Tomytec Refinery

[cteno4]

Hobbysearch just listed a tomytec refinery set for may release at 11,840Y (14,800Y list). Yikes on the total price!

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138707

they are also releasing the parts separately

distillation tower 1280Y: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138701

cooling tower 1280Y: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138702

gas tank 2000Y: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138703

shipping racks 1280Y: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138704

guard gate 780Y: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138705

pipe set 1280Y: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138706

the walthers refinery has a lot more detail that the distillation tower and cooling tower would be. but its nice they have the parts as these will be great for folks to come up with their own creations and mix and match with walthers and other scratch built stuff. faller use to make a gas tank like this but i think its now OOP. dont think anyone makes a cooling tower like this.

btw old plastic sprues from models make great refinery piping! lots of interesting junctions and curves. also refinery piping is not pretty, its usually a controlled chaotic mess of pipes and fitting so there is a lot f leeway in having things a bit funky. they start out nice but get retrofit, fixed, and upgraded a lot and tend to then have a lot of different things going on at once!

cheers

jeff

[Kamiyacho]

That is an odd collection of units.  To me a Japanese oil refinery should have some huge crude storage tanks for imports for the Middle East, and smaller tanks for products.  This looks more like a facility to handle LNG and/or produce lighter gases like propane.

I've been carrying around an oil refinery kit for years.  One day it will be completed and added to my layout.

[cteno4]

well the distillation columns are generic refinery items. the gas ball are more for natural gas/propane stuff i would think but you do see small ones around refineries where they are capturing gasses from a process they might want to use.

yes oil storage tanks need to be nearby! i picked up a few model power sets of those for like $4 at the train show one time for this purpose for the tank farm, mainly to get all the stairs and railings!

you have the old plastruct refinery, right? its a hoot, big box of stock styrene pieces to be bent and assembled to the plans! it is very much like the tomytec with two gas tanks, a distillation tower, but no cooling units and it also has two horizontal tube gas tanks as well.

http://www.blwnscale.com/plastruct%20structure%20kits.htm

cheers

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

I was thinking of ordering the full set, but I think it's a bit too expensive for what you're getting. I love the small Tomytec stuff, but somehow the larger the structures, the less I like the stuff.

[Hobby Dreamer]

Thanks, Jeff,  for the heads-up and for taking the time to type this all up!!!

I love the Japanese quality- again this is as good as (good) HO in look!!  It seems a bit pricey but one can get individual items and its a great diorama accessory.

Are these kits or are they ready made?

Thanks again!!
Rick

[cteno4]

Rick,

i think these are pretty much ready made, may have a few parts to put together, but all the tomytech items are prepainted and either totally assembled or just a bit of easy pop together. you may find things like railings and smaller details that stick out might be a bit pudgier than other models out there. i think this is due to their pre assembly to make sure things dont break on the assembly line or shipping while keeping the price cheap as possible.

it is nice to have all the parts to roll what ever you want to design along with other options like the walthers, plastruct, faller, and greenmax parts.

cheers

jeff

[Hobby Dreamer]

Thanks again Jeff...

I really like the colors - shiny things shine, dull things don't; as it should. The small compromise that you mentioned is fine. One could always get etched brass etc for railings but its more than fine.

I really am liking the vehicles. I have a few hundred (yipes!) Herpa HO scale vehicles from the early and cruder days to about 10 years ago when they were the high water mark for vehicles (or one of them).

These Tomytec vehicles look as good as the best HO out there!!!

One of the reason I am a card stock advocate for structures is the trouble of gluing and painting, but I'd rather pay a bit more to not have the hassle!!! These structures look amazing in my view!!

Rick

[westfalen]

I wonder if the vehicles and tank car come with it?

[cteno4]

I doubt the vehicles come with, most of the other sets dont come with vehicles like the bus shop, garages, car lot, heavy equipment lot, etc (couple of houses did have a car and one a scooter). i think those are just there for the product shoot. price for the gate/guard house or the transfer rack at 780Y seems too low to include vehicles. luckily there are scads of them to choose from with the tomytec sets!

wonder if the transfer rack includes one or two of them? hopefully more will be posted later.

cheers

jeff

[Mudkip Orange]

That is an odd collection of units.  To me a Japanese oil refinery should have some huge crude storage tanks for imports for the Middle East, and smaller tanks for products.  This looks more like a facility to handle LNG and/or produce lighter gases like propane.

I've been carrying around an oil refinery kit for years.  One day it will be completed and added to my layout.

You absolutely need the spherical vessels for both, both the additives you put in and the distillates you pull out are somewhat lighter than the rest of the liquids

[Kamiyacho]

Well, I've worked for an oil company for 31 years, including 4 years in Japan, and it doesn't look very representative to me.

[clem24]

Wow that is one pricey kit! Whatever happened to affordability, which has always been the case with Tomytec buildings... I'll just stick to the Green Max kits.

[bikkuri bahn]

For those that don't want to spend all that much to get the set, just get the gas holders and the shipping rack- you can set up a very prototypical siding that provides identical operational possibilities to a space-hogging full-on refinery.  There used to be such a siding near Sapporo Station, unfortunately dismantled.

[101 Local]

Is there any indication of what is included in each of the component kits or the complex set?

[cteno4]

the tomytec refinery visual collection has just been released and in stock at hs.

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/list/1224/0/1

$165 for the whole setup, ouch!

cheers

jeff

[Hobby Dreamer]

Thanks Jeff !

You do get a lot for the $!  And you can get just 1-2 pieces and have a great focal point. People with great modeling skills might rather a kit at half the price but I'd end up with a blotched sphere, instead of a fuel tank,  and just throw it away !

There is a lot to be said when you open the package, place it on the layout and you are more or less 95% done!

These pieces would also look very cool if lit up by small LEDs etc..

Rick

[rpierce000]

BT Trains will have ONE of the entire set up coming late this month and then stocking of individual pieces later on.

Prices are Japan list, as usual.

Bob
www.bttrains.com

[cteno4]

still feels a bit pricy for the piece or the total package. you know me, im a tomytec hardcore guy with must about all of them, but this one is a pauser for me. just does not feel like the usual tomytec value is there. i ado agree for an out of the box small refinery its pretty nice and very easy, but the price just still snags me.

granted there are not a huge number of alternatives, but there are some and i think i could bring a pretty good selection together for something a bit more impressive for $164. would take some building as you say though, tomytec is really the only pre-made one on the market.

cheers

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

It looks great, but $165 does sound a bit pricey for what you get. Judging from the pictures it's not really all that big. It definitely doesn't sound like a typical TomyTec price.

Like Jeff, I love the TomyTec stuff, and I guess I would've coughed up $165 if I had a good spot on a layout for it. For now though, I really should buy more track and less trains/accessories :)
 

[JRF-1935]

It does look great - but I have to agree the price is a little steep for me.  Been looking at the Walthers North Island Refinery kits and maybe a little extra Tomytec parts to complete a decent refinery - would certainly be much less expensive for a refinery I have in mind for the 12 track yard that is in progress.
Rich C

[rpierce000]

When it gets here I will take a LOT of pictures and post them to my site. Then we can make up our minds about value.

[Hobby Dreamer]

Although the price is high for the whole set, the individual parts seem in line with other manufacturers. For example the fuel tank.

[cteno4]

i guess part of me just wants the old days where all the tomytec stuff was a fantastic deal. now they are getting closer to the norm on many of the items. hard to shell out over $80 for a box of tomytec cars and get only 24 cars. use to be like $45 and you got 36... they still are a good deal for what you get, especially being mostly premade, painted and detailed.

the cost of the yen and chinese currency revaluation, and oil (for plastics) has driven costs up.

cheers

jeff

[clem24]

i guess part of me just wants the old days where all the tomytec stuff was a fantastic deal. now they are getting closer to the norm on many of the items. hard to shell out over $80 for a box of tomytec cars and get only 24 cars. use to be like $45 and you got 36... they still are a good deal for what you get, especially being mostly premade, painted and detailed.

As Homer Simpson would say: Get you hooked and then jack the price!!!
 
Mind you, the quality of the Tomytec stuff has gone up significantly since they were first released. Even the cars look much better.

[cteno4]

yep and there has been a big shift from the collector mentality to the stock item mentality in their design, production, and marketing as well. time change, markets change, economies change. oh well. they are still a good deal over all. some items hurt a bit more than others.

i should count myself lucky as i was buying a lot when i didnt have much stuff and the prices were cheap in the early days along with a great exchange rate. now i have a lot more stuff and can be pickier about what i buy.

cheers

jeff

[Hobby Dreamer]

oh well. they are still a good deal over all. some items hurt a bit more than others.

I'm involved in another hobby where items are not even made so many would kill to have X, Y or Z. The only thing worse than an expensive refinery is no refinery at all, if that is the item you want!

Maybe the price will deter everyone from having the same layout!

I see structures such as the refinery as having hidden value. If you bought office towers then you would need a road, sidewalks maybe street lights etc. (Plus vehicles and figures).

But you can stick a refinery by a track - done!

Maybe not as expensive as it seems... and you don't have to get the whole refinery!!

[cteno4]

oh no if you plop a refinery down then you really needs lots of pretty lights blinking all over, lots of pipes (they never have enough in most of the refinery models), trucks and roads! thats the fun of them, they can be extremely dense scenes to detail out well!

the actual fun of modeling a refinery is its one of the few structures you can do a lot of kitbashing or scratch building for w/o a lot of modeling skill as there are a lot of very basic shapes and then just lots of pipes. you can model a lot of the piping from your old model sprews from larger kits. these make great pipes, elbow joints, Ts, Valve stems, etc

jeff

[Hobby Dreamer]

One cannot argue that a refinery is easy to add on to and Plastruct (or whatever its called) make a lot of plastic tubing. The thing about the roads etc is that you can have them going off-layout and maybe the piping fills the tanks but then gets sent to tanker train cars so you can skip the road...

I have a fuel refinery/storage place about 5 miles away and the fuel comes by train (and maybe pipeline) and the road is on one side of the refinery... Actually, if you look at this prototype and then the Tomytec models the latter look amazing!!!

I'm still thinking a tram layout with a small rail section and something like this refinery, or a few pieces are quite cool. The sphere tanks look great! The cylindrical tanks in N scale don't look nearly as good IMHO. I priced them recently and they were about the same as Tomytec but I don't think pre-built!

[rpierce000]

Let's see, short on oil to make plastic to make models....

Does anyone know where I could find a refinery? 

[rpierce000]

I had mine arrive today!

I will get shots up on bttrains.com by the end of the week.  It is in a box about 14" by 5" by 7" and contains two (A) cracking towers, one set of two (B) condensers, two (C) spherical tanks, one (D) loading area, One (E) guardhouse and fence and one (F) set of connector piping. There are also a BUNCH of bonus pipes, 4mm, 44 straights, 26 elbows, 4 T's, 4 U's, 8 45 degree bends and 26 pipe supports, in 5mm there are 28 straights, 16 elbows, 4 45 degree bends and 24 supports.
There are also 16 additional fence pieces to surround this larger storage facility.

With all of the bonus piping this will build a HUGE gas storage area.

Like many TomyTec sets each of the A-F items are in complete sub boxes inside the outer box.

Some other features from looking at the back shots: 

1) The gate is a sliding gate. I do not know if it is functional
2) There is a light post with the guard tower
3) Part of the loading area is for a tank car, the other for a truck
4) Parts of the model, pipe supports in F and the bases of the cracking towers in A are blue
5) The spherical tanks are green

One other thing I find interesting about the back shot is that the "bonus" piping is not shown. I wonder why?

I hope one of you buys this, I want to see what it looks like put together!!

[Martijn Meerts]

So, in your opinion, is it worth the rather high cost? (I mean, high compared to previous TomyTec models.. When compared to Faller, Vollmer etc. it's obviously cheap ;))

[rpierce000]

It depends on the parts you want. The spherical tanks are not as "refineryish" as the cylindrical ones so to me this is more of a distribution point for gas, but it is an excellent value for what it is. I can easily see combining it with with GreenMax Factory Series (37, 37-1, 37-2, 37-3)

The bonus piping and fences are a good deal as well with the two sizes and extensive length you could connect a lot of other sets to this one.

I wish they had included some branding stickers, even for a "mythical" oil company. I find this set a bit bland.

[Martijn Meerts]

I'm thinking of adding some industry on the new layout, since we're starting from scratch (again ... :)) I can plan ahead and figure out what I want to add.

I have the Greenmax factory (only the main kit, no extra's) but that's about it so far. Might consider adding the refinery, but it'll be "a while" before I can start adding buildings :)

[rpierce000]

http://www.bttrains.com/tomytec-078-refinery-complex/

The pictures are up now for those who wish to take a look. They include all of the bonus items and the instruction pamphlet.

Does anyone know what we are doing wrong that gives us the curves when we shoot the boxes?

[Hobby Dreamer]

Does anyone know what we are doing wrong that gives us the curves when we shoot the boxes?

Smoke smell?

(Just kidding), Are you using a wide angle?  Very small lenses in a cell can distort at close up..

Thanks for posting this - it took a while to realize there is a zoom..

As mentioned the whole kit is expensive but each piece seems well priced... A lot of the kit is duplicates that wouldn't be missed...

Its a great piece to distinguish a layout, especially the sphere tanks...

[cteno4]

I just picked up some plastic balls at the dollar store that looks to be about the right size for a spherical tank like this. want to play with it to see what can be done.

the condensers look great and a good price. interesting to put a little motor in there and make the big fan blades rotate.

cheers

jeff

[nik_n_dad]

Nik and I just got the set.  There's about 3-gazillion parts, and unlike previous Tomytec kits, this isn't a 5-minute build, it's not snap-together and it's not weathered.  Some parts of the set require glue not to make it more secure, but just to keep it together.  There is certainly a lot of pipe!

Not saying we're disappointed by what we got, just that it's not typical Tomytec.  It will look cool.... when it gets built...

[cteno4]

have to agree, i just started putting the ball tank together, you need 3 hands to get the legs and braces together! they will need glue like you said as well. the tank is quite substantial actually. might actually pick up a second.

also picked up a set of condensers and looking for some little motors to make the fan spin.

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

ok youll have to add this to some of your tomytec tanks!

http://www.sodahead.com/fun/only-in-japan-decorated-gas-tanks----should-everything-be-a-canvas/question-1570475/?slide=0

no so fun trying to apply a decal to a sphere though!

cheers

jeff

[rpierce000]

I have seen some really cool water towers in Western NY that have decorations on them.  Our school painted ours in the school colors with the school Mustang and the letters underneath.

I think if you make anything big enough, and blank, someone will see it as a blank canvas.

Bob

[cteno4]

I had bought a small ball at the dollar store last month to look at using it for a gas tank and last night after seeing these it dawned on me that there are little balls like 3"-6" in dia that are painted as soccer balls, perfect! could do one as a huge baseball as well, would work well in japan!

cheers

jeff

[linkey]

I can see it now a smiling gas sphere on a module layout.

[rpierce000]

If you did a smiling gas tank in the USA someone would say you were promoting huffing!  (Inhaling fumes from a paper bag to get high)

I know they do smaller versions of most sports balls for K and Pre-K sports. Putting legs on a basketball, or whatever, would be fairly easy. I can just see a tank park now made of little balls. Then I can see the devestation when the first 4 year old visits!  Kick the ball! Kick the ball!

Here you go: http://www.ssww.com/item/magic-playballs-W8919/cmc=SRCH/v=cGxhc3RpYyBiYWxscw%3D%3D/va=1/ 100 of them for $0.25 apiece!  You could have a tank farm that would belong in Galveston! They also have hockey pucks if you want cylindrical tanks...

Bob

[cteno4]

check out your local dollar store, lots to choose from in the 3-6" range.

jeff