IJN Aoba (Hasegawa 1/700)

Dirk · Post by **Dirk** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 9:18 pm

I started with the Aoba (state 1945) from Hasegawa plus the brand new Rainbowmodel upgrade set and PE deck.
But I already added a lot of other parts.
The bridge area is now finished for painting.

aleccap · Post by **aleccap** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 1:24 am

Wow there's a lot of work gone on there, and while I find it difficult, its so important to reduce the size of those bridge, deck walls as you have done, so many models with walls that in scale would be 6 foot thick quite often let down a good model, but then again most of mine are untouched and the plastic mould wall isn't the best in the world, although having said that, they are getting better (thinner).
I sometimes snip off a small piece of etch, razor off the plastic wall and apply, or razor off apply rail and cover with a lick of PVA and paint afterward, but sometimes when the wall is removed, there's a slight angle and you'll have to file this flat or its a pain to stand the etch into place.

Dan K · Post by **Dan K** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 10:44 am

NICE. I wish the upgrade sets weren't so expensive as I'd be more tempted to use them.

Dirk · Post by **Dirk** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 11:18 am

Thanks Dan and Alec for your comments!
Here my last ship building action for this year before going to a New Year's Eve party:
I airbrushed everything (really EVERYTHING

):

I wish all the fellow ship builders a good transition to the year 2012 ("guter Rutsch!"), the best for 2012 and that the New Year's resolutions (building a lot of fantastic ship models?) will become true!

aleccap · Post by **aleccap** » Sun Jan 01, 2012 6:09 am

Gobsmackingly nice work, I'll do my best to follow this.

J. Soca · Post by **J. Soca** » Sun Jan 01, 2012 3:54 pm

I've always wanted to model her in a 1945 refit , I'll wait a little longer for a 1/350 kit though. The p.e set looks par with LR and Flyhawk's sets. Keep up the good work Dirk

Jose

Post by **JIM BAUMANN** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:46 am

Welcome to the new Year Dirk !

Good start made already

- I shall be watching!

Jim Baumann

Dirk · Post by **Dirk** » Tue Jan 03, 2012 6:51 pm

Thanks Jim, Jose and Alec and the best for 2012!

I added other details like
- wooden deck (an offcut from a laser cut wooden deck for Fuso from Aoshima)
- binoculars+voice pipes (Veteran and Ishida)
- life rings (MK1)
- search lights and signal lanterns (FineMolds NanoDread and Ishida)
- 25mm triple AA guns + ammo boxes (Rainbow Aoba kit)

Quincy · Post by **Quincy** » Tue Jan 03, 2012 7:49 pm

Super progress Dirk!

Bob Pink.

robertmelvin · Post by **robertmelvin** » Tue Jan 03, 2012 9:31 pm

Dang, that would would be highly impressive at 1/350, let alone 1/700. I couldn't even attempt it! Most impressive work.

Bob

sirpaul · Post by **sirpaul** » Wed Jan 04, 2012 6:19 pm

Wow that is a great looking super structure.

Dan K · Post by **Dan K** » Wed Jan 04, 2012 6:37 pm

Exquisite

Dirk · Post by **Dirk** » Mon Jan 09, 2012 6:34 pm

Thank you Bob, Bob, sirpaul and Dan for your comments (always good to have some additional motivation).

I continued Aoba with building the floatplane handling deck. In the Rainbow set it is provided completely in PE so substituting all the Hasegawa parts here.
Here the deck with the rails but without AA guns and ammo boxes.

The guns are funny: It is only one PE parts and 17 bendings are required. But after that the twin gun can be finished without any gluing!
Here the part after the 17 bending operations:

Dirk · Post by **Dirk** » Mon Jan 09, 2012 6:44 pm

Here now the deck after airbrushing and adding of the separately airbrushed AA guns and ammo boxes:

And here details of the twin guns. Before airbrushing I used just a little bit of thinned Micro Kristal Klear at the muzzle of each gun. This helps to give a more 3D appearance of the quite flat gun tubes.

And here the same part after employing a careful pin washing (not so easy with such small parts) and a little bit of dry brushing of corners with a lighter shade of grey:

Dirk · Post by **Dirk** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 4:48 pm

Mini-update:

Working now on the turrets. Thanks to the new Aoba/Furutaka thread and especially Atma's advice I removed the training aiming devices of all three turrets. The corresponding hole in the PE roof is now filled with a rectangular peace of "PE sprue". For the blast bags I use Teflon tape... (to be continued)

johndon · Post by **johndon** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:52 pm

Great work Dirk

John

Dan K · Post by **Dan K** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 8:53 pm

Impressive. That turret heat shield lagging looks like a real pain to fit properly but, it certainly adds a lot to this version of the IJN 20cm turrets.

Dirk · Post by **Dirk** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 12:41 pm

Thanks John and Dan.
Dan, from the instructions it looks like that the turret shield on the roof should sit on top of everything.
It is possible to glue it lower (see turret A).

Here my progress with the turrets (ignore the Myoko configuration, the three turrets are only dryfitted like this to show them in one picture.

To be honest, I first build the turret A and airbrushed it. When I later found the information from Atma that the training device was removed I followed this and added more details (clearly visible because not painted). The parts with the rivets are from the Ocean Spirit H048. In the next step the teflon tape for the blast bags will be also airbrushd in grey and then brushpainted in white. The tripods on turret B and C is made from fine steel needles. They are both finer and stronger then the Rainbow parts from brass. I also followed the picture from the Aoba wreck to build the tripod (or double tripod)on turret B as correctly as possible ("acap"). I hope it will carry the load of the rigging later.

sirpaul · Post by **sirpaul** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:00 am

This Aoba is looking better than any other one I ever seen. A real show stopper Dirk!

J. Soca · Post by **J. Soca** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 12:15 pm

DIrk i think the addition of the wooden deck on the air command bridge was a hell of an idea, keep it up man!!

Jose

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