My First Youtube Video

Yesterday, I created my first Youtube video, and I really like the way it turned out. It’s not about ship modeling, but it IS about a project that I posted about on this site. Also, it’s not exactly a movie, it’s more of a slide show, but it’s a start. The subject is the construction of the recently completed Japanese shrine kit that I got from Woody Joe (purchased from Zootoyz.jp) earlier this year.

It turns out that it was easy to use Youtube’s video editor. It was almost identical to the way Apple’s iMovie software, which I’m quite familiar with.

The slideshow I made isn’t perfect, but it makes the build look really good being presented with cross-fades to a nice musical score.

Hopefully, people are okay with the music. I personally get really sick of those modern canned scores that are most common with these Youtube videos. I did use one of the stock music scores, but, being particularly sensitive to them, I spent a LONG time listening to different pieces. It’s a bit limiting, looking for music that will fit a shinto shrine project. But, I think the music works okay. At least it has the sound of some Shakuhachi, Koto and Shamisen.

I promise this won’t be my last effort. This has inspired me to look at other projects to see what I have enough decent photos of that would be interesting to see in a similar slideshow format. Most of those look to be the Japanese models I’ve built in the last few years.

In the future, maybe I’ll try to do an actual video, but I usually find those boring, so it will be a major effort for me if I do try it.

Anyway, I’d be happy to hear from anyone with suggestions. Please check it out.

Building Woody Joe’s Shinmei-zukuri Shrine – Part VIII / Completion

This is the final installment of the building of Woody Joe’s Shinmei-zukuri jinjya or Shinmei-zukuri shrine kit. The final four steps are mostly really simple and quick, though Step 10, which is the construction of the fence, involves more wood cutting than any other step of the kit. Still, I figured I should wrap up the build with one posting.

The appearance of the model, going into the final steps of construction..

Building Woody Joe’s Shinmei-zukuri Shrine – Part VII

Coming into the last 1/3rd of the build, things are speeding up a bit as steps seem to be getting simpler. As a result, this time, I’m covering both step 7 and step 8.

Step 7 << Katsuogi Installation>>

I haven’t been able to figure out what the word katsuogi means in this context. It translates to bonito, a kind of fish. In this case, it refers to these tapered logs that decorate the top of the shrine. Now, perhaps they represent fish in some way, but according to this Wikipedia entry, they are indeed called katsuogi and are purely decorative.

Building Woody Joe’s Shinmei-zukuri Shrine – Part VI

The previous step was to assemble the framing for what might be termed the outer roof. Not knowing the details of the actual shrine architecture, I suspect that the real shrine might just be some very thick thatched covering that does not include this framework. I don’t know this for sure, and if anyone has access to information on this detail, I’d love to hear from you.

Step 6 << Assembling the Roof  2>>

Building Woody Joe’s Shinmei-zukuri Shrine – Part V

Continuing on, Step 5 is the last step on the first side of the instruction sheet and deals more with the roof construction.

Step 5 << Assembling the Roof  1>>

This time, I was able to divide up this step into left and right halves, so the above is the left side of the instruction sheet for step 5.

Building Woody Joe’s Shinmei-zukuri Shrine – Part IV

Construction is moving right along with step 4. Things are pretty straight forward here and involve the installation of supports under the edge of the floor as well as a railing.

Step 4 << Pillar, Railing Installation>>

The Japanese text begins with a reminder that the side of the building with the door is the front.

Building Woody Joe’s Shinmei-zukuri Shrine – Part III

Last time, I finished step 2 of Woody Joe’s Shinmei-zukuri shrine kit, which dealt with the basic core structure of the shrine. In Step 3, I’ll start work on the roof and some of the outer details.

The Instructions Again

Reviewing the instructions for the next task, parts 9A, 9B and 9C will be needed, noting again that there are two of parts 9A and 9C, but only one 9B. Again, these are laser-cut piece on sheet number 9. This is in a different bag, but again, the bags are clearly marked and so are the individual sheets as you can see below.

Building Woody Joe’s Shinmei-zukuri Shrine – Part II

Last time, I started Step I of Woody Joe’s Shinmei-zukuri shrine kit. I tried to cover everything needed to understand the built up to that point. With all the description and explanation, we didn’t get to the end of the first step, so we’ll taking care of that now.

The Instructions Again

Reviewing the instructions for the next task, parts 9A, 9B and 9C will be needed, noting again that there are two of parts 9A and 9C, but only one 9B. Again, these are laser-cut piece on sheet number 9. This is in a different bag, but again, the bags are clearly marked and so are the individual sheets as you can see below.

Building Woody Joe’s Shinmei-zukuri Shrine – Part I

In my previous post, I went over the contents of the kit and gave some details about it, so I’m just going to dive in here and start Step 1. Progress will probably start a bit slow, since I’m describing some of the features of Woody Joe kits in general as I go.

The Instructions

As I mentioned before, the instructions are very well illustrated and it looks like you should be able to build it without being able to read any of the text. However, since I’m writing this blog, I figure I might as well translate what I can.

Shinmei-zukuri Shrine from Woody Joe

I’ve recently found myself spinning my wheels on the ship modeling front. This happens from time to time with my projects when I get a bit overwhelmed or stuck. My scratch model of a Japanese rice field boat, the Gifu Tabune, was one kind of distraction to work on. That took only a couple days, but there was a lot of thinking that went into that build, since it was from scratch, and I’m still learning a lot about Japanese traditional boats. The ideal would be a simple kit, where I can just build it and not spend a lot of time on it or have to put a lot of brain power into it, as I’m in short supply these days.

As it turns out, I’d purchased a collection of simple Woody Joe kits from Zootoyz. If you follow my blog at all, you’re already aware that I am always recommending purchasing from the online Japanese hobby dealer Zootoyz.com for those looking for, among other things, Woody Joe kits, which are not available directly in the U.S.

Shinmei-zukuri Shrine