Micro Layout - for beginners

[miyakoji]

I think it looks great, and I'd say it's fairly accurate for an eki-mae scene.  Buildings would likely be close together.  Maybe if a street can be squeezed in between the Fuji Grill building and the second one, that would be good.  Otherwise I'd say it's very nice.

[cteno4]

Ist,

 

Looking great. Lots of Japanese scenes like that with buildings jammed in with a narrow street and no sidewalks! That's why Japanese scenes work well for these micro layouts!

 

Will be fun to watch it come together!

 

Jeff

Edited January 30, 2014 by cteno4

[macdon]

The small oval track may look very simple at first, but as you can see it comes alive as you add scenery and structures.

Your layout actually reminded me of a similar track that I've kept in my hard drive since I started this hobby. Its so simple but beautiful to look at:

 

 

In my opinion, you must only follow 2 things - that you enjoy building it and you're having fun!  :)

 

Mardon

[Matteo_IT]

This last layout is very nice, but for me there are too much buildings... 

[kvp]

but for me there are too much buildings

It's called japanese architecture and city planning and one of the most defining part of a typical japanese city or town. :) Not to mention both IST's and the 2nd one are essentially rural low density settlements.

 

Small steps, but at least I am going forward with the layout.

I like the small details. Personally i always just put together something that works (train operations wise) and forget to add the small details that are outside the structural gauge of the railroad.

[ToniBabelony]

Nice! I'm kind of jealous of you making a layout here, even though small... My wife doesn't allow me unfortunately. Maybe later...

 

Anyway, I really like the packed buildings at the station. You can even choose to have a few empty lots with vegetable fields or car parks in between where a house should fit. This makes things even more accurate for a rural setting. Where I live it's mostly like that. An agricultural area only urbanised in the early 80s, so we still have quite a number of fields and strange empty spaces around.

[kvp]

My wife doesn't allow me unfortunately. Maybe later...

How about a larger bento box and some r140 tracks? That can be stored anywhere without looking too suspicious.

[cteno4]

yeah just a little loop for nico to stare at and drool over!

[cteno4]

Yep this is what makes japanese scenes so great to do. you can have all sorts of buildings crammed up against each other, and then a blank spot with a garden or just vacant at times then a small rail right of way with houses going right up against it. then there is the pole wiring, that can be totally crazy as well. makes for doing a crammed little scene like this very interesting and something you can keep looking at finding new details each time! great way to stretch the limited space into something that as mardon says you can just sit and look at.

 

this is one of the main reasons (along with the train variety) i do japanese modeling, not american.

 

jeff

It's called japanese architecture and city planning and one of the most defining part of a typical japanese city or town. :) Not to mention both IST's and the 2nd one are essentially rural low density settlements.

[IST]

The small oval track may look very simple at first, but as you can see it comes alive as you add scenery and structures.

Your layout actually reminded me of a similar track that I've kept in my hard drive since I started this hobby. Its so simple but beautiful to look at:

 

In my opinion, you must only follow 2 things - that you enjoy building it and you're having fun!  :)

 

 

Wow, this is a very nice layout, thanks for sharing it! I really like how the roofs are look like.

Does anybody know how was those brown fields made around the track?

Edited February 7, 2014 by IST

[IST]

I think it looks great, and I'd say it's fairly accurate for an eki-mae scene.  Buildings would likely be close together.  Maybe if a street can be squeezed in between the Fuji Grill building and the second one, that would be good.  Otherwise I'd say it's very nice.

 

I made that little street, because I was thinking about it a lot. I will make some new pictures tomorrow if I don't forget and show the result. I had no time to improve my layout on the last week, maybe on the next one. :-)

[IST]

Hmm, I have one picture which is not so good, but shows the small street:

[The Next Station Is...]

I really the 'clutter' of this small layout - it feels very true to the spirit of a small town and making the most of such a small space. Keep up the good work!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kvp]

 

Does anybody know how was those brown fields made around the track?

It looks like corrugated cardboard with one of the outer layers removed, but it can be some kind of cement combed with a tile trowel (a metal plate with handle and small teeth on the edge used for putting on tiles) or a combination of these. (modelling cement combed with corrguated cardboard)

[katoftw]

My apologies if my joke came accross as discouraging.  That was not my intention.

 

As for anyone that has got a far as a baseboard, they are doing better than me.  I'm still playing on the floor and procrastinating about organising one.

 

Layout looks good.  I think cluttered suits perfect, as that is how the Japanese do it.

[kvp]

 

As for anyone that has got a far as a baseboard, they are doing better than me.

That is the biggest problem usually. Once it's there, you have a fixed size and have to start building. Also, if you build something bigger than a micro diorama you can't store everything (trains, tracks, scenery) in nice little boxes.

[katoftw]

Remind me of this layout:- http://www.katomodels.com/unitrackplan/plan_p3.shtml

 

Was gonna build it for the kids and small first attempt at scenery.

[IST]

My apologies if my joke came accross as discouraging.  That was not my intention.

 

No problem, as I mentioned I was in a really bad mood, kvp experienced it also, but for him it was worst as we met personally. :)

 

I was thinking a lot about this "clutter" thing before I started the construction. One of my idea was to use only 5-6 buildings and gardens between the houses. I tried it and put the buildings into the middle of the oval track. And I could not imagine how it will look like when the layout will be almost ready. After it I put almost all of my smaller buildings into the layout and I immediately got the picture what I would like to see. So I preferred this one.

[Matteo_IT]

Hi IST...

I'm still waiting your answer about the cork structure... is renforced on the back or not?

[IST]

Sorry, I missed to reply for that comment. It is fiberboard on the other side. So this is not the sturdies layout of the world, I think I may have some problem with it in the future, but due to it is only a layout for practicing and doing something at last, it is fine for me. We have the same on the wall since years (my wife keep some small things on it) without any problem or deforming.

Maybe you can check it at your local Ikea: http://www.ikea.com/it/it/catalog/products/10159457/

[IST]

Nothing special in the last few days, I have just worked on how the small street will look like:

 

 

Placed the train station and gave an information sign to it:

 

 

And finished with the catenary poles:

 

 

So I am going forward with very small steps.

(And as my wife will shortly arrive to New Zealand for 6 weeks, I will have time to going forward with grass, bushes, flowers, cars and people.)

[miyakoji]

The road surface and station name sign look awesome.

[Matteo_IT]

Looks a good work...

[IST]

Here comes some pictures from the past few weeks. I had to work much more than I expected, so the progress is very-very slow.

 

I put some basement to the table that was made from dried and grounded leaves. The white is the already glued part, just before putting the leaves. My friends at the club said, that my layout will have better basement texture with these, so I tried it.

 

 

After it dried, I started to put grass into the layout. And finally we arrived to that point when I realized that I should have made this first and than glue down the houses and catenary poles. I learned again something... Half of the layout with grass:

 

 

One week later after using the vacuum cleaner to remove the remaining grass:

 

 

I put some olive green and light green bushes from Woodland Scenics to upgrade the look:

 

 

I wanted to use these flowers on my layout (http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10170075), but my friends said these will be looks like too plastic, mainly the green part of the flowers. I was thinking how it would look like without that part, so I remove the red flowers and used only that. It is not that bad, isn't it?

 

 

I got some green flowers also:

 

 

Plus I remove the head of the white flowers also from a Tomytec set. I tried to do a field full with these flowers, but I do not like the result as I used the bigger parts and not the smaller ones, so it is far from the real world. I will remove it and try anything else.

 

 

To finish my comment, I add another picture from the back section of the layout:

 

 

And now I know I should have weather the track...

[Densha]

Nice spring feel, on the first day 'hot' day of the year over here.