Well, I have a much greater sense of accomplishment this month than last. June not only saw the subway line completed (in the electrical sense) and operational, it also saw substantial progress on the River Crossing scene. This included finishing the foam shaping for the other side of the river and painting it, as well as building and painting a roof for the subway where it runs through that hillside. There are still retaining walls and roads to build, and some painting, but it looks pretty good “for now” (still with just painted foam for scenery), while I turn my attention to work on the Riverside Station scene.

I also acquired some new buildings for the Urban Station scene (as previously described) and several new trains. The inspection train was previously noted, but there were also a new E3 Mini-Shinkansen and a Limited Express. The latter two haven’t made it onto the website yet (one of them hasn’t even made it onto my test track; I’ve been busy), but they’ll be added soon.

And the most recent change: the photo backdrop shown above. This is very much a “test” image. Right now it’s on ordinary paper attached to the backdrop with double-sided Scotch tape. And the photo isn’t even of Tōkyō (it’s of Himeji, at the other end of Japan’s main island), although I’m thinking I’ll use it anyway as it doesn’t look too different from Tōkyō’s cityscape. There’s a longer write-up about the backdrop on the “Phase 2h” Construction page, and I also added some text there about the most recent work on the Riverside Station scene (more work on the edges of the river).

Other website changes:
- The Scenery photo album has been updated with a bunch of recent photos.
- The Background Photos page has been updated with several images I’m thinking of using for backdrops.
- The River Crossing scene page has been rewritten with mostly new photos of its current state.
- I’ve created a page to track my work on the Riverside Station scene’s Commuter Line station. This is going to be my entry in the JNS Forum’s summer contest, starting later this month. Like the other contestants I’ll be publishing updates on the forum, but I’ll also put them here.

== Comments from old system:
Sunday, July 4, 2010 - 09:15 AM
Don
As someone also thinking about Tokyo scenes for backgrounds, it always seemed to me that these scenes taken from very high observation points looked wrong to me. They are breathtaking views of an enormous city, but unless your station is atop a very tall hill, it just doesn't look quite right. You might try looking for photos taken along one of the walking paths that parallel Sumidagawa? It will be difficult to find a photo taken from the ground that doesn't have tremendous parallax distortion, though.

Sunday, July 4, 2010 - 02:16 PM
KenS
Yeah, the ones I've found so far that were taken from ground level haven't had the look I want. You're right that the photo has the wrong perspective when viewed from a low angle. On the other hand when viewed from a standing position a relatively low angle like this one doesn't look to bad (to me, anyway). But most of the other panoramic photos I've found do have a rather high angle.

Tags: Riverside, River Crossing, Backdrops, Contest