Calling all Japanese pre-war/wartime Merchant Marine fans

[DougKn]

Giampiero: Thanks for posting the Ikutugawa Maru (Ramb II) picture. I have liked the Rambs, and it will be one of my upcoming models. Do you (or anyone) know the deck colours? Were they tan/wood, or painted over? Galeb now has a reddish tan, from what I can see.

Also, wanted to post the latest pics of my Arizona Maru, ready to paint:

[Dan K]

Very nice, Doug.

[Dan K]

PitRoad is releasing its 1/700 Hokoku Maru in pre-war civilian rig: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10190727

[Jim Smith]

Pit Road is also (re)releasing Rio de Janeiro Maru in August. What a summer!!!

Jim S

[reigels]

I�m working on replacing the �wood� main deck on my Fujimi Sado-Maru/Sakito-Maru with �steel�, and am curious about the cargo winches. The Fujimi kit depicts only 8 winches fore, and 8 aft, grouped in fours around each mast/king post.

Motoyuki san's models however also include four additional winches (and cargo booms), one at each corner of the deck house where the Fujimi kit just has Aztec stairs:

http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/sadomaru.htm
http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/sagamimaru.htm

Is anyone able to confirm which ships in the class may have had the additional winches, and whether they may have been added/removed at some point?

I�m also interested in photos of the winches themselves, with an eye towards scratchbuilding replacements and additions. They seem to be depicted as single spool electric winches, but it�s not clear to me what the originals looks like.
Thanks

[Dan K]

My first reaction was that winch locations only make sense at the base of a kingpost or boom.

However, I did look at a partial deck scan of Sasako Maru (sp?) sent to me by Motoyuki-san a while ago and it does look like there is a winch placed at the corner of the deck house. Why it's there is beyond me, unless, there was a kingpost at some point. DItto for other sisters.

It also looks to have two spools/drums, one to either side.

[reigels]

Perfect -

Thanks Dan!

[Ron Wolford]

Hello Scott and Dan
The S- class had booms in front of the superstructure as you can see in this picture of the Sakito Maru. The two winches in front of the superstructure operated these booms, also do not forget the 30 ton boom on the back side of the forward mast. I do not have any overhead photos of a S-class ship but I cannot see my it would be very different than any other MKFKKM Ship. This said, if the S-class is like the Kano Maru, they would have 5 winches around the forward mast, 4 around the aft mast, 4 around the Kingposts and 2 in front and 2 in back of the superstructure. The Kano Maru had its aft Kingpost at the stern instead of in back of the superstructure.

Sakito Maru
http://i48.tinypic.com/2eq8acp.jpg

Kano Maru
http://i50.tinypic.com/2hdbmkn.jpg

Ron Wolford

[Dan K]

Great pics and info, Ron. I think what was confusing is that the booms in front of the bridge have no kingposts, but appear to be mounted directly to the base of the bridge, with the cables running up thru a pulley mounted mounted high up on the face of the bridge.

[Quincy]

I am sorry if this question has come up before but, could one use the 1/700 Heian Maru kit to make the Yasukuni Maru? The length, beam, and draught are very close. I am thinking of using the hull and scratch building the rest using Motoyuki sans drawing in his merchant ship book.

Any help would be much appreciated.


Bob Pink.

[Dan K]

....well, after looking over the hull lines for both in Motoyuki-san's first merchant book, I really don't think so. The Heian Maru has sharper hull lines, is a little longer, and has a main superstructure of fewer decks than the Yakasuni Maru. The Yakasumi Maru hull is much more blunt forward and aft.

Other than that, they're similar

Honestly, it looks like a lot of scratchbuilding. I guess it comes down to how much pain you're up for.

[reigels]

If you've not run across it yet, the State Library of Victoria has a nice collection of Japanese merchant photos online with amazing high-res downloads available. http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo_libr ... &fn=search

I especially like this one of Koei Maru, interesting in that she is fitted (post war) with both Type 13 and 22 (?) radars. I don't think I've seen this before on a Japanese merchant ship: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/31133

[Pieter]

Interesting to see how they tackle some of the details I've had to scratchbuild on my Hokoku Maru like the docking bridge and the davits. Any comments from this threads' experts?

PitRoad is releasing its 1/700 Hokoku Maru in pre-war civilian rig: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10190727

[DougKn]

Well, here is my Arizona Maru painted up.





Question: Can you spray paint Testors Dullcoat Laquer (or Modelmaster version) on top of acryllics? I know it is usually laquer, enamel, acryllic, but what can you use for a duller/sealer top coat?

P.S. Thanks Scott for that link to the Victoria library site, there were some nice pictures.

[Timmy C]

Testors Dullcote is very "hot" and there is a risk of it cracking an acrylic paint layer - at least, that's what happened in my case when I sprayed it over an F-4 painted with Gunze Sangyo's Aqueous Hobby Colors, a water-based acrylic. I would put a barrier coat of Future floor finish (a non-reactive clear gloss acrylic) just in case, or use an acrylic flat.

[discoverer 2]

Doug,

A very nice Arizona maru, I must say
Just wish that I was half that good in scratchbuilding.

[Quincy]

Great job Doug!!

Thank you for the underneath shot of the hull too. It is a good reference for that type of stern shape.




Bob pink.

[DougKn]

Testors Dullcote is very "hot" and there is a risk of it cracking an acrylic paint layer - at least, that's what happened in my case when I sprayed it over an F-4 painted with Gunze Sangyo's Aqueous Hobby Colors, a water-based acrylic. I would put a barrier coat of Future floor finish (a non-reactive clear gloss acrylic) just in case, or use an acrylic flat.

Thanks, Timmy. I ran an experiment with Model Master Matt finish (the same as Testor's Dullcoat?) and it went over MM acrylics pretty well, but it disolved some other finishes (detailing ink). I found some Krylon Acrylic Matt finsh, and so far it appears to work o.k. I'll do a few more experiments, and try it on the model next week.

To all respondents; Thank you for your thoughtful observations

[Quincy]

....well, after looking over the hull lines for both in Motoyuki-san's first merchant book, I really don't think so. The Heian Maru has sharper hull lines, is a little longer, and has a main superstructure of fewer decks than the Yakasuni Maru. The Yakasumi Maru hull is much more blunt forward and aft.

Other than that, they're similar

Honestly, it looks like a lot of scratchbuilding. I guess it comes down to how much pain you're up for.

I think I'll try to give it a shot. No pain, no gain! Didn't Motoyuki san do an article on how to do this conversion somewhere?


Bob Pink

[Dan K]

Two things:

I don't know if any of you have taken a look but, on the general Picture Post page, is a thread posted by Nanond called Ship Models from Bangkok, Thailand: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=108975 Among the many great builds was a really nice rendition of a Fujimi S-Type; don't know which one. I can't seem to post the JPG, and I don't know why.

Also, Haseagwa will be releasing a 1/350 Heian Maru, something I've long expected. There's an additonal PE fret and parts, also below (photo credit - Hobby Search Japan). Sister to Hikawa Maru, Heian Maru was an auxiliary sub tender to several sub Type B1 divisions, including I-19. Third sister Hie Maru tendered several sub Type C1 divisons, including I-16. Just think of the diorama possibilities...........