Another B Train Shorty layout

[tossedman]

Took some more pictures this morning. Here's the layout with trains that'll never make around the corners. Makes for a nice photo shoot though.

 

Who knew that the White Pass and Yukon Route RR ran through Japan.

 

Or Canadian Pacific?

 

I let Noah loose with my old DSLR. We'll see the results later. He's trying to take enough pictures to create a stop motion animation of his train. His photography technique is getting better but the stop motion technique is lacking a bit, but, that's how you learn eh.

 

I've got a bunch of buildings coming in the mail. Hardscaping (is that a word?) is under way. Now to figure out the roads for this module, and the backgrounds. I want to get some building facades on the wall I think, just to give it a little depth.

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

 

 

 

 

Edited May 12, 2020 by tossedman
re-inserted images

[JR 500系]

Nice photos Todd! I like the black and white effects of the pictures, very nice and nostalgic~ Do i see a moving bus system there? (recognized the Hino bus)

 

Nice to see Noah having fun with the trains and photo taking ~ It's great fun having a family member engage in the same hobby, tons of happy moments together and the wife won't complain~~  

[tossedman]

Thanks JR. And yup, that's a moving bus. Not on it's track though. It'll stay black and white until I get some paint on that baby.  :)

Edited November 18, 2013 by tossedman

[tossedman]

Got our first Tomytec buildings today.

 

 

Added the bus garage and the miso warehouse. A bit of photoshop (and not very good at that) added the background.

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

 

 

Edited May 12, 2020 by tossedman
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[macdon]

Looking great Todd!

 

Mardon

[tossedman]

Thanks Mardon. Got a bunch more to build and add on to the layout. Looks like this end is going to be older style Japan.

 

[tossedman]

Hey, does anyone know if there are any half relief buildings out there that fit a Japanese theme. Looking for some for the city scene in the centre.

 

Cheers,

 

Todd

[cteno4]

Todd,

 

never seen any japanese kits that are half relief. but you can always take a kit and saw it in two to get two halves you could use. I have a kato shinkansen station ive whacked in half so that i can put one on either side of our much wider shinkansen station. works well as you never see full depth in these models thru any windows. kato and tomix premade buildings could just get run thru a band saw, then a pass on the belt sander and voila two half depth buildings.

 

also the papercraft buildings that mardon has been building from scalescenes files are easy to modify and whack down to background partial relief buildings

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/5438-papercraft-models/?p=82934

 

the tomytec are fun to build and quick. one thing, with time the roofs will tend to curl up some and sometimes the bases. if you know you wont be going back in to light them or do more interior work then its good to use come CA glue on the joints to make sure things dont curl a little later. they use rather cheap abs plastic and its pressure fit so both things can lead to a little warping with time. ones that ive glued have stayed very nice and tight over like 8 years of banging around to shows on the club layout.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[tossedman]

Thanks Jeff. More investigation is impending. Does this mean that I need to buy a small bandsaw?  :)

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

Edited November 23, 2013 by tossedman

[cteno4]

Todd

 

Well, they are always handy! Bet you know someone with one. Fine metal blade usually works best on plastic. Hacksaw can work as well!

 

I love cutting things in two! Friend asked me over once to help move their queen sized bed up into the new master bedroom they made in the attic by popping out a dormer. Got the mattress up the narrow stairway with the bend as it flexed, but the box spring just got stuck and would not go. Windows too small to go that way, so I just busted out circular saw and had it in to in under a minute! Then couple of boards, screws and some duct tape and all in place and as good as new. Should have been a magician and get to saw something in half every day!

 

Jeff

Edited November 23, 2013 by cteno4

[macdon]

Months ago, Jeff was kind enough to send me hi-res files of the kato unitram building backdrop that you used above. I joined the files and created a 18"x 96"(8') backdrop of it.

The file is too big to post here, so I reduced it to 20% of actual size. Let me know if this could work for you and I'll see if I can send you the file thru email. Feel free to manipulate to your preference.

 

Mardon

 

 

 

[macdon]

You can also go to HS, copy and save any building facade, print and glue to 1" thick styrofoam and mount on wall. 

 

Mardon

[tossedman]

Jeff, I've got access to a bandsaw at school but have had my eyes on a home one for a while. I laughed when you describe the box spring incident. I've been there helping a friend move. We gave up on the box spring and she bought a different bed that didn't need one.

 

Mardon, thanks for the offer. A PM has been sent. Great idea about the pic on foam as well.

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

Edited November 24, 2013 by tossedman

[Densha]

The file is too big to post here, so I reduced it to 20% of actual size. Let me know if this could work for you and I'll see if I can send you the file thru email. Feel free to manipulate to your preference.

Yes please, me too! :)

[macdon]

Todd,

 

I sent the file via google drive as both my yahoo and gmail accounts have only a 39mb limit. File is around 80mb.

Please let me know if you get it.

If successful, share it with Densha as well.

 

Mardon

[cteno4]

Todd,

 

Band saws are a,good hobby bang for the buck. I picked up the little delta for like $69 on sale like 14 years ago and still going strng for all the little stuff. I now have a bigger one for larger woodworking projects, but the little guy is my goto for all the hobby stuff and light metal work. Smaller blades are cheaper and oddly almost never break, only wear out.

 

Jeff

Edited November 25, 2013 by cteno4

[macdon]

Hi Todd,

 

Hope you got the file fine. It was my first time to use google drive so I didnt know that it needed permissions, etc. Anyway, I made it public and gave you the opportunity of editing it. Feel free to share to anyone interested.

 

Mardon

[tossedman]

Yes indeed Mardon. Got your file and sent it on Densha's way. Thanks to you and Jeff for that file. I'm probably going to try to make some low relief building from them. I'll share the results if it's anything worthwhile.

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd 

[macdon]

Thats great to hear todd!

 

As merely a suggestion, you can print the whole file and temporarily mount it to see how it fits. You can trim it as well. Once satisfied, print another file but this time cut each structure out and mount in various thickness of foam, etc. Glue the individual structures on the first file matching the same buildings and you achieve a 3d effect having the blue sky and further away structures as background.

 

Have fun!

 

Mardon

[tossedman]

Good ideas Mardon. I may cut and paste a few (or all) of these into a 15' long backdrop for the whole layout. My wife has a CNC cutter that I'd like to try to use to make these buildings.

 

Added another new building this past weekend. It's the 3 story Kato industrial building. Also carved out a river according to the directions of His Nibs. He said to try using blue tissue paper with a bit of freezer strip over top of it. Here are the results.

 

The new bridge that was suddenly required.

 

 

In full living colour! That's a poor attempt at a low relief building on the other side of the river. Gotta spend more than 2 minutes building them. It's too big though. The printed parking lot is awaiting it's first cars, yet to be imported.

 

Our latest building arrangement. That house is in a noisy neighbourhood eh!

 

More to come...

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

Edited May 12, 2020 by tossedman
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[tossedman]

I'm wondering about moving the track away from the wall. What do you guys think. Leave it t the back. In the middle or move it more to the front of the layout. Got a blizzard coming so may get a bit more time in the basement to play.

 

Nice thing is that with this small layout, it'd only take 10 or 15 minutes to flip it around.

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

Edited December 2, 2013 by tossedman

[tossedman]

OK, so I've answered my own question for now. This photo shows how we've made a bit of room behind the track to put some small buildings. Still need to make a shelf for that controller too.

 

Here I've printed part of the station roads that Mardon sent me. Thanks again for that Mardon! We used a colour laser printer to test it all out. This is just letter sized paper. Once I figure it all out and make lots of adjustments in Photoshop it'll be printed on roll paper to make it continuous. It really needs some work to fit around our smaller station.

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

Edited May 12, 2020 by tossedman
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[macdon]

Looking good Todd! Hope the roadway file helps you. Feel free to manipulate it to fit and to your preference.

Did you get the building backdrop file as well?

 

Mardon 

[tossedman]

Thanks Mardon, I got both files and will be playing with them over the winter here as this layout takes shape. I'm quite excited about the road plate file. I was just thinking about purchasing some to see what I could do to make them fit but this is so much better. I have to figure out what to do about parking. I don't as much space as you do. I think I may see if I can get one of these to fit on there somewhere.

 

Todd

[macdon]

I have some parking files as well as a car park building file if you're interested.

 

Mardon

 

ps. if its parking for the station, you can possibly manipulate the roadway file to run horizontally straight (instead of curving on both sides of the station) and the space you save could be made into parking.

I see in your picture that you have omitted the parking as well as the bottom sidewalk due to space restrictions?. If you design the roadway horizontally straight, you can bring back both parking and sidewalk if you prefer.

Edited December 4, 2013 by macdon