[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!

Scenes and Interactions

Part of my slight paralysis with the new layout is thinking about all the scenes and interactions I want to have going on. I love scenes and human interactions on the modules I've done so far. When I extrapolate what I've done into a whole layout situation, it gets scary. But, that's not how you do it, right? You do small scenes here and there over time and eventually you have a "complete" story. When you make a feature film, you don't shoot it all in one day all in one shot. Well, unless you're shooting the film TIMECODE or RUSSIAN ARK.  :)

The process will take a long while and will happen in section and pieces. And, before ANY of that happens, I'll need to actually complete the area under it - base and scenic elements fired in first. So, in short, none of that is happening any time soon!

That being said, it will be fun to get some of these sorts of scenes going on the layout at some point. That's what I had the most fun with when working on the layout modules in the past. It's fun to think through.

What are they talking about? 
Are they friends? 
Are they making plans to visit other areas of the layout? 

I love the story behind the interactions. I plan on doing more writing based on these interactions as well - perfect for those times where I want to do something rail related, but can't bring myself to model anything.

Problem fixed, problem created and remembering my Father

Heh, I fixed one issue and caused another. Standard Operating Procedure in the hobby, right? :)

I only wanted to have one track for the mainline. Space wise and cost wise, I thought it would be the better way to go. However, I was faced with my Kato Uniplate section having an unused and unconnected spot where the Kato Unitrack main connected with it. It was making me a bit crazy in that OCD sort of way.

"But....:::twitch:::....the track just....ends? That...:::twitch:::....that doesn't make sense. I mean...the train would just run off onto the deck...."    heheheh

But, something came to mind when I was putting my daughter to bed. I often have hobby related tasks and issues running through my head, letting my brain process things while driving or sitting in the dark patting my daughters head in the dark as she falls asleep. Things roll through and solutions and ideas often get worked out.

I thought of just connecting track and having it's story be that it's going off to other cities and towns in the area. To make things even better, I checked the Under The Layout Storehouse and they had the Station Malcolm Ordered and Forgot About in stock!    :)    I was able to use the station on the long length of track that now runs in front of the Shizuka side. Once I get my backdrop wall up, it will show the tracks leading off into the distance on the other side of the track. Worked like a charm.

However, when I switched the Main over from the outside Uniplate to the inside one, other issues came up and I had to super clean and refit parts of the plates to get the tram to run through. As it stands now, it's still not 100%. I need to go back in and...do something.

All in all, I'm super happy with things as they stand now. I like the complexity of the Shizuka section and the density the structures are providing currently. Adding the additional structures I have to build and some of the smaller details will make Shizuka as visually rich as I had hopped for.

The Soyokaze side is shaping up as well. The space is less dense which will allow for some nice scenery. I also have ideas in place for the roadway that will lead over the hill to the harbor area. The water element of the harbor is something I'm working on now. The cracked and leaking mess of the shelf layout has me rethinking my process for water in such a large area.

I'm also working out the transition from the Unitram plates to the plywood deck. However the addition of the station areas is making this seem like less of an issue.

Wow...the "Bright and Shiny Future" I used to talk about is here. It's rather exciting. Sadly, my Father is not here to be a part of it. I think that's something that has been on my mind of late. Life pressures have been flowing for the last few months (I won't bore you with details - nothing major) and I think about what this experience would have been like if my Father would have been around to help me with this layout and be part of the enjoyment. He had a love of trains as well and built me my first layout when I was 10, so doing this with him from time to time would have been a hoot. I plan on hanging a picture of him up by the layout. :)

He wrote this in one of the emails that I received from him before his passing on November 27, 2011 when I had sent him a link to progress on my old Soyokaze layout:

Your layout is wonderful. I had not seen all your improvements. (I attempted to leave a comment on your blog but it kept asking me for a profile.) It would not accept my comment.

I basically said that my dad would have been proud of you for your attention to detail. I think I told you that he made most of the strucures that we had by hand. He even made some of our rolling stock.

I wish that we had made pictures of his handy work. It was a different time and space then.


As I sit with my daughters - one of which is just interested because she wants to grab the tram as it runs by so she can taste it in classic, eight month old style!   :)  -  I remember how much fun I had hanging out with my Father as he built my old HO layout on a door back in the day.  Nothing can replace the feeling of sharing something you love with someone you love.

Ok....mushy stuff is over!  :)

Happy Hobby Times, All!

~M~

Shizuka Building Build Out: Interiors

Well, the interior of this building proved to be a little challenging. Again, I wish I took more time with it, but I really needed to cram some hobby time in and get something complete. This is my hobby life at the moment. This project was going to drag on for months if I didn't push through. And, in the long run, it was a lot of fun.

The hardest part about working with this Kato building was dealing with these internal floors and actually getting them OUT of the building. It was rather interesting - they had a light bar rolling up through the center of the floors. To get them out, you pull the light bar down after fighting with the clips at the base of the building. :) The floors are in tight and come out like pulling the cork from a bottle of wine. I knew the real challenge was going to be getting them back in and I was right.

I numbered the floors as I took them out of the building (...though later I'd blow off the numbering entirely...) and thought about what I'd like to have on each. Offices were a must, but my 2.5 year old wanted a floor for herself as well. heh

I thought that another way around having to fill each floor 100% was to do some offices in the front of the floor. This worked really well. The offices were in the front and only a small portion of the floor was visible through the door. I was able to pop some images on the back wall and it was all good.

Making desks was fun. Info on that can be found in my other update earlier this month. Again, more time and more attention to the process would give me better results. I have that as a goal for later this year - taking more time and effort with these projects. That being said, the desks are messy, but barely visible inside the building, so they are working well.

I used some of the more rough looking figures inside, saving my new, beautiful Kato and Tomytec figures for some other "hero" locations later.

And the best part about this project was the final look of the building. To quote my wife, "It looks like there's actually stuff going on in there, not just some hollow shell."  Much better than floor after empty floor. Once I get lighting handled, it will take another step up as well.

I believe that I'm getting the balance of detail and interest for these internal scenes. I want to show that things are going on in the building, but the detail that I put in on earlier revs just was not visible without lighting inside the buildings. for this first round offering, I've gone with enough detail to make things active without making tings too built out. It's almost like building stages for plays - you want there to be enough information to understand what's going on, but you don't need "movie" levels of details. Especially in N scale. :) I've also left many of the internal details styrene white so that they show up better in the darker building interiors.

Putting these floors back in proved to be the biggest pain. The lightbar spine of the buildings was horrid. Taking them out was easy, but putting them back with the bar in place was a royal pain. I ended up leaving the lightbar out. I'm not lighting them right now anyway. I also left off a floor that didn't have much going on in it because when I built out the lobby section, I mis-measured and the horse in it was too high to support the bottom floor. I think it's better with a little more lobby headroom anyway. It gives it more space.



You can find more shots here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/malcojojo/sets/72157633480860536/

My daughter's hand in the shot. :)

A very active space.

My next Shizuka Building Project will be another kitbash, giving me one of the largest buildings in Shizuka!

If I could save time in a bottle...

"If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I'd like to do...."

This line from the classic Jim Croce song drifted into my head today when I was working and thinking about all the stuff I have to do over the next month or so - none of which is hobby related. Of sure, I have stuff I want to do, but when I really think about it, none of the items that are top of mind right now have ANYTHING to do with the hobby.

I'm sure a lot of people have this feeling. (I'm sure there are people that also WISH they had that kind of problem, too. "Man, I'm so busy with work and family things, I don't have time to play.")

At any rate, this goes out to those folks out there who are spending more time thinking about the model rail hobby than actually DOING the model rail hobby! :)