N-Rail

Friday, November 18, 2016

November iPhone Video Update

Another quick iPhone video of the November progress on the layout. More little moments of hobby time. :)

Thursday, November 17, 2016

The Devil's in the Details

I finally got around to making my Soyokaze Temple Ghost! It was an interesting process.

My original idea was to use hot glue and create a figure from it to make a see-thru character. That was proving to be somewhat pointless in N scale.

First, I glued a simple Kato figure to a piece of plastic.

Then, I had a plan to use some green, hobby putty to craft a flowing dress, but the putty I had had dried out. heh So, rather than wait another week or four for a time I could make it out to get more putty, I tried white glue.

So, I gave the plastic from my fake water a try, but...that didn't work 100% either. It wasn't easy to work with the plastic before it cooled. However, it got a little detail into the dress.

I hit the whole of it with white paint and made sure I did a little wisp of white on the plastic. I wanted to make it look like she was leaving a trail behind her.

I painted in some flowing black hair to complete the JU-ON style look and feel of the figure. :)

I glued the plastic into a heavy base on plastic so I could move her around for various photo-ops. It worked like a charm. Especially looking at the rocks as the poor ghost's last resting place in the lore of my layout space.

And, it looks right in place! I'm really happy with the way it turned out overall.

I managed to build another Sankei kit. More complex than the last kit I built and a little more tricky. It was a fun kit. The Sankei kits are a ton of fun to build.

I love this stairway detail!

I wasn't sure where to place the finished building. I'm still playing with the placement.

Not a bad spot, but I'm not thrilled with it.

A much more interesting location.

The layout is coming along.

Some folks have asked about the layouts pace and the size. I basically have two sections going.

Soyokaze is about 12 feet by 4 feet.

The Kiwamura and Shizuka sections are about 9 feet by 6 feet. A doughnut, if you will. :)

Thanks for reading! :)

Sankei Kit Building: Advances in the Hobby

I keep making small strides in paper kit learning. Little things are making these Sankei model kits much easier to put together. The basics are all the same - sharp knife, the right glue (ROKET Card Glue, in this case), and space to spread out a bit and make sure all the parts are in order.

Keeping the glue lighter when applying it and trying to put it on the inside of the building more than on the outside to avoid the shine the Roket glue leaves on the paper is a biggie as well.

Testing parts and how they go together is a MAJOR piece of this puzzle. Huge. The Roket glue is super fast - you don't want to be saying, "Oops!" and trying to pull parts apart with this stuff.

This was a little thing that made another big difference. The card is thick and when you cut out the roof pieces, you get a very white edge. It's blinding. I was putting them on, then trying to color the edge to kill off the white, but I found that it's WAY easier to hit it with a marker BEFORE gluing it! hehehehe It's the little things.

I love the rooftop details Sankei kits give. Very dimensional and rich. They also include other details like brickwork and the like which really helps to sell it.

Topping the whole of it off with signage details - provided by Sankei, and other details that I've saved over the years helps to make the model pop.

I need to hit the top left corner on the sign with a knife! :)

And, once in place, the Sankei kits play nicely with other kits - even the plastic kits. The Sankei offerings are fantastic. If you have not tried them before, you might want to give them a shot!

Dibs and Dabs of Items

I've spent a little time on some detail items on the layout. Little things here and there that I've had on my list. Ideal for lunchtime mini-projects.

I've continued adding foliage. It's making a world of difference for me on my layout.

I also added a few more little detail items here and there. Like this fence section. I plan on adding a lot more.

Some power poles from Tomytec.

I did a small water pour, finally. It was difficult - I didn't really set aside a space for water. However, there were some natural spots that were natural water location spots.

Another Tomytec item went in - a small bridge. Again, it was a natural spot for it. I'm looking at it as a creek area that's dry in the summer, but flowing in the winter.

A Tori Gate went in in Soyokaze Temple.

There are so many more details that need to go in. I have a running list. It's fun adding the smaller stuff. I really enjoy the smaller detail items and stories. It's going to be years of these mini-projects and I'm really looking forward to it. :)

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

MECHS CRASH THROUGH MY LAYOUT!

:)

Ah....I love mechs. GUNDAM has been a fave of mine for ages. I'm glad I kept my 1/144 scale Gundam toys! It made today's election and dental visit madness a bit less....shite. hehehe