The Ship Model Forum

It's unfortunate that there remain some holes in the TROM dates. I, too, lean towards the unidentified tanker being Genyo or Nichei Maru, but, we have to account for the tripod mast at its rear. If it were Nichei Maru, it would require she being refitted with a tripod after mid-1942, as she clearly does not have one while towing Mogami after Midway. I have serious doubts as to that having been the case.

Genyo Maru was built with a single post aft, so it's not inconceivable that she was upgraded before the war.

Hey guys!
I checked the TROMs of all the Kawasaki type oilers and apart from Kyokuto Maru, only Nichiei Maru and probably Genyo Maru were at Truk during the time period in question. I think the photos were taken 21-22 June 1943; that was the date when Kyokuto Maru refuelled Umikaze according to the TROM. Also Unyo, Chuyo and Ushio were at Truk together from 21-28 June 1943.
The bridge looks like it's normal grey, but all masts and the upper parts of aft deck, vents and funnel were painted either white or a light grey. On the Kyokuto Maru in the other picture, you can see that she has white mast tops.

The order for the two-tone green camo was given out after or around the time of the Marianas Battle in June 1944.

You mean the winches with two reels?
On my Koza Mari model the is the drive parallel to the the reel.
I have to modify my model anyway. So perhaps I should go this way.

Greetings Christian

Those hawser reels are good for shiphandling ropes, but not really for the cargo booms and winches. Something similar to what's already molded on is more appropriate, IMHO.

Btw, it is appropriate to post Hayasui here, as she utilized the 1TL type hull, which is really a repeat Kawasaki type hull with some tweaks.

Thanks Dan for your input.
I think I will use your fenders as a guide.
And with looking at the pics, I will also replace the winches. I made for this a 3D model. Could be enough for 2 or three model .

Regarding the build here, I'm a little afraid that I start a build and then never will finish it.
But lets see how it will turn out.

Greetings Christian

Christian, I've seen some shots of your Hayasui build on a FB page; I sure wish you would post it here. I have this same kit and would love the inspiration.

To your question, those are Aoshima's attempt to depicting the fenders, just stored on deck. Truthfully, I am unfamiliar with this type fender. I've never seem an example as those are molded. Aoshima appears to have patterned them directly from the what's on the deck plan for Hayasui.

Personally, I would remove them and use a more typical fender.

Not a Kawasaki Oiler, but at least another Oiler.
I'm building Aoshimas Hayasui and what are these encirceld parts?

Greetings Christian

It's really hard to say. I suppose it's possible. There's just not enough wartime photos of various sisters to be sure of anything. Below is an enlargement of a view of the same tanker taken around the same time.

Camo did not start to appear until mid 1944.

I see that the tanker is a lighter tone above the 01 level in the bottom photo. Although it's pure speculation, do you think that would extend to the forward superstructure? When did greens start to appear?

Great collection of photos in these threads.

Thanks!

I think the superstructure has to go in first.

Yes, there is 1.5-2mm extra material at either end, so adjustments are possible.

Well, I am a little burned out on these but, as you can see, I've started puttering again on Shinkoku Maru for now. I don't think Rich missed anything of consequence. He made a couple of smart decisions upfront about what he wanted to see in the set, parameters were set, then he/we set about fitting as much as possible into the three frets. When a sixth bridge face option turned out to be superfluous, that opened up the space for the fender bases, which I thought a very inspired choice on Rich's part. (You won't find those anywhere else.) Also using thicker brass for the bridge faces makes a very big difference in term of handling, construction, etc.

Some minor things didn't make it, like a canopy framework that goes above the engine skylights in front of the funnel. Also a large intake grill at the back of the "deck house" in front of those skylights, though one would have to scratch-build a frame for that. However, these are very minor tweaks. The idea was to work with the kit as is as much as possible. There are some recommendations within the instructions about how to improve upon some of the kit parts if the modeler wants to make the best use of the PE parts. For instance, increasing the size of the kingposts.

The set design and execution by Third Floor Annex was also very impressive.

Looks like a vast improvement, Dan. How difficult do you think it will be to mate the forward catwalk with this assembly? Would it be easier to install the forward catwalk and then install the forward superstructure assembly? Were the catwalks designed with extra material on the ends to make adjustments to the lengths of the catwalk runs easier?

I hope you're not sick of these tankers yet. Your input will really make a difference on this fret. Do you think anything was missed?

Rich Harden is tweaking a couple of things, but the set has been placed up on the Tom's website.

I spent a little less than two hours yesterday assembling one of the new PE bridges for kicks. I used one of the 16C faces. I can't believe how nice it came out, or what an improvement it is over the kit.

The engineering is fantastic. Using 0.005" brass for the bridge faces was a very smart decision. My only error is that I left too much of a dip in the deck for the compass bridge deck roof. If I had been in less of a hurry, it would have worked out better. Still it can be disguised with the railing that needs to be put in place. I recommend taking your time and conducting several test fitting before gluing the various PE decks in place.

I temporarily placed it on my Shinkoku Maru for demo purposes. I made one tweak in the kit part not covered in the instructions, as exemplified in Photo A, removing some plastic to allow another set of the windows on the bridge face to open up. Nor did I remove a piece of the ship's side as recommended by the instructions (see Photo H) which would allow installation of a piece that includes support posts for a bridg edeck. DOing so would also open up more of the side windows in the PE part.

WOW !
great Information

Thx Dan

First look at the new PE, with two quick component build-ups from Rich. It's an impressive set. Instructions not yet completed.

I've enjoyed the project.

Conversely, I actually like having the pulleys available, though they were a surprise to me as well. I hate trying to make them up on my own.

It's true that we may have missed filling a gap on having some fenders, or at least, bases for them. Still, these would be tough to pull off in 1/700 brass, IMHO.

I think I would have ditched the pulleys with rigging in favor of other things. I find the attachment points in the middle of the rigging are hard to clean up and always end up bent out of shape. I'd rather use tipped line and slices of plastic rod. It still looks better than anything I've seen, or more importantly, better than what I could do.

Thanks for once again being a catalyst for getting these things rolling.

That is one nice looking set!




Bob Pink.

Rich did manage to have the booms slightly tapered. As to the fender frames, I think the frets ran out of room. To be honest, we didn't spend much time discussing those. Not sure why; those probably got lost in the shuffle of all the other details. Perhaps we should have.

Looks like a great set to get. Were you too late with the suggestion for tapered booms in three sections? Was there no room for fender frames? Even without those items, this should help with a lot of the kit's shortcomings and may actually get my kit off the 'Shelf of Doom.'