Tomytec 062 Showa Apartment Building

Tomytec has recently released two modern Japanese style high rise buildings including the 062 Showa Apartment Building. As a Showa Era building it would date from 1926-1989 a period of Japanese history during the reign of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito), from December 25, 1926 to January 7, 1989. This particular building would date from the later years of the Showa Era.

This is a style of building unique to Japanese cities as far as I can tell. Many of these buildings show up in tram videos along streets in Hiroshima and buildings of this general style also appear along private railway lines Tokyo.

Tomytec 062 Showa Era Apartment Building

The building itself is a six story structure with balconies or terraces at the front. There are two units per floor with a commercial unit on the ground floor. On floors 2 through 6 the units are entered from balconies at the back of the building that lead to doors on the brown elevator shaft. It appears buildings of this design do not have an internal corridor.

The kit is assembled in three sections each two stories high. The elevator shaft is already assembled and just needs the access shed added at the top. Most Tomytec structures can be assembled without glue using tabs. There are grooves and slots, but for this structure it was necessary to use a couple of drops of good old Humbrol Poly Cement to hold the structure together. Tabs are only used to lock the terraces in place. After gluing the main structure together, the individual balconies are then added. The whole structure was assembled in one night including time for the glue drying.

As this kit is assembled in sections it is possible to build this structure as a four story or six story building. This I believe is a first for a Tomytec Building Collection kit.

There is one unresolved issue. The elevator shaft has a tendency to list away from the main body of the building leaving a small gap that would be quite alarming in a real building. I have used double sided tape in an effort to correct this. I would like to use something less certain than the Humbrol Poly Cement in case I want to add interior details later.

The kit has provisions for lighting the structure, a separate rooftop billboard with sign applied and a decal sheet for applying signs to the commercial unit. And as a Tomytec Building Collection kit it is entirely pre-painted.

This apartment building is a long awaited and welcome addition to the Tomytec range of Japanese buildings.