The Ship Model Forum

Thank you all for those comments. I really, really appreciate them.


even the "tail feathers" of the 'Kates' ailerons (was that painted or decals!!??)

Decals, Mario. One word of hard-earned advice – make sure your setting agent is fresh. Otherwise, you’ll be applying coats of setting solution forever……..

What material did you use for those white straps around the life boats beside the superstructure?

Those are simply cut from plain copy paper, but they’ve been coated with Liquitex matte medium. I do that more for a preservative than anything else, though the matte medium does help with gluing. The actual straps were thin; I see too many examples cut too wide. Also, they weren’t always white. Sometimes black or grey.

I'm guessing that there's a museum on Oahu--or somewhere in Japan--that would like this "pristine" look as much as you like to build them that way.

Hmm, interesting. I actually have no idea. Hopefully, it will be a while before I have to think about that.

what were the references you found most useful?

Good question. I’ve got a pretty deep IJN library, so I was able to draw on many sources. With that said, the new AOTS Hiryu book is surprisingly thorough and extremely well done. The only nitpick I had was with the absence of landing light arrays depicted on the starboard side. And, I know that is because available plans and photos don’t show them there, but the landing system needs arrays on both sides of the ship to work. I did not obtain this book until the build was about 2/3s done, but this is a great single volume resource.

The Kure Maritime Museum book on IJN CVs has good, large format photos of Hiryu on trial and fitting out, so that’s also helpful. I believe USNI is now publishing this series with captions in English.

I have two different sets of Hiryu plans (Hara Shobo and Kojinsha), but if one obtains the AOTS volume, these probably aren’t necessary.

This book is very pricey, but has good information on mechanisms and background. Some unique photos of various CVs: https://www.amazon.com/Aircraft-Carrier ... 8360041644



I'm still planning to add a few details.

A recent photo shoot did not produce many good photos, but here is one showing one of the Vals in the hangar.