The Ship Model Forum

After finishing IJN Kagero, I will now tackle another IJN beauty: heavy cruiser "Tone". I have a Tamiya 1/350th kit (78024) with PE sets from Eduard. Would have loved to do it with Very Fire excellent PE set VF350007, but the prices here in Europe are astronomical (=200 euros plus!). Will probably add some 3rd party brass ware for armament etc.
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I already have Goralski's book for Chikuma (older Tone version, even second hand, hugely expensive) with nice 3D pictures and 1/350th drawings. However, would be nice to have some additional literature (eg. mentioned here), but very difficult to find. So if any of you would like to sell some old books/drawings, I am interested. I am not aiming for a "perfectly" accurate model, but it would be nice to build something that is not completely out of books.

After getting a tip from Dan K, I managed to order Gakken #47 from Japan (should arrive any day). Thanks again Dan!

Some preliminary progress with the build.

An update in progress:

Based on the info in these pages, I decided to fix the Tamiya error with the aft part of the catapult deck (part C40). Made the so called "safe boxes" (assumed to be used for plane fuel etc.) from styrene sheets following the sketch of Mutsuo Uchiyama. Added also some additional port holes, doors and left over torpedo rails on the torpedo deck. These are hardly visible, but adds some detail.

Also continued the painting of the hull with some weathering both below & over the waterline. I tried to follow the technique presented by koppalakki and reach a result with a worn out look, but did not succeed very well. Used mainly AMMO Mig products like 1208 "Rainmark Effects" & 2010 "Scratches Effects" and washes from AK Interactive like AK027 "Slime Grime Light", AK305 "Streaking Grime for Light Grey Ships" & AK306 "Salt Streaks for Ships". Need to add some more rust marks...

Finally, noticed also (of course, after painting the deck!) that I had forgotten to remove the boat supports which are to be replaced with PE parts from Tamiya "WWII Japanese Navy Utility Boat Set". The set has excellent templates for drilling the necessary holes for the supports in order to mount the fiddly parts securily. There has been some discussions regarding the size of the linoleum coverage. I could not make a definite decision so I painted the area beneath the boats and some smaller areas beside the AA guns with grey (to show metal deck). I more or less followed the pictures from Waldemar Goralski's book for "Chikuma".






And as usual, work with painfully small PE parts continuos (eg. roughly 50 ammunition boxes etc.).

Liking the lower hull weathering, muckline, etc. Like on my Mikasa once, I did the same thing. Looks good!

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Thanks ! Still a long way to go...

Smart compromise, and probably close to correct.

Some more work from the dark winter days:

Had to drill more than 300 portholes in the hull and fill them with Krystal Klear. Not difficult but took some work. Did not want to use the PE portholes because I feel that they are too pronounced.


The main bridge has progressed slowly due to the fact that it has two colours (grey and linoleum brown), so was not really sure on how to build things is correct order. And of course, lots of PE stuff envolved. I used transparent polystyrene sheets for the bridge windows (PE frames) which was in this case far better than Krystal Klear.


Also, managed to almost finish the two masts. Rigging with AK Bobbin products to be done later on.

With this model, I wanted to test different manufacturers for the AA guns. So I have products from Fine Molds VZ7 (Type 96 triple 25 mm), Veteran Models VTW35046 (Type 96 twin 25 mm) and Epic Hobby EH-PA 35001 (Type 96 single 25 mm). I think that Fine Molds is the best compromise for me: fairly easy to build and enough details for my eyes. I had high hopes for the Veteran Models, but those small resin parts are extremily fragile and the whole setup is not to my liking. I have not started the single 25 mm guns which are pure PE stuff with brass barrels. So that should be fun (23 pieces to be built)!


Finally, some work with main arnament and boats. Brass barrels (Master SM-350-030 IJN Mogami) definetily gives an extra look for the guns. I will add some PE parts for the different boats and already replaced boat rails with PE produvts from Tamiyas Japanese Navy Utility Boat set. I also added some aeroplane spare parts (wings and pontoons) which will give a nice touch together with those PE racks. Strange that Tamiya has not included these in the set. Luckily I have Hasegawas set for IJN seaplanes which actually has better quality planes eg. with transparent canopy etc.

Very nice work, Kari.



Exactly my conclusion while building Hiryu. 90-95%+ of the effect for a tenth of the work. If that.



My experience as well

Glad to hear that it was not only my poor eyes & clumsy hands why I preferred Fine Molds . Though in general I like the PE detail a lot, I think that some of the manufacturers for PE stuff have gone a bit too far with those tiny details. Some of them cannot be seen without a magnifying glass and they give little extra to a ship model in 1/350 th scale. It seems like there is a competition on whoever can have the most of PE parts in their sets.

Hi all,

Sorry for the long pause, during spring and early summer we have had fairly nice weather, so modelling has not been an option. However, there were some colder days and even some snow, so I ad the opportunity to put together the catapults, which were actually surprisingly easy.

Also finished the assembly of lifeboats (except the two foremost ones) which look pretty decent. Had to improvise a bit with the fastening straps.

And finally had the courage to tackle the single AA guns (23 altogether )... Wonder how am I going to paint these?

Managed to finish the AA guns. It was really a struggle with the Veteran kits (twin 25 mm AA), I just had to skip the smallest parts because I did not have the eyes/steady hand for those. However, the work with the single 25 mm AA started to go better towards the end. Since I was worried that if I put the guns on top of a masking tape (and blow them all around the room), I glued them directly onto the base plate without removing the plate from the PE fret. This way I managed to paint the guns without any damage. Maybe there is a better way to do this...?

I have also been working with the aeroplanes. I replaced the Tamiya planes with the ones from the Hasegawa Japanese Navy Ship-borne seaplane set A, because they have more details (eg. transparent canopy etc.). Painting and decal setting was a struggle due to the small size. Since I do not have proper oils, I did the weathering with AK Salt streaks for the J.N.Grey surfacs and Tamiya XF-57 Buff for the XF-70 Dark Green areas. I think it looks pretty decent though it is difficult to keep it subtle. I also added some exhaust marks and tried to simulate chipping with XF-16 Flat Aluminium (engine cowl, pontoons, wing leading edges and wing surface beside the canopy).

Great work.



Hence, my preference for the FineMolds version.

Thanks Dan!

Have you ever tried Infini's PE AA guns? They seem to have high quality products, though in some cases overly small & detailed.

Not yet, but I'm using a set now for a Kagero build. So, the opportunity presents itself..........

Looking good ,

Finally, it is finished!

This was a exhausting project but I guess that is the only way to reach some kind of quality level. Most of the time it was fun (almost), but for some reason I struggled with the rig. I tried several different products (AK interactive, threads for fly fishing etc.) but nothing seem to work well . Well, as before, more practise... Overall, I am pretty happy with the end result, but I still need to improve the "cleanliness" (glue marks, accurate joints etc.). This one and the previous IJN "Kagero" will be presented in Lahtis Model Show the 2nd of Sept. Interesting to hear what kind of feedback will one get...

I had already decided to stick with these ship models, but after this 4th model, I think I need something "lighter". I am checking if I could find a nice car model. I just saw on TV the movie "Ford v. Ferrari" (Le Mans 66) and was really excited by the story of great Ken Miles. So, probably it will be Ford GT40... After that I might have the courage to tackle the mighty "Musashi".

But, here are the final photos (or actually during photoshooting, I noticed that one of the rope ladders had disappeared, so will have to fix that. Carpet monster strikes again! ):