Sunday, January 11, 2015

Sankei Diorama Series Storehouse of Good Old 1/150

Santa-san hooked me up with a LOT of paper kits on his last trip to Japan, so I thought I'd dive in and start on while listening to the off show Model Rail Radio UK chat last Saturday, Jan 10th, 2015.  I stuck with my old fall back for this kits - Elmer's Glue.

I went with the most simple of the building kits I had to start with.



These Sankei kits are fabulous. The instructions are clear and the kits are super clean. I dove in and started in on the main building.It's a rather simple tab system that they have with clearly marked A, B, C etc sort of piece markings. Again, easy to follow.

My biggest issue is still with the lack of speed for these. You need to wait for the glue to set before moving on or you get wonky walls. The tabs work well for keeping things in place, but the set time is slow with Elmer's Glue, so you need to slow it way down.







The kit comes with several little additional detail parts as well which makes it a value. Always nice to have these sorts of details to use around the layout space.

It was rather handy using the tweezers to keep this together while drying! :)
The roof tiles are a lighter card stock.




All in all, another solid and good looking model.







 

All in all, this was another great kit. This one is super simple and clean. I think it will work nicely in the transition section, though it might make more sense to use it over in the farm area as farm storage. I'll toss in some "dirt" under it and some green around to work it into the scene. I'm also going to do some light weathering. I'm going to practice on card scraps I have before applying weathering onto the building itself.

But, I still had things that were bugging me about it. I was on the MRR call in through Skype and I started talking with the Gents on the call about the kits, then it dawned on me. The two things I didn't like about these card kits were:
• When you put the parts together, they don't set right away. This can cause separation between parts that doesn't look right in the final product - especially at wall to wall areas and seams. 
• Waiting for things to set is just....slow. 

When I mentioned this on the chat, the Gents suggested a glue called Roket Card Glue. By the looks of it, this will solve several issues I'm having. I love the Testors glue that basically melts the plastic to make one solid piece. This Roket Card Glue seems like it acts in a similar manor - sticking the sections together in a solid and quick way. I'll just have to make sure I take my time and make sure parts fit correctly BEFORE applying glue! :)



I ordered a few tubes. We'll see how it goes. 

Someone posted to the MRR Facebook page that they have had some luck with simple, Elmer's Glue Stick. I'm going to give that a try while waiting for the Roket Card Glue to arrive. I'll post my findings for those playing at home. ;)

I do like these paper kits. They have a lot of nice detail and the price point is rather good. Once I get the glue side down, things should move along really well. I can't wait! :)

1 comment:

  1. Alene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue may be worth trying. I have some and will test it out tomorrow

    ReplyDelete