'Hakuho' Scene 1

kevsmith Jun 9, 2019

  1. mdvholland

    mdvholland TrainBoard Member

    521
    860
    30
    Hi Kev, thanks for the updates.

    I recognize what you say about paper / card buildings. Some look pretty nice, and usually they are free or very affordable kits (for an example of a nice range, see https://www.peard.nl/c-2779419/z-1-220-bouwplaten/?sort_order=descending&sort_method=by_price, however with the warping and all, they're just not very satisfying. I prefer lasered cardboard like the kits from Animek (http://www.animekmodels.com/Structures.html) or by Markenburg (https://www.markenburg.nl/en/webshop/buildings). The latter models are after Dutch originals, but some factory buildings are pretty generic and could be used on any layout, western European, American or maybe even Japanese :unsure:

    [​IMG]

    Anyways, I really like your conifers, could you show some pics of how you make these?

    Matt
     
  2. SJ Z-man

    SJ Z-man TrainBoard Member

    3,007
    1,020
    62
    The majority of the Pine (Conifers) look like Architrees (by 'treedad') made from bamboo skewers with 'furnace/air conditioning' filters (usually green) and added ground foam. He sold them in dozen-size various combinations or size but not all the time. Sometimes you would not see his posts for months or more. We could by these in BULK (~500) from him via the Philippines at a much better deal but it took up to 3 months. a few years back, he announced that he was no longer making them. But I still see his ebay shop and a couple of the small mixed trees (NOwhere as good as the standard conifers (like Kev appears to have)
     
  3. husafreak

    husafreak TrainBoard Member

    577
    397
    15
    Hi Kev, always a pleasure to see your work! I have an ultrasonic cleaner and a few Shapeways projects to begin. What fluid do you put in your cleaner for them?
     
  4. rray

    rray Staff Member

    8,277
    9,277
    133
    Boy am I glad I ordered 1500 of them back in the day. I heard Loren Snyder is contemplating selling his modules. I am so tempted to snag a couple to harvest his trees for my TTZ modules. :D
     
    Kurt Moose likes this.
  5. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

    1,976
    4,712
    63
    Yes, They were from Architrees and I bought 500 at the time. I've re-used a lot off the Dunsmuir board rather than get new ones out of the loft. I had heard that the village where they were made was hit badly by a typhoon a few years ago.
     
  6. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

    1,976
    4,712
    63
    I start with fairly warm water with detergent in it giving it 20 second burst folowed by swirling it around and then repeating. In the bath for about 10 minutes or so. left to drip dry and then run my fingers round it to see if there is any remaining stickyness.
    if the model is small enough I then put it in an old 35mm film canister (the ones Kodak and fuji films came in) and squirt some lighter fluid in, put the lid on and gently shake. This neutralises any remaining residue and greasiness. You'll notice the FUD goes slightly white after this.

    The petrol dries really quickly after that and I then apply one light coat of Aerosol acrylic grey plastic primer. As the weather here is cold at the moment I put the primer on the radiator for a few minutes to warm the contents up and get the propellant pressure up.

    When dry this will act as a 'reveal' coat and show you the areas where you will need to clean up any layer lines.

    On the BR Class 37 the areas that needed attention were the cab sides and nose end and under the bodyside grills. Most of these were smoothed out by gently scraping with a sharp scalpel rather than using abrasives as you can get into the tight corners easier

    [​IMG]

    Voila

    [​IMG]

    Kev
     
  7. husafreak

    husafreak TrainBoard Member

    577
    397
    15
    Thank you!
     
  8. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

    1,976
    4,712
    63
    So I've not done a close up shot yet as I still need to finish all the windows but here are the streetcars painted.

    [​IMG]

    Kev
     
  9. Kurt Moose

    Kurt Moose TrainBoard Member

    9,814
    14,202
    147
    Those trollies turned out nice Kev!!

    (y)(y)(y)
     
  10. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

    1,976
    4,712
    63
    So a nice parcel of Sankei building kits arrived from Tokyo today so my next few evenings are well mapped out, Couple of bottles of Singha, KEXP Seattle on the internet and some very sharp knife blades and all the steel V blocks out of the workshop. Oh and the central heating on to help the PVA set quicker.

    The roadside noodlebar (which I already had) is proving very popular with the local delivery drivers

    [​IMG]

    I've tried to make the banners look as if they are wafting in the breeze

    I put out a query on JNS forum for help in weathering the Tenshodo Fish vans which are eye-wateringly bright white. Got a link to a later block fish train on youtube and had some glimpses in black and white on this guys channel

    https://www.youtube.com/user/tyokutoku

    he has some fantastic steam era and early 1960s documentaries of JNR

    The Japanese don't seem to let rolling stock get really mucky so I went for a subtle wash of Humbrol no 72 ( a light brown) well diluted with lighter fluid. Just enough to pick up the reefer roof hatches and door details and tone down the white.

    One of the D51s hustles the empties back to the harbour


    [​IMG]

    I've added the station nameboards which are a bit big but at least people will be able to read them. I'd nicked the lower quadrant semaphores to go onto Republic Steel so have made some more and done some distant signals as well. At some stage in the future I'm going to get these etched with the proper taper arms and lower quadrant lens positions. Might even make them work!

    The foreground platform has no ramps and is closed to the public. It will just have the Block token catcher for passing trains. All stopping trains will swing across to the rear platform.

    The D51 and a C11 on a stopping passenger are both waiting for the signals to come off

    [​IMG]

    Kev
     
  11. rray

    rray Staff Member

    8,277
    9,277
    133
    Looks good Kev, I can really go for some roadside noodles myself today, being a snowy cold day a bowl of hot noodles sounds good!
    It looks like you really made grat progress getting the layout show ready. Gotta love those Tenshodo D51's, they look great and run fantastic. I have some myself!
     
  12. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

    1,976
    4,712
    63
    Thanks Robert.
    Funnily enough I'm now getting enquiries off the lads on JNS Forum about the Conifers.

    Part 4 of the Hakuho video is rendering as I type. If you listen carefully you can probably hear the CPU working its nuts off processing all the HD files. Should be on youtube soon.

    Kev
     
  13. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

    1,976
    4,712
    63
    Part 4



    Kev
     
  14. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

    1,976
    4,712
    63
    So over the last couple of weeks we have been battered first by 'Storm Ciara' and then 'Storm Dennis'. Where I live hasn't been too bad but still too windy and rainy to go out to the workshop so I concentrated on slowly putting the Sankei buildings together up in the office. Now I've got them fairly complete, ,just some signs and some white edges to hide, I could start placing them on the layout to see how the town would plan out.

    [​IMG]

    For the first show the rear of the layout won't be developed much so the bathhouse will be the limit of the viewable area

    [​IMG]

    The rear of the houses and shops are going to need a lot of extra details

    Two D51s pass behind one on a rake of coal empties and one loaded.

    [​IMG]

    In the fifth part of the build video I carry on with assembling the buildings folowed by a look at the dearth of Japanese Z road vehicles available and how in the short term I'm going to get around it. there is also a look at how to improve the coal and limestone loads supplied with the Rokuhan hoppers.



    Kev
     
  15. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

    1,976
    4,712
    63
    So right up to Five O'Clock the day before we were still not certain whether the Macclesfield show would go ahead due to the Coronavirus epidemic. Following a statement by the prime minsiter and a Risk assessment by the organisers and the school we got the green light. Apart from one trade stand everybody turned up on the Friday so Hakkuho's debut went ahead as planned.

    I'd really had to get a move on getting the layout finished and had underestimated how much was still to do including a new style flightcase that would carry the scenic extension boards, lighting rig,control panel and controller. Fitted with two whhels at one end and a handle at the other it can be pulled along quite easily

    [​IMG]

    At the end of the last show season my venerable old red wheeled toolbox collapsed due to plastic fatigue and too many years being thrown into vans. I held off buying a new one until I found a similar one only to find out the same thing is still in production albeit in bright yellow

    [​IMG]

    Also in this shot you can see the folding steel trestles the layout sits on. heavy but very stable

    As I ran out of time Angie had no chance to hem up the curtains so I had to resort to thumbtacks for this show

    [​IMG]

    The lighting rig cantilevers off the back of the layout.

    As I was planning on doing some intensive testing at this first show I took all my Japanese Z stock which meant using three of the stock boxes

    [​IMG]

    more soon

    Kev
     
  16. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

    1,976
    4,712
    63
    once set up on Friday afternoon a quick test showed all the sections were working and the track was given a good clean. One of the DD51s was then tried over every section. Saturday was going to be the real test and i decided to do the shakedown tests with the diesels and electrics and introuduce the steam locos on Sunday. The container train, a mix of Rukuhan and PRM Loco KOKIs ran perfectly on the outer track and I had one of the Hokutosei DD51s and its matching coaches on the inner track in one siding and the KIHA 52 in the other. So the public saw them first. on the outer track the middle siding had the DE10 and a rake of coal hoppers, These kept uncoupling at the same piece of track and running my finger along the railhead revealed a lump under the bridge which turned out to be a solder track feed joint sticking up. Some quick work with a needle file before we opened on Sunday sorted that after which the hoppers ran around quite happliy behinf the C57 4-6-2 all day.

    [​IMG]

    The third siding on the outer track has the C11 2-6-4T and a couple of Tenshodo coaches and this little train ran perfectly . The coaches seemed to curb some of the waggle the loco has when running by itself.

    [​IMG]

    There are still a couple of issues to resolve. The D51 2-8-2s seem to keep derailing their leading trucks on the Marklin points and I think they are fouling somewhere and I'll do what I did when I had a similar problem on Shasta. Film them with the HD camcoder and then watch it in slow motion to find the problem!



    Sadly it looks as if all future shows have bitten the dust for now. I was supposed to have Republic Steel at Sheffield and Maryport shows but both of these are off as is the big show at the Great Central Railway in June. The really big shows London, York and Bristol etc are all looking very vulnerable as well as these have thousands of visitors.



    I'll keep you posted but I'm not hopeful



    I'd sent the article and pictures about the layout to Contintal modeller magazine last week and they have snapped it up so expect to see it in there soon



    next thing will be to get the scenery at the back further on so I'll keep updating this thread as I go along


    cheers

    Kev
     
  17. husafreak

    husafreak TrainBoard Member

    577
    397
    15
    I enjoy your Japanese scenes and trains very much. Something different. I wish I had been more interested in trains when I lived there.
     
  18. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

    1,976
    4,712
    63
    So..

    Emerging blinking into the light...

    Two shows confirmed for this Fall for Hakuho, Leyland in August and Hartlepool in October.. I can't wait!!

    Sadly Hartlepool clashes with Zedex so I have to defer for the first time and turn that down. The consolation is great pubs, The Camerons brewery, tall ships in the harbour

    Trincomalee

    [​IMG]

    Paddle steamers

    [​IMG]

    and one of the best Fish and chips in England 'The Almighty Cod'

    In other news the man who inspired the name of the layout 'Hakuho' Yokuzuna Sumo wrestling grand champion announced his retirement before the last but one Basho (grand championship) age and injuries finally catching up with him. He has to give up his fighting name so hopefully the layout will keep his name in the public's conscience going forward

    [​IMG]

    The records he has set are astonishing and unlikely to ever be matched


    Better get it out and make sure it sill works!

    Kev
     
    rray and Kurt Moose like this.
  19. Oskar

    Oskar TrainBoard Member

    68
    34
    16
    I'm a little late to the show but I've caught up on this great little layout. Fantastic stuff, though makes me think adding another scale/gauge/theme to my already rampant (and unrepentant) rubber gauging is actually a good idea... I will be following along for sure!

    -Cody
     
  20. kevsmith

    kevsmith TrainBoard Member

    1,976
    4,712
    63
    Got Hakuho out the other night and took it out of the flight case. Perfect condition despite being stored since March 2020. Eventually found the girder bruidge and the main power cable and should be testing tonight.

    it is prompting me to order some more sankei building kits to get the rear scene finished off

    [​IMG]

    Those paper printed apartment blocks and the 3D printed Hospital just don't cut it, sadly
     
    CNE1899, Kurt Moose and Kez like this.

Share This Page