Added the lighting and took a couple of photos. It was an easy install and when the building is painted the realism will pop out. The modeler can tone the color down with clear yellow Tamiya paint if desired but this is also nice as it is. Add some of your own Z people along with the lighting effect and it will make the structure look like it might be a busy place at work! Total of four exterior lights and 1 larger interior comes in the kit.
Karin, the kit looks great. I have a question about the light. Are they pre-wired with resistors. The reason I ask is because soldering the smds with magetic wires is pretty hard for most modelers.
John, good news! They are pre-wired and with a resistor installed. The 4 exterior lights are actually those nano lamps with a "shade", or hood, and pre-painted dark green. The interior light is also an LED but is in a bulb form rather than a SMLED. Gives off better ambient light for the whole room. This has a footprint of approx. 3-1/2" by 8-1/2 " so it would need a good piece of real estate along your track side ****no, this isn't the surprise, John****
The plastic is pretty well self lubricating but you have to be sure not to get any grit into the mechanism as that will jam it up when it scores the plastic. I have been mounting mine with a piece of bristol board underneath to close the bottom off. If you want go the full Monty then use two layers and one layer with a cutout where the magnet is as this lifts the magnet clear of the bottom layer.
Thanks I had not considered some "junk" getting inside the opening. I like the bristol board idea. Again, thanks. ...don
Alex, Bristol board is like heavy weight (dense) paper, almost like the back of a notepad, only stronger. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_board
awkward corners At the back right hand corner of Cuyahoga I had an annoying litttle piece of empty space. Long term the tracks to the new steelworks section will go through here but for now I've filled it with a little scrap yard. It is visible to the public through the spans of the elevated rack so I tried to put in as much detail as possible. There is a pile of steel shreddings and some miscast resin cars make a nice scrap pile. The grounded box car body is a Micro Machines one repainted! KEV
KEV, nice little scrap yard Here my pic anno 1995, scrap yard-diaroma. Today, no more and everything away, just old station building still stands today.
Thanks for the advise Garth, that's the way I have in thought.... I'll try this when back to home in a few days. It'll be doeable as my concrete sides and ceiling are 8 cm or so long.... I'll keep you advised and post you some pics when that's done. Dom
To customize this engine I used GP35 to convert it to GP39E the middle fan has been removed to match the prototype along with number of details added, front pilot, 905 body mount coupler also add. This beauty is going to Tokyo. Hien.
John, I use Mr. White putty, and its from Japan. Its smoother then Squadron and I can put down a thinner coat. Also, what you see its not putty, its paint. I use paint like putty to seal seems and to see if my seems are smooth.
My very first Z scale model has just been scratch built on my workbench. I used a custom computer generated template that I've been making for N Scale for a few weeks now. But for some reason I had urge to print this template out a bit smaller than usual and put this template to test in Z scale. The results I think are quite nice. Here's a Victorian apartment building with two street level shops. Our top two tenants also get to enjoy a roof top patio.
You're hooked now Mark! Great job on the Apartment building! You have to agree that the smaller size of the Z Scale structure is more appealing than the huge N Scale version. I went down that road myself, with a test case Z Scale caboose, and the next thing I knew i was hooked on Z, and don't care about N so much anymore.
