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December is a busy month and I dont have time for battleships currently, so here come the little projects!

I wanna build a full hull battlecruiser from Flyhawk some day. As it is WL, I need to practice making FH using putty and some method that I like. So ...

... I picked up a Japanese tugger set in 1/700. A charming bit of kit, lots of tiny craft for dioramas, but 3 tugboats and an Oiler got my interest. I figured two tugs can be converted to English and German or something, while the oiler is a weird and cool auxiliary ship I could add next to my other Japanese navy projects.

This is my best reference - the box art


There is one in Japanese archive that chaps from CASF found (ca 1947)


I started off doing the kiel (this is my first ever full hull scratch, so ...)... and I give it a shape using just Mk 1 Eyeball and imagination. Awesome tools.


Next, I added the bulkheads (just square bits of styrene). I later painted the edges with a marker after they were sanded to shape to aid with sanding later on.


Using tamiya two part putty I have filled the gaps, sanded them to shape approximately resembling a hull and then used primer to highlight spots I need to fill with extra putty and sand some more.


A bit more sanding on the hull and I am adding superstructure bits and bobs. There are a whopping two of them - funnel and top of the forward structure. On there I added some hatches and windows using spare PE. I needs a bit of railings. I also put a rell on the stern, not may be historical but it livens things up a bit I reckon.


Now I wonder how more to detail it. Anyone has any more pics for me to make it better?

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That's really great work.

Sadly, I don;t have any references on this type auxiliary. I don't even know how big it was.

500 tonnes. 50m long. Small thing.

Here is my progress so far. I added to the ship a bunch of spare PE for detailing. Wont guarantee this is historical or any means. I dont know how Oilers work - there is a hose type setup that I copied from PE set for it from Five Star (near funnel). Ill paint the mid section bright orange, and keep the deck greyish wood. I think it will do. Hull might be some shape of IJN grey...

I added ladders and doors from my old HMS Hood leftover PE from FH, using also some hatch parts for recreating various superstructure points. Couple of portholes predrilled also on the structure. The forward anchor wenches are two combined deck wenches for IJN from resin from North Star, and an anchor chain from Flyhawk Ward kit. Rear structure windows made form a ladder fitted horizontally. I dont know again how accurate any of this is, but I hope it it works overall.


Perhaps I should consider adding those gousenecks /I see 6 of them in pairs. There seems also a pipe going along the deck - wonder if that is easy to recreate based on photos.

I fear to just make stuff that looks so unrealistic that is better to leave it undetailed - what do you think?


Before priming, with full hull visible (my interpretation anyway of a full hull on this ship, this is just imagination!)


Primed and ready for paint:


and with sense for the waterline appearance:



May be I can detail it further based on the only photo there is. Made this small diagram to show the intent.

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Nice work. Any little detail on these vessels makes it better. I made a copy of this same ship.



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Very nice take on the hull, thank you for sharing. Classic story, I have found this kit seemingly obscure and doing the project I thought was unique... Now Im coming across many people doing the same thing.

Here is my project's latest. I noticed on the picture that the pipe on deck was making a turn, so I routed it to the side like on picture. I dunno if this is real or not, but hey, Im just having fun with this! Some pipes and hoses laid around it, some spin handles, etc. The boat will go to the cradles on the starboard side with probably custom davits.

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Looks great. You might want to add some kind of fitting to the end of the large refueling pipe. Sort of as in the photo.

Good point Dan, I will fashion a funnel of sorts for the tip of the pipe, may be add a few more rotating handles here and there. All in all, the more complicated bits the better. I cant believe I bogged down into it so much but it is yet another fascinating subject I am learning about.

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My simplistic build continues, now I wonder how to paint the little guy.
Here it is currently - painted grey overall but ...


...I went with orange for the "tank".

I am thinking though if it would be better to paint the hull itself in another color - perhaps light blue as on box art, or may be black.

What do you guys think?

Any sources for how auxiliary oilers were painted?

Black version photoshop


May be green?


or darker grey?


Or perhaps blue as on box art?

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I would go with the dark gray hull and light gray upper works. Paint the deck a rust orange color! Just my 2 cents!!



BobPink

WHy the deck should be orange? I thought about it, mind!

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Nice project!

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Pascal

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A lot of IJN merchant and oilers with steel decks had rusty orange decks during the war.


BobPink

Thanks, glad you like!



This guy has wooden decking in plastic form, so I went with wood. Guess too late to repaint without causing me headaches, but it looks wood and I wont wanna remove planking also.

The color for the hull is dark grey-black. Basically a worn out black version, which I will weather significantly more, as I started only with pencils for now. Im also pretty happy that my full hull shenanigans worked out. The screw will come also a little later, I have not forgotten it.

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The little oiler was the last project of 2020 that I completed so thought it was worth sharing the final result.

Overall, it was a good test for me to scratch-build the lower hull and add a few details to something that is very crude out of the box.

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Very nice job

Daniele

Agreed. Very well done.

Thanks guys, my first foray into making my own lower hull in a tiny project worked out alright.

Of course, as it happens, having done this well Im actually thinking how to make my own sea base and build first WL model.

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