Tomytec building kit "disappointment"

[railsquid]

I've been acquiring quite a few Tomytec building kits as they're cheap, have lots of variety, look fairly convincing and have lots of potential for modification if I ever have the time. The ones I started out with - mainly residential houses - basically snap together, no glue required (for the most part; sometimes some of the smaller parts like balconies don't snap in tightly, and at some point I'll need to tighten some of them up as the parts are a little warped - not enough to notice). I kind of moved on to more complex ones which actually required glue, and in one case the application of clamps, to stay together structurally, and kind of assumed that trend would continue, but the latest kits I've acquired have been semi-assembled and all I need to to is add the details (signs etc.).

 

Which actually kind of disappointed me. Not that I'm complaining or find it a problem, but I realised I was actually looking forward to the challenge :)

[cteno4]

Yeah tomytecs are not an assembly challenge unless you get one with some seriously warped parts to correct. I've found those blue xacto slide clamps work well to hold walls square and firm while gluing. They use a cheaper styrene formulation that can warp some. But for the price they are great and huge variety of things to choose from.

 

They are simple and fun 10-20 minutes, I do them while watching tv. Its sort of zen like in going thru the very similar motions each time. Cutting out and adding signs is the lions share of the work and where you can exercise a tad of creativity...

 

Have you tried a sankei laser cut chipboard structure yet? That will give you more of a challenge! Start with a little one first to cut your teeth on and get your technique down. Make sure to carefully label parts on backside in pencil before you cut them out and carefully pretest assemblies before gluing as their wall layering can sometimes cause very similar sized and shaped parts just a tad different. There are a few threads on tricks and tips on constructing them. I made some handy corner clamps out a block of wood and alligator hair clamps. Little alligator hair clips (100 yen store) also are handy to hold parts while drying. I think they will give you the challenge you are looking for. They also need a little weathering and addition od 3D details around them once done (I keep hoping that sankei will start producing 3d printed plastic detail parts to finish their structures as a few details just din work with all laser cut chipboard.)

 

Nother handy bit are dental micro applicators, the work great to spread glue on joints, but tooth picks work well too.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[railsquid]

Hah, the locomotive shed from the latest order is quite warped, but nothing that can't be solved. Thanks for the tips!

 

I'll no doubt graduate to Sankei and co. at some point when the basics are sorted. My ultimate aim is to build a model of our house from scratch.

 

Meanwhile, damn I love my wife. I bought a copy of "Japan Railfan Magazine" (鉄道ファン) as it had a Shinkansen special feature, anyway turned out there was a reader enquiry with prizes which I probably wouldn't have seen until it was too late, but I left the magazine lying around and my wife was reading it, came across the competition, filled in the survey online and what does she do but win a set of Tomytec kits. None of which I have, luckily.

 

[Sean]

I like them, but like you I also find them a bit of an anti-climax since they only take a few minutes to snap together.

 

As a kid my dad and I put together a German N-scale layout.  So I was used to putting together complex building kits put out by Faller and Vollmer which had more than 100 pieces which all had to be carefully glued together.  Those were a challenge.

 

It is one thing that has kind of puzzled me.  None of the major German kit makers I am familiar with (Faller, Vollmer, Kibri, Pola) sell buildings completely made.  But almost all of the Japanese ones (Tomytec, Kato, etc) do.  I have no idea why that is.  Japanese people seem to like putting models together just as much, if not more so, than Germans so its a mystery.

 

If you do want a challenge, the Greenmax kits require a lot of work to assemble - not only do they have to be glued together but you also have to paint them, which takes quite a bit of time.

[kvp]

For a real challenge try the aoshima kits. They are made out of clear acrylic which is hard but very brittle. Also everything gets painted on the sprue, so you will have unpainted spots of clear plastic that looks black and the colors are unique enough that patching them up is not really possible. Also the paint hates most glues. Tomytec buildings are much more firiendly.

 

ps: Maerklin did sell ready to use buildings many years ago, but they were not too popular. Also, i've seen fully assembled kits packaged in boxes in some model shops. (i think fallers) The prices are around 4 to 10 times the price of the same building in a kit form.

[Martijn Meerts]

Faller does some pre-built kits yes. They're expensive because they're usually hand-built based on a kit, and most of them are weathered as well.

[railsquid]

The good thing with the Tomytec kits is semi-instant gratification; otherwise I probably wouldn't be as motivated as I am. Same goes for the track - Kato (or Tomix) may not look as good as hand-ballasted Peco/Fleischmann/whatever, but it's great for getting something together fairly quickly that looks like a model railway, rather than a permanent construction site. On the other hand - this goes for the building kits as well as the track - it's possible to add detail/ballast; I have ideas how to improve many of the existing Tomytec (and other) buildings to make them more unique.

Edited October 8, 2014 by railsquid

[cteno4]

Yeah you can get the whole spectrum in Japan. Tomytec are wonderful to get something going pretty nice, pretty fast and pretty cheap, plus they are hearty little beasties as many in my collection have survived the years or more being not very carefully schlepped around to shows for the club layouts and ttrak.

 

Lots can be done to tomytecs to improve and modify as well as even kitbash.

 

Look at the sankei kits as if there are things close to your house you can adapt or just use for some ideas as to how to construct it.

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

[Sean]

I have added a few improvements to some of my kits, mostly just adding billboards or signs to cover windows, etc.  Mostly these have been Tomix ones, which come with the lowest level of detail among all the makers and actually need some additional work to make them look realistic. 

 

The Tomytec ones come with so much detail already built in that there isn`t much room for improvement on most of them.  I kind of like that, but it also makes it very difficult to give your layout a unique look, particularly when everybody else has the exact same limited number of buildings in their layout.  This is particularly noticable with shrines and temples.  Pretty much everyone, including me, wants to put either a shrine or a temple into their layout but the Tomytec ones are basically the only good option out there so everybody has the exact same temple or shirne in their layout (there are a couple of non-railway temple model kits that are roughly the right scale, particularly of the Horyuji temple in Nara, but most people seem to go with the Tomytec because they look better and are a bit easier to assemble).   Same with the onsen buildings.  (This is also the case with German layouts - Vollmer made by far the best cathedral building so almost everyone has that in theirs).

 

So I have the Tomytec 5 story pagoda and main temple building in my layout but I am planning to try to build some other temple buildings to go with it from scratch just to give it a more unique look.

 

I should add that I am not criticizing Tomytec here, they are far and away the best maker in terms of putting new kits out on a regular basis and they have really increased the variety out there.

[westfalen]

Faller does some pre-built kits yes. They're expensive because they're usually hand-built based on a kit, and most of them are weathered as well.

This is catching on in the USA as well with Woodland Scenics in particular making some nice buildings, a bit expensive but no that much when you consider the time you would put into building them yourself and the painting, weathering and detailing.

[railsquid]

The Tomytec ones come with so much detail already built in that there isn`t much room for improvement on most of them.  I kind of like that, but it also makes it very difficult to give your layout a unique look, particularly when everybody else has the exact same limited number of buildings in their layout.

 

I look at it like this: in my house my layout and all the buildings on it are unique, and that's what matters.

[macdon]

Hello Sean,

 

For shrines and temples, another option is Fujimi. 

I do have their Byodo-In and its a great kit!

 

 

Mardon

 

 

 

[Sean]

Oh wow, that Byodoin looks pretty nice!