Redemption?

So, having been down on T gauge in recent postings. I thought I post some pictures of the latest progress. Being how I am still working on the layout in order to prepare if for the Granite City train show. Things are looking pretty good as these views will show.

Above: Looking down the layout it's difficult to believe that it's less than 3' long
Above: This close up of the station is meant to show the people and vending machines as well as the station fencing. It's almost impossible to show that detail without resorting to a macro lens.
Above: A the right hand end of the layout the Petrol Station blends in nicely

Hope you like the pictures

Harumph

Definitely getting somewhat peeved with Messrs KK Eishindo. We are well into November and still no sign of the Hankyu 9000 or the KiHa40 trains. I had high hopes this time for the announced November release. But still nothing, in fact the Hobby Search website has gone back to listing December for the 9000. I was really hoping to have something new to run on Gonou at the Granite City Train Show.
Its really killing my enthusiasm. Good job I've got a back up layout for the show...

Don't you just hate it when that happens?

Having just watched the Minnesota Vikings put up a valiant fight against the Pittsburgh Steelers (my 2 favourite teams so it was a win/win situation for me) I decided to get on and do some work on Gonou. I was going to make a few more structures for the shrine that will sit atop the hill above the station. I have an entire sheet of .75mm embossed styrene that I have been using for the walls of the structures I've already made. Except now I can't find it. Anywhere. I never throw styrene away. So its about somewhere. But where I've no idea. I'm not worried. It'll turn up when I'm not looking for it. Just hope that time leaves me enough time top finish the shrine before the Granite City train show...

Business as usual then

Seems like all the worrying and depression over the purported demise of Eishindo was all for naught. It seems the fellows have reorganised and restructured (or whatever it was they were doing) and new items are hitting the shelves as I write. There is yet another new delivery date of November for the Hankyu 9000 and the KIHA 40 I won't hold my breath of course. But I can't help feeling just a tad excited about the fact. Hopefully they will both be here ready for the Granite City Train Show on December 5th. In fact I'd better get to work I have layout to finish.

beginning of the end?

Some worrying news reaches me through the pages of talking t gauge. Eishindo have stopped making spare parts for their stock.

David K Smith writes in more detail about the news and implications here

What can this mean? I mentioned the Eishindo re-organisation only a few posts ago just as I was getting restarted on work on Gonou. At worst this could be the start of the slippery slope to T being discontinued. I hope not. I hope it means that they will concentrate on the production of their trains while they re-organise. Perhaps I'm being greedy and want my Hankyu 9000 that I've been waiting for for over a year and my KiHa 40 as well.

I have searched the internet for some news about what has been happening but I've not found anything. Mind you not reading Japanese is a big drawback there methinks.

What to do? At the moment I will carry on finishing Gonou ready for its showing at the Granite city train show in December. I'll order myself a couple more Class 105's just in case. So the blog will continue for the moment like nothing has happened.

It's when nothing happens with this blog that you should be worried.

Cultural exchange

One thing that is great about picking a prototype I know not a thing about to model is the learning.

Every last little bit of it is new to me. It doesn't matter what I'm working on.

Especially so when I comes to the subject of Japanese culture.

I've just started work on the Shinto Shrine that will sit atop the hill above the railway station.

It was enlightening enough when working on the Torii gates and discovering that there is a whole theory to the design and proportions all based around the thickness of the pillars. So much of it that I've forgotten most of it all. But the base unit of the design is the thickness of the pillars.

So to the shrine itself. For those who are following along with this it is inspired by the Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine. Basically because I found a drawing of one of the buildings on this wikipedia page

Boy, there are so many confusing terms out there. We need only start with the Honden and the Haiden. That's confusing enough for a start. Made even more so by the fact that both buildings stand next to each other. The Honden is where the spirits or kami are enshrined. The Haiden is where the ordinary folks go to make offerings to the kami.

All the aspects of the architecture have new names Okichigi, Catsuogi. Don't ask but I do know I have to model them.

The overhang of the roof is causing me grief. It's huge. I look at it on my model and think to myself.

"That can't be right". Then I measure it out again and everything is to scale.

So I'm happy. Then I look at it again and think to myself.

"That can't be right"...

Sept 19: update having discovered some more pictures online I have decided to start again on the Honden. Nothing too serious but as soon as I saw these new pictures I realised I had no choice.

Back in the saddle

So here we go, construction re-starts. The first thing I thought I'd work on was the petrol station as I had all the parts already completed. It was just a question of assembly. Except as I put things together I decided to add an interior to the store. Nothing too detailed just some stocked shelves, cooler cabinets and a checkout. I also populated it with a few people from the QE2 figures etch. When you look at the model from a distance you can't hardly see the effort I went to. The actual size of the model is something like the size of the thumbnails in this posting. Once you click on the thumbnails to see the details the cruel enlargement makes me feel like stepping on the model. So I go over to step on the model and I look at it and I can't see the details that were bothering me. This is one of the great problems of T scale modelling.

These two thumbnails are close to the actual size of the model.
In the extreme close up below you can see the shelving I added but can you see the people?