N-RAIL Easter Update 2014

Hi there, All!

I did something crazy to get some hobby time in today. My wife and I switch days getting up with the kids. A few yesterday it was my turn and my youngest was up at 5am. Ouch. However, my wife and I were up late watching American Hustle last night (fun film) and were up rather late.

"Oh man, it's my morning tomorrow," she said with a sigh.
"I'll get up again if you watch the kids later so I can get some hobby time in."
"I'll take that deal!"  

So, this morning (...after my 6am wake up and coffee #2...) I sat down for a little hobby time. :) I spent a little time re-re-re-watching some of the Japan by rail videos I've been pouring over of late, but thought that time out in the layout / office room might be a better use of my time.

:)  So, forgive me if there are more typos than there usually are.

Soyokaze Village

First thing was sorting out Soyokaze Village. After seeing the videos and seeing some sights I really loved, I decided to switch up the layout yet again, this time removing the hill in Soyokaze Village. It wasn't working for me overall and it had to go.
 
 


 The drag was that I had plaster gauzed it down a bit. Nothing that a blade couldn't handle.  The removal was quick and painless and I'm much happier with the results, though I'll switch things and adjust for a few more passes, I'm sure. Things are close to what I want, but not 100%.

>> Arrangement not final <<

I also have to allow for roads and walks, but I have tons of reference photos and Google Map grabs to help me with laying that out. I'm thinking about laying the whole of this section on "cement" - using SMOOTH IT. We'll see.



Soyokaze Township 

Things are pretty much the same in town.
I did remove one of the buildings I had here. With the additional space freed up in the village, a displaced building got to return to the area. It freed up some space and made for a better arrangement in town. I'm loving the view from the wall side of the layout. It's fun looking over the buildings towards Shizuka. Some nice depth there.

I'll be adding some roadways and walkways over the tracks here and there. I saw a lot of them in the rail videos and they make for nice little detail spots. Again, MANY reference grabs were taken from the videos themselves.


 なぜ橋
Naze hashi
(Why Bridge)   :)

I put this bridge in a while back before I placed plaster and foam over the edge of the layout for a roadway. Once that change was done, I didn't know why the bridge was there anymore. 
Hence, Why Bridge was born! :)




 It dawned on me today while watching those videos. There are little bridges all over the place. And, why? Most of them are...going over something. So, I am going to add more water here and have a great scene with more fishing, kids playing, and some cool water plants and foliage that shoud be a great addition to the overall scene. I'm also going to build another custom bridge, this time taking more time in the design and construction phases. I loved how the Red Walk turned out (pictured below and here   http://n-rail.blogspot.com/2012/06/soyokaze-bridge-painted.html   ) , but I thought I could have done a little more with it. Some of the bridges I saw inspired me and I think a bridge for cars and buses with a pedestrian walkway built in will be both a challenge and a nice looking addition once it's complete. 

Placeholder auto / pedestrian bridge

The Rest

 Other areas that are coming along on the layout.

Soyokaze Harbor is looking like I'd like so far. Like the rest of the layout, it needs more of everything - people, details, etc. However, that will come once I get more of a lock on base scenery. 

This area still needs a lot of work. I'm not quite sure what to place where the helicopter is currently other than road. I plan to scrub the videos to get some ideas. There are a lot of track side details I could pull from there. 

 Small scenes like these will populate the whole of the layout. There will be lots to see. Now...to buy a TON OF PEOPLE!   :::grin:::

Is this really happening?

I still find myself blinking dumbly when I look at this little layout of mine. I do find myself smiling a wide smile from time to time and remembering back to my start - a few purchases from Hobby Search in Japan and a child-like excitement watching the tram run round a small circle on my dresser. Being on a business call and looking at more stashed n-scale items on a small folding desk in the corner of my office.

It's really grand having everything together in one spot finally. I count my lucky stars every time I see what I have going today.

When I told my wife about finally figuring out the bridge thing (her half listening as we wrangled dinner and kids side by side) she said, "Do you ever feel super powerful coming up with those choices? "I SAY....THERE IS NOW WATER THERE!"  LOL! It was funny, but it's also true. You have so much power and create these little worlds to lord over. It's a fun hobby for sure!

Soyokaze Harbor / Soyokaze Temple / Soyokaze Village / Soyokaze (Township) / Shizuka

Harbor side of Temple Hill

MUCH better and far less crowded without the hill

More images on FLICKR. https://www.flickr.com/photos/malcojojo/sets/72157635883983396/

Cheers, thanks for reading and Happy Easter if you're into the whole religion thing...or the candy thing. :)