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

[Doug Hallet]

Hi Vlad, I thought some of his execution did not quite meet his goals, but there certainly are lessons to be learned from the build. Let's see if I can come up to that level myself, however. BTW, it looks like I will not be down in California before the end of the year. Send me your home address if you still want "it".

[Doug Hallet]

Another extremely well-done 1/700 Yamato with black decks and white markings on the Modelfleetcn.com site. It looks like word on the real final appearance of Yamato is finally getting around to modelers:

http://www.modelfleetcn.com/file/images ... o2_3b.html

Really, a virtually flawless build....

[bucketfoot-al]

I am amazed that there are people who can do THAT level of detail in 1/700 scale. My near-sighted eyes and big hands seem to get in my way - had enough trouble with the 1/200 Nichimo. (Then again, I am not technically a ship modeler - that Nichimo was the first model ship I built in over 30 years.)

*EDIT* - the rear exterior flight deck AAA mounts are there - they are just missing the sand bags. My bad (eyes.)

Its an absolutely amazing build-up, I agree.

[Atma]

One more amazing Yamato in 1/200, check this "diamond":http://www.teikokukoubou.com/gallery/yamamto/top1.html

[WilliamBowden]

Ok, so I have been bitten by the "Gotta build a big bad Yamato" bug, and I have a few quick questions so that I can put forth a decent effort.

1) What's the correct gray for Yamato circa 1945? Is it Kure Arsenal gray like many IJN ships?

2) Are there any glaring mistakes in the Tamiya kit? For example, any pieces of superstructure missing or things in the wrong place, severe lack of detail in places?

3) What's the quality and accuracy of the lionroar PE super set? I may opt for this one instead of the white ensign set if it's comparable.

Thanks!
-William

[Doug Hallet]

William, I'm assuming you're talking about the 1/350 kit. To answer your questions,
1. Kure gray is fine but the decks were painted/weathered to a dark gray-black by the time of the 4/45 sortie. See the link earlier on page 43 for an example.
2. The Tamiya kit has an enormous number of inaccuracies, too numerous to mention here. If this doesn't bother you, it will build into a nice kit as-is.
3. The new Lionroar revised set (the one released this year) is absolutely stunning and an absolute must if you want to get as accurate a kit as possible. I've submitted a review of the set which should be appearing on this site within the near future, so stay tuned for an in-depth analysis of it. I also have the WEM set and although it is nice, there is no comparison.
Cheers, Doug

[WilliamBowden]

Yes I did mean the 1/350, sorry for not mentioning that.

I was afraid there would be a huge number of inaccuracies, but I'll see what I can do. I was going to pick up Steve Wiper's book as a guide, but I'll probably end up doing a fantasy Yamato rather than going for 100% historical accuracy. As for the PE, it looks like the lionroar set is a winner, so I'll be picking that one up (the revised one of course).

Thanks for the tips!
-William

[Doug Hallet]

Bill, you would be better served with either the Skulski book or "Super Illustrated Yamato" (from Japan) as guides. The Wiper book prominently features completed kits by modelers who did not necessarily address all of the corrections. The new Lionroar set will give you most everything you need to do this. Just make sure you are buying the "2010" new release set, not the "2006" version. Unfortunately, no one has yet to post pictures of a kit using it, other than Lionroar's test shots.

[WilliamBowden]

Thanks for the tips Doug. I'll be sure to get the right PE set! Hopefully the 2010 set does contain everything I'll need; it beats having to scratch build a lot. I had to do a good bit for the Tamiya Bismarck and I still left a good many things untouched. But that's a different animal all together.

I'm going to bastardize the ship anyway because I'm going to have the planes on it even though (according to what I've been told) there were no planes when the ship was outfitted for 10-go in '45. And the Tamiya kit has the additional AA mounts on the deck that were installed prior to 10-go. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks,
William

[bucketfoot-al]

Hi William.

It is a common misconception that Yamato did not carry planes when she set off on her final mission (Operation Ten-ichi-go); In fact she did carry her planes, and then sent them home after Yamato made it out of the Bungo straits (they were there the first afternoon for anti-sub recon.) So she didn't carry the planes INTO BATTLE on April 7th, but she DID carry them initially for the afternoon of April 6th (Noon til around dusk.)

Additionally, the crane tower was removed (it partly obstructed the firing radius of main turret #3), as can be clearly seen on a number of action stills from USN planes' gun camera footage (see my website.) This did not affect the operation of the crane arm, which was fully functional without the tower, so it did not affect her ability to ferry her float planes around ....

Vlad

[bucketfoot-al]

William - one more thing - I don't believe that the Tamiya kit has all of the deck-mounted triple-barrel AA machine guns. You can refer to the diagram towards the end of my Yamato photo archive for a look at the final configuration of the deck AA guns based on the most recent Japanese research. That's if you want to go through the trouble of building, or casting, the missing mounts.....

[Doug Hallet]

Vlad, The new Lionroar set does include shields and guns for all the additional 25 mm open deck mounts per current reckoning, in the correct semi-hexagonal shapes. The only thing you'll need to scratch-build are the sandbags. My take on the seaplanes is that they would not have been present while the ship was at anchor, as they would have been landed and assigned to the base commander for maintenance and possible use until just before the sortie. If they were loaded for the sortie, they would have all been located on deck, rather than in the hangar, and probably never on the catapults until immediately prior to launch.

[bucketfoot-al]

Wow Doug - makes me want to take a peek at that Lionroar set myself.

Your hypothesis makes sense re: the planes, especially as they flew home after the first day .... the pilots (according to Yoshida) desperately argued to be allowed to stay so they could fight (and die) with their shipmates, but to no avail .... not so one of the two planes from Yahagi, which developed engine trouble and could not be launched ... don't know if the pilot survived the battle, but he at least got his wish ...

[Atma]

William - one more thing - I don't believe that the Tamiya kit has all of the deck-mounted triple-barrel AA machine guns. You can refer to the diagram towards the end of my Yamato photo archive for a look at the final configuration of the deck AA guns based on the most recent Japanese research. That's if you want to go through the trouble of building, or casting, the missing mounts.....

Deifinetly the Tamiya and (especially, wich I know that particular kit like the palm of my hand) Fujimi's Yamato (and Musashi) kits have all the triple deck-mounted AA machine guns. Both of them too also have the 2 kind of shielded triple-barrel AA machine guns. that was used. They both miss the single ones.
Eidt:Im talking about the 1/700 ones.

[Atma]

Btw, I just recieved the 1/500 Yamato from Fujimi, amazing casting and the size is just perfect, give it a try if you want a Yamato (Or Musashi). Just whole new level better than the old 1/350 variant.

[Doug Hallet]

From what I've seen of the casting, it certainly is the most "state-of-the-art" kit available of Yamato. You'll need to purchase the PE (produced only by Fujimi) to get it up to snuff, however, so your total cost (not including the laser cut deck, is going to be ca. $300. The Tamiya kit with the new Lionroar set will get you to a similar level of detail for around $200, for the much larger 1/350 scale. Admittedly, you will not have to deal with prep work, like sanding off certain areas to lay down the new PE decks, and the plated hull is certainly a nice touch. I guess this depends on whether you're comfortable with 1/500, since there are relatively few other kits available in the scale to build the traditional "collection" around.

[Atma]

Im not aiming at a collection of 1/500, the choise of Fujimi's Yamato instead of Tamiya is better casting from Fujimi and of course space. A 1/350 Yamato is too big

[Doug Hallet]

My review of the new Lionroar 1/350 set is now posted to the reviews section for 12/1/10 if any of you are interested. Let me know if you have any questions about the set. I'm actually just about ready to start using it on my own build. Cheers, Doug

[-Neu-]

Hi all.

This is my first post on the forums... but I've been lurking on this thread for awhile.

I've got a bit of a quandry.A few years ago my father bought me the Nichimo 1/200 Yamato as a gift (I'm an avid airplane modeler)... he wanted me to get it for so long and brought it back as a big surprise. I've had it in my stash as I developed my skills, but we recently found out he's got a terminal illness. Now I'd like to build it as fast as possible. I'm not going to do a crappy rush job... thats not how I do things. But I need to move on this.

I've read through this thread and got a few ideas. For example, I've decided to do the deck by scribing the planks, then putting down a base gray coat with an airbrush. Then I'll paint some individual planks by hand to give a bit of difference, put down a glosscoat, do a sludge wash and finally a flat-coat. It should look like something similar to that really nice Japanese build... though there will be some uneven lines.

So what I've got: The Nichimo 1/200 Kit, the gold medal photo-etch set, Pit road brass guns and AOTS.

So I have a few questions. First one is what does the Nichimo model represent? Is it the configuration before and during Leyte Gulf operation?

How accurate is it and what is the least amount of work I need to do to make it accurate?

Finally... is there anything else people would recommend/suggest?

Thanks in advance for any help... I really appreciate it.

[Doug Hallet]

Neu,

The Nichimo kit represents the ship at the time of Leyte Gulf. The kit is pretty old, dating from the mid-to-late 70s, and has numerous inaccuracies. I'm assuming you don't have the time or inclination to address all of the corrections, but here is a build by an expert modeler in Japan that you can use as a guide to what would be required to do so, and then you can pick and choose which ones you feel like incorporating and which ones are going to be too time consuming.

http://www.geocities.jp/dancyou3/yamato0.html

In general, just using the GMM set, you can come up with an attractive build. Anything above it would be useful, but to get all the way to perfection, it would require something along the lines of the sample, which is beyond most of us mere mortals. I think Mr. Bucklefoot Al can add additional comments since he's actually built this kit.