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

[Doug Hallet]

If you mean brutalization of the conscripts by the NCOs, yes that was pretty typical for the IJN.

[Atma]

The personas are starting to come in. Here is the link to all of them (keep in mind that the latest ones I have done are not in yet as of this post, so keep checking back. I'll do a separate thread once all of them are in and I have corrected little things here and there.

Here is the link: http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/galler ... ketfoot-Al

At last count I have made the following Firefox Personas:

Yamato (2), Haruna (2), Nagato, Fuso, Musashi, Tone, Yahagi, Ise, Zuikaku, Kaga, Hiryu and an I-7 Class Submarine.

They should all be at the above link by Thursday night.

Thanks again for your effort

[bucketfoot-al]

OK, they are all up now except for Hiryu and Yahagi (don't know where they went - maybe they'll pop up tomorrow.)

Check them all out:

http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/galler ... ketfoot-Al

[Akula]

Oh Happy Christmas to me. I am the pround new owner of Musashi plans in 1:200 and they are not MYCO plans. Oh Goody goody goody!!! MMWWHAHAHAH!!!!! Rare yes, maybe 2 or 3 exist in the US.

[Doug Hallet]

Cool - I hope they come in useful for you. Just remember that if the plans are older, there may be some updates to the overall layout since then.

[Akula]

These came out of Japan from a very reclusive society that has access to some info that we will absolutely never see over here. I believe that these were drawn up from some original blueprints that were not destroyed by the IJN at the end of the war. They represent Layte Gulf time period prior to her sinking. I do have some contacts with access to things I would sell my left arm to see. Private collections and photos that have never been published. I could say that these are the most correct drawings based on the source material that they are based on. This has been verified by some very knowledgable sources on the subject matter.

Sheesh!! This stuff is addicting!!!

B

[-Neu-]

Well to prove that I actually do model... here are some pictures of my current work on the deck. As you can see I've rescribed about two thirds of the fo'c'sle. I found an method using a razor saw and a metal ruler. Basically it allows me to make straighter lines that trace the original raised deck panels. Its also faster than freehand. However the process is not perfect, and I screw up alot. The white splotches on the deck are actually places where I used putty to fill in mistakes and rescribe them. The top left stuff was an early test of a different method which I won't be using.



The black I used here is intended to give a sense of whether the oil wash process would work as I intended to... I think it does. Its much thinner than what the japanese modeler did with his deck. Thats good because it tends to blur any errors I have in the line.



Sorry about the image size... if you think its too jarring I'll remove it.

[Doug Hallet]

I tried re-scribing a deck when I was working on Chong King, but screwed it up so badly that I ended up replacing it with Evergreen 1 mm grooved sheeting. I'm basically doing the same thing now that I've started on the 1/350 Yamato. Fortunately, one of my magazines from Japan has a fold-out photo of the 1/100 museum kit in 1/350 scale, so I have a guide for placing the superstructure parts. Putting the deck together was not so hard, but cutting off all the superstructure parts and gun tubs from the very thick plastic Tamiya used for the original deck has been very time consuming and not without a couple of gouges. Fortunately, nothing that can't be fixed later.

[bucketfoot-al]

These came out of Japan from a very reclusive society that has access to some info that we will absolutely never see over here. I believe that these were drawn up from some original blueprints that were not destroyed by the IJN at the end of the war. They represent Layte Gulf time period prior to her sinking. I do have some contacts with access to things I would sell my left arm to see. Private collections and photos that have never been published. I could say that these are the most correct drawings based on the source material that they are based on. This has been verified by some very knowledgable sources on the subject matter.

Sheesh!! This stuff is addicting!!!

B

Well, now that you've teased us a bit, do tell:

1. What kinds of photos are in private collections re: Yamato/Musashi that you have heard rumors of?

2. Historical society? Society of former IJN officers?

Enquiring minds want to know!

[Doug Hallet]

Hey Vlad, I can tell you that I had a high school acquaintance (has since passed on and hadn't seen him in 40 years) whose father worked for Mitsubishi heavy industries and was presented with an unpublished company photo book of IJN warships under construction and refit at the Mitsubishi yards as a memento. He did show it to me once and the photos were fantastic. No recollection of whether any of them included Musashi, but you would have to assume so. There may still be a few things out there we haven't seen yet.

[bucketfoot-al]

Doug - have you tried tracking down his kids (if he had any) and seeing if they still had the book? Heck, if you could send me info on the gentleman I will try to find them!

[bucketfoot-al]

I recently clicked the wrong line in an email notifying me of a new post on this thread, and now I am no longer getting notifications of new posts. I've tried deleting all cookies from this site, but that has not fixed the problem. Mods? Anyone know how I can re-set this thread so that I get email notices of new posts?

The "Notify me when a reply is posted" box is still checked on the bottom of the page, but it no longer works.

Thanks!

[Timmy C]

Find the "Subscribe Topic" link while viewing this thread - its location depends on your board style. For me the link is in the header of the thread at the top left.

[Doug Hallet]

Vlad, he passed away kind of tragically at an early age leaving wife and kids. His dad is probably passed on by now too. I think this is one of those situations where it would be best not to bother them. Like I mentioned, I hadn't seen him since high school. The book is obviously owned by the Mitsubishi Corporation and perhaps the contents are already known to historians and researchers in Japan. Sooner or later we may see them, if any relate to Musashi. We'll just have to be patient.

[bucketfoot-al]

Thanks Timmy.

I just unclicked it and then re-clicked it to subscribe. We'll see if that fixes the problem.

P.S. That Yamato 2-set DVD with SUPPOSED never-seen footage of the IJN battleships has been shipped to me per email from Amazon.

Stay tuned. I will comment on it when I view it. (But what I am REALLY hoping for is that I will have some screen grabs to post.) Still, unlikely there'll be anything radically new.

We can hope.

[bucketfoot-al]

Thanks Doug. Good to know there's still some stuff out there that we can hope will trickle out.

[bucketfoot-al]

Hey Doug - I am afraid all that you said before turned out to be true regarding this 2-DVD set. Its put out by some outfit in Germany.

I really don't want to torture myself further by going into too much detail. I'll be brief:

1. No sign of Yamato or Musashi in any footage - except in the lengthy clips purloined from the 2005 Japanese film "Men of the Yamato" (Otokachi etc.)

2. Mislabeled photos in the "bonus galleries" (ie Yamato ID as Musashi, etc.)

3. Grievous factual errors in narration regarding Leyte Gulf and especially Operation Ten-Ichi-Go. Mix up Admiral Ito with Admiral Nomura, recite factual details of the final moments on the bridge that never happened - at least not in any of the books I read, like, errr.... that first person account by Yoshida, who just, ummm ... HAPPENED TO BE THERE! Oh, and - I learned something new! Oh yeah, did you know that a "Boiler Explosion" blew the Yamato apart? Yeah, its in the narration of the wrong photos (see below), so it MUST be true!!! (HEAVY Sarcasm Alert.)

I feel INSULTED. If they had just taken all the photos from my gallery (available for FREE to anyone with a modicum of search skills) and built the narration around that, it would have made the DVD 10x better. Instead, they show about 3 photos (not the most dramatic ones) from April 7, 1945, plus OTHER photos from unrelated operations purported to be from 'Yamato's final minutes' - you can clearly see a smoking aircraft carrier in one of them.

Yeah, I feel like a SUCKER. But at least anyone reading this can now save their dough.

OVERALL RATING: F

[Doug Hallet]

Hi Vlad, Well, that's too bad but not unexpected. If it will make you feel any better, I still have another item waiting for you, so contact me again off line. BTW, I've started a blog for my Yamato build over at Modelshipwrights if you are interested in following along. Cheers, Doug

http://modelshipwrights.kitmaker.net/mo ... =1#1416627

[bucketfoot-al]

Very nice Doug! - Can't wait to see your progress!

[Senkan]

Hey everyone. After taking the summer off from working on my 1/200 Nichimo Yamato I come back to find my AA parts gone/missing. I took the armored 25mm and 5" turrets off and I have metal 5" and Harry O's 5" open turrets. What I need are the little 25mm open buggers. I was thinking of contacting Nichimo but Im having a hard time finding them on the internet. I found a picture of some aftermarket parts made by a company called SubAccessories but was unable to find them on the net as well. Any ideas or answers?