The Ship Model Forum

Plus:

The flight deck was given a coat of gray paint.

And another set of air intakes atop the same starboard sponson was replaced with a scratch-built version

Another update tomorrow……….

Next has been the replacement of all the molded-on trusses for the main battery and 25mm sponsons with brass versions. It’s been a laborious, boring process, and requires use of generic PE parts. Unlike Fujimi’s Shokaku/Zuikaku kits, or the new VeryFire Taiho kit, there’s no kit PE replacement trusses. I wasn’t counting on that.

Even the center posts on the 25mm sponsons had to be replaced with styrene rod; once the trusses were cut away, the remaining surfaces were unusuable.

I also replaced kit parts with Veteran Models resin search binoculars in the lookout position(s) . Didn’t even realize that I had them in the stash

That's going to be a good-looking Ship Dan.

Going to be?? It already looks way better than anything I have ever done and it's not even finished yet!

Following with great interest, always found the Hiryu to be one of those ugly but yet beautiful ships and have almost added one to the stash several times now.

Keep up the brilliant work!

Matt

_________________
In the yards right now:
USS Utah AG-16
On Hold
1/350 USS Portland CA-33 1942
1/350 Trumpeter Texas with a twist

Great work on improving the thick angle supports! Makes a big difference.

Thank you all for the comments.



Interesting. I never think of her as ugly. More purposeful and handsome, though not sleek like the Shokakus. The portside island placement is something I've gotten use to. It's all personal aesthetics. For instance, I find Akagi ugly in an ungainly, brutish sort of way.



I know you can go there. Think of it as a good reason to produce 3D printed elevator wells.

Huh, I didn't realize that two months have passed since the last update. There has been some progress on various fronts. The biggest hindrance is that both my airbrushes needed servicing and I sent them out over 6 weeks ago. They should have been back by now. In the meantime, I've worked on various aspects as far as I could without reaching a paint step.

Today, I'll post three. The first involves the large portions of the flight deck that are metal plated and painted gray. After painting, these areas looked particularly monotone in nature. While that can work in 1/700, it needs help in the larger 1/350 scale. To my eye, anyway.

I wasn't interested in weathering, per se, but something more in the way of highlights and surface delineation. I chose to use a very light wash. The experimentation phase took some time, but I eventually settled on a charcoal grey wash of artist oils. While the wash left the painted deck darker, it did not change the color tone, and I felt that was a better tradeoff. The original grey color can be seen on the unwashed elevator and on the round down area at the rear, which will eventually be coated in red and white striping. The wash also served to filled most tie-down holes and panel lines. I'll probably touch up the wind barrier for better uniformity.

After finishing, I added printed deck edge lights.

The next thing I did was install mid-level railings and replace the stainless steel kit PE braces for the 25mm AA mount struts with brass versions. (just a sample or two is shown.) The kit pieces were too short. I didn't install railings or platforms that are higher up as of yet because I anticipate at lot of handling when I am finally able to paint striping on the flight deck.

I also added PE to the funnels.

I also built some of the those PE platforms. A couple of these, and other, mesh platforms are quite challenging because Fujimi issued the railing portion as a separate piece. Such fun gluing the pieces together w/o clogging the PE mesh.

More to come.

Great work Dan!


I think it was a good choice to add the wash, for the reasons you stated. I think it balances the metal areas better with the wooden decking, which already had colour variation and shadows.

Washes are usually described as part of weathering. I think that originates from Sheperd Paine and Verlinden days, when heavy washes were indeed used to not only emphasize shadows but also create a 'dirty' look. But nowadays, washes are often used only for emphasizing shadows, while the dirt, grime, corrosion etc. is done with other techniques. I feel also on unweathered models, washes can help a lot for bringing out the detail and adding more depth to the paintjob.

Thanks, Marijn.

I have to agree that the wash helps a lot. I did touch up the wind palisade to better effect The edges are a little heavy; I will have to work those a bit.

After the wash, I moved on.

Since the Fujimi kit gives one the option of posing the radio masts in either an upright or horizontal position, I thought about the possibility of allowing the masts to retain that flexibility. Because of space considerations, I’ve always completed my 1/700 carriers with the masts in an upright position. This would be even more necessary with a 1/350 carrier. Still, the proper mast configuration for IJN flight operations is horizontal, and I thought it might be fun to have that configuration for occasional display. I am hoping that use of Lyrca line will place less strain on the masts, allowing them to retain their stance in either position.

So, I began toying with the mast bases by replacing their plastic pivot points with a brass rod axle. The plastic masts were replaced using the kit PE bases, and soldered brass rod for the vertical upright and yards. The uprights were soldered to their latticework bases. The layouts seemed to work.

(Edit: I forgot to mention that once the axles were in place, I had to cut away the plastic gearing and replace it with the kit PE version.)

The next challenge was how to lock the masts in place in either position. It took a while, but I realized that the kit pieces for the winches that raised and lowered the masts were the solution. They just needed some changes and to be re-positioned. (The kit designated placements for 3 of the 4 winches are improperly located as it is.)

I think the photos are self-explanatory as to how my mechanism works. The only change was trimming down the end of the brass rod that protrudes into the gearing.

The masts for the port side work as planned. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the starboard side. There’s too much play in the base of the aft mast, and the forward one has different issues. So, these will have to be glued in the vertical position after all. Bummer.

There is precedent for displaying a carrier with only one side lowered, per Soryu below.

Continuing on with assembly, I focused on the bridge island. My kit parts required a bit more sanding and adjustment than I would have expected. The compass bridge deck (i.e. navigation deck/pilot house) is empty, so I filled it with some search binoculars, compass binnacle and a simplistic chart table. The port side mesh platform was challenging because the railing must be attached separately.

Again, because of expected handling issues, I left the topmost level (bridge AA command level) unglued and unfinished.

The kit would have you install search binoculars on the small platforms fore and aft of the island structure, but these were actually 110cm searchlight directors. I used Veteran Model parts for those.

Really impressive work!

_________________
Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

Ship Model Gallery

Thx, M.

Scratch-built mainmast without instrumentation added. The kit PE does not come with a guy wire spreader for the mainmast, only for the four radio aerial. I had to raid a Flyhawk mast set and open up the central hole VERY carefully.

Wow... a Masterpiece comes alive before our very eyes.

Matt

_________________
In the yards right now:
USS Utah AG-16
On Hold
1/350 USS Portland CA-33 1942
1/350 Trumpeter Texas with a twist

Great work Dan!
The movable masts are most cleverly thought and executed, and the island just looks beautiful!

Very nice Dan!

Thanks, guys.

The main twin 12.7cm/40 cal. battery is finished. There are five open mounts and one enclosed, powered turret.

Before I began, I examined most of the 1/350 12.7cm mounts commercially available. Pictured below are (from left to right) Hasegawa, Fujimi, Fujimi with PE, Veteran Models, Very Fire, and Black Cat.

Of the styrene versions, Aoshima and Pit-Road are the least detailed, and I did not bother including them in the photo. The Hasegawa unit is slightly better, and Fujmi the best in regards to detail. However, the Fujimi barrels and recoil tube assembly fits very poorly into its mount, unlike the much better fitting Hasegawa unit. The Fujimi unit has to be filed down in spots in order to fit. The saving grace for Fujimi is the PE that supplied with the comprehensive kit fret(s) takes it a notch above the other styrene units. It becomes respectable with this addition.

Of the alternatives, the Veteran Models and Very Fire units are cast resin. They are more detailed & more accurate than styrene versions, and provide open gunlayer ports with spotting binoculars. Personally, I find the Very Fire units more to my liking: a sharper matt finish, a hair more detailed, and better PE. The Black Cat version is 3D printed, and simply amazing. It's the best of the best.

However, the Black Cat set only gives you two units for around $25, whereas the Very Fire set gives you six (and Veteran Models four, but that also comes with two Type 94 HA directors)