1/200 Pre dreadnought battleship IJN Mikasa after 1905

[Joelle]

Thank you both very much and thank you for the comforting words, Pascale.
Your little Mikasa turned out really fantastic. I am always fascinated when I see these tiny little masterpieces.

And off to the next etched part battle.
A lot of small boxes had to be bent and soldered. I also got a smaller bending aid, which makes such delicate things easier to handle.

The first error in Pontos� sentence is also quickly identified. The component of the box that is supposed to be attached to the front superstructure is unfortunately faulty. It would result in a box whose dimensions would not fit into the recess in the wooden decks. I checked the Pontos set what felt like a hundred times but unfortunately without success.
That�s why the KA sentence saved my butt.

The slightly simpler lid was underlaid with cut-up etched part gratings and glued to the original component of the model
Then brought to its position for inspection.

Little by little, the internal structures and boxes are made and collected in my printed organizers to be aged afterwards.

I made a few improvements to the winches.
The large one did have a small cabinet included, I think a distribution box and the drive for the winch, but without any structure on the outside. The little winch would even be complete without everything.
However, I found out in another forum that it could well be the case that the small winch did not have an electric drive. So I did a little handwork and gave the big winch hinges and a closer made of thin lead wire. The little one got an upright box that functions as a closet. I liked it better.

Still aging and with lead wire wrapped around the drum. I deliberately wrapped it layer by layer, not quite perfectly, to make it look more authentic.

Accomplished.

And so everything could get on deck.

[Joelle]

So your model maker.
It took a while to get going here, but I�m only slowly getting back up to speed.
I�m still very busy trying to get our family�s everyday life back to normal. But it will.

Next up were the 6 pounders. While trying out the cannons in their casemates, I had the feeling that something was wrong with their position in the kit. And this was confirmed to me by a user from the �Modelshipworld� forum.
The shots of the cannon body are incorrect.
In the first picture you can see that the axle is not at all in the middle of the casemate opening.

So I closed the original holes and created a new axle with a profile.

Made another spacer.

And the cannons can take their place.

I like it much better this way.

Now the pipe is where I think it belongs. There is a profile as a dummy in the opening.

And thanks to the spacers, it�s also great in the vertical position.

[pascalemod]

The joys of big scale. a lot to do, but also can cram so much cool details, Wonderful model to look at. I think your weathering of the grey is super.

[Joelle]

Thank you very much Pavel, I'm glad you like my paint.
The big scale thing is right, a blessing and a curse at the same time. You can see this very clearly in the following guns.
The QF 12 pounder 12 cwt naval gun. There are eight of these to build, with 14 individual parts per gun.

First I solder the gun barrel. Just holds up better.

The rest is then attached with superglue. What a fumble.

But as always with Pontos, fantastically detailed. Thats the blessing.

Painted and aged, they look so good.

I have to make eight more of these for the upper deck, sweat.

[SG1]

Amazing job with the artillery! Bravo

[johndon]

They look fantastic.

John

[MartinJQuinn]

Nice work repositioning the guns - they look better. Those QF guns are little kits by themselves - very detailed and very well done!

[Joelle]

Thank you for the comments.

We continue amidships with the deck above the casemates. I put the guns aside to concentrate on the next Pontos puzzle.
The deck is covered with two large brass pieces, which look fantastic and greatly improve the deck.
So far so good.
Above you can see various small parts that are missing from the deck. In addition, the first sailors will take their positions in places that would be difficult for me to reach later.

But to the new mystery of Pontus.
It�s about the coal hatches. I have already distributed 22 of them on the main deck. You have number 495.

As you may notice, these hatches can also be seen on the deck above. Only here they have the number 5xx. However, this number does not exist on the Pontos boards.

This time too I checked all the circuit boards several times. But I can only find the hatches with the number 495, which of course I installed completely.

Maybe someone who has already installed the Pontos set can give me a tip. I�m at a loss.
Of course I already have plan B, but I don�t want to carry it out until none of you can solve this puzzle for me.

[Joelle]

It�s become plan B.

I still have the etched parts set from KA Models. They also have coal hatches, but they are too small.

And I don�t use the 3 pounder guns from Pontos but the 3D printing from Micro Master.

So I have the too small hatches from KA and the lower flange of the Pontos guns. When put together, they create a fomidable coal hatch.

I�m really happy with that. And by the way, I put the deck together loosely. Fits perfectly even before sanding and looks really great.

[Joelle]

Let�s continuing.
The break lasted quite a long time. The reason: I had to make the remaining eight cannons.
It was a bit scary.

Nonetheless, I finally finished all 16 naval guns and am glad I don�t have to do any more.

And now I�ll show you the reason why I made all of them. A user in another forum pointed out to me that the guns were a little too high. That�s why I sanded down the carriage on the second slide a little so that they could look out of the middle of the opening.
The remaining eight will be distributed on the upper decks and it doesn�t matter.

Let�s move on to the next conversion. Again, I liked the MK set better than the one from Pontos. Since I will be showing all the gun port covers open, I thought the rope shown was very nice.
What I changed are the hinges. Since they fold down when open, I simply replaced them with a narrow piece of profile.

This is what it looks like for me. I used a slightly lighter grey to accentuate it.

And attached to the gun ports.
These are the first external structures. Since it is inevitable that the gun barrels will stick out here, I wanted to have them attached already.

And so the eight 12 pounders could take their place.

A few boxes are still missing.

And so I am quite happy with the position of the guns.

Now they urgently need the protection of my sheet pile wall. After applying the clear varnish, I will screw it to the dry dock tomorrow. I am curious to see if I will tear it down again before the construction is finished.

[Joelle]

Another litle update.
To protect my model from further harm, I wrapped it up nicely.



This should protect it pretty well from any carelessness on my part.

[Joelle]

On to the next construction phase.
The plan is to breathe a little life into the deck in the form of a crew. And this is where the next 3D print comes into play. This time I�m using the figures from ION Model, which I won in a competition with my Bismarck.
After an initial inspection, the quality is excellent.
Then I started looking for photos showing IJN sailors in their uniforms, like the following image:



Wow, much easier to paint than the DKM guys.

I had a few leftover Kriegsmarine sailors and wanted to use them to save on figures. The first ones were supposed to go behind the gun ports, where they�re almost invisible.
So I shaved his head and punched out flat caps from styrene. A small dot of superglue on the top hair, and the Japanese sailor is complete.



Painted and ready to go on deck.



To the cannon sailors, ahrrrrg�



Fire free�



And so the lid can go on.



And the deck portside.



Aged and found to be good.



You don�t see much of the figures, but that�s how it�s supposed to be. The hint of the sailors at work below deck adds depth to the whole thing.

[SG1]

Looking great! Outstanding in every respect. love the crewmembers!

[marijn van gils]

Those are some great guns and figures J�lle! Excellent paintwork!

[MartinJQuinn]

Really great work. The figures are a nice addition.

[Joelle]

Thanks to you.
Yes, the figures from ION-Modell are really great.

Let�s move on to the support structures that connect the boat deck and the internal superstructure.
I soldered these to ensure maximum strength for these delicate T-beams.



After testing it, everything seems to be fine.



Only this connection needs to be slightly adjusted. It�s only provided by Pontos; it�s simply missing from the original kit, and it would create a large gap. Therefore, there�s no offset for it in the model, and the length of the component needs to be exactly right to ensure proper attachment.



New sailors have taken up their duties.



Get to work with them immediately.



Spread nicely on the deck.
And thanks to Marijn van Gils, who gave a wonderful demonstration of how to make ropes from wire. Great tip.



Provisions have to go into the belly of the ship and the first sailors have to scrub the deck under the supervision of an officer.



A sailor climbs the ladder to search for the missing funnel.



Afterwards, I opened the dry dock again to see how it all looked through the gun ports.
I think it looks very lively.

[Dan K]

Most impressive work.

[JIM BAUMANN]

schoener und guter forschritt ! very sharp and edgy. ==> well done!--

here are some images of Gold Medal winner model of Mikasa 1/200 at Telford 2024 ( not mine )

Interesting presentation

MFG best wishes
Jim Baumann

[Joelle]

Thank you very much.
I know the ship. It's from a user on the "Model Ship World" forum.
Great model.

A new little update.
Continuing with the preparations for the next internal structures.
The MK set also clearly wins the race for the chimney stacks over the Pontos set.



The brass sleeves look excellent. Here too, Pontos had no improvement to offer for the original component.



I�m amazed at how well the MK set is performing. The extra expense was definitely worth it for me.



The fourth cradle for the pinnace has also been adapted and installed.



And so the boat can take its place.



Which brings me to my next dilemma. Micro Master�s boats look so incredibly good that I�m considering leaving the boat cover off.

[Joelle]

I did a little research in my archives and came across this picture of the Bismarck�s tenders amidships.



I then placed the rescue boat on its cradles and positioned it in the pinnace.
Liked it.