gmat of JNSForum has a job that requires him to travel all over Tokyo (lucky git!); he also has an eye for great trackside detail photography. He recently passed by Akihabara Station, and took some amazing detail shots for me. And he’s got plans to take more. Thank [...]
The Streets of Akiba
I’ve very nearly completed modeling the streets surrounding the north-west corner of Akihabara Station. The photo may not look like much, but the street outline—meticulously cut from scaled satellite imagery—is fringed with scale curbs and pedestrian ramps. I have still a bit of cleanup to do, and I also have yet to [...]
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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Quinntopia recently asked about my construction techniques. I never really thought to say anything about that, but perhaps I should. So here are some thoughts, if not actual methods, on how I’m proceeding with the construction of Akihabara Station.
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David Smith recently posted an article demonstrating several prototype research methods available on the Internet.
Many of us know about Google Maps, and the Street View feature.
Bird's eye view of Akihabara Station
I had no idea about Microsoft’s Live Maps Bird’s Eye View feature, however: Satellite imagery taken at an oblique angle (rather than straight down) that can reveal a lot of interesting architectural detail.
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Here’s another update on the increasingly mis-named “September Project Party” project. I drew up some plans based on the Google Streets views I despaired about recently. Although meticulously prototypical, these new plans would never have worked. Why? Because Tomix FineTrack is not meticulously prototypical. For example, the tracks are much closer together than one can achieve [...]
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 Street View van drove [...]
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 [...]
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 deck, and even [...]
The fine folks at Japanese Modelling & Japan Rail Enthusiasts Forum (or whatever it is called this week) are having a “Project Party” for the month of September. We were all invited to pick some subject to model and that we thought we could reasonably complete in a month, and to share the entire process with [...]
