Calling all Yamato (大和) and Musashi (武蔵) fans

[J. Soca]

yep stern names were painted off on almost ( i could say all ship ) but it wouldn't be accurate. there is a picture on Ballard's book " The lost ships of Guadalcanal" on which the wreck of destroyer Ayanami still has a white hiragana character visible at stern. it could be said by late 42 IJN ships still had names written on them, it's up to you if you want to add the name or not.

Jose

[bucketfoot-al]

I too have not seen any photo of the Yamato or Musashi with the name on the stern - except that there are no clear close-up photos of the stern of either ship. The best we have are two rear photos of the Yamato during running trials, but they are at an angle and so far away that you really can't tell if there's anything there. I chose to put the symbols on the stern of my 1/200 Nichimo Yamato simply because I thought it looked cool. But the damn sticker was a different color gray, so I had to put it on, carefully paint the gray on the sticker, then touch-up the white hiragana script. Being that I don't know Japanese, I think I did a good job there.

[bucketfoot-al]

Hello Gang.

Well, I've gone and done it. The Web's Ultimate Yamato/Musashi photo library is COMPLETED. There will be no more additions as I think I have exhausted the gold mines of archive photos.

Tonight, I added 17 new photos (including some truly amazing shots of the Yahagi during Ten-Go), and replaced 25 photos - including most of the Yamato Ten-Go photos - with higher quality, higher resolution versions.

I think you will be pleased.

Having completed my 'holy mission', I will now rest back and relax for awhile.

Cheers!

The site: http://ultimatebattleshipyamatosite.tri ... e_battles/

[DeathOfBlades]

Can I just ask what is the Musashi? is it like the yamato's sister ship or is it the 'super Yamato' (take from NF):

Yeah it is the sister ship of the Yamato. And it was also built with less AA emplacements than the Yamato. Musashi was the first to sink during the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea I believe.

[WI_Chris]

Maybe it's blasphemy, but I always liked the Musashi better than Yamato. I have built 2 models of her in the past and I have never built Yamato.

Chris

[Midway Junkie]

Hi all,
I'm not a navy guy so forgive my ignorance, please. I have the 1/200 Yamato and it has what appear to be portholes (with an annular ring) above the degaussing cable, and solid discs running the length of the hull below the degaussing cable. Are these supposed to represent "closed" portholes, access hatches or what? I have good resource material (AOTS, super-illustrated, 1/10 scale book, etc) yet I cannot figure this out. Any assistance is supremely appreciated. BTW, the molding of these items and the degausing cable is so "mushy" that I am in the process of removing all of it and replacing it with crisper stuff.
TIA
Mike

[bucketfoot-al]

Check out this CGI Masterpiece put together by a Polish Yamato fan:

[bucketfoot-al]

Right click on the photo and choose "view image" to see the entire shot in full size.

[eraphael]

during last sortie?
Haven't seen actual photos.
Thanks.

[richter111]

ok so the $64K question, the decks, what color in the end, soot covered wood? That seems to be what I have discovered

[bucketfoot-al]

ok so the $64K question, the decks, what color in the end, soot covered wood? That seems to be what I have discovered

For Operation 'Sho-Go' (Leyte Gulf in Oct 1944), Yamato's decks were painted a dark, almost black, gray color.

For Operation 'Ten-Go' (April 1945), her decks were painted a very light gray. The 2005 Japanese film Yamato depicts the deck as being a medium-light wood color. Either way you can't go wrong.

They were definitely NOT 'soot-covered', NOR did the ship have any rust color ANYWHERE. The Yamato was the flagship of the IJN, a national treasure, hardly ever in action, and REPAINTED EVERY TIME SHE WAS IN PORT FOR A FEW MONTHS. When she went down off Okinawa, she was every bit as gleaming as she had been 4 years earlier at her launching.

I say this because occasionally I'll see someone with a Yamato model showing reddish 'rust' in various places, and it makes me want to SCREAM!! This ship was THE crown jewel of the IJN. She was never neglected in ANY way, and her crews had better food than the crews of any other IJN ship except maybe the Musashi.

Here is a link to the page on my Yamato site to the latest Japanese diagram of Yamato's deck in April 1945 - pay particular attention to the number, location and shield type of the AA machine guns on the deck:

http://ultimatebattleshipyamatosite.tri ... ?i=112&s=1

Make sure you click on the 'view full size image' on the lower right of the photo.

[bucketfoot-al]

during last sortie?
Haven't seen actual photos.
Thanks.

Last sortie photos: Pages 5-7 of my Yamato/Musashi Archive photo gallery:

http://ultimatebattleshipyamatosite.tri ... e_battles/

[daveseas]

Outstanding!!!

It kind of put's you right there at the time of the battle, A bird's eye view!!!! Though I'm not sure if the Wildcats were involved in the raid.......


Good Job!

Regards
Dave

[bucketfoot-al]

Outstanding!!!

It kind of put's you right there at the time of the battle, A bird's eye view!!!! Though I'm not sure if the Wildcats were involved in the raid.......


Good Job!

Regards
Dave

Thanks Dave. It was a bit of a chore finding all those archive photos, but nothing compared to the 2 years it took to finalize my 1/200 Nichimo Yamato model. By then I was so deep into it, and so PO-d at the lack of photos available on the Internet of the Yam/Moose that I decided to do something about it. Searching the National Archives is expensive if you hire someone (I am not on the East Coast or I would have done it personally), but fortunately during the course of my research I discovered that in the late 1980s/early 1990s the Japanese sent legions of researchers to the National Archives to search for the photos of these two ships following the discovery of the Yamato wreck in 1989.

So I managed to secure them through Japanese sources.

Comments like yours make the effort worth it! Please send the link to whoever you know that is an IJN fan!!

Thank you.

Vlad

[Dan K]

Pics at Truk of Yamato and Musashi at anchor in 1943 show her as pretty weathered and, undoubtably, that would include rust.

[bucketfoot-al]

Pics at Truk of Yamato and Musashi at anchor in 1943 show her as pretty weathered and, undoubtably, that would include rust.

Well, not to be too cantankerous, but the photos you refer to are:

a. Black and white
b. Poor quality
c. Distant

Looking at the same photos I fail to arrive at the same conclusion - ie. I can't tell one way or another - (unless you have other pics, or of better quality, in which case I would BEG you to give them to me )

Even assuming you are correct, the Yamato WAS painted every time she was in Kure. She was in Kure from October 1944 until April 1945. The Japanese gave their port-bound crews PLENTY of drilling and other work to do while in port. And she was 'gussied-up' for Ten'ichigo. We know that the decks were repainted, and heck, they even painted the Chrysanthemum on her funnel. The Japanese were funny that way. I believe that Spurr's book will back me up.

The defense rests.

P.S. Am I correct in assuming you might have made a Yam model with weathering???

[Gilbert]

We know that the decks were repainted

Hi Vlad,

Congratulations for your website dedicated to Yamato . On Steel Navy message board we had, John Snyder, Al Torres and myself a debate about her deck colour during Ten-Go and we all agreed on the fact that she was more likely in her natural faded Hinoki Cypress colour, which turns to light grey. Could you please, tell us how you came to the conclusion of a light grey painted deck ? Any evidence would be very much appreciated.

Looking forward to your reply

Gilbert

[bucketfoot-al]

We know that the decks were repainted

Hi Vlad,

Congratulations for your website dedicated to Yamato . On Steel Navy message board we had, John Snyder, Al Torres and myself a debate about her deck colour during Ten-Go and we all agreed on the fact that she was more likely in her natural faded Hinoki Cypress colour, which turns to light grey. Could you please, tell us how you came to the conclusion of a light grey painted deck ? Any evidence would be very much appreciated.

Looking forward to your reply

Gilbert

Thank you Gilbert. Outside of the 2005 Yamato movie made on the 60th anniversary of her sinking (for which we know the fastidious Japanese did MEGA-research that corrected some deck details), I refer you to the following site which charts the changes in the Yamato & Musashi's superstructure and decks throughout the war. You can use Google to translate it (so-so quality machine translation), or just refer to the very last Yamato overhead deck diagram on the bottom of the page (Ten'ichigo configuration):

http://homepage1.nifty.com/watakan/yama ... to_aa.html

Here are the 4 Yam/Moose deck closeup diagrams. They are in the following order:

1. Yamato, June 1944
2. Musashi, June 1944
3. Yamato, October 1944
4. Musashi, October 1944
5. Yamato, April 1945

http://homepage1.nifty.com/watakan/yama ... ten_yamato

[Gilbert]

Thanks for this quick reply Vlad. I knew this site already and go there from time to time. Diagrams are very good and there is no doubt both Yamato and Musashi decks were stained in dark using soot stack for Sho-Go. Though, there is still for me a big question mark about Yamato deck colour - light grey yes, but looks the same as in A-Go in june 1944, therefore, couldn't it be just faded Hinoki Cypress tint instead of paint. Furthermore, there is no mention at all in "Requiem.." and Musashi books of painted decks for A-Go
You said Japanese had made a deep research for the movie, which is IMHO a great war movie, therefore, it would have been simple for them, with their addiction to sharp details, just to depict Yamato deck painted in light grey, but they selected to leave the deck in wood natural colour. As the wood was brand new, it appears in tan colour instead of the worn faded grey.

Thanks for your input but so far, I am still not convinced. By the way John @ wem will collect soon a Hinoki Cypress sample and will leave outside for a while to see how it turns to light grey. Hopefully, we'll have a better idea in a couple of years

cheers

Gilbert

[bucketfoot-al]

Hi Gilbert.

I love a perfectionist when it comes to getting the Yam right!!!

Personally I think you can't go wrong either way. I did mine using a light wood color because the contrast is well, prettier to look at. In any event, we KNOW that it was a light color in any event.

Good luck and let us know when its done so we can ogle the pictures!!

Vlad