.exblog.jp/tags/%E6%B8%A9%E6%B3%89%E7%94%BA/

 

One looks modern with new buildings on one side and the second looks very traditional with some interesting structure siting ideas for modeling.

 

One private railway related photo came up (at the very bottom of this page).  

 

http://umemado.blogspot.com/2010/12/blog-post_2386.html

 

A scene like this could make good use of various Tomytec details like small bridges.  I just think an onsen town screams Tomytec perhaps with a larger traditional Kato building.

[cteno4]

scott,

 

got a great one for you! kawai makes a nice little diorama kit, complete with little outdoor onsen tub and roof, a stream to boot!

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10010363

 

love this little model and its cheap!

 

jeff

[scott]

Thanks, Jeff--I hadn't seen their models before. How do they look in person?

[cteno4]

its a very nice little kit. parts are partially pre colored being brown for the building, so will need some painting to detail it some.

 

nice base for the full diorama scene if you want, even 6 different ground covers and a single tree with it. they also give you the parts to make a single AA battery holder to light the building with a small bulb, but they dont include the bulb!. nice little rope/plank bridge with it as well. even some rippled clear plastic to cut out a nice stream water surface from and paint up.

 

ill see if philip has photos of his he used one on a corner TTrak module and its really stunning!

 

one of the best little "scene" kits out there. cant beat the price with a stick either!

 

i can snap photos of the parts if you want on my kit.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[scott]

This sounds like a good one--maybe I'll order one and also one of the Tomix hotels. That'd make a good start for th town.

[disturbman]

I can't generalize since I've only been to Beppu but from what I've seen, Onsen towns are quite regular towns (which make sense). You'll found the same houses, supermarkets, restaurants and buildings as everywhere else in (small town) Japan. Japanese architecture is quite uniformed from north to south.

[scott]

OK--that's good to know.

 

I'm itching to get started building this part of the layout, but until I get the stupid cast off my hand, there's very little I can do. :-/

[disturbman]

At least you have time to do some researchs. You can also look up images (at Google Image or Flikr) for Yufuin, Beppu and some other well known Onsen towns. It will give you ideas I'm sure. The thing is, if you really want to model onsens I think you'll have to create lot of ponds and had a smoke machine to your layout.  Beppu was quite smokey when I was there.

[cteno4]

the kawai kit is a tad more rural looking. perhaps on the outskirts of town with a little more land around it than in town. of course it could be just a very small inn with a small natural onsen out back (ive stayed in several of those). the tomytec are definitely a bit more in town look.

 

jeff

[rankodd]

the kawai kit is a tad more rural looking. perhaps on the outskirts of town with a little more land around it than in town. of course it could be just a very small inn with a small natural onsen out back (ive stayed in several of those). the tomytec are definitely a bit more in town look.

 

jeff

 

I agree. The structure in that kit looks quite... rural.

[scott]

Rural is good...

[cteno4]

the kawai kit is a tad more rural looking. perhaps on the outskirts of town with a little more land around it than in town. of course it could be just a very small inn with a small natural onsen out back (ive stayed in several of those). the tomytec are definitely a bit more in town look.

 

jeff

 

I agree. The structure in that kit looks quite... rural.

 

but if you use just the main structure its pretty much just an older time wooden inn, similar to many that kato and tomytec do. nice thing is its a tad different and you just dont see this one as much, its an obscure kit. it is perfect for a semi or full rural scene.

 

jeff

[rpierce000]

How far up into the mountains are you looking to go?

 

If you are going above the snow line, a detail I always liked about the way Japan uses the hot water up there is to clear the streets. They just let it flow down the streets and melt the snow. This might be fun to model.

 

Another idea would be to model the many front doors above the snow line. When you are looking at METERS of snow, not cm, what they do is just to have a front door with a genkan on several floors. As the snow piles up, you move from door to door up the building.

 

I was on a train out of the mountains once that caught fire on the way down in a blizzard, but I really wouldn't want to model one of my trains on fire....