The Ship Model Forum

Hello all,
Just thought I'd share a few pics of the ship I'm working on. I have always liked the Mikasa, with it's knife like bow. Very cool and different looking ship. It's been fun to build although the Pontos set docs leave much to be desired. Definitely not for beginners! And you must be a mind reader!

That's a lovely looking model that you're building there, I agree whole heartedly that Ponto's instructions (lack off) leave much to be desired. It may work for a small PE set but not for the larger kits out there which although excellent for the hardcore modeler aren't for the feint hearted..

Keep up the good work, an excellent looking build..

Pete

I can also agree to that, looking up to a complicated one myself (USS Independence deck). But you're pulling it off marvellously, it seems!

Thanks for the kind words guys. I will post more later. It's really tough to build a non camouflaged un-weathered ship because there is nothing to hide your imperfections, especially when you're using white. Pain in the ass! I did coat the brass with clear to avoid tarnishing. Other work that I have done where I didn't coat the brass and didn't paint it, now looks totally tarnished brown, which would be fine if the rest of the model was weathered.
I like to show off the brass.
Onward...

Tonight I did the tedious porthole work. The Mikasa is the first model where I have seen such unusual portholes, with bars that open and close. Very cool looking. I wasn't sure if I should "glaze" the windows, so I decided to glace the bottom row, but not the top. I also decided to use the "barred portholes" on the bottom row.
Here is the glazing:
And here are the portholes both top and bottom.
As you can see, you can no longer see the glazing after installing the barred ones! Total waste of time.
Oh well.
Onward...

Tonight I worked on the side cannon covers. Very tedious. Again, instructions of little help. They have very tiny contact points for the glue so I'm sure I'll be re-gluing most of them from knocking them off. Hope you like how they look.

A small update.
When I started this "build", I had already done many things. I didn't really think of doing this, but it seems 2 people are interested, so this is for them haha.

Progress report. Added the large structures. Added some railings and small details that I was holding off to add to minimize damage.

Quick update. I'm actually almost finished but have not taken many pictures. Included here are just 2. One of the pretty stern, and the other of all the babies on the ship. Hope you like it.

Good stuff, coming along nicely!

Thank you LS.
I sincerely appreciate the comment.

Really intricate work, very impressive!

Cheers, Tom

Thanks Tom!
Well, I can't call it finished because I'm leaving the masts and the torpedo net out until I get the enclosure done. They are too fragile to handle the ship during mounting on the base, so I'll wait until then to officially call it "finished". After the enclosure is done, it will need cleaning from all the handling, the masts, the torpedo net, the flags, possibly some rigging, and all the things that fall off reattached. But this is it sans masts and torpedo net:

Absolutely beautiful work! All of that brass really sets it off.

Cheers, Tom

That is some very sharp work!

If I understand correctly, you paint the plastic, but leave the brass natural (protected by varnish)?
While I'm a 'fully weathered in diorama setting' guy for my own models, I can really appreciate the difficulty of pulling a 'clean' style model of as neatly as you did. And I think this style of presentation with the unpainted brass looks beautifull indeed!

Cheers,

Marijn

Thank you Marijn,
The first time I saw a PE set on a model, I was stunned. It was a model with bare brass and it made me go back to plastic. When I was young I used to build plastic ships, and one day I built a wooden ship and never looked back, until now. Plastic ship models without PE in my opinion, are just too simple. I love detail, so the detail of the wooden ships with all the rigging and planking really did it for me....until now!
I have seen many models with incredible PE work, but when they are painted, a lot of the detail just disappears for me. It doesn't stand out as much as bare brass, that draws you in and shows you just how intricate and fragile it is. For instance, the tiny ports. When they are painted, you have to look carefully to see that they are not molded. With brass, they are easily spotted and the amount of work is appreciated.
You are correct, I paint the plastic only.
I coated the brass with clear lacquer, but I'm already able to see some of the parts getting oxidation. I think eventually, they will all darken. I wish they wouldn't, but it's ok. In order to prevent that, I'd have to put lots of clear on the brass and then it would be visible.
Again, thanks much for your kind words. Ultimately, it's those words that keep us fueled.

I totally get your way of working Tobori, and there most certainly is a lot of beauty in the intricacy of the details in their own right, and in the materials used.

Bart Desseyn, a former member of our club (he moved on to another hobby, but I hope we will see him back building models one day, specialized in unpainted armour models clad in PE. He put a lot of effort in constructing everything as cleanly as possible, so the brass would look as beautiful as possible, even without any stains or scratches that wouldn't show under a coat of paint. Very difficult and a lot of work, but the results were stunning, and his work would always draw a lot of attention on our club stand at shows.
This is a little 1/35 panzer 1 of his: http://www.aber.net.pl/gallery,4,85.html
And I can say the photo's even really don't do it any justice!

Cheers,

Marijn

very lovely

its reminiscent of turn of the century builders models



JIM B

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Thanks Jim,
Very kind of you. Today I bought the glass to make the display case. Once I have the case done, I can proceed to install the masts, net, and button her up.
I'm now planning on working on the 1/200 Hood.

amazing!! well done!!