I'm trying to think of ways to make that easier (aligning the wooden pieces in straight rows.) All I got is to use continuous length wood strips, with notches that fit in matching notches in the pipe rings (aka half-lapped joints between pvc rings and long, wood stringers). Clamp the rings together with no spaces between them, then saw the sides of the notches on the inside of the pipe, and chisel out the waste. Then clamp the wood strips together side-by-side, and mark and cut those notches and chisel that waste. You could do that before you cut the strips from a board as well. Even if the half-lap joints aren't perfect, they can easily be filled and sanded flush, and they will all be aligned correctly. All this is only necessary if you aren't satisfied with what you have. It looks pretty good from here.
^Too late, already slathered it up with DAP. If it comes off, will try something else, but if it's in the house already and I don't have to buy it, am trying it first. Added another row of windows last night because it looked kindasorta right but not right enough. Cut and glued the end pieces, and then filled all the spots I didn't like. Will need to sand on it for like an hour tonight when I get home. Will post a photo or two after. Unless it looks like butt. And thx Andy, it is tedious and all those dividers won't be perfectly symmetrical but I think it looks pretty good. I've already resigned myself to saying that this will be something that I made from nothing and that's it's value to me. We won't be seeing the finished structure on the pages of any magazines or anything lol, but I set out to build something rather difficult and so far am liking the results, so I'm calling it a win.
Going back to look at your pics and am totally impressed. We are always hardest on our own work, and you buildings look great. This will turn out to be an awesome build.
One of my other hobbies is woodworking, and I am a retired engineer (electrical), so I'm always thinking of ways to make things more easily/accurately (now mostly to offset my limited manual skills and/or lack of confidence.) Sometimes it overflows into my railroading, sometimes it just overflows.
Is this for a covered street / arcade ? Creative use of the pipe. I have used ABS pipe for the roof of tunnel portals and made the lengthwise cuts on a table saw. The cross cuts were done on a chop saw.
I wasn't exactly in love with it before, it didn't look right to me. Added a second row of windows to each opening, and now it looks worlds better. Sanded with 220, then 320, then 600. Only minimal pitting on the plastic wood where I got it on too thick, will have to skim and sand it again, and I imagine I'll use an automotive primer instead of the Vallejo, but yup. This is what I wanted. I'm good with it!
This is the roof for the Wacoal Kojimachi building. It's the only scratch on my entire layout that I want to look as much like something as I can, because it's one my favorite commercial buildings anywhere in the world, not just Tokyo or even Japan as a whole. The roof was tricky to figure out, but I am digging it. The rest of it should frame out relatively easily now. Not QUICKLY, but easily. This will be the 2nd tallest building in my whole city, and dead center to boot, so I want it to look right. So far so good!
For your windows, you could maybe start with some two liter pop bottles and cut windows in outta that. At least the plastic is thin, clear, and already has a curve to it. Looking at pictures of the real building, looks like those windows are are least somewhat inset.
For the windows I'm going to shape smoked acetate to the inside with purple LEDs under to match the accents on the outside. I won't be lighting the rest of it, but same for the windows of the structure itself - smoked acetate has a semi-reflective surface, so will look great imo. I am not super obsessed with getting every line, stone, and measurement perfect, I'm already building mine about 2x its normal height to begin with, but I would like it if someone were to look at and be able to say, "Oh, I know exactly what that is". I did not set out to be super-anal about making my city buildings "just so", but I kinda have with a couple of them. Oh well, adds to the fun of it. Once I can get my label printing up to snuff I have an arcade on my Akiba strip that will be bloody fantastic, am already geeked a bit to see it done. However, also means I can't skimp on this one now, it sits right behind it lol
OK all you creative types out there - was watching this video of the Tomix 98662 Shinkansen because... well, because I need to buy a Shinkansen and the proto is kind of amazing so have not ruled it out (!!) but what I am all-in with is the add-on LED action for the catenary. I would love to add it to at least one of my passenger trains. Any ideas how they did it? Does not look to be interval controlled so am not 100% sure yet sure how to replicate it (or even if I can with DC, might be decoder-controlled) but looks really fantastic!
and before anyone makes fun of it, the exterior does little for me but I shamelessly dig the cabin of the proto Hello Kitty Shinkansen. It looks like it would be so much fun to travel on. Most modern scale model Shinkansen are kind of butt to me if am being honest, but the only way I can make this Japanese-inspired layout without one is to drop an entire paycheck on the Shikishima set (which I *really* want to do but have yet to figure out how to justify it to myself lol) so yes, I really might get this train, catenary lights or no catenary lights
With my limited experience with catenary those are not lights. So put the power through the catenary and track and you may get what you want. Maybe!
Evan Designs has a "lightning effect" kit that might do what you want. Wire directly to the interior car light pickups using the 7-19 volt option and you'd be set. Each kit consists of two lights but you have the option for any size LED including down to pico chips which you could place together on the roof and they will barely be noticeable. Or replace the wire with magnet wire and run the LEDs up the pantograph for an even more realistic display. They may even install the magnet wire for you if you ask them. Check out their video/info here: https://evandesigns.com/collections...eate-a-realistic-storm-in-your-miniature-land If you have DCC then you could use it on an output of a decoder that is programmed to only turn on when the engine/train is moving.
BOOM. That's awesome. Thank you! ...when it gets closer to the time I will revisit the idea of DCC again, because it makes sense with 7 trains, but I can't stress enough how much I really hate troubleshooting computers and software. With electricity, electrons are electrons, and it's something I get. Software and coding I have no idea where to even start when something goes awry and I get frustrated really easily.
That is a very distinctive building. In 2017 we were staying very close to there near the Hanzomon subway station for about 3 weeks so I'm surprised I had not seen it in my wanderings around the neighborhood.
Japan is nothing if not loving of all things whimsical and cute. The 1/1 prototype running in Japan is beyond cool and absolutely fantastic inside (the first 2 cars are literally called the "Kawaii cars" with plush purple seats, bow-tie design floors, fiberglass statuettes, etc - the whole vehicle is just far too original to not appreciate!) and I do like the scale model plenty well enough to buy, but I did not know Kato made an E4 in N until last night (model 10-1730). Being that when they took the E4's out of service people left notes by the thousands for 'Max' at the stations, thanking it for it's years... well, even if it does look far more natural through corners than any other scale Shinkansen I've seen running, I am always a serious sucker for nostalgia. The last of the E4's were retired for good just last year, so I think it'd be a very fitting nod to keep at least one alive, even if just in my basement I may still get the HK, it would be loads of fun fo' sho, but I am really digging the E4 idea.
