The Ship Model Forum

Subtitle: Aoshima/PitRoad- Kagero/Yugumo Kitbash & conversion.

This is another one of those projects that’s taking on a life of its own while I figure out which new project I really want to tackle. You know, one just ruminates and speculates and plays around with some ideas and kits until…….poof!……an unexpected critical mass is achieved. I can’t be the only person who does this.

Plus, I need to put up more shelving for more ships, and I just don’t feel like doing that as of yet.

I have never been satisfied with either the old Hasegawa or newer PitRoad 1/700 Yugumo class DD kits. The Hasegawa kit has a nice hull shape but is both simplistic & woefully short of details. I detest the PitRoad kit. Though 15 – 20 years younger than the Hasegawa kit, it is, IMHO, the very worst of PitRoad’s line of 1/700 IJN DDs. The bow’s wrong, the bridge is poorly shaped and erroneously positioned – which impacts the position of the foremast, the stern’s wrong in several ways……….for me, it’s PitRoad’s counterpart to the Tamiya Shiratsuyu kits. Yes, it can be reworked but, if one is going to do so, there is a more satisfying (to me) starting point.

The objective is to get something that actually looks like one of these sleek, early war configurations -

A few years ago, Motoyuki Iwashige published an article in the Model Graphix Navy Yard Special #7 detailing the 1/700 Yugumo kits, and included a conversion of a new tool Aoshima Kagero kit to a late war Yugumo – Asashimo. (Incidentally, Model Graphix has just published Motoyuki-san’s newest volume, a collection of his 1/700 IJN destroyer articles that have been published over the years in Model Graphix. See: http://www.hlj.com/product/MDG23085 ).

I thought it an interesting project as the two classes are differentiated in terms of physical appearance by only a few things – shape of the bridge, shape & length of the stern, etc. and, the Aoshima new tool Kagero kit is (in my opinion) the most accurately shaped and scaled of all the 1/700 Kagero kits currently available. It may not have as many molded-on details as the new Fujimi and older PitRoad Kagero class kits, but its shapes and sizing are far superior. I decided to let a possible project simmer a bit.

What brought the project to a boil was timing, and the possession of one of the Aoshima 1/700 full hull Kagero kits. While some of this kit’s details are less crisp then the waterline version, and it has recessed instead of raised lines to replicate the linoleum tie-downs on the main deck, it does have the portholes that the waterline version lacks. It also has hull plating lines and porthole eyebrows, but I consider these both over-scale for 1/700. No matter, as I never intended to build it.

However, it eventually occurred to me that the lack of raised tie-down lines would make it easier to cut off and relocate the turret base for #1 turret for a Yugumo. The portholes would be a great bonus to ease detailing. And, I had an unbuilt PitRoad Yugumo kit that was completely worthless to me, though the bridge seemed to have potential.

So, the first steps were to waterline the Aoshima hull, mate that to a waterline plate & shape the basics of the PitRoad bridge. (Let’s ignore the bridge work for now. I began with it just to see if I could fashion the basic shapes correctly for the project. I will return to it in detail further on).

I also placed a breakwater on the forecastle where the forward edge of the linoleum meets the treading of the anchor deck. Doing so required scraping away some of the deck treading ahead of it. Which is ok, as the breakwater on the real thing did intrude forward.

I then removed the forward turret base ring, as the other significant difference between a Kagero and a Yugumo hull was the re-siting of #1 turret of the Yugumo type 1.5m further aft for better stability. That’s approximately 2mm in 1/700. I saved the ring for placement after painting the linoleum deck.

The next step was reshaping the stern. While the Kagero and Yugumo classes have virtually identical hulls, there were some slight improvements for the Yugumos. The most significant was the extension of the hull at the waterline at the stern by an additional .8 meters. This small change actually improved top speed and maneuverability.

In 1/700, this change adds .045 inches, or just over 1mm. to the waterline. I chose to cut & glue triangular wedges from .01” x .04” styrene strips to the stern, with the strip widths greater than 1mm, knowing that sanding and shaping would shave down the extension.

More to come

Looking forward watching this build progress! Did you receive Motoyuki sans new DD book yet?



Bob Pink.

I am also looking forward to this build. No one company has got this class 100% right. The pit road bridges are the best though.

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That's my goal - to make everyone happy.

I have received Motoyuki-san's book. It is very much in the style of his merchant books but, some of the graphs and tables from the original publications are missing, Also, the English is a bit more limited. As he says in the book, its really for beginner and intermediate modelers and IJN aficianados. And, from that perspective, it's a good guide to recognizing the different ships, fits, and classes, as well as suggestions for correcting the flaws of the current kits.

The PitRoad bridge is a workable foundation but, as I hope to explain later on, it does need work. Particularly on the radii of all the corners - not large enough. The real thing was much more streamlined.

This looks like a thorough and masterful build in the making!

I shall be following this!

Jim Baumann

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Looking good as always Dan!

Oh, good. A no pressure build now.

Well, I then added Tamiya putty to fill in the gaps and smooth the overall shape. More sanding eventually yielded the correct stern contours.

I also drilled out all the hull portholes, shaved off the porthole eyebrows and plating lines, and added a degaussing cable. The shape and placement of the cable, at the rise of the forecastle deck from the main deck and at the stern, is specific to one of the three yards in which a Yugumo was built, either the Maizuru Naval Dockyard, the Uraga Dock Company or the Fujinagata Shipbuilding Yard. I find myself leaning towards completing this build as Kazegumo, so that meant utilizing the Uraga Dock pattern. Fortunately, a change to another ship requires only minor alerations of the pattern as long as I finalize my choice before I paint.

Additional work at the bow included reshaping the anchor recesses to either side from a shallow indentation to something approaching a solid U shape, replacing the molded on anchor chains with PE chain, improving the capstans, stripping off some the molded on deck hawser reels and mushroom vents, and adding a mushroom vent and a large bullnose fairlead at the bow.

Another minor change for the Yugumos from the Kageros was the adoption of a new type davit for the forward 7m cutters. This davit only pivoted fore and aft, not, side to side, and utilized a wider base, The wider base, in turn, necessitated a slight extension aft to either side of the forecastle deck so as to fit properly. I added the change and shaped the hull sidewalls accordingly.

You are a madman. Love your attention to detail.

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Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

Ship Model Gallery

Ah, I didn't realize you'd started a thread on this. Nice!

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We like our history sanitized and theme-parked and self-congratulatory, not bloody and angry and unflattering. - Jonathan Yardley

The treaded steel, aft end portion of the main deck that comes with the full hull Kagero kit is configured for late war with roll-off depth charge racks and rails. While I would typically remove the molded-on parts and replace them with PE parts, my goal of an early war fit required a different, simpler, equipment arrangement.

For starters, I decided to scrape off all the deck details and re-cover it with new treaded steel decking made of brass PE (FlyHawk), glued to the styrene underneath with CA. There was just too much re-work and fine-tuning required to hopefully yield a clean, unmarred surface. (This is actually the first time I’ve used brass treaded decking.) I also placed a thin styrene border around the new decking.

Next was a simpler arrangement of equipment at the stern. Up through the mid-war period, virtually all of the Japanese DD classes following the Fubuki type carried single depth charges in individual roll-off cradles grouped around the stern, in two sets of three per side. These were in addition to the main, athwartship rack of depth charges that fed a Y gun, both of those placed a few frames further forward.

I glued on short styrene strips to represent the cradles, along with new hatches. I also cleared the rest of the aft main deck of molded-on reels, and mushroom vents. Only the electric winch for the paravanes remains, along with the bollards. I will add the single depth charges later, also the propeller guards, the main depth charge rack, “Y” gun, and the paravanes for minesweeping and their davits.

I forgot to note that removing the molded-on pieces from the deck resulted in some divots, which I will fill with putty.

Aft Deckhouse.

The kit has poorly defined watertight doors on the main structure, which I removed and replaced with PE doors, along with some access ladders, and other scratch-built details including small vents, light housing, equipment boxes, etc. I also drilled portholes and utilized some of the kit provided air intakes placed on top of the deck house while adding some definition to their shapes. I also added one large intake.

There was one unexpected surprise. Virtually every 1/700 & 1/350 Kagero and Yugumo kit, as well as many notable sources of plans and illustrations (including the Gran Prix Shuppan IJN DD volume and the Hara Shobo plan book), depict what appears to be two medium sized, identical mushroom type vents on top the deck house, placed fore and aft of the base of the small mainmast. However, an exhaustive examination of the photographic record for both classes reveals no such actual equipment.

I don’t know why this discrepancy exists. The Miyukikai plans for the Kagero and Yugumo classes offers a possible clue. These plans show two torpedo adjustment tables in those same locations, and these kind of tables do offer a similar profile.

Still, it seems an odd location for such tables, because you would have to hoist the heavy warhead up to the table (probably via block and tackle, with a pulley hanging from the mast yardarm overhead). I suppose it could be so, given that room is at a premium on the main decks. In any event, all the kit manufacturers seemed to have mistakenly added this detail.

The kit version of the adjoining torpedo storage housing is nicely shaped and reasonably accurate with regard to compartmentation. However, I had purchased a FineMolds PE set for the Kagero class (AM17), which includes PE replacement shells for both the forward and aft reload storage housings. I had done so with the intention of upgrading the forward reload compartments as the detail is much improved over the kit version. So, I chose to use the rear PE shell as well. (Notes: 1) the layout, size and appearance of these reload housings are identical for both the Kagero and Yugumo classes; 2) this PE set was actually engineered for the PitRoad Kagero kit but works equally well on the Aoshima kit.)

I'm glad to see your building again Dan k !!! i shall watch this build with great interest !

After my work on the Luzon, I have a whole new appreciation for this 1/700th scale insanity and the quality of work you do. Most impressive.

In that last photo the PE deck house has gaps along the fold lines at the edges. Are those supposed to be there, or will you fill them?

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We like our history sanitized and theme-parked and self-congratulatory, not bloody and angry and unflattering. - Jonathan Yardley

THx, but what is frightening is how much further some other folks take it.

The gaps are an unfortunate consequence of the folded PE edges. I'm going to try and fill them with CA glue.

I'm actually further along then the photos reveal. Just haven;t had time to photo/write/post/anything.

Speeding right along on this build!!

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Dan
Field Artillery, King of Battle
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