VeryFire 1/350 Takao 1944 (高雄)

[Dan K]

Thx!

Continuing on – I installed guy wires to support the RDF loop, added more voices tubes, and used gold paint to depict the brass openings of those tubes. It’s not evident in all these photos but, I eventually did paint all the binocular lens with semi-gloss black . They looked too plain, otherwise.

I also began adding paint to the rails to mimic canvas covers, I used a new custom mix that’s a little off in color in these photos. Unfortunately, the paint did not flow properly around the radio equipment boxes on those small wings. So, I had to carefully remove both the equipment boxes plus one 110cm searchlight controller. The controller was glued on using CA, so I had to apply debonder from underneath after drilling a hole up through the bottom of the platform. It worked, T-G.

Eventually, I re-applied paint after cleaning these areas up and gluing those parts back on. It all worked out.

[Dan K]

The bridge is posed with levels together. The bottom two levels have been glued together, but I’m leaving the upper, Sokuteki deck separate until after the foremast and rigging is installed. I also installed flag bag enclosures formed from excess railings on the next level down.

I can see that few touch-ups are still needed.

[Joe Simon]

She looks great Dan!

[ModelMonkey]

Superb.

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[Dan K]

Thanks so much, gents.

I’m still waiting on the new 01 deck PE parts, so I will hold off on finishing the lower front face of the bridge. I began working on the other structures that will be placed on the 01 deck. I started with the auxiliary command and steering tower, located aft.

This is the backup for the bridge, and it includes another Type 94 Main gun director atop the tower. This location is common among the IJN heavy cruisers and usually gets little attention in most models, particularly in 1/700 where many depictions don’t realize that the position is lined with windows, not intake or exhaust vents with grill covers.

[Dan K]

Both Aoshima and Veryfire show molded in window frames for this location, which is good. Veryfire has done a reasonably good job of it but, given how the tower is constructed, they deleted the frame on either side of the tower that actually faces aft. This is also true of the Aoshima version. I decided to open them up and install a proper bridge deck. I drilled and carved open the molded windows areas and installed window framing. I added an internal deck, compass binnacle and a pair of search binoculars.

[Dan K]

The tower was topped with another Type 94 Main battery director Two pairs of bandstands for triple 25MM AA mounts on either side were erected as well. The graininess of some of the photos notwithstanding, I’m happy with the result.

[Dan K]

However, I did not realize until afterward that there may be an intake grill missing from the base of the tower on the port side. Which is odd, since these type arrangements tend to be symmetrical. (Note: The Aoshima kit has a symmetrical arrangement.) Documentation is sparse on this point. I just scratch-built a version of this, pretty much freehand.

[MartinJQuinn]

She is looking sharp

[SG1]

Great job with that grill and tower window frames, Dan!
Are you going to recreate the windows'glass as well? I've seen recently some excellent glass rendering on a 1/144 Flower Class corvette made with thin transparent acetate from the packaging of Tamiya masking tape. Result was great, though on a bigger scale than your Takao

[Dan K]

No, I think I'll be leaving well enough alone. I also suspect that once I flat coat the model, the window "glass" would no longer be clear.

I forgot to show any finished images of the second grill.

[Dan K]

There was an additional support truss that was placed under #1 funnel, further aft the intake grills. It was also used as the anchor points for the rear legs of the original foremast. When Takao and Atago were modernized in 1938, the bases of the rear legs of the new foremast were mounted ahead of this truss.

[Dan K]

Know that the kit part is much simplified and that the PE parts are much more realistic. However, neither part can fit in the allotted area under the funnel with the funnel grab rail PE attached. Or, by following the assembly order implied by the kit instructions. It might work if the truss and vents under the funnel were attached to the deck first, but then the other truss forward of the vents won’t fit properly under the funnel without much sanding away of the funnel underside.

After much thought, my solution was cut the truss wings off the center and attach them to the deck outside the funnel after the funnel is glued in place. The inside section does not fit under the funnel on its own and I left it out. One would never be able to tell.

Here, everything is just placed for show. The last photo shows placement of an AA bandstand support in front of the trestle, just to make sure there’s clearance.

[Dan K]

There’s also a pair of searchlight towers that nests between the AA bandstands.

[Dan K]

Next came the perforated, raised walkways that link all the AA, FC directors and raised searchlight positions that surround the funnels. Plus, a deckhouse that sits astride the platform that was used to house the additional AA crews. This was a very challenging step. Before I began, I drilled out some portholes for ventilation, as the real thing would not have been without them.

[Dan K]

I’ll try to be concise about my efforts here, and hopefully the photos will illustrate better what I am explaining. The deckhouse is slightly oversized and does not fit properly, at least fore and aft between the funnels, particularly if one has added the PE handrails to the aft funnel.

This impediment did not become obvious until repeated fittings and adjustments revealed itself. I had used the provided locator holes to position the deck house, yet it didn’t fit quite right. Even removing the deckhouse and repositioning it didn’t work. I resolved the situation by filing away the leading bottom edge of the deck house so that it sloped upward at an angle that matched the rear of the truss supporting the forward funnel. Beyond that, I had to trim away the interior brass edges/margins of the platform where it wrapped around that same truss.

It took me a couple of days to work this all out, and it was………..vexing, to put it mildly.

[Devin]

Impressive work. That's a lot of PE!

[SG1]

I second that. Outstanding so far. Looking forward to see the perforated walkways painted

[Vladi]

Fantastic, Dan, fingers crossed!

[Dan K]

Thx, all.

There’s one last plot complication prior to painting these parts. There are two, parallel, squared cross-sectional ( as opposed to tube-like) structures running fore and aft under the perforated decks. These structures appeared with the reconstructed Takao and Atago; they did not exist aboard Chokai or Maya. It’s not entirely clear what these were used for, though the AOTS Takao book identifies these as air intakes (#11).