I just received this newly produced structure from a company called "Tramway" from Japan. When I
ordered it, there were no pictures available, only some mechanical drawings. I was intrigued by the 3-sided shape of this building and I think it will be an interesting addition to the layout.
However, I was a bit surprised when I opened the box to see that this was a 'pre-built' structure, and not a kit. I had fully expected a kit as that makes it a lot easier to custom paint and add lighting and other details (of course, I can't remember if the description when I pre-ordered it indicated it was completed or a kit, but it wouldn't be the first time I overlooked important details like that!). Well, looks like there's going to be a change in plans (and that is what you get for assuming and not reading the fine print!).
So far I've gone about removing the roof. It was tightly glued, so I'm a bit nervous about further demolition. Unfortunately, the appearance of these buildings is just
too plain and 'plastic-looking' so they're going to need several coats of paint on both the exterior and the interior (the interior paint is mainly to make the plastic less transparent for when interior lighting is added).
Another thing about this kit that surprised me, at least at first, was the fact that there is no identifiable 'ground' floor'. There doesn't seem to be any entrance for this complex! However, when you look at the back side you'll notice there's an entry into a small interior courtyard that would be the likely entrance for this building.
It's still a neat looking building, and my plans to 'triple-it' should make it an interesting addition to the burgeoning skyline of Quinntopia, but I'm a little bit vexed at the amount of work this is going to turn into! Ah well...."happy modeling" as they say (and hey, at least I'm still not working on that tram line!).
That sounds like an unpleasant challenge. I'm sorry that they couldn't have the foresight that Tomix had to make these easily expandable and detail-able. Still, I look forward to seeing what you do with it!
ReplyDeleteThanks as always for your comment, Don! You can look at traffic and tell that people do come to the blog, but comments make it seem more 'real' that people actually read stuff here!
ReplyDeleteWell, I pulled them apart last night and gave them their first interior coat of paint. They actually didn't come apart as hard as I thought. The only pieces that were damaged was the long small vertical 'balcony' or connection piece that is on the back side of the building. This can be easily glued.
Something else I forgot to mention is that there are no 'windows' on this kit. That is really untypical of virtually any structure maker. At the very least, they include a clear sheet of acrylic or other material.
This is actually a positive for me as its one less thing to remove for painting, and it'll be easy enough to add my own plastic for windows later.