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

[eraphael]

Yes, new investigations point that way.

[Mperor]

Has anyone seen Rolf's 1/72 Yamato in construction in the gallery?

I'm speechless - it's probably gonna be one of the most badass ships I've seen in a LONG while. I can't wait to see him finish his ship!

It absolutely looks amazing at this point already!

[eldergodlegend]

Good morning sirs,

I just bought this 1/350 scale Yamato from tamiya and would like to ask for some advice.

this is the first model i bought and try to assemble. I just wanna try new things and challenge myself. Any tips when building the Yamato?

[cplchanb]

well eldergodlegend,

first you gotta decide... do you want it to be a quick build or an accurate build.
The kit itself is a couple decades old so details are out of date compared to the other
1/350 ships that you can buy. if you decide to go accurate i suggest you start investing on
PE from gold medal models, lionroar and/or eduard as well as AOTS Yamato by Shulski.
Good luck!

[Guest]

well eldergodlegend,

first you gotta decide... do you want it to be a quick build or an accurate build.
The kit itself is a couple decades old so details are out of date compared to the other
1/350 ships that you can buy. if you decide to go accurate i suggest you start investing on
PE from gold medal models, lionroar and/or eduard as well as AOTS Yamato by Shulski.
Good luck!

actually i just want to finish it without ruining it. :)should i paint the parts first before attaching all the parts together? or the other way around? what would you suggest as the wooden plank? do i just paint it or buy something for it? im really newbie at this so forgive me for being stupid. :)

[cplchanb]

hmm...
it depends on what part...
ex: for the bridge you may want to glue on all the radar and directors onto the structure to ease painting
as for wooden deck...dont go planking if your a newbie...i suggest tat if you want to have real wood buy shinsegumi's wooden deck...but even that may be a bit tricky...so if your really new to this i suggest you just spray deck tan

[Guest]

hmm...
it depends on what part...
ex: for the bridge you may want to glue on all the radar and directors onto the structure to ease painting
as for wooden deck...dont go planking if your a newbie...i suggest tat if you want to have real wood buy shinsegumi's wooden deck...but even that may be a bit tricky...so if your really new to this i suggest you just spray deck tan

so its the same colors, i should use spray paints. as for the deck i should just spray paint it? ok. that helps alot. thanks. :)

hopefully i wont screw it up. :)

[bucketfoot-al]

Hi folks - I have added a couple of really nice colorized photos of the Yamato created by that IJN in Color blogger in Jpan - his work is truly awesome and his site is linked on my index page.

Anyhow, here are the links to the 2 new color photos - one of the Ten'ichi-go operation:

http://ultimatebattleshipyamatosite.tri ... 41?i=8&s=1

http://ultimatebattleshipyamatosite.tri ... 5?i=85&s=1

[cplchanb]

[sandman]

Hello Gents,

If you know more about the below picture, could you please indicate the original source for it?



This picture seems to indicate it was made in 1945, however, there are several differences between what is nowadays assumed to be the 1945 Yamato's appearance (for instance you might want to refer to the main mast that looks more like the �original� design � prior to the assumed 1944 refit), I almost start to question the authenticity of this picture.

Pretty much all the vertical ladders visible in this picture are located at a slightly different position. There also does not appear to be any external vertical reinforcements on the upper side of the low angle director / 10m range finder supporting tower. Doing also the geometric calculations, it appears that the open 25mm AA triple mounts (next to second auxiliary guns turret) are located significantly much closer to the superstructure than depicted in ATOS Yamato or 1/10 Kure model.

I will be more than happy to discuss these differences with you as soon as we conclude on the authenticity of the picture.

P.S. I don�t know where the idea of octagonal shape of the open 25mm AA triple mounts tub came from, as there is a good chance that someone was looking at a picture like this and took the deck�s railings for the edges of an octagon. Considering the shades on the tubs, they look pretty circular to me. But then again, the tub on top of 3rd main turret looks also circular despite the nowadays general assumption that those tubs are hexagons. I'm going to cry...

P.P.S. I'm working for some time now on customizing the 1/250 Yamato (ARII version of the kit) and I deeply regret the times when I was considering the Skulski�s ATOS the ultimate Yamato bible. Now I�m questioning pretty much everything and I admit that in the face of this void of historic evidence and abundance of contradictory information, I�m struggling to not give up to the temptation of inventing details for the simple reason they would look cool.

[Timmy C]

Something about that picture makes me think that it's a heavily-edited picture of a model. Maybe it's the really clean and unweathered hull.

[MartinJQuinn]

Something about that picture makes me think that it's a heavily-edited picture of a model. Maybe it's the really clean and unweathered hull.

I agree.

[bucketfoot-al]

I've wrestled with the authenticity of that photo myself. I am not concerned about the lack of weathering because the Yamato was painted every time she spent any amount of time in Kure. The details around the radars and superstructure seem awfully - well - detailed (but there are some awesome ship modelers out there!!) I was skeptical about the authenticity of the crew until I saw a photo of the Yamato at Truk and the crew members looked pretty similar on deck.

Now I will say one thing - the location of the open deck AA mounts adds weight to the authenticity of the photo.

For the !$%#@& time, the location, number, and shield-type of the open deck AA mounts on the 1/10 Kure museum is WRONG!! Every time I see that configuration with round buckets on otherwise superb models it makes me want to PULL MY HAIR OUT!!! Think outside the box guys!! Its not all that hard to custom-build the CORRECT shields to replace the buckets and re-arrange them in the correct positions!!!

The Kure model has some other inaccuracies; simply put, when it was built we did not know as much about the final deck configuration as we do now. The Japanese made exhaustive research prior to the 2005 Yamato film, and the fruit of that research (examination of the wreck, archive photos, interviews with survivors, discovery of plans of the Yamato (parts of them actually) in a warehouse here, in someone's attic there all contributed to the final and best rendition of the ship. I am in the process of DRILLING out the G_D 'buckets' on the deck of my Soar Arts 1/144 Yamato (which I pretty much had to break down and 70% rebuild due to shoddy workmanship and errors - but do not worry - I was not crazy to pay $6K for it - its not worth it, what with the lack of photoetch for the mast, crane and catapults, which are cheap plastic!!!) I got mine for a 'kit price' from a local 21st Century Toys warehouse that was being moved due to downsizing (Soar Arts makes a lot of their models, and gave them a finished 1/144 Yam some years back!)

If you doubt the latest rendition, you can go to my archive gallery and examine some of the rare aerial photos of the Yamato in March-April 1945. If you can identify a round bucket on deck I'll buy you a beer. The location of the deck guns is visible (actually their silhouettes) on the April 6th Noon recon photo and the March '45 bombing photo, confirming the new configuration. Also go to the Japanese final (best and newest) diagram of the Yam in April 1945. She actually had a few MORE deck guns than was thought - 24 turrets, 28 triple barrel open mounts, and 8 single mounts, plus the 2 twin-barrel .13 cals on teh superstructure). If you are skeptical, go to the aerial photos and I promise you you will see them - or their silhouettes, to be exact, on the March '45 bombing closeup and on the April 6th Recon photo. I particularly refer to the two additional rear flight deck AA mounts that are omitted from all the old Yamato models and plans.

The links to the photos in question on my Yamato website (click on the 'view full size image on right' - print out and compare the diagram also linked below to the to the photos and you will start seeing that the 'new' configuration is correct):

http://ultimatebattleshipyamatosite.tri ... 5?i=65&s=1

http://ultimatebattleshipyamatosite.tri ... 4?i=68&s=1

http://ultimatebattleshipyamatosite.tri ... ?i=111&s=1

[bucketfoot-al]

Additionally, the long and crescent-moon shaped rows of sandbags around the 2 deck mounted single AA .25 cals owards the rear of Turret #1 is clear as daylight on the April 7th 1945 photos - which obviously suggests the other 3 front deck AA triple mounts (on each side) being 'bumped back' to their 'new' positions,

See here (click view full size photo on right):

http://ultimatebattleshipyamatosite.tri ... 5?i=78&s=1

http://ultimatebattleshipyamatosite.tri ... 5?i=80&s=1

http://ultimatebattleshipyamatosite.tri ... 5?i=81&s=1

If you look at the large version of the last photo, you can actually SEE each one of the two single mounts behind the wall of sandbags; the triple mounts to the rear are sadly obscured by their own smoke from the firing AA guns (and perhaps by this point some may have been wiped out by bomb hits. The entire ship is writhing in the smoke from the firing AA .25 cals (in addition to the smoke from the fires) so it makes parts of it hard to make out. But the two front single AA mounts are there - clear as the nose on your face.

This confirms that the 'traditional' bucket arrangement with one 'bucket' being in the same spot as the two single AA mounts at the rear of turret #1 - is in error.

[bucketfoot-al]

Sandman - If you are concerned with the accuracy of the Yam deck arrangement for Ten-Go, I would recommend going through my Yamato Archive Library and also examining the 1/200 Nichimo Yam I made over the course of 2 years (and will be upgrading some more this Summer) - which is linked on my library as well.

I've spent 3 years now researching the Yamato (being a trained , though amateur, Historian didn't hurt) and I never ever take 'no' for an answer. So when I couldn't find something, I just kept researching elsewhere. Most of my info ultimately came from Japan, where, as you may know, this ship is worshipped like Texans revere the Alamo.

Therefore, if I may daresay, I doubt you will find any more up-to-date resource on the Yam on the web. This does not mean by a longshot that I necessarily got everything correct or have all the answers - but I've been on top of all new developments and keep following them closely, particularly as new books and info comes out in Japan.

I freely confess that the Yamato - and her story - is like crack to me (though being addicted to crack would probably be a cheaper habit!! ). As a Japanese historian put it - once you read the story of the Yamato, it becomes an obsession. Read the extensive excerpts from Yoshida's first-person memoir of her final mission that are interspersed under the photos on the site and you'll see what I mean.

[sandman]

Thank you Sir... I really appreciate by pointing me out to a reliable source of info.

I know what you mean about obsession. I built my first 1/200 Yamato back in high school (this was a scratch build based on a 1941 1/600 one page Yamato drawings from a magazine that also included a short history of the ship � I know, this was a stupid thing to attempt), I build my second one when I was about 25 (this was a customized 1/700 kit), and here I am at 38, attempting to build this ship again. I don�t know if this is going to be the last Yamato I�m going to build but for sure I will do my best to get it right this time.

[chuck]

Several things scream "MODEL!" at me.

1. The crewmen look 2 dimensional, like PE crewmen.

2. The row of ventilation holes for the boat compartment on the side of the hull is not straight. Furthermore the holes themselves look like mere indentations rather than actual openings. The base of indentation also seems too deeply recessed to be a deadlight closing off the opening.

3. The base of the 5 25mm triple turrets on midship hull sides don't line up. The 34d and 4th from the front look particularly croaked

4. The jackstays on the funnel, AA director base, and the tub of the aft most upper tier 5" AA gun look out of scale and therefore more conspicuous than seen in any verified photos of the real ship. The actual thinness of the jackstays relative to the tub of the 5" AA gun is well illustrated in several onboard photos of the Musashi, particularly the group portrait taken when Hirohito visited Musashi.

5. The ladder on the hull side leading down to the boat boom also seem to be croaked and overscale.

6. The railing on the foghorn platform near the funnel definitely looks way overscale. At this resolution real railings would be almost invisible against background sky.

7. The railing on top of the ventilation cowling at the base of the aft 6" barbette looks out of scale in a way typical of model railing made from thin wire glued together and then painted.

These are just the things I see that looks like flaws in the execution of the model. We could go over the picture with a fine toothed comb and see if all visible details do in fact agree with verified photos of the ship to make sure. So I suspect this is a photo of a fairly large scale model of the ship. The model is detailed, very good, but not perfect in execution.

There are many models of the Yamato in Japan that are very detailed, and contains very detailed representations of the radar, rigging, etc. Randomly open a Gekkan book on Yamato and you would find photos of different models showing conmparable amounts of detail as illustrated in this photo. So I do not think the level of detail shown in the photo suggests it is of the real ship rather than just one of the many detailed models of this ship.

[bucketfoot-al]

Hi Chuck - you noticed some of the same things that I did - and then some. As much as I wish that this photo was the real deal, I have to agree with you. If you enlarge it some of the sailors look like they are 'reproduced' at several different points of the deck. I'm gonna pull that photo from the website.

[chuck]

.

For the !$%#@& time, the location, number, and shield-type of the open deck AA mounts on the 1/10 Kure museum is WRONG!! Every time I see that configuration with round buckets on otherwise superb models it makes me want to PULL MY HAIR OUT!!! Think outside the box guys!! Its not all that hard to custom-build the CORRECT shields to replace the buckets and re-arrange them in the correct positions!!!

The Kure model has some other inaccuracies; simply put, when it was built we did not know as much about the final deck configuration as we do now. The Japanese made exhaustive research prior to the 2005 Yamato film, and the fruit of that research (examination of the wreck, archive photos, interviews with survivors, discovery of plans of the Yamato (parts of them actually) in a warehouse here, in someone's attic there all contributed to the final and best rendition of the ship.

Can we see the primary sources behind the research for 2005 Yamato film? Claiming a film about a historic event contains results of entirely new research is definitely a good way, but not always a truthful way, of making a splash and drumming up publicity for the film.

[bucketfoot-al]

Understand where you're coming from Chuck, and if I was in Japan and understood the language I would provide them.

However - ALL of the recent Japanese reconstructions - and there have been multiple models as well as books that I have seen (GAKKEN for example - of which I have the latest one) show the Yamato in the configuration shown in the 2005 film.