What did you order or the post deliver? (Japanese N Gauge)

[ia909]

21 minutes ago, Kiha66 said:

That's unfortunate, kato really should have been more careful in production.  You could always cover the plastic with a bit of paint to hide the molding mark.  

I agree, a bit of weathering will help.

 

These sets aren't cheap and you're right Kato haven't covered themselves with glory here.

 

On a happier note for a Friday evening, two sets of Kiha 54's arrived today.

 

 

[chadbag]

1 hour ago, ia909 said:

Just containers. The more the better! (I'm not actually sure whether the car transporter set would fit my modelling era of roughly 2010 - onwards).

 

One big disappointment is that each plate has a very clear circle where the moulding has been cut off (there's probably a technical term for that) - hopefully attached photo will show what I mean. I guess I can put a vehicle or container over, or maybe even a tall yard lamp. But I'm sure Kato could have avoided it.

 

 

No no no.  You have it wrong.   Those are manhole covers!   🤣

 

But in all seriousness, yes, they should have done that better

[cteno4]

Yeah not a great mould design, why could these have not been on the bottom? How does the underside look?

 

jeff

[Kiha66]

I'm guessing these are the same plates they use for their station road set, which are factory painted.  I haven't noticed the issues on my road plates, so its probably something that the original design knew would be covered by paint and they didn't bother to fix on this release.  Bummer!

[maihama eki]

I now have the capability to Go! Waku Waku Trip anytime I want.  I like the red wrap better than the first yellow wrap.

 

 

[Das Steinkopf]

13 hours ago, ia909 said:

Just containers. The more the better! (I'm not actually sure whether the car transporter set would fit my modelling era of roughly 2010 - onwards).

 

The vast bulk of the Ku 5000 car transporters were wiped out in the mid 1980's as they had been taken out of service around 1983, however 64 of them did make their way into JRF service and a further 29 were salvaged and refurbished due to Nissan reviving the traffic up until 1995 but by 1996 what remained was scrapped.

Edited January 18, 2020 by Das Steinkopf

[ia909]

19 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Yeah not a great mould design, why could these have not been on the bottom? How does the underside look?

 

jeff

Very good question and I hadn't looked until now - it's stamped as a Unitram 40-100. I don't (didn't) own any Unitram stuff so nothing to compare to I'm afraid. Photo attached.

[ia909]

8 hours ago, Das Steinkopf said:

 

The vast bulk of the Ku 5000 car transporters were wiped out in the mid 1980's as they had been taken out of service around 1983, however 64 of them did make their way into JRF service and a further 29 were salvaged and refurbished due to Nissan reviving the traffic up until 1995 but by 1996 what remained was scrapped.

Thanks for the information. Too late for my era, but at least that's one less thing to throw my cash at!

[cteno4]

Thanks IA. Bummer with the injection/expansion vent location, you would think they could do it all on the underside to get a smooth top. Guess this repurpose without painting was not in the thinking. I guess Woodworking and exhibit design have trained my brain as I always look at how stuff is made to hide end grains, joints, etc as much as possible.

 

could just spray them all worth some gray paint to give it some texture as cement and get rid of the shiny plastic. pin tape some loading lines.
 

Or just always have a forklift or a container in the center of each plate.

 

jeff

[Sheffie]

Gentle work with progressively finer emory boards (or files, or even sandpaper) will mask out the worst of the sprue mark. 

 

But the only way to avoid it altogether would have been for the manufacturer to design the mould differently. 

[JR 500系]

Havent been posting much but here comes a real good deal I snatch off Mandarake, simply because it is more than 50% off the pre-order set of the 4-car variant and seriously I cant wait that long for the pre-order to be in and 7k for an additional car seems way too much for me... 

 

Quite an expensive shipping option with more than 50% of the box filled with Japan air ~

 

Almost feels brand new!

 

Love the look on this, it almost resembles 'Ultraman!' ! 

[JR 500系]

And after many failed items of payment (Amazon Japan dislikes me) and delivery attempts... This FINALLY turned up... and I am so glad I got this! It certainly looks way nicer than the yellow livery ~

 

 

 

 

 

[Jimbo]

my new locomotive showed up!

[Jimbo]

well just ordered a building, container wagon ,an tank containers, from Japan,,, with tracking an shipping for just under 50 bucks!! Ha time will tell??   An Thanks for everyone's input an help

[defor]

A really small shipment arrived today, after getting delivered to the wrong address!
Tomix "Furusato Ginga Line 999" (sold as new, looks lightly used, but runs fine and I'm not worried as it's a rather old model)

Tomix Sanriku Type 36 (used, in good shape, needs a motor)

Tomix Trailer Collection 3 Mitsubishi Fuso FV with Train car trailer

 

[DanielMackay]

Ordered, not yet received:

 

Kato 10-260 N-scale 40th Anniversary EF58 MID1950's Trial Paint Scheme 4-engine set. My favorite pre-Shinkansen engine: large frame, looming headlight, now in 4 paint variations. Did I need four more of these engines? Apparently yes.

[jozasa]

On a ski-excursion, I visited Basar Valira in Andorra and bought a rare item for me, the Kato SNCF EMD Class 66 loco (I think it is KATO-Lemke)

 

It was the first time for me in this shop. The premises are huge and they have a fantastic stock of trains of all gauges. They also sell online

Not specially cheap, despite Andorra is supposed to be a tax-free little country. But highly recommended!

 

Edited January 24, 2020 by jozasa

[Cat]

Just in via EBay.  These will get some additional personalised markings added to change the Euroliner Joyful Train with the insignia of the Ooarai Girls Academy senshado team:
 

[Cat]

The Night of the Shipping Charges.  [the horror, the horror]

Item details when the large packages arrive from Hobby Search and Buyee, it will be easier to just snap some pix than to list them out.  15 small packages consolidated at Buyee adds up to a hefty pile of yen, but still less then individual international shipping; and nearly all of them wouldn't have shipped to the States anyway.
 
Fortunately, the pile in my HLJ warehouse can sit there until my next fiscal month's billing cycle.

[defor]

One of my preorders arrived today from AmiAmi:

• JR KiHa 111/112 SL Gunma x Hachiko Line
  

I heard you like trains, so we put a train on your train.

[Welshbloke]

On 1/24/2020 at 8:35 PM, Cat said:

Just in via EBay.  These will get some additional personalised markings added to change the Euroliner Joyful Train with the insignia of the Ooarai Girls Academy senshado team:
 

I have those. Added some scraps of lead sheet between the outer panels and the subframe on the DD51 so it can handle four Shorty Euroliner coaches. You can still find the Bandai DD51 chassis but not the 4w one for the EF64, the Kato one will fit but needs trimming at the ends for the skirts under the cabs to fit.

 

The Kato bogie chassis won't fit the DD51, and the Bandai one is better anyway IMO as it has all wheel drive.

[Cat]

1 hour ago, Welshbloke said:

I have those. Added some scraps of lead sheet between the outer panels and the subframe on the DD51 so it can handle four Shorty Euroliner coaches. You can still find the Bandai DD51 chassis but not the 4w one for the EF64, the Kato one will fit but needs trimming at the ends for the skirts under the cabs to fit.

 

The Kato bogie chassis won't fit the DD51, and the Bandai one is better anyway IMO as it has all wheel drive.

 

I have a stash of Bandai's Power Unit 1 (4-wheel) and Power Unit 3 (8 wheel).  I've been wondering how the Kato bogie chassis compare to the Bandai ones, glad to hear the Bandai work better.

Is Power Unit 5 the one you used for the DD51?
Is the difference between that and the 3 just the style of the outer bogie frames?

Where have you found these available recently?

Edited January 27, 2020 by Cat

[Welshbloke]

I think it was PU 5, unfortunately now I check again I can't see any. I'm not sure how it differs from PU 3 but there must be something or Bandai wouldn't have given it a new part number. The Kato 4w chassis are gaining the new coreless motor so will be better than the Bandai 4w ones.

 

Hobbysearch have a feature to notify you if PU 5 comes back into stock which may be worth signing up to, it just emails you if they have them. They seem to ferret new stock out from somewhere occasionally.

[Cat]

41 minutes ago, Welshbloke said:

I think it was PU 5, unfortunately now I check again I can't see any. I'm not sure how it differs from PU 3 but there must be something or Bandai wouldn't have given it a new part number. The Kato 4w chassis are gaining the new coreless motor so will be better than the Bandai 4w ones.

 

If the PU3 fits, I'll just use that; there's no sense in going all rivet-counting for bogie side frames on Shorties.  But I do need to do an inventory check of how many motor units I have on hand compared to locomotives what could use them.  I suspect I may need to hunt out a few more motors.
 
Good to know on the Kato 4W, thanks.

[JR 500系]

On 1/22/2020 at 7:11 AM, defor said:

Tomix "Furusato Ginga Line 999" (sold as new, looks lightly used, but runs fine and I'm not worried as it's a rather old model)

 

Oh WOW! You made me wanna search for this train too! IT looks GREAT!! Is that officially signed off by the author of the comic? 

 

 

Another 2 parcels dropped in from the pre-orders.... 

 

 

First up, the Bus collection 27, and the Hisatsu Railway Kumamon train No. 2 & 3, along with some other buses.... 

 

 

This REALLY looks cute!! 

 

 

No luck this time for the special... 

 

The other parcel contains.... 

 

Some rainbow lights just for fun, some Kato lights for my Mizukaze, and a 4-car add-on of the E657 that was on sale to complete my E657 set...