AKIba station PLAza—Facade

AkiPla—now an Ishimaru

AkiPla circa 2006

Here’s my current target: A strip mall under Akihabara Station called Akiba Station Plaza, or AkiPla for short (note: Since my trip to Tokyo, it’s become an Ishimaru, a chain of electronics and home-appliance stores). You’ll need to click on the pathetically small thumbnail to see it clearly. It’s plastered in ads, and has merchandise practically spilling onto the street. Not only is the interior lit, but there are lots of little spotlights at the top illuminating…well, what they are meant to illuminate isn’t quite clear. They are directed at the corrugated metal. There’s lots of great modeling possibility in this little scene.

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Change in (Girder Bridge) Plans

Recall that once I had struck out on what for me was a bold project: Scratch building a girder bridge with no prior experience and very little reference material. Well, one of those constraints has changed: I now have a delicious wealth of reference material to work from.

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The Google Maps [...]

One Bridge Girder Complete

Well, in what time I have, I’ve managed to finish the first of four girders. Progress! I’ve also, in the course of doing this, found errors in my original plans. I’ve updated the plans for the 0º girders to correct these errors.

 

Bridge Girders

So, I’m going to scratch-build a bridge, oh boy!

Here is a ground-level shot of the girder bridge north of Akihabara Station. As you can see, there’s lots of fiddly details around the edges of it. I’ll come back to those fiddly details later. The shot also shows the girders extending below the bridge [...]