Akihabara Station » scratch-building

Scratch-Building in Brass

D.E. Goodman-Wilson — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 05:27:15 +0000

…is harder than I thought, and I originally thought it pretty hard. Spent some quality time cutting brass and flesh tonight, and then burning brass and flesh in an attempt to fuse certain bits of it together, and the results are pleasing…or would be if I hadn’t assembled it backwards. No matter, it’ll do. [...]

Akihabara Platform 1/2N: Brass!?

D.E. Goodman-Wilson — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:19:28 +0000

Not many updates to share; October has been a surprisingly busy month. Should I have been surprised? No, of course not. I knew it was coming.

To the point: I had originally planned to construct the platform shelter out of styrene, but quickly discovered that such a structure would be at best very flimsy, [...]

Akihabara Platform 1/2N: Texturized

D.E. Goodman-Wilson — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 19:17:35 +0000

I’ve decided to focus on a tiny sub-diorama of Akihabara Station. The platform section that I’m working on represents the very northern end of platform 1/2. This section of the platform has a relatively simple roof and support, and so should be a nice, easy introduction to scratchbuilding.

The bit I'm working [...]

Baby Steps

D.E. Goodman-Wilson — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 16:39:28 +0000

I’ve been overwhelmed, lately. Or, at least, I haven’t had much spare time. Hence, I’ve gotten almost nothing accomplished. Inspired by one of KenS’s posts on JNSForum.com, I have decided that I need to start with something small to get the ball rolling—very small.

I begin with only this:

What is (or [...]

Detailed Photographs of Akihabara Station

D.E. Goodman-Wilson — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:50:08 +0000

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 you Grant!

Street Access to the Taxi Stand

D.E. Goodman-Wilson — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:14:12 +0000

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 [...]

AKIba station PLAza—Facade

D.E. Goodman-Wilson — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:47:22 +0000

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 [...]

Construction Techniques

D.E. Goodman-Wilson — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:11:44 +0000

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.

First: Materials. This one is simple. Styrene. I love styrene. Everything is being constructed [...]

A Bird’s Eye View

D.E. Goodman-Wilson — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:00:08 +0000

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 [...]

Girder Progress!

D.E. Goodman-Wilson — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:00:42 +0000

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 [...]