Billy Dango Shop Kit.

[Beatea]

I hope this is the right place to post this project, it's a sweet little dango dumpling shop my mother in law bought me from back from Japan. The model is available here, along with a whole ton of traditional Japanese shops, if anybody fancies it. http://www.billy-doll.co.jp/?pid=52437467 It's pretty basic, nowhere near as detailed or amazing as what you all are working on, so I hope it's OK here. I thought it would make a nice stop gap model as I impatiently wait for my Christmas purchases to arrive. 

 

 

And the contents all in the bag.

 

I laid out all the wood parts, but not the other bits (sorry) as my desk is so tiny and I'm scared of losing parts if I spread them out.

 

The manual is in Japanese! I don't read Japanese so there is a huge amount of guesswork going on. I put the walls together and glued on the paper decorations. I messed up and put textured paper behind the print outs of the side walls. I have no idea why I did that, I assumed it was for texture! Turns out that paper was designed to go on the outside...opps. 

 

Added trim and tables. I had to cut the trim from this insanely hard card, and I guess I have zero upper body strength because it took me forever. That or I need a proper craft knife.

 

Cushions are made out of card, wadding and fabric. It was at this point I found a tutorial for this model on Youtube, thank goodness!

 

 

Cushions and tables are now glued in.

 

I've glued the shop onto a stained base and am sticking on masking take to make the paving stones. 

 

All done! The brick sizes in the manual are much bigger but I thought it looked funny so I made mine smaller. 

 

That's all I got done for now. I'm super nervous about doing the bricks, I'm scared that when I pull the masking tape off it will be a huge mess. More to follow, thanks for checking in

 

 

[06/24]

Really interesting subject - what sort of scale is it? Just the sort of thing my anime/manga loving son might approve of!

 

(He'd probably spoil it with people battling among the dumplings, but hey, he's a teenager!)

 

 

[thorfinn]

Those kits are amazing, and your work is inspiring! Keen to see how it comes out.

Cheers

(I was going to ask about the scale as well...then I saw the 1:12 at the top of the post!)

Edited December 27, 2017 by thorfinn

[06/24]

20 minutes ago, thorfinn said:

Those kits are amazing, and your work is inspiring! Keen to see how it comes out.

Cheers

(I was going to ask about the scale as well...then I saw the 1:12 at the top of the post!)

OK mea culpa. Sorry, should read properly first.

 

[Beatea]

1 hour ago, 06/24 said:

OK mea culpa. Sorry, should read properly first.

 

Oh no, I didn't put the scale in the opening post so my fault really. Please don't worry. Yes, it's 1:12. I think a kit like this would be vastly improved with some anime figures thrown in the mix and all the sweet buns scattered around in a fight scene... hmm, potential future project haha! 

 

I hated the white grit that came with the kit for the pavement, and they gave me so little, so I substituted it with this plaster stuff. The masking tape came off great, I'm a dab hand with a pair of tweezers it seems. I also saw an opportunity to fix the outer wall and give it some texture. Once it's dry I can tidy up and paint the walls. 

 

 

 

 

  

[06/24]

That wall texture looks great!

 

[TonyW]

That's whole new slant on Dolls House modelling!  Best re-read Shogun to get yourself in the mood for it. 

 

I have to admit to wanting to have a go at a dolls house at some point. The larger scale would be a bit easier on my old eyes I think.

An Art Deco house or something like Raymond Loweys studio would be my choice as far as era goes. I'll add it to the rather long list of potential projects.

 

Keep us posted on your build, I really like the look of it.

 

Tony.

[Sairou]

Very interesting build- it's looking great so far. As Tony said, keep us posted.

[Beatea]

Thanks all! Did a little more last night and this morning.

 

Somewhat unhygienic looking food cabinet.

 

 

 

And an equally unhygienic looking food table as well.

 

 

Putting together the boxes, I think the card is too thick for such a dinky size and as a result they look kind of scruffy.

 

And I'm having a go at the dango too, it's amazing how some beads and varnish end up looking so tasty! Excuse my hand, I had to liberate them from my filthy craft mat otherwise they were really hard to see! 

 

 

 

[Beatea]

Quick update, I had a lovely day doing fiddly things; wrapping styrofoam in paper, gluing beads onto paper, that sort of thing.

 

 

All the bits stuck onto the tables and counters.

 

 

 

I like the little poster for the Tokyo Skytree on the front of the stall. Quick story! I was on the Tokyo Skytree having lunch a few years ago when an earthquake hit, I was so scared but nobody else seemed that bothered haha.

 

Next step is the roof and signage

 

[Getunderit]

Beatea, Thanks for showing this project, I am enjoying looking at all the photos and watching your progress. As my girlfriend said: "That is so cute".

[Major_Error]

Realy nice! (and very nice kit!)

There could be nice with some persons there to!

 

8-)

[Cadman]

1 hour ago, Major_Error said:

Realy nice! (and very nice kit!)

There could be nice with some persons there to!

 

8-)

It's an extremely well done scenic and I do agree; a couple of figures would set it off nicely.

[Beatea]

Thank you so much for your comments everyone, it's nice to know people are looking  

 

I finished the model today. First I added painted corrugated card for the roof. 

 

 

Then I just added the roof decorations and various fiddly bits... et voila. 

 

 

 

 

 

This kit was really fun and I hope something a little different. Once I found the youtube guide it was really easy and quick to put together, not to mention super relaxing. It's pretty simple looking and not very detailed or refined, but once all the parts are together it comes together nicely. I'm seriously tempted to see if the manufacturer ships to the UK as I would love to have a go at something else from their catalogue. Thanks for looking guys

 

[bhouse]

That's really excellent. It reminds me of the little stalls on the lane to Hozomon Gate in Asakusa. 

[Gorby]

Looks very good, very different to your last model! I had no idea what a 'dango' was before you posted this – live and learn.

 

Looking at the contents of the kit – what about the possibility of scratch building something along these lines? I'm pretty sure I've seen plastic card with raised detail for brickwork and various flooring materials, and if you have access to a printer, it's easy to scale and print other details like posters/pictures/signs etc. About ten years ago I did a dolls-house for my step-daughter which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I saw some amazing food items which had been made using only Milliput – if you Google 'dolls house food' you will see what I mean. Please don't think I'm suggesting 'female, must like dolls-house', I only mention it because you said you enjoyed building the shop. It's all modelling after all.

Working out ways of producing something from scratch isn't as easy as doing a kit of course, but it can be remarkably satisfying.

[Beatea]

52 minutes ago, Gorby said:

Looks very good, very different to your last model! I had no idea what a 'dango' was before you posted this – live and learn.

 

Looking at the contents of the kit – what about the possibility of scratch building something along these lines? I'm pretty sure I've seen plastic card with raised detail for brickwork and various flooring materials, and if you have access to a printer, it's easy to scale and print other details like posters/pictures/signs etc. About ten years ago I did a dolls-house for my step-daughter which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I saw some amazing food items which had been made using only Milliput – if you Google 'dolls house food' you will see what I mean. Please don't think I'm suggesting 'female, must like dolls-house', I only mention it because you said you enjoyed building the shop. It's all modelling after all.

Working out ways of producing something from scratch isn't as easy as doing a kit of course, but it can be remarkably satisfying.

Oh wow that's an amazing idea and it never occured to me to make my own! And no offence taken, I love these kinds of projects and an unashamedly into anything cute and tiny haha. My brother in law has a jigsaw so I can absolutely cut my own parts, although this will have to be a future project as my next car model arrived from Germany yesterday and I'm itching to do another car, this one is going to be part of a diorama so it's going to take a while  

[Gorby]

Glad you didn't take offence. 

I'm far from an experienced modeller – only three years so far, but one of my most enjoyable builds so far was a scratch built 1/48 RAF hut (well half a hut to be precise). The hut, the corrugated roof and all the contents (except the coffee pot) was built from scratch. You don't know what you can achieve until you try.