Toni's Model Train Adventures

[cteno4]

Toni,

 

Very nice for a first try! Might try printing on come clear acetate sheets as well. Also are some papers and chipboards with foil surfaces. Always the edge issue though, bit may touch up with silver marker ok.

 

You are having fun! Great to watch the wheels turn.

 

Jeff

[kvp]

Looks great! What material did you use?

[HantuBlauLOL]

nice!

 

printed photo paper is indeed a good idea :wink

 

[Kabutoni]

I'm printing at the FamilyMart at the riverside in the neighbourhood, so the quality of the prints isn't top notch. It's good enough for testing methods, but for more serious printing it's not really worth the effort. Still, it's far better than my poor painting skills though...

 

 

Also, I found out I need to recalibrate my cutting machine, as it's cutting very very crooked.

[NXCALE]

Trying something different with my cutting machine: rolling stock.

 

 

Looks a bit rough, but it's a first try anyway. Maybe it's a fun idea to try and do this with pre-cloured prints on photo paper, instead of painting it by hand. Of course, silver (steel, aluminium, etc.) is impossible, but fine to try out some fictional liveries.

 

Good first try.

Is it hard to operate the Silhouette Portrait? I am just curious.

 

Once after checking a Model Craft magazine, I decided to get a template for a Kiha.

So I got one and I gave it a go (only with scissors and a cutter).

The result was terrible but quite fun in some way. Making trains with paper is really an art.

[HantuBlauLOL]

Good first try.

Is it hard to operate the Silhouette Portrait? I am just curious.

 

Once after checking a Model Craft magazine, I decided to get a template for a Kiha.

So I got one and I gave it a go (only with scissors and a cutter).

The result was terrible but quite fun in some way. Making trains with paper is really an art.

 

you forgot ruler..

[Kabutoni]

Good first try.

Is it hard to operate the Silhouette Portrait? I am just curious.

 

Operating the machine is easy. Just slip in the mat with the material you want to cut and cut away at the correct settings. It saves the trouble of cutting by hand with all sorts of mistakes, trouble and time. The hard part is the designing of the thing you want to have.

 

I've now discovered my machine doesn't require calibrating, so I'm happy about that. However, because I don't have a home printer, I have to go to the convenience store to print out my designs. This causes the designs to be slightly off by a few percent, which forces me to adapt some basic measurements. It's not too bad, as the printing quality at particularly Lawson on 2L-sized photo paper is of amazing quality. The previous picture I posted here was of a Family Mart A4-sized photo paper quality print, which shows bleeds, pixels and a relief of the ink, whereas the Lawson print is very sharp and does not have any directly noticeable bleeds and has no bumps.

 

Anyway, onwards with the experimenting!

Edited June 1, 2016 by Kabutoni (a.k.a. Toni Babelony)

[Kabutoni]

Slowly getting there... Let's try making a four car train next week.

 

[JR 500系]

Oh my god! 

 

The finishing is SO NICE!

 

I wonder if there is possibility of more train sets in the near future?  :)

[tossedman]

NIce! And the great thing about a train like that is the windows are all flat and easy to replicate.

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

[cteno4]

Wow Toni, great!

 

I'm assuming the gears are turning in your head about combining the cutting with 3D printing now!

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[Kabutoni]

Thanks! 3D printing these big flat objects is expensive and often results in a dodgy and warped outcome, so this was one of the reasons why I got the cutter plotter. My model painting skills are also terrible at best, so why not go for preprinted surfaces instead? Tge printing quality at convenience stores for photos is decent enough for this purpose (largest size is 176 x 250 mm), and big enough to print a full car with two printed layers on four faces. The roof and 'interior' will have to be made separately not to have a chance of messing up the nice prints, but that's a minor issue. It's a break from traditional modelling I suppose. The trainset I'm planning on making next week is a Sagamihara Development Railway 4000 Type (fictional) and will be four cars in a traditional Tc-M-M-Tc formation. Detail parts, like the underbody work, bogies and pantographs, will have to be resourced from a 3rd party.

 

Another I'm dying to make are the MoOKa 14 trains, but witg their complex livery this was impossible until now... I will have to find out how to deal with the transition of the paper ends (white line), but that will come when I'm at that stage (maybe some hack idea will come up).

[cteno4]

I was thinking detail bits for roof, antenna, or window frames/mullions that might not cut well.

 

These windows cut very cleanly! Was it thinner stock for each layer? Looks like 3 layers? If you need more stiffening could always do the heartier stock behind with Windows cut back a mm or two. Also try dullcoating each layer before laminating, I remeber card stock Modelers doing this to help when they needed stuff thin and stiff.

 

Really are rapidly progressing here! Once you have a lot of the parts drawn up you should be super fast at coming up with new combos as well! Fun to watch how fast your progress has been with the rapid cycles. I need to get on my cutter this summer!

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[cteno4]

I wonder if a strip of like 1mm thick styrene that went from just below the window to the chassis floor might be good to stiffen as well.,then also could be the stop the floor of the chassis rests at. Although may be fine with your lamination!

 

Have you experimented yet with the no bleed markers or colored pencils on the white edges yet?

 

Jeff

[Kabutoni]

My most recent purchase was a Greenmax 103 Series kit for about ¥5000 with everything with it (bogies, power unit, etc.), but unpainted. I'm not a JNR/JR collector and saw this as an opportunity for a kitbashing project. I'd have to change a few parts, like the air conditioning units and maybe rub out some plate holders on the sides of the bodies to create a different kind of atmosphere. The biggest change that will make a difference will be the livery and a change of the front.

 

For the front design, I want to create something in line with the weirdness of the post-6000 Series Sōtetsu trains. IMHO the blandness of the 2100/5000 and 7000 Series is already quite eye-catching compared to other front designs, but the centre-front light designs of the 8000 and 9000 Series make Sōtetsu stand out from the rest. In this sense, I'd like to incorporate this rebellious image, to which Sōtetsu still adheres. Just look at the recent introduction of the renewed 9000 Series with the removal of the centre front lights, but painting it completely in a deep dark blue livery (a.k.a. Yokohama Marine Blue).

 

I've been at designing some front parts to replace the 103 Series' iconic counterpart. The two designs on the left are a bit too dated for this project, as it will depict a late 70s, early 80s design. Just the right moment where experimental and square designs were popular. The leftmost design is a bit unrefined and maybe even too modern, but does reflect some seriousness and authority. The leftover design (2nd from the right) is maybe the best direction to follow. Not too radical, not too mainstream, reflects modernity from that era, and implies some kind of high speed operation due to the simple wedge form. Thinking about the wedge, maybe a little research into 70s and 80s car design wouldn't hurt. :)

 

 

[Kabutoni]

After the relative success of the JNMA, I decided to make another T-Trak Module. This time however a double length, 210mm deep one with 33mm track distance. The track is completely elevated and will leave plenty of room for scenery.

 

The feeding cables however are a bit of an eyesore, so I have to create a solution to completely hide them under the tracks. Probably by cutting away some plastic to house the cables under the elevated roadbed. I'm also not sure what type of scenery will be on this module, but I'm thinking of something Japanese this time. Maybe with a narrow gauge loop.

 

 

 

 

 

[cteno4]

Toni,

 

Neat module!

 

You can open up the viaduct and solder directly to the bottom of the rails and then run the wires over to right where the piers are and run them down the piers hidden. We did this on the JRM 2.0 layout as the viaduct connectors would sometimes pop loose on the older layout (not always jammed in to tightly lock) solved both issues at once.

 

Jeff

[kvp]

I soldered to the joiners and routed the cables down from there, through the slots made for the support pins. It's possible to use off the shelf Kato unijoiner feeder cables. Also, the center suppor pin hole can still be used to hold up the viaduct if the support legs are placed right under the joins. For hiding the cables, i would glue them onto the bottom of the viaduct between the two tracks, then paint them the same color as DC traction feed cables are painted irl.

 

ps: i would also paint the viaduct bases, like adding a siver color to the drainage pipes

[Kabutoni]

Just now, I've connected the wires to the Unijoiners, as I didn't want to spend another beer on Unijoiners with cables attached. It looks much more discrete! The viaducts need to be removable for maintenance and transport, so no direct soldering to the rails is required. I'd like to make this module's scenery modular as well. This is the best solution, though can be a pain when detaching the bridges, as the cables can't be stretched/moved much (maybe one centimeter). 

 

The leftover plugs for the viaducts will come in handy somewhere else I think. Naturally, everything will be weathered and coloured appropriately when the planning stage is finished, as I hate the shiny plastic look of it all.

 

 

Also I found a way to safely measure the correct height of the modules, as well as overcome a gap! xD

 

 

All in all, the base of this module cost me about ¥800 in parts (sans the Kato parts), but can probably be done a bit cheaper in the end. I also have the feeling I can make more modules like this and easily transport them when built up modular with removable scenery. This way a Tomytec moving bus system, narrow gauge system or similar could also be installed on the lower level. Possibly even a parallel incline to a lower level track system (50mm height), which would take three double length modules, including the main line connecting points.

[JR 500系]

Stacked them up!  :)

 

That's a good idea... I was looking at the possibility of running the moving bus below viaducts, but these piers are quite in the way, especially the centre column. I tend to use the straight columns more as they took up a little lesser space and can be orientated otherwise for a little more gap without looking too out of place. But nonetheless a great idea to stack them up!

[Kabutoni]

The stacking is a nice thing, but the overall base track height results in a 6.5~7mm difference, which needs to brought down to meet the T-Trak 100mm standard. This isn't such a bad thing IMO, since the pillars have a transition piece that needs to be cut away anyway to create a smooth transition. This piece is about the same height of the difference that needs to be overcome, so that's pretty perfect.

[Kabutoni]

A little cutting and some ghetto kitbashing. Don't worry, I'll sand it down nicely and paint it eventually. This is just to showcase the concept of merging two piers to get that (almost) perfect 100 millimeter track height to overcome unplanned and unexpected gaps at meetings, create a temporary loop at home, or measure your module height. Lots of applications!

 

 

[cteno4]

Where are the tiny leveling bolts on each footing?! ;-p

 

Btw something I may have mentioned befor but forgot if I have. Using 3 leveling bolts is much easier than 4 on a module! Just have one in each front corner and then one in the center rear. Makes leveling super easy as you can just level the end to end with the front two bolts and then the back front with the center bolt. Also much easier to get access reaching over to the center rear bolt than ones in the back corners. Leveling with 4 legs can be frustrating at times!

 

The three bolt supports well enough, there won't be any significant mashing down on the back corners and the interlocking modules also stabilize things and rarely would you have some scenery item heavy enough to allow tipping towards the back corners. Tested it on a couple of modules here and worked like a dream and most of my city modules are piled high with the largest Kato and tomix buildings. Going to make some more little blocks with threaded inserts to glue into all the modules. Normally I use 4' long girders I built to rise my 1" high modules off the table and level 4 modules at once, but the few times I've done them with just bolts on very uneven tables the 4 leg leveling was a pain! Also knocks 25% off the hardware costs!

 

Jeff

Edited July 12, 2016 by cteno4

[Kabutoni]

I use anti-gravity for this module. It's best modern thing, next to Pokémon GO (which we can't have in Japan yet because, because). j/k The leveling 'bolts' are massive, super cheap wooden screws and IMO it's not such a pain to level them out. I've done this at the JNMA as well, so I have some experience with them.

 

I told before I wanted to have an N-narrow (6.5mm gauge) loop underneath, but the viaduct is more appropriate for a small interurban station instead. Because I like to build a small layout from time to time on the dinner table for my son to play with, I decided to combine this with my module:

 

 

This is the basic setup I tried a little and liked a lot. One entry track, one centre platform and a small staging track for either parking empties or a maintenance train.

 

 

The overview from the back here is pretty simple. The module can be expanded a bit to the back as well for a background drop, as it's only 210mm deep.

 

 

Added some extra foam level for the railway crossing.

 

 

Under this pier, the station entrance will come. I think for the platform, I'm going for an access ramp and crossing, rather than a tunnel as seen here. It'd be a more obvious solution and wheelchairs/strollers will have access as well. If the trains are too long, then they'd just have to keep a few doors closed (which is very prototypical).

 

Maybe, if I can make it work, an option for a Tomytec Moving Bus is viable, if the bus can make this super tight corner... I don't have a bus system just yet, but I do have a little collection of my local company Kanachū (Kanagawa Chūō Kōtsu) and I'd love to see these moving! The smallest radius commercially available is 66mm (which can probably be pushed a bit more), so that could just work. This'll mean the bus has to cut through two lanes of traffic to make the turn, but it's not a totally unrealistic approach. If that works I'll dedicate an extension to the back for running buses. The route will loop to the other end of the module where the bus crosses the tracks and viaduct again to end up at the station.

[railsquid]

I use anti-gravity for this module. It's best modern thing, next to Pokémon GO (which we can't have in Japan yet because, because).

 

I keep hearing about this recently, apparently it's an app which tells people to go to places where they can get something which doesn't exist outside of their smartphone?