Sunday, December 05, 2010

Tiny little tramway

I love this. A micro-micro layout from Japan built by Akihiro Morohoshi.

The 6 inch wide model is N gauge but the quality of the modelling makes it look much larger.

You can see more pictures here

While blatantly a gimmick, it's very well done gimmick. Too many people have an interesting idea and then ruin it with the execution. I know of at least one person who could produce a layout a week, all interesting in concept but all terribly badly made. The creator of this model has done some excellent model making - most people would be very happy to produce weathering as good as this - but still managed to have fun.

Of course I'm now thinking of how I could do something similar. Could a 3mm scale version be built ? What would I put in the middle ? Train or Tram ? Can I make the key go round ?

I bet the 009 fans out there are also wondering along the same lines. Let's face it, you know that placed on a table at a show, this would be a serious crowd pleaser. Perhaps on the top of a catering size tin of beans - a Heinz Mine maybe ?

And apparently "Densya no Kanzume" means "Can of streetcar". The guy even made his own convincing tin label !

3 comments:

Iain Robinson said...

I think this is genius. The low angle view is really convincing, like model railway manga. It's nice to see a bit of humour, and I really appreciate the way the whole thing has been executed with such panache.

Phil Parker said...

Railway Manga ! :-))

mog said...

A long time bookmarked and favourite site - I love the two little layouts that fold up to look like slip cases.. and the Christmas cakes too :-)