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

[Claude_Dreyfus]

8 hours ago, Das Steinkopf said:

 

You are truly an evil man, I have tried to keep my Iida-sen fleet from 2012 to current day as it fits in nicely with the rest of my JR Tokai fleet, also when it comes to freight stock I have kept my fleet from 2012 to current day as well, I have way too much freight stock to go back in time, not that I am going to admit that publically but I will go into full denial of that statement now, however with you now showing this locomotive the temptation to dabble in some JNR stock is akin to Eve waiving the apple in front of Adam.

 

😁 The provider of temptation! To be honest the bulk of my stock is more modern Chuo line, with a smattering of Tokaido. I try to be strong...but often fail! Too much temptation out there.

 

[railsquid]

1 hour ago, Claude_Dreyfus said:

 

😁 The provider of temptation! To be honest the bulk of my stock is more modern Chuo line, with a smattering of Tokaido. I try to be strong...but often fail! Too much temptation out there.

 

 

If it's any help, for a while ED19-1 was allocated to Nishikunitachi depot at Nishikunitachi on the Nanbu line, which is literally around the corner from Tachikawa. See e.g. http://d51791.com/pg26tatikawa.html, which is totally how I justify owning one for my western Tokyo inspired layout. (In fact there's very little in the way of old-style DC electrics one can't justify for the area, with the exception of the 2-Co-Co-2 designs (with the exception of the EF52s and also EF58-61)).

 

 

 

[Cat]

Tonight we had the time to enjoy opening up the giant carton of HLJ goodness.  This is over two-months' piling up in the  private warehouse there: all of the April and May acquisitions, plus the last-ditch SAL package from the end of March that got returned to them after it failed to catch a flight out in time.  We put in the parcel request on 31 May, the last day of their 10% discount on shipping.

 

 

[katoftw]

2 hours ago, Cat said:

Tonight we had the time to enjoy opening up the giant carton of HLJ goodness.  This is over two-months' piling up in the  private warehouse there: all of the April and May acquisitions, plus the last-ditch SAL package from the end of March that got returned to them after it failed to catch a flight out in time.  We put in the parcel request on 31 May, the last day of their 10% discount on shipping.

 

 

What castle kit is that?

[Cat]

It's the Himeji 1/800 castle.  Scouring over the parts pictures at 1999 of various small scale castles, we settled on this one as being the most likely to have useful roof pieces to plunder; and it is indeed good for our needs.  Some of the smaller tower roof pieces will be ideal candidates to make a temple-hearse or two, and some of the medium roof pieces will be handy for making tiny shrines.

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10013375

[cteno4]

Excellent idea!

 

jeff

[Cat]

Yes, plundering tiny Chinese style roofs is much easier than trying to bash them together!

When Roxanne saw the box cover, she said she wanted to build the castle.  Then we opened it up and saw the cute tiny roofs, and she said it was perfect plunder.
: 3

Other plunderables in this haul include a pair of outside staircases.    The Tomix Condiminium was the only source we could find for a spiral outer stairway which are common on the roadway overpasses near Mito Station.  The Hospital kit will be used as a Junior High School building which does not have outer stairs, so they will get transferred from that to something in downtown Mito where they are pretty common on buildings.  Really wish there was a Tomytec Accessory kit of outer stairs, they're a fun feature!

Edited June 6, 2020 by Cat

[JR 500系]

DHL dropped another parcel from my pre-order with Ami, this time, with a much anticipated set!

 

 

An additional Thank You note from Ami for orders during this pandemic period ~

 

 

Some (more) bus sets, a urethane for adding 10 cars in a bookcase, the air rifle people, a Yo8000, some couplers and the Sagami 12000series!!

 

 

The box is just lovely!!

 

 

The pictures doesn't do enough justice to this set... The blue is really slick and shiny, and the front with that massive grill and lovely LED headlights are just mesmerising… This can easily be one of mu fav sets for now! Maybe I will go ahead to get the 6-car add-on for a Full 10-car set, maybe?  

 

 

[JR 500系]

10 hours ago, Cat said:

Tonight we had the time to enjoy opening up the giant carton of HLJ goodness.  This is over two-months' piling up in the  private warehouse there: all of the April and May acquisitions, plus the last-ditch SAL package from the end of March that got returned to them after it failed to catch a flight out in time.  We put in the parcel request on 31 May, the last day of their 10% discount on shipping.

 

 

 

Oh wow that is one MASSIVE haul! Very nice! The Himeiji Castle looks very interesting! 

 

 

[Cat]

2 hours ago, JR 500系 said:

Oh wow that is one MASSIVE haul! Very nice! The Himeiji Castle looks very interesting! 

 

Understated in this photo are the size of the three plastic bags filled with Tomix and Kato track.

 

Our original acquisitions plan was to first get all the track we needed for module building, all the buildings for the mainline modules, and any key landmark buildings for the branchline modules just so we would be sure to have them in case they go out of production.  The remaining buildings and many detail items would be left for later.  Then the shipping mayhem hit, and we went to Plan B.
 
If we have to pay DHL/FedEx rates to get our key components in, then buy everything and pay to ship worthy sized cartons!
~ , ~

[ED75-775]

I don't usually buy 'new' stuff very often - Japanese N scale is not very common down here (read: almost impossible to find!) but I do have a contact in Tokyo who can help with the odd new item and even catalogs (Tomix and Kato). They won't arrive for some time but when they do there will be a Kato Toki 15000 gondola and Tomix Wamu 80000 coming with them.

 

In the meantime I did find something nice recently on our national auction website TradeMe - a Kato 7002-3 'Hokutosei' DD51. Landed for $150 excluding postage, it came with an unexpected bonus: a Kato Suyu 44 postal wagon! Runs well and of course since it's in Hokutosei livery, it will run well with my planned Hokutosei train set.

Cons? The loco came with mismatched number plates at the ends and no number plates on the cabs (though the seller fitted some cardboard to fill the gaps in), the headlight lenses are missing from one end and when I raided a coupling to get another carriage running, I managed to snap the holding lugs (part of the window structure) on the cab. Nuts! So there's now some Blu-Tack holding the cab down until I can get this fixed.

 

Still, nice loco and it runs well.

[roadstar_na6]

$150 NZD seems to be way to much for something that would be considered junk on YAJ and Japanese Hobby Shops. The RRP of that thing was around $70 NZD.

 

Nonetheless, enjoy it and good luck bringing it back to it‘s former glory! And also welcome here 🙂

[ED75-775]

3 minutes ago, roadstar_na6 said:

$150 NZD seems to be way to much for something that would be considered junk on YAJ and Japanese Hobby Shops. The RRP of that thing was around $70 NZD.

 

Nonetheless, enjoy it and good luck bringing it back to it‘s former glory! And also welcome here 🙂

 

For $150 second hand it's a bit pricey I'll concede - perhaps that's why I won it in the first place! But I relish the challenge of getting it fixed up - my current thinking is to get a Tomix DD51 to pair up with and use some spare number plates from that to replace the missing/mismatched plates on the Kato one. As for the rest of the damaged/stolen bits, it's probably going to be a trip to the Kato Hobby Centre Tokyo. This should be fun!

[roadstar_na6]

I doubt that Tomix boards would fit a Kato loco tho 😉
 

The easiest would be to find one on YAJ with the assy parts still in box and get that to have a working double traction set. Here‘s one.

Edited June 7, 2020 by roadstar_na6

[railsquid]

150 NZD (over 10,000 yen) for a junk loco with missing bits... Ouch. Also hate to break it to you, the missing headlight lenses most likely won't be available as spare parts - Kato don't currently provide a parts sheet for this one on its web page, but AFAIK the closest you'll get is a replacement bodyshell (if available; for a different DD51 version it's 3200 yen RRP), at which point you might as well buy a new loco anyway.

 

1 hour ago, roadstar_na6 said:

I doubt that Tomix boards would fit a Kato loco tho 😉

 

Yeah, not something I've ever tried and though I'm sure there will be some combinations which might fit, not something I'd bet on finding.
 

[railsquid]

2 hours ago, ED75-775 said:

In the meantime I did find something nice recently on our national auction website TradeMe - a Kato 7002-3 'Hokutosei' DD51.

 

Ah, and for added fun 7002 is the base model number for the older Kato DD51 version, I don't know the exact dates but it's listed in the 1995 catalogue but not the 2015 one (current base model number for the DD51 is 7008), and I doubt you'll find parts for the old version any more. Parts for the new model might fit if you're lucky.

[ED75-775]

1 minute ago, railsquid said:

 

Ah, and for added fun 7002 is the base model number for the older Kato DD51 version, I don't know the exact dates but it's listed in the 1995 catalogue but not the 2015 one (current base model number for the DD51 is 7008), and I doubt you'll find parts for the old version any more. Parts for the new model might fit if you're lucky.

Thanks railsquid! That would explain why I couldn't find the loco in the Kato website database. Hmm, this might be a wee bit more challenging than I first thought.

 

2 hours ago, roadstar_na6 said:

I doubt that Tomix boards would fit a Kato loco tho 😉
 

The easiest would be to find one on YAJ with the assy parts still in box and get that to have a working double traction set. Here‘s one.

Mmm, tempting. I haven't used Zenmarket in a while, might be time to dust that off and give it a whirl. Thanks for the suggestion!

[ED75-775]

Well, I've done it now. Bit the bullet and brought another DD51, this time complete with all the number plates and head mark boards. Still to decide whether to bite another bullet and bring it home to NZ now, or whether I let it idle in Zenmarket's warehouse for a little while. What few freight options there are right now are expensive, though I remain hopeful this may change in the next while...

And as for the (overpriced) other, I've literally had a bright idea - use clear styrene sheet and Kristal Klear to replace the missing headlight lenses! If that works, that just leaves the stolen coupling to replace, but I'm already going to be buying the necessary bits for that from Kato Hobby Centre in due course. I need the same couplings and springs for the three Hokutosei coaches I already have, the last owner fitted Kato knuckles but for consistency I wish to standardize on Rapidos. Most of my fleet has them anyway, and that will allow any of my locos to haul that stock.

[cteno4]

Also check the craft store, there are thick acrylic resins (one brand in the us a called gallery glass) used to make plastic stained glass. There is a clear that’s great for making lens for lights and locos. I’ve encased smd leds in it for a glass housing/lens.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

I've also seen epoxy used to create lenses for lights. I believe Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg does / did this for their custom car system cars and trucks. They'd glue on SMD LEDs for head lights, tail lights, indicator lights etc, and then seal them with epoxy. Once cured, you can carefully sand the epoxy down, and then polish it to a shine.

 

Obviously, it's a bit of a mess since epoxy is kinda annoying to work with, especially with small amounts. And you need to be careful not to get any bubbles, because those stick out really bad when the light is on 🙂

 

[ED75-775]

3 hours ago, Martijn Meerts said:

I've also seen epoxy used to create lenses for lights. I believe Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg does / did this for their custom car system cars and trucks. They'd glue on SMD LEDs for head lights, tail lights, indicator lights etc, and then seal them with epoxy. Once cured, you can carefully sand the epoxy down, and then polish it to a shine.

Obviously, it's a bit of a mess since epoxy is kinda annoying to work with, especially with small amounts. And you need to be careful not to get any bubbles, because those stick out really bad when the light is on 🙂

 

Thanks everyone for the tips so far. Epoxy sounds good for larger models, but probably not so user friendly for a first-time noob like myself with minimal skills. So this will be interesting, watch this space...

Paid a trip to my local hobby stores today, and picked up some Kristal Klear and Evergreen .010 transparent styrene sheet for the DD51 lenses. Next 'weekend' I'll install the styrene and add Kristal Klear through the original headlight holes; before then I have several days of work and a tramway museum newsletter to put together.

And as for the other one I just brought, Zenmarket are currently sorting things out with the seller and hopefully I should have something from them in the next 24-48 hours. Maybe I'll buy some more stuff to come over with it!

[katoftw]

A new body will cost 2000-2500 yen.

 

You could pick up a used dd51 freight version for 3000-4000 yen. And a new dd51 freight version for 5000 yen.

 

Then swap over the bits and bobs you need. And keep the rest for spares.

[defor]

On 6/5/2020 at 10:51 PM, Cat said:

What is that little tomix.. billboard kit?

[JR 500系]

3 hours ago, defor said:

What is that little tomix.. billboard kit?

 

Yes that is the Tomytec Billboard kit (Click for link) . It comes with several decals (or you can also make your own) and also holes beneath for the possibly of lighting them up~ I have a couple of them and they do look great! 

[Cat]

I've used Testor's Clear Parts Cement for making clear windshields and small windows, and it works quite well.