Garden Railway Forum

Just came back from a holiday in Japan, where I stumbled on some very interesting building kits, which are made by a japanese company "Billy Handmade Dollhouse kits", this is their website (activate your browsers translator): https://www.billy-doll.co.jp/view/category/ct2
The manufacturer informs most of their buildings are to scale 1:20 so falls into interest of our hobby. Some of the detailing parts coming with their kits are larger though, probably 1:12.
Few of the kits are based on real prototypes, including 2 different station buildings. The kits themselves are more like "material in a bag" with building instructions in japanese so I suppose they are not the easiast kits to build
Anyway, I purchased one kit and intend to build it up soon, I will update here my findings. Anybody interested in these kits have a look at eBay, Amazon or Rakuten, they seem to sell and ship them overseas.

Interesting! Please let us know how you get on with the kit

Opened up the kit, all component groups were wrapped tidily in plastic. The bicycle is all metal which was a surprise. Two different kind od paints are included and also a lighting kit.
Here is what you get: And here are the instructions:

The main pieces are particle board and the wall sections have to be scribed for a board imitation.

WIP. I decided to bash it a bit and will do a fast food kiosk out of it. Originally the kit is intended to be built as a newspaper stand.

Now finished and placed into position to serve hungry customers. I used the paint and stains which came with the kit. Overall a good kit and a bit different one to build. I bashed it a bit and scrathbuild the food serving desk. As it will sit always outside and it is made of delicate materials (fibreboard, carton, paper) I gave it a heavy coating of polyurethane varnish overall.

That looks good Allu, as you say it makes up nicely. I'm a bit surprised that you intend to leave it outside permanently, especially with your winters, so will be interested to see how it weathers.

philipy wrote: Thu Oct 01, 2026 2:22 pm That looks good Allu, as you say it makes up nicely. I'm a bit surprised that you intend to leave it outside permanently, especially with your winters, so will be interested to see how it weathers.

Yes, the kit was cheap though as i bought it in Japan, so not a heavy loss if it disintegrates. On the other hand, my "outside" is not so harsh as it is my glazed balcony.