The Ship Model Forum

About a year ago I found a Fujimi Zuikaku model at the KMK fair in Mol. It was the reduced version without PE, so I ordered the premium version of it because I was impressed with the box. I never built any IJN ships or airplanes so this would be a first for me. It was arranged to pick up the model at SMC Veldhoven. Since then I acquired what I believe to be the ultimate upgrade collection to really approach a 1944 Zuikaku, which you don't get if you simply build this kit. Some of that stuff I saw on the excellent "All Shokaku class fans" thread on this forum. This is what I needed:



Let's describe that stash a bit further.

Fujimi IJN Aircraft Carrier Zuikaku Premium nr.600321

















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This is the more expensive variety of the Fujimi kit, I paid 300 euro for it to have the maximum quantity of photo etch with it. The black stand that comes with it will not be needed here, because I prefer a waterline model. Also the interior supports are visible, thwarting the construction of the hangar decks.



The airwing needs to be replaced as it stems from the Pearl Harbour edition. I found a suitable Hasegawa kit shown at a later stage in this topic.





Compare the humongous hull parts to my former project the Princeton, it is simply dwarfed.



The manual was completely in Japanese, so I attempted a homemade translation, being unacquainted with the Japanese language I had to use an OCR to digitalise the scanned text and Google Translate to make something out of it. This I printed and cropped to get it glued to the manual.



Painting instructions are included in giant format. Luckily I got a masking set for that deck.



Some of the stuff that will linger until the last steps.





The photo etch in brass and steel. Instructions are photographic, no exploded views.





















This is almost the only PE in existence for the Shokaku class in this scale, apart from some deck plating I got in an other upgrade. A strange disinterest exists for this important naval topic. Compare to the number of Bismarck or Iowa sets.



Some decals that will only partly be used.

Responsible for this addition solely The Ship's Forum:

Shipyard WW2 IJN Aircraft Carrier Shokaku/Zuikaku wood deck, nr. 350017/18















I only wonder if the kit decals are useful for this wooden deck. I suppose not, because there is a deck marking masking set with this kit.

Aber 127 mm Type 89 A/A Long Barrels (12 Pcs.) nr. L-02



I decided to replace all plastic barrels with metal ones. Therefore I needed two of these. That was the easy part, because the Fujimi Zuikaku kit has only a relatively small amount of AA cannons with it, reminiscent again of the early war situation. That meant that I also had to acquire at least 96 barrels for the 25mm guns. Even a large fair like ESM only had a few sellers who had this and the price/amount of guns ratio was rather useless. Therefore I used the internet and found two upgrades better suited for this purpose.

Infini Models IJN Type 96 25mm Triple Mount, nr. IMP-35007R1
Infini Models IJN Type 96 Single Mount 25mm AA Gun Set, nr. IMP-35005R1











In a first order I got 15 out of 18 needed triple units and 30 out of 42 single ones. I had to order one extra, but therefore I had to buy outside the EU and this meant paying 35 euros of customs taxation for an item costing only 40 euros.

Veteran Models IJN 12cm 28-Tube Rocket Launcher















With the extra guns item I also found a great rocket launcher replacement, containing resin bodies and PE detailing.

Hasegawa IJN Air Craft (Late) Set















These planes will be replacing the kit clearpart but wrong types. They come with their own decals and clearpart canopies, but I found no PE yet for these. Maybe I can use some Princeton airwing items on them.

North Star Models, Judo tournament on IJN ship, WWII nr. NSA350515
North Star Models, IJN Pilots WW2, nr. NSA 350516

















Again I resort to North Star to populate this build. They had some delivery problems but after two months the order came through.

I also acquired two books described on this site.

IJN Aircraft Carrier Shokaku Class, Gakken Pictorial Books Rekishi-Gunzo Nr. 13 (1997)
Shokaku Zuikaku, Monografie Morskie Nr. 3, Miroslaw Skwiot (1980)











The Gakken book could be bought quite cheaply from a Japanese seller. Being written exclusively in Japanese makes it very hard to get some explanation for some of the beautiful pictures and schemes in the book. It has a great series of pictures from a 1/100 museum model of Zuikaku, that could come in handy studying details while showing an early war evocation of the ship. I did a lengthy attempt to translate the technical part of the ship, using the same method as described above, but with little useful result.











This will be easier in the Morskie publication, because I can type short bits of text straight out of the book into the translation app.

In a subsequent posting I will describe the ship's history before making a start to this build. Today I also bought the specific Mr. Hobby Aqueous numbers to paint the camo.

Just subscribed, this will be a great build to follow

Daniele

Thanks, Daniele! Everybody welcome. As promised, some historic pictures of Zuikaku.



Operations on deck of Zuikaku.



Zuikaku shortly after commission.



Bow anchor is lifted.



127mm guns.



Japanese ships under attack, among them Zuikaku.



Preparation of air raid at the Solomons.



A video shot of the bow by one of the starting airplanes of Zuikaku.



Zuikaku in a new camo scheme.







Battle of Cape Engano, with Zuikaku in the crosshair.



The crew is assembled on deck of the listing Zukaku. At right one of the removable 25mm guns.



A last Banzai is performed.



Munitions were rolled of the listing deck.



Admiral Ozawa transfered off Zuikaku to the light cruiser Oyodo.



Picture of Zuikaku under attack.

And, we're off..........................

This will be a ton of fun to follow, for me.

This Fujimi kit is supposed to come with late war aircraft. No matter, as you've got the superior Hasegawa set.

Thanks, Dan! When I get to the airwing, there will be a comparison between the planes. If they are useful they might be incorporated in the hangar when one gets built. I just assumed an analysis of a colleague shipbuilder who pointed this out to me and had built Japanese stuff before. I wouldn't see the difference yet.

This will be very nice! You've got your hands full that's for sure!

Thank you, Joe! Just finished another project today, to make some room for the Zuikaku. Not as many AA guns, but still...

We're leaving port now.



First the bow elevator is improved. It shouldn't have a wall surrounding the elevator floor, this was made to simplify the casting for the elevator well. I'm removing the excess walls.



The windbreak PE is quite impressive, but the plastic parts are hard to clean up.



The fit of the PE is great.



This plate will serve to level the deck to the windbreak when the wood is added.



With the help of the Morskie book the hangar deck interior is duplicated.



Like this, there will be at least one hangar deck visible from the upside.



A bit of putty will have to be used. I had to recut the elevator system a bit, there is apparently a 1/700 upgrade kit but I didn't find it on 1/350.

Nice.

I don't know how how far you are going on accuracy, but let me give you an FYI on the kit's hangar deck height. They're actually not high enough. Each hangar deck should be 13-14mm high. That's why I ended up scratch-building them for Hiryu.

I found out already, Dan. I dismantled the deck on the last pictures because I discovered I had a complete photo-etch elevator floor in the Shipyard set. Then I compared to the Morskie cutaway plans and saw that I should expand the hangar deck. Now I'm going to build it full depth with two floors. I also replaced the PE windbreak with the Shipyard one, that is less shallow.

Great, two 1/350 IJN carrier builds at the same time here!
I will follow this one with great interest too.

Judging by the rocket launchers, I guess you will build her at the end of the war with the green camo?
In that case, I would advice against using any of the existing colour profiles or plans. As you can see, the different drawings in your first post already show big differences. Also, I wouldn't be too sure that brown was used as one of the camo colours, or part of the wooden decking was left unpainted. The colour images of any camouflaged carrier I have seen so far don't seem to show this at all, so I'm inclined to believe they were painted in three green tones:
- a very light green: on hull and flight deck
- a medium green: on the flight deck, and in the shape of a smaller vessel on the side of the hull
- a very dark green: only on the flight deck

I don't think the greyish green for the top surfaces is correct in this image. I think it should be the same light green as the hull sides:


But I'm sure Dan can provide much more and more accurate info on this.

In any case, I would advise to study the (few) available pics of Zuikaku herself carefully for the camo pattern and go from there.
You should have plenty of time for that during the construction phase...

Thanks for the tip, Marijn. I assume that some of the more intricate camo scheme elements refer to a picture made of Zuiho.



But I do not consider the Morskie plan as more correct. Like you say, the photos have to be studied carefully. The top view shows more arrow elements than replicated on their deck drawing, some of them provided in the masking set (the front 2 lines for example, visible more clearly in the fly-by picture). But it shows none of the landing stripes they added other than a visibly interrupted centerline.



It's equally possible that in the next few years the wreck is found somewhere upright with some of the debatable areas still visible. But probably we'll never know.

Now over to some work I've done, or I should say undone. First a measurement for those who have not seen the kit for real.



The true dimensions appear when the hull is assembled.





Two of the front compartiments are hollowed out to make room for two hangar decks.



I should have put the Shipyard parts right near the Fujimi PE, then I'd have seen that it had much better elevator and windbreak details. The casing for the windbreak is completely brass, allowing me to jettison the shallow and pinmarked Fujimi one. It even has more girders and side perforations.



It looks good from all sides now:







Like Dan said, the decks needed to be made deeper. But there exists little on the net to imagine the inside of an IJN elevator mechanism. I had to copy some 1/700 Rainbow elevator sets, a pity they don't exist at 1/350.



I could build this in styrene if I disassembled the Fujimi elevator well.



So I only kept the partitioning in the well undersides. Then I added the PE elevator floor and made the second hangar deck with in the center a slot for the floor.



I was able to curb this to get it in the partition holes. I added two struts so the elevator could not be punched through.



The upper deck is a dry-fit, to make painting possible.



This is already much beter than what had before, none the less because of the Shipyard elevator edge.



The elevator well walls are lined out correctly against the platform.



The pillars near the platform are made from I-beams.





I think with some additions this will serve.

It looks good, Steven.

FWIW, I did a great deal of research for my Taiho and Hiryu wells. The documentation is a little sparse, and there is some variation betweeen types, but I feel that what I have created for my 1/350 Hiryu remains a fairly accurate representation of the wells themselves.

Even this diagram for Junyo doesn't match 100% the reality. There are large support pillars beyond the guide rails at each corner that seem to help anchor the whole shaft where it meets the hangar decks.

The camo discussion can be discussed as that time gets closer.

Hello Steven and Dan,

For my Amagi, I also had to construct part of the elevator wells. In addition to the Junyo pic, I found these 2 pics of Kasagi useful too:





And zooming in on the last pic:






Steven, the verticals you have constructed are the guide-rails for the counterweights (the rectangular blocks in between them in the first pic). To their left and right (towards bow and stern), there were support pillars to anchor the elevators at their 4 corners as Dan explained.



The other photo shows that the exact location of these varied, even in one ship, as did the finishing towards the flight deck. I think this was at least partly because of the varying shapes of the elevators: the counterweight guide rails and support pillars can only be located where the elevators are at maximal width.

Anyway, great work on the elevator wells so far Steven!
But one more thing: as you see on the pics, you will need to add a solid wall behind the mechanism too, and counterweights between their rails. When the elevators were down, these counterweights were up and thus visible. They were attached at the top with cables.

That is correct Dan. But it is too much fun to wait…

So I couldn’t stop myself from looking at the photo’s and trying to propose a first interpretation, based on this photo:



This is how far I got:



You see, I agree with some of the ideas you already had Steven, like the extra dark arrow shapes midships and close to the stern.

At first I was not sure about the two dark arrow ships near the bow (number 1), thinking that the division might be an optical illusion and it was maybe only one. But this photo shows two arrow shapes too, and pretty clearly I think:



Midships on this photo, I think I also see darks stripes both to the front and rear of the light stripe. But this is less clear…
The elevators appear very light too, but this might be due to different light reflection on different materials? On the overhead shot, the central elevator does look lighter too (maybe the aft one too?), but the front one doesn’t, at least to my eye.

While writing this, I now think the dark stripe I added between island and bow is wrong. I think this is simply the windbreak cover looking darker because of its different texture, but it was also painted in mid green.

The zone that I indicated with ‘2’ is not correct I’m sure.
I think the narrow stripes are the result of sunlight filtering through the smoke. But these obscure the camo in this location so I just kept it simple for now…
This cropped photo shows that there must have been something more elaborate in this area instead:



But unfortunately it is not very clear, and I haven’t yet tried to incorporate this into my preliminary interpretation.
Still work in progress…

The strange mast shadow may indeed be something else, but to me it does look like a shadow, judging by its darkness and orientation.

Marijn and Dan, thank you for the nice elevator illustrations, I get a better understanding of it now. Marijn, I agree with the extra lines and I hadn't mentioned the windbreak because I had just put it there. But on the last picture you made an error, you got the deck upside down. This is visible at the stern port side dark arrow point I mentioned earlier. So the stern is down on the picture and the zone you indicated would be on the left. That makes some things more clear that were obscured on the large picture, like the light backward-pointing arrow before the dark one.

I also see a sound base for the "grill shapes" on the picture taken backwards from the plane. If you look carefully next to the rudder of that plane, you see the dark lines crossing the deck marking stripes. Another grill is visible on the bow elevator floor on your color picture. Therefore I'll go with the masking.

Lovely work on the elevator, Steven.

To digress a little into minutiae on the references.



Dan, could this mismatch come from the diagram being titled "Chiyoda forward elevator"? Or have you found that the diagram was mis-titled (or am I missing something else)?

Marijn, could the "strange shape for a mast shadow" come from the ensign flying from that mast? The smoke makes me think that the wind is blowing in a direction that would spread the ensign in that direction, and the type 13 radar on the mast would make its shadow a bit "thicker".

Thanks for sharing all of this
George

Some quick comments, though not about the camo (yet):

I would caution against placing too much reliance on the appearance of the elevator wells from the CVLs. They were typically placed at the far ends of the hangar (also like Taiho) deck, with one end running up against a bulkhead. So, for some reason, as often as not, there is a certain assymmetry to the underlying support structures. See the Shoho pics below. The CVs had one or more elevators that opened onto a hangar deck on either side, necessitating a stronger supportive structure where the hangar and flight decks interfaced with the well.

The diagram above is from the Gran Prix Shuppan volume on the IJN CVs, and is is definitely for Junyo.

Regarding the mast shadow in that overhead pic:

I believe it is a shadow, given that Zuikaku's island throws a shadow in the same direction. Note that Zuikaku's yardarms had been re-arranged after a bomb hit damaged the mast at the Phillipine Sea. Where as the yardarms had originaly been horizontal and perpendicular to the axis of the ship, they were subsequently angled back and slightly upward, in the same manner as that of the Unryus. This would account for the dogleg shadow, along with a flag. and the Type 13 radar up there.