It's been a while since I've posted a ship build, but there's a bit of a story to this one. I recently retired an old build of Fujimi's Taiho, that I was rather unhappy with. It left a gap on my shelf and Taiho is one of the most interesting and best looking carriers of the war. I initially tried to restore it but the paint wouldn't come off, so I went looking for a replacement. While asking around here how well the old Tamiya kit holds up (since these are much easier and cheaper to source where I live than Fujimi), I got contacted by Dan Kaplan, who very kindly offered me a Tamiya kit he made a start on years ago, plus a big bundle of spare etch parts designed for Fujimi's Taiho. A bit of transatlantic postage later, and here I am undoing some of Dan's hard work
This build is by nature a bit of a Frankestein project. The size and shape of the Tamiya kit is fine, but the details are lacking. Some of the correction work was started, the rest will be cobbled together as follows:
- Tamiya 1/700 Taiho kit
- selected parts from remnants of Artist Hobby Taiho super-set (intended for Fujimi)
- Artist Hobby Taiho deck set - again intended for Fujimi but fits the Tamiya surprisingly well
- a small PE fret designed for the Tamiya kit
- some scratchbuilding as appropriate
- cannibalised parts from my existing Taiho build
- anything I can find in the jungle that is my spares box that will fit and be an improvement over a kit part
I'm not aiming for the lofty heights of Dan's usual work, rather I am making targetted improvements where I feel it's most worth it, and where the parts I have allow. There will be a fair bit of unused PE when I'm done. Ultimately I want to set a realistic goal and get Taiho back on my shelf in state I can be proud of, but that won't take me until Christmas and fry too many brain cells.
So far, I have completed major work on the hull including replacing the sponson supports with plastic rod (Dan had already removed the molded on ones), and enclosing the aft starboard side boat tunnel. I have also filled and re-located the extreme bow/foredeck openings. I won't lose sleep over the one slightly further aft, but these are really obvious in pictures.
The bridge is one area where I did go (almost) all-out. I scratch-built the port side platform and sloping deck as per Dan's interpretation, and adapted as much PE as I could onto Tamiya's plastic. The starboard side funnel support structure and steam pipes are cannibalised.