Rainichi! (Visit Japan!) New Layout

Pfunk Mar 2, 2022

  1. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    It always is in my head. Practical application is not always as ideal :LOL:
     
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  2. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    Oh, you thought it was going to be that (cheap?) easy?

    The reason that everything was rolling right under the gutter wasn't necessarily the gutter itself or the drip edge, it was that the facia boards they mount onto were powder at best. When they told me it would be another $1500 to replace the facia I inherently thought to myself "we have the old gutter OFF and can make a few by saying that THIS needs done too" and was kind of irritated.

    Then I saw them take a crowbar to a board and it turned to mulch with no pressure at all and fell all about. I paid a reputable company for a job, turns out they lived up to their name. It still cost me another wad of cash LOL but they weren't wrong.

    $6200 is a serious telephone pole to the heart, though. Guess we do the kitchen NEXT summer.
     

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  3. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    this was the tell-tale heart for me. The facia on the porch was more rotten than John Lyndon. Am amazed they could replace anything in there tbh. That looks craptastic at best, they made it look amazing.

    I almost feel bad for thinking they were taking advantage of a situation.
     

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  4. Shortround

    Shortround TrainBoard Member

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    Ah yes! The fun of owning a house.
    Still wish I had one.
     
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  5. MK

    MK TrainBoard Member

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    Count your blessings that it's a one story ranch and not a 3 story colonial, aka McMansion.
     
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  6. BigJake

    BigJake TrainBoard Member

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    Home Sweet Home!
     
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  7. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    About to do cartwheels all the way out of this train show. Struck GOLD.

    Will post pics when I get home. Am stupid giddy :D
     
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  8. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    Was looking through a table of stuff when I dug through a box of vehicles and found this Japanese cargo truck. It was priced kinda high but way less than new with shipping, plus is freakin awesome, so I said I'd take it because Japanese stuff is hard to find at shows. He walks over and says 'I have a whole 'nother box under the table', and while most of it was just randomness, I found a couple other pretty neat box trucks and set them aside too.

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    ...and that's when I saw it, flipped over on it's top and in the middle of a pile. I turned it over, and sure enough, there it was:

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    to many of you, this may look like a boring orange sedan that has seen better days. To me? This is a T206 Honus Wagner in a shoebox of 90s Upper Deck. I have been turning the internet inside out for months (not an exaggeration, literally months!) to find any of the very few of these Toyota Comfort taxis there were ever actually produced in N scale. I would be shocked to find out this is not the most common car in all of Japan, because it's what almost EVERY SINGLE cab in the country is, and yet you can't find them. Anywhere. Even the 3D renders I've seen are dodgy at best. This is from an old set from about a decade ago, and even though I want like 10-15 MORE, this is the first verification I've ever received that they even still exist at all.

    This car is basically an irl Bigfoot sighting lol

    After seeing how excited I was to find these, and after talking with the guy and his daughter about them, the price they decided on for everything was very reasonable considering what shipping would be if I bought them online, so I gladly whipped out the credit card and thanked them many times.

    Like I said, might not be much to most people, this was a very good day imo. Was worth going at all just for this tiny, slightly beat up little orange thing. Am excited about the trucks, too, but the Comfort is the trophy.
     
  9. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    I also stopped by Hobby Lobby on my way out of town (is a little over an hour's drive for me now so is rare I get to go there anymore) and picked up the biiiiiig cutting mat and some new blades, etc. I have the tiny gray one that comes with some Xacto knives, but it's about time to start building some of these kits and I needed the space.

    Following the advice of everyone on this forum, grabbed a pair of those reverse-action tweezers, too.

    ...we're getting there, slowly but surely!

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  10. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

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    I'm happy for you. Emotions are unique to the individual. Obviously yours hit High C, if not an octave above. :cool:
     
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  11. freddy_fo

    freddy_fo TrainBoard Member

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    Very cool! I remember you stating you were searching for that Toyota in another thread. Scrub it with a soft toothbrush dipped in some soapy water and that thing will look new.
     
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  12. arx

    arx TrainBoard Member

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    View attachment 252685

    Did you know that the prototype "スジャータ" trucks are one of the subject of a cult because they have "ターャジス" on oppsite side.
    There is no meaning in the Japanese "ターャジス", and we even can't pronounce it. How about your model?

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    Closely looking at the "佐川" trucks and you may find the guy with a red parcel faces forward on both sides.

    Japanese seems tends to mind about direction.
     
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  13. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    ok, that's just fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing! I love quirky and one-off/unique things - maybe I was fated to buy this thing today so that I could have another story for my layout hahaha

    Too fun!
     
  14. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    My dad and I built this old cherry trestle table in the 80s when I was just a kid, we used it as our kitchen table for most of my childhood. It's no work of art but is well built, and a memory I've always held onto - I never really knew we were broke as $?%& growing up because we had pretty things (even if they weren't perfect) that were made by our hands. Anyhow, have kept this ever since and has been sitting in pieces in the basement since I moved in back in 2019.

    Most of the money set aside for the kitchen is now hanging from the side of the house, which pushes my layout plans so far into next year it's depressing to even consider so I cleared a corner in the computer study today and set up the old table this evening. I'll start on just the city portion for now, is where the most scratch building needs to happen anyways.

    The irony of all those building kits is that I think I count 3 boxes that I'm going to put together the way you're supposed to o_O I think I'll probably set up the track for the city level instead and start on the build-ups I need to make instead of the bashes with all these kits I already have.

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    ps - that outlet isn't live just yet, don't worry LOL
     
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  15. MK

    MK TrainBoard Member

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    That's a pretty nice looking table! Even a simple oval will satisfy your urge and be better than dreaming about running trains.
     
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  16. badlandnp

    badlandnp TrainBoard Member

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    Think of it as a time to refine your plans and build kits and stage stuff for "the Build" when it is time!
     
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  17. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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  18. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    The nice thing about having just framed a couple of rooms in a basement is that you definitely have an abundance of scrap 2x4 laying about, and you might even have a couple of leftover 4x8 sheets of FPS out in the garage. I can't exactly call this the benchwork I envisioned, but it will work just fine for now, even better after I can get something rigid under the FPS to get that bowing out of it some. There is PLENTY to do in this 48x48 space alone to keep me occupied for a loooong time!

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    I have a couple days off later this week, can get all the track set back up then.

    Just ordered that battery-powered airbrush everyone has talked about on here along with some other hobby tools and materials. Hopefully this next payday I can get started on the biiiiiig building so I'll know how much room I have for the rest of them. Plus that sucker is going to take me forever to do it the way I want to so ima do it FIRST and get it out of the way :cautious:

    Not exactly how I envisioned starting this, but I think it's about time to have some fun...
     
    Last edited: May 30, 2022
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  19. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    the 10% discount usually about covers the tax, but there are other very real benefits to working in a hardware store.

    "Hey, how much do you want for all those leftover plexiglass scraps?"
    "Tape up whatever you want and gimmie a dollar so no one watching the cameras can call it stealing"

    SOLD. I mean, holy frick - now I'm going to start looking at all the toss aways around this place!

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  20. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    have been up and messing about this morning since I have the day off. I decided to put together these little apartment townhouses really quick since they come pre-painted and just need snapped together. (narrator's voice: Little did he know, it would neither be quick, nor would they just "snap together")

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    I cannot believe what a giant pain in the keester that was for something so basic! Have put together 2k-piece models that were less frustrating :confused:

    Got the track set back up and started arranging where things should be, as well. Is almost starting to look like something already.

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    of course, you can't make it through anything without some kind of tragedy, so went ahead and got that out of the way early. Needed to pop the pantograph off the inside loop tram so I could check clearance, and of course it launched like a tomahawk across the room and went down the register. And I don't mean it *landed* in the register where I could retrieve it, I mean in bounced all the way down the pipe as it went. Not a huge deal, is such a small detail it really doesn't matter and even if it was these shells usually sell for like $30 online, but either way - lesson was learned. From now on we close the floor vents when working on anything HAHA

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