The Ship Model Forum

I added the rails and the ladders. After that started the integration of the deck. As you can see, even if the PE thickness is small some kind of a gap is still present, and a styrene strip will be added to the contour. First two pieces are ok, the other will follow...

Here is the PE foil of the aircraft deck, the biggest ever photoetched part I have used. About detail you can draw your own conclusions from the picture, about installation I have to say that fit on the plastic part is exceptional. When I glued it, it was anyway necessary to take care about the correct amount of superglue and the proper distribution. In the other picture a dry fit of the deck on the hull and here there is an issue, at least important for me. Since the thickness of the wooden deck is higher that the aircraft one, there is a step between the level of the two elements which are not flush. I need to figure out how to fix this...

Excellent progress!


You could of course glue thin plastic sheet under the entire deck to make up the thickness. But maybe that would create other problems?

Thanks for the advice, I have followed your indication with a small adaptation to the specific situation... it turned to be easier to glue the strip all along the edge of the hull. A nice outcome was that half-round part that I sized to fill the space under the third turret. This part has a double function to level the deck and to fill the space between the wooden deck and the turret column.

...and here is the installation. The purpose of that half-round styrene sheet is clearer in this picture. The deck is just positioned, if well pressed it becomes flush with the wooden one and overall, the look is quite pleasant. On the flight deck I have included the first details

Attached additional details on the flight deck: rails, grids and minor elements

The flight deck is complete! I was able to attach all the railings without damage and they should be quite straight and in the correct position. I used superglue, first a small amount just to fix one edge of the rail and after with a very (really very) fine stick microscopic drops of glue... Deck is now glued to the hull and alignment is fine for me

The other important event is my new and temporary workbench! As in the past my company moved me to Romania for a short period. I have found this arrangement which is very nice as far as the shelves on the wall, but so-so as far as the workbench itself.... a little bit too high that forces me to work not in a natural position

Beautiful sharp and clean work. Excellent!


Perfect solution, much simpler indeed!
I forgot I have used the exact same trick too, to compensate for sanding down the thickness of a flight deck: viewtopic.php?f=60&t=159615&hilit=amagi&start=80#p683295

Thank you very much, your build is really good!

I started working on the supports of the aircraft deck. Pontos PE is very nice, the parts are nicely engraved and there is a lot of detail. Once the parts are bent they fit perfectly. My first try was not very good because I put some glue and after I bent the part (difficult to foresee if the holes will fit) So, I changed the approach: first I bent the part and aligned the holes, after with a really very fine stick I put microscopic drops of superglue along the edge thus sealing the part. When I attached the support to the hull I put the glue only on the edge that fits in the groove of the PE plate. I avoided to put the glue on the downwards edge that is on contact with the hull since it was very difficult to clean the area...

The supports of the Aircraft deck are complete. I added also a ladder from Eduard set (some troubles to install it since it does not couple perfeclty with Pontos)

Several details on the deck have been installed, some of them are scratch build like the pipes which are real tubes 0.4 whit inner hole 0.2 and appear much better than the flat PE element. The small PE details of the hatch covers are from Eduard. Have to say that even if Pontos set is outstanding, there are some elements from Eduard that complete the whole. Of course, it is also possible to use only Eduard that is anyway quite extensive. After this step I can consider the hull complete: I will avoid installing the fine railings since currently I am in Romania and need within several months to return back home…so it will be not wise to install very delicate items!

I started working on the main turrets. About plastic parts except removing of the mould-in ladders the main work was to close from below the turrets and the lateral wings. The Pontos PE goes up quite easily but for the first time I had to face some more complex bending. Very interesting to notice that all railings have a marked grooves for the correct section to be bent. In the past I had some troubles with this aspect because it is VERY difficult to bend a railing at a sharp angle close to a vertical column and it is also VERY difficult to bend the railings the same since it is difficult to perform the bending exactly close to the vertical support
As far as the top platforms for the AA guns I have added some very small but good executed inner supports available from Eduard set

Still very sharp and clean work!

I also like how you don't settle for one update set, but combine the elements you can use from several sets, and scratchbuild what else needs improvement.

Thank you very much!

Meanwhile the turrets are now 100% complete and I tried also to install them just to have an idea of the final appearance. About railings I tried to use the smallest quantity of superglue and, as usual, I removed all excess. The idea is to have no trace at all of residual glue (or at least visible by naked eye)

Just beautiful work.

Thanks! this encourages me to go on with the work despite it is quite time consuming!

I started to work on the 15.5cm turrets NENDO SHIKI. After removing some mould-in ladders the main task was to close from below the turrets since they are quite high respect the main deck level. After I applied the basic PE elements and made a test of the nice brass turned guns from Pontos. About the rangefinders it is nice to point out that the kit part correctly depicts them different in size. Unfortunately, this is not true for the PE frame. So, it was necessary to use a generic PE set for the smaller frame. I had also to retouch the rangefinder itself with a micro burr to remove the material inside the frame, so to give a more realistic look

Nice job! It's coming along quickly.

Wow, supercool! keep up the excellent work!

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Thank you very much! Indeed here in Romania I have a lot of time for this project... not many other things to do when I came back from work

Meanwhile I was able to complete the 15.5cm turrets. I had really some problems with the more difficult PE parts since it was very demanding to attach them in the correct position. For the balcony for instance, I tried several times, and it was always not symmetric. So, I tried a new approach: with a very small adhesive tape I temporary fixed the PE part to the turret. Since this tape is flexible, I was able to adjust the part to match the correct position and only after that with a really tiny plastic filament I put several microscopic quantities of superglue in the required positions.
About the railings, it is virtually impossible to attach them with the first tentative, so here I started to position first the extremities close to some reference (like the vertical ladders). Once this part of the railing was firmly fixed to the turret, I was able to adjust the remaining part and to fix one by one the vertical supports trying to keep the whole symmetry.