MOKUSEI DENSHA & KIKANSHA wooden train kits

Woody Joe is putting out some fun items. I love this wood kits. They come flat and you build them up. They run about $18 for the kit and another $18 for the power.

Can be found here on HOBBY SEARCH


They have a fun look! I might have to add a set to my layout at some point in the near future.

[Limited Edition] J.R. Series 500-7000 Sanyo SHINKANSEN (500 Type Eva) (8-Car Set)

Well, I hope I didn't screw this up.

I had placed an order through HOBBY SEARCH months ago - six, I believe - to get this train. They finally sent me the link to the sale a few days ago, but I had to wait till payday and/or praying I got some birthday cash in the mail LOL before sending my PayPal payment.

Oops...the link lasted three days, not four. I had more items I wanted to get and did as Hobby Search said, making a comment to include the new stuff in with the train order. I just hope they didn't forfeit my train to another customer in that 24 hour period! I guess I'll find out sometime this weekend or on Monday.



I already waited six months, so I guess a few days won't hurt.   Grrrrr.....

Fingers crossed. It's so cool!

China Offerings: More Building Options from Overseas

I gave a few Chinese building offerings a try recently and a few folks had mentioned that they were interested in buying them, but were not sure what they were going to get. So, since I already took one for the team, I figured I'd give a bit more detail on the two offerings I tried.

First up was the offering from Outland Models CN on eBay.

The offering from http://www.ebay.com/usr/outland_models_cn

I gave a bunch of details in my earlier post found here:
http://n-rail.blogspot.com/2016/08/aug-22nd-2016-devil-in-details.html

In short, I was really happy with the product overall. The plastic used was SUPER thick and sturdy. There were no instructions, but none were needed - it was simple to get together. There was a simple peg-and-hole arrangement that you can see in the photo above that really worked like a charm. There was no glue needed.

The one interesting thing about the design was that it was basically the Kato offering almost exactly. I'm not sure how I feel about that - it seems a little "pirate-like" if they just straight up copied the Kato building and printed their own. I didn't know about it until after the fact, which was rather amusing. I had placed the completed building on the layout, then did a double take when I saw the Kato building to the right of it. "Heeeeeey!"  I actually had a good laugh about it.

The DioTown Metro Series 4 Floor Office Building, Brick (on the right above) runs about $20, so at a $9 or so price point, the Outland version really is a good investment if you can get around the copying aspect. Shipping was super quick as well, which was nice.



The other building I tried out was from the HAPPYSUN AMY folks. This was another interesting design with no instructions, but I got it together with ease after looking at the images they had up on eBay.

With this building, the plastic was a little "lighter" and more like standard offerings of it's type. Not cheap or flimsy, but not as stiff as the Outland building. The details were good, the painting was great, and it went together rather well. I did use glue on some of the pieces to make sure they wouldn't pop out and there were some seams that I had to work at to get gaps closed, but this was standard for the plastic kits I've purchased in the past.

When complete, I was happy with the building overall and - again, at the low price point of $10.54 - I was super happy with the purchase.  The shipping time was a little slower, but I thought this might be due to a "print and ship" sales model. I've ordered additional buildings from them and they said they'd ship in five days which made me think they were printing buildings after sales were made, which makes sense. Not sure if that's what they are doing, but it's a sound model.

The one potential downside was a small front detail piece wasn't packed in the package when it arrived. The company has many statements like, "PLEASE contact us before placing negative feedback with eBay!", so I gave that a shot and was very happy with the interaction. They said they'd send the piece with my order as I requested and thanked me for bringing it to their attention and being so cool about it.

All in all, I had not problem ordering two more buildings from them.

The offering from http://www.ebay.com/usr/happysun.amy

Super clean right from the pack.

The missing part - a small overhang about the front door area. Nothing major.

Yup...looks like an N scale building on the layout. :)

So, with all this said, I was happy with OUTLAND and HAPPYSUN and actually went back to HappySun for two additional buildings - no problem. I was going to purchase more from Outland as well, but I realized that my real estate was starting to get a bit tight in Shizuka, so I decided to wait before buying any more. :::grin::: 

I'm glad I gave these folks a shot!

Tokyo Monorail Type 1000 Four Car Formation

I've been giving thought to trying to wedge this nugget into my layout somewhere. It wouldn't be too hard to do and I think it might add an interesting element.

The Tokyo Monorail Type 1000 Four Car Formation might be fun to see poised in my city section of Shizuka.




The model is static and very detailed. It would take me a while to put together, but it would also provide a nice little project to work on inside the house instead of having to go out to the studio. I think a lot of it would be in the painting and decal application. It would be a lot of fun for sure.

These diagrams remind me of my old GUNDAM building days. Another zen experience. You just need to relax, "measure twice, cut once" and enjoy the process. Can't rush it.

And....I'd need passengers for sure. I'd go with unpainted and just paint them myself. Theyare inside, so I wouldn't have to be TOO spot on with things. :)

Hmmmm....yeah...i might have to make this happen. :)

Hobby Day

I got a little hobby time in this past Labor Day weekend and it was a lot of fun. While I could have EASILY worked on hobby projects the whole time, I mixed in a little cleaning and the like to make sure the house was in order. :::grin:: My wife took the kids up to see her sister in Sacramento and I got to work on my ever growing list of hobby items I want to tackle.

The first thing I did was play around with the track arrangement yet again. What I had was fine for the spur off to the right, but it wasn't 100% what I was looking for.

This is how things started out:

Then, after tearing things apart a few times and making various passes at the arrangement, I came up with something that was almost the same with a few tweaks.

Essentially, I just made a little more room for the factory area and gave it a dedicated line that ran out to it. There will be some other type of mico-industry on the other side - TBD. Things will be tight, but that's what will sell this, I believe. After looking over some Japanese factory shots, I think a tight area would be leaning more towards what the protype looks like.


After a while, I moved away from track work and started in on adding some more people to Soyokaze and Shizuka. I did a mix of "floating scene people" mounted on plastic and "locked down people" that were glued directly in place in their scene location. The floating people allow me to move folks around if I'm trying to shoot a particular area and want more people there.

I like this worker in the truck. :)

Harbor workers talking about fish prices.

I wanted to get a little Sika deer look going in the Soyokaze Temple area like the deer in Nara Park.

image from - http://www.infoshareddaily.com/oh-deer-this-japanese-town-is-overrun-by-a-bunch-of-bambis/

I need to get a few more packs of deer and have them wandering around Soyokaze Village as well!

I've been doing more bike riding as well, so I needed to start adding my riders in, too.

I have another round of Shizuka building planning to do. I have three additional buildings coming and they'll need room.  I took a pass at a little rearrange while I'm waiting - I like the results.

The buildings I purchased from "mdaveb" on eBay worked well with my existing items. I was really happy with the purchase and his service. He did a great job kitbashing the buildings. He even included photos of the buildings they were based on. Very cool of him.

The building on the right was one of the purchases from mdaveb

I made a few purchases for the extension. I can't wait until they come in! I've tweaked the track a bit there so I might make that NEX train purchase in the near future! Whoo hoo!

My other purchases - all but $10 paid for by selling some old toys! I tell you, that's some great motivation to continue to go through my old junk for more eBay selling! I even managed to get a few more people packs so I can avoid doing all the painting I need to do on my basic, cheap figures in order to make them look right. hehehe

Kato 7012-1 DD13 Early Production (Model Train) N Scale|1/150 Diesel Locomotive

So now....more playing around with the factory area, naming the extension, and working on another NRAIL video update! Stay tuned!