The Ship Model Forum

While not technically a scratchbuild, with all the interest in the new 1/350 Nagato plastic kit I thought I would post some progress photos of my work on the Ocean Voyage 1/200 Nagato semi-kit. I purchased the kit several months ago through Hobby-Easy in Hong Kong. The transaction was painless and the kit arrived in good shape with the exception of some minor damage to the bow of the fiberglass hull. And while I should have been spending all my modeling time working on Dorsetshire, I could not resist the urge to at least get a start on the Nagato.

The kit includes a one piece fiberglass hull (shown above compared to a 1/200 Nichimo Yamato) clear acrylic stand, forward and after superstructure blocks prefabed from sheet plastic, sheet plastic for the main decks, some small sheets of photoetched brass, various thicknesses and lengths of wire and plastic tubing, and several hundred absolutely exquisite resin castings.



These castings include the main, secondary and AA armament, funnel (shown with some detail added), superstructure components, ships boats, catapult, crane, deck fittings, etc.



The fittings came packaged in lots of small zip-lock plastic bags and the first thing I did was to unpack them and transfer them to compartmented plastic storage boxes.



The manufacturer’s intended application for the kit is RC as shown by the provided running gear: brass propellers, metal shafts, sleeves and struts, cast metal rudders with metal sleeves and control arms and a plastic battery box. Mine will be built as a static model.

While the content of the kit is pretty comprehensive and, for the most part, of excellent quality, construction is going require a fair amount scratch-building. In some instances there are no kit components supplied, in others what is supplied needs to be replaced or can be improved upon to achieve the best result. As the kit comes with neither plans nor comprehensive instructions, it is up to the modeler to provide their own references. Also, the time frame of the kit from the box appears to be mid-late war when the ship carried many additional deck mounted 25mm AA gun mounts. My tendency is for an earlier war configuration, late 1941 to early 1943.

The references I have assembled include the 3D publication on Nagato, the new AJ press book, Fly Model 1/200 paper kit, and the Kure Maritime Museum book of Japanese battleship photos. I also have obtained of a set of 1/200 plans from Miyukikai (MYCO). Prior to receiving the MYCO plans, I copied the deck parts from the Fly kit and put them together to form an overall deck plan of the ship.

The problem with all of these resources is that, in many instances, no two of them agree with each other or the kit! OV does supply a booklet of photos showing some views of the completed model along with some views of the parts breakdown of the superstructure components, and also a couple of sketches showing dimensioned locations for some of the components. The photos are actually very helpful in showing how the kit supplied parts go together, however as can be seen above the bridge tower as supplied in the kit is slightly (in some areas substantially?) different to what is shown on the MYCO plan. All one can do is study the limited photos that are available and determine from them, as best you can, which is most correct.

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Steve Sobieralski
Tampa Bay Ship Model Society

If possible (and when possible), could you please post some pictures of the AA guns ???
Thanks.

Jose,

I posted these photos awhile back in a thread about Konishi fittings on the Main Board. They show IJN 12.7cm twin mounts as produced by Nichimo, Konishi and OV.





I'll take some shots of the triple and single 25mm mounts, which are also quite nice, and post them later.

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Steve Sobieralski
Tampa Bay Ship Model Society

Could you please post the PE sheets? Thank you for showing the kit online. Keep posting your progress please.

Below is a photo of the cast resin components for the single, twin and triple 25mm mounts from Ocean Vaoyage. There are also details such as sight rings included as photoetch. Note that the castings have not been cleaned up at all, they are straight from the bag with no mold blocks and little if any flash. This is true of all the hundreds of resin fitings in the kit.

The photoetch frets are shown below.

As can be seen the photoetch provided is not extensive and consists of bridge railings, AA gun details, platform gratings, radar antennae, vertical and inclined ladders, the many pierced brackets that support the bridge platforms and a few other odds and ends. For the majority of the railings OV provides the cut brass wire shown for stanchions, and thin brass wire to be attached to the stanchions. I will probably use photoetched IJN stanchions fom Tom's Modelworks for the railings, as well as GMM's Yamato bonus set for other details such as the aircraft dolly track and turntables.

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Steve Sobieralski
Tampa Bay Ship Model Society

The resine parts look rather nice. Is there any instruction for the PE?
Again, thank you very much for the postings!!

I'll be watching this thread with interest - Nagato/Mutsu are probably my favourite WW2 IJN battleships (if it wasn't £100+, I'd definitely buy the new Hasegawa 1/350 kit - inaccurate hull plating or not)

The castings in this kit look to be absolutely superb - but like the 1/144 Yamato another MW member built earlier this year, the kit seems to be strangely contradictory, on the one hand you get a huge number of beautifully detailed and finished fittings and parts, pre-built styrene superstructure, etc. - on the other hand, some parts are missing and there are no instructions or even basic plans/references included? It's odd that with the colossal amount of work that's obviously been put into producing the parts for this kit, the manufacturers seem to have completely neglected other areas.

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Model Ship Kit Reviews

Ditto!!

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Steve,

I was in their factory early last month & saw 10 Nagatos being built for a Japanese customer & was very impressed with the amount of photo etch I saw. Are you sure you have all the PE frets since I saw a lot of brass going on these models? The catapult was certainly on par with the Gold Medal kits I have for my Yamato.

By the way, they have a new 1/200 BB slated for early 2008 release that should fit well in any IJN fan's collection.

Chuck

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"China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Hi EPinniger: You mentioned that someone built a 1:44 Nagato. Who was it? Where can we look at the photos?

Here's the thread for the 1/144 Yamato (not Nagato) - built by Pat M from the "Tian Jie" kit.

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Model Ship Kit Reviews

Chuck,
I'm not 100% certain I received everything as there was no itemized parts list with the kit (and if there was it would probably have been in Chinese). In looking through the photos that came with the kit though, I do not see anything major that I do not have. There are some components, such as crane booms and the catapult, that could easily have been done in PE, but are provided in resin. Perhaps they are using some of the GMM pieces on their built-up kits?

Would that be the Kongo?

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Steve Sobieralski
Tampa Bay Ship Model Society

Steve,

When did you get your kit? They may have done modifications on the kit or for this large commision that I saw which was for a single buyer in Japan for ten fully assembled display models. The PE I saw being installed last month was his own & not from GMM or others - the frets were all different sizes & were clearly not marked towards retail. They claim to produce all most everything in their kits inhouse which is not the case with TianJie, Arkmodel & some others here.

Can't mention any names at this point but let's just say they originally come from outside of Japan.

Personally, I am torn between getting their 1/100 Akizuki or the new 1/128 Graf Spee which is amazing in its detail. While checking out the Graf, I expected to find rifling in the bore of the 15cm seconday guns!

Chuck

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"China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

very good looking ship so far, cant wait to see more of it done!

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How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. How do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin. - Ronald Reagan

Steve,

Didn't know if you are on their newsletter, but Loyalhanna Dockyard just started carrying Ocean Voyage's line of kits. You'll find the complete offering on their website http://www.loyalhannadockyard.com/

Last word I heard from OV's owner was that the 1/200 Kongo was to be released this spring with 1/128 Scarnhorst to follow.

Chuck

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"China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Chuck,

They are certainly charging premium prices. At $1535, the Nagato from Loyalhanna is about $500 more than from Hobbyeasy in Hong Kong, even when you factor in shipping.

I will certainly be interested in the Kongo, but the 1/128 stuff, probably not. I wish they would stick with 1/200.

Thanks for the head's up.

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Steve Sobieralski
Tampa Bay Ship Model Society

Hi Guys. Saw someone mention a 1/144 Nagato. I did purchase a 1/144 Nagato in 1926-27 fit that was built in Argentina in the 50"s. At the moment, she's with Don Preul getting some work done to her. Let me know if you would like details. Matt

Hey Matt,

I'd love to see pics of her! I'd suggest posting them in picture post as not to hijack this thread, but if you do let me know!

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It's not who you are, but what you do that defines you.

Hi again Matt

I'd also like to see some pics of her, Ebay pictures i saw once didn't do her justice just don't forget about us when she is ready

Jose

Any idea when the Nagato kit is actually going to be released. So far it is the best kept secret in the world. The last I heard is sometime in early 2009 and that was a long delayed email response from OV. Does anyone have any updated info. I am building the 1:350 Hasegawa with all of their photoetch and the detail is incredible. Along with the Lion Roar upgrades, it can't get any better. If the 1:200 OV model is as detailed it will be a museum piece.

Thanks,

Ir3