Toni's Model Train Adventures

[cteno4]

Toni,

 

Great very! Worth the expense! Keep looking, sure there are more and maybe a volume source!

 

Soon you are going to have a full city!

 

Jeff

[ToniBabelony]

Thanks for the encouraging words everybody! Tomorrow I'll be doing another test cut with some engraving and hidden fitting notches, as this type of paper doesn't seem to fray at all. I'll definitely go look for a pack of this type of paper, as it can get expensive when I continue to buy individual sheets. 

[cteno4]

Paper/chipboard variety is huge. It's about the kind and size of fibers used, binder, pressing pressure, etc! Gives them the ire own unique characteristics! Then we have our needs for stiffness, cutting ability, thickness, fraying, burning, texture etc, so it's a permutation matching game!

 

That sankei chipboard is great stuff to fit most all the bills, but only works in a laser cutter as its just way too hard to try to knife cut! Besides have not been able to find it! (Well inobu found some electrical insulation board that may be close but I think still different than the sankei stuff)

 

Luckily you are in the land of paper! Old tradition in Japan. Might see if you can seek out a little custom paper shop and maybe the artisan will have some ideas and tips for stuff to look for.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[kvp]

I would like to add the sharp blade. The sharper the blade, the easier it cuts and less distortion in the lines. Fixing the board to a sticky backing material could also help keeping it in line so it won't buckle under the knife's pressure. Cutting in many steps also helps keeping the pressure down, as the cutting contact surface will be smaller. Of course good retracebility is needed for this from the machine. (example: you can cut out a window in a single step or in 4 or 8 retraced steps each time going a bit deeper, the single step will mean bigger forces from the knife on a larger surface, while the repeated steps will cut slowly but more accurate, if the machine can place the blade exactly where it was previously, think of it as slowly engraving until the material is fully cut)

[ToniBabelony]

Apart from the little glue residue and the small fraying on the brick pattern, I think I'm getting there slowly. The fraying on the brick pattern actually helps increase the realistic look of the building IMO. Unfortunately, I didn't double cut the lines, so there is also fraying on the outlines, but this will disappear on the next attempt.

 

 

 

The cuttingboard the paper is attached to when cutting is sticky (but slowly losing power as I move along) and I think the blade is good enough for this material. Sharper would be better, though as a temporary and universal solution, this is the best option. Colouring the paper was done with alcohol based markers (Deleter).

 

P.s. seeing it with the naked eye is far different from pictures.

Edited May 19, 2016 by Kabutoni (a.k.a. Toni Babelony)

[cteno4]

Toni,

 

Nice! How long did it take to score the brick pattern?

 

Jeff

[ToniBabelony]

Hi Jeff,

 

I think the engraving of the brick pattern took up about five minutes or so. I think I can still improve on the process in my design. Some lines are a bit off by 0.1~0.2mm or so, plus some lines are missing here and there, but it's really only visible when you come up really close. For the general overview of a scene (even in detail) I think it's fine. Not perfect, but it'll do. I'd like to imagine these buildings in a row (different designs and different earthtones) to create a typical village street.

 

 

Also, after the glue dries, the construction is pretty damn sturdy!

[cteno4]

Looks great up close and 5 minutes ain't bad.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[ToniBabelony]

Like with many things in life, adding more layers improves the outcome:

 

 

In the photograph, the light is pretty harsh, so the imperfections are easily spottable, but when looking at it with the naked eye, it looks very acceptable. The roof could use a millimeter or a half less width, but it looks good with the pattern engraved on it (as an experiment). This building occupies about an A4 sized piece of paper, so it's quite about the maximum a single piece of paper can go for. Possibly, a three floor building can be done on DIN A4, but four floors would be quite impossible.

 

All colours have been done with alcohol based markers, as this paper type is optimised for marker usage, which helps with adding a realistic looking imperfection to the brick wall texture IMO.

[JR 500系]

Ohhh.. this looks nice! Have you tried placing interior lighting in it, Toni san? I bet it will look great!  :)

 

I see a Dutch village scene coming, perhaps a Huis-Ten-Bosch in N scale?  :P

[cteno4]

Nice toni! Layers are the way to go!

 

jeff

[ToniBabelony]

Thank you for the comments!

 

A little while ago I decided to make a simple T-Trak module with a Dutch scene on it. The module will be of a classic street scene with tram tracks on their own ROW, flanked by a road with houses on one side and maybe a few vegetable patties and one or two houses on the front side:

 

 

This is just a mockup of the plan and I think only the two houses (or maybe only the most recent) on the left will be used, but it's to give a general impression of how the setup will be like. A few trees will also be added (of course hand made), because I think a few dots of public green on the street is compulsory in Dutch scenes and will add a bit of life to the module.

 

If I'm going to install lights in these houses, I might consider making a blackened inside box-frame first and then pasting the outside layers over it. All things considered, this is maybe a good idea for a next phase! Create a black box-frame anyway to make a stable base, before adding the detailed layers! Thanks for the inspiration JR 500系! :D

[cteno4]

Ha street is coming along nicely!

 

I've been meaning to play with some LEDs in sankei houses to see if they will need any light baffling. But I think they won't need it as I tend to dim LEDs way down.

 

One idea may be to use white cardstock for an internal layer that has a metallic silver or gold layer and sandwich that inside so the internal walls are white (as usual in most buildings.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[railsquid]

I was just going to say it might be an idea to show some other objects in the photos for scale, as the closeups from earlier make the houses look much bigger than they really are, which makes imperfections stand out much more.

 

(Now, that Unitrack, if reproduced at scale in the Netherlands, would probably be the highest point of the country ;) )

[ToniBabelony]

One idea may be to use white cardstock for an internal layer that has a metallic silver or gold layer and sandwich that inside so the internal walls are white (as usual in most buildings.

 

I'm going for a black box for now for the base for residential buildings. These buildings don't really need an interior and the windows will probably feature some curtains or what have you. The commercial outfits will probably also have a black box for the most part, except the ground level shop part where I could do some interior stuff.

 

I was just going to say it might be an idea to show some other objects in the photos for scale, as the closeups from earlier make the houses look much bigger than they really are, which makes imperfections stand out much more.

 

Here is some comparison with my N narrow tram (no, I'm not considering street tracks here) and a bottle of glue that I rarely use.

 

 

 

(Now, that Unitrack, if reproduced at scale in the Netherlands, would probably be the highest point of the country  ;) )

 

As much as I'd like to deny it, it's not far from the truth xD.

[HantuBlauLOL]

i think the 1435mm track spacing looks correct with trams.

[ToniBabelony]

Bigger, more detailed buildings cost time to cut... A lot of time. But it's worth it!

 

 

[Bernard]

really impressive work.....it could be used in a mini movie set!

[cteno4]

Wow those are popping well! Your new toy, err tool, is paying off nicely! Did you get your vinyl blade holder yet?

 

Jeff

 

Ps love the wood roadway, didn't know they did polished wooden roads in holland, quite classy! ;-p

[kvp]

That's usually just the creosote used for wood block pavements and while usually not polished, it's are rather slippery when wet. On the other hand, this might be red brick pavement, which is common in Holland. ( http://i.imgur.com/UysxEsD.jpg )

Edited May 26, 2016 by kvp

[cteno4]

It was a joke kvp!

 

Jeff

[ToniBabelony]

Thanks! Looks like wood indeed huh? I found out I brought my old weathering tools with me from back home last time, so today I'll see if I can enhance the textures with a little black/grey powder wash.

[cteno4]

Toni,

 

It was more of a joke, at first glance it looked just like some nice laminate flooring! I new holland had some lovely street sufaces, but hardwood flooring!

 

I can see the brick pattern looking closely, the kind of detail that gets washed out in photos a lot. Yes the weathering powders should do the trick, catching in the grooves to make the pattern pop.

 

Looking great. The window mullions cleaned up nicely there.

 

Jeff

[ToniBabelony]

I've added some weathering here and there. Get that freshness of and get that aquarel paper feeling off as well. Some weathering may be a bit heavy, but this is how buildings look in my memory.

 

 

The green patching on the street will be flanked with some overgrowing plants. Maybe I'll tone the green algae down a bit, as it looks quite heavy seeing it in a photograph.

 

Here is also an overview of the module how it is now:

 

 

The empty space will be filled with a café (bar/bistro) and possibly an outdoor terrace to accompany the setting. In the middle, I'd like to place a tree or two to masque the rather crude building on the top right (which is an experimental). In the front-left will come a city moat with a small mooring point and stairs, because every Dutch scene needs water IMO.

 

P.s. I should really get on to making chimneys and so on... :/

Edited May 27, 2016 by Kabutoni (a.k.a. Toni Babelony)

[ToniBabelony]

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.