1/700 Amagi diorama

[GewoonWouter]

Looks good indeed, nice touch on the ladder.

Didn't realize the Lexington was your first. I'm planning to get the book on your Lexington build as inspiration and helping hand so to speak. I'm building my first ship and planning to add lots of figures and all. Always good to see stuff which inspires.

I guess - when finished - we'll see the Amagi diorami across the modelling shows ey

Cheers

[Christian M.]

Thanks guys!

Meanwhile, I added the last details: some little platforms to the island and the railings. I liked the way Milan attached the pedestals of the binoculars before painting, but the binoculars themselves only after. This seems handy to me, as they can get in the way of the paintbrush but are easy to attach and paint later.

The island is now finished as far as I can here on holiday. I still have to add a couple of vertical ladders, for which I forget to bring enough PE. Also, there are four lamp-like things on each side of the island (any idea what they are?) which I still have to make, but I didn't bring my punch-and-die.












And Joe and Aur, I might send it if I wouldn't be afraid of the insurance costs!

As it is, I prefer to transport it myself. I'm flying back to Belgium tomorrow, and just prepared it for transport. With the lid closed and some cellotape and cellofane wrapped around it, it's ready for the hand luggage!



Wish me luck!

Marijn

Even it is an old often told thing... But where did you get so big matches?

Honestly, masterclass and for me personally a proof again that 1/700 is far too small for me.

[blacman]

That's the world I like...
keep going! That's my favourite thread - great pictures, a lot to learn, fantastic modelling

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks guys! Your encouraging words are much appreciated!

Cheers,

Marijn

[Dan K]

[hypno7]

Wow, I just caught up with the updates. This is incredible and so perfectly executed, you keep setting the bar too high!

[marijn van gils]

Thanks Dan and Erick!
Just trying to follow the bar set by others before me�

Meanwhile, I slowly keep moving forward.

The stacks came first. I first thinned their front facing, put the internal details, and added more three-dimensional (and open-ended) ducts to their sides with aluminum tubing.
I glued a piece of brass tube in their back, so I could insert a brass rod in it with some blue tack, acting as a handle while adding the fragile details:



The aft stack received a bit of battle damage, the front one only had some pieces of handrail bent on the side:


Next, I removed the handles, and glued them in place. Before that, I had cut the hole in the deck in between them (the kit detail here is incorrect), and put some PE mesh in it.


More tubing, and walkways, were now added to the front of the stacks. The bigger piece to the front below the aft stack was modified to Amagi's shape, which is a bit more angular than Unryu's:


And I also added the platforms further forward, below the island. I use some parts from the Lionroar PE set, but had to scratch build or cobble together from other parts most as the platforms have a different structure or shape than Unryu.


The underside of the flight deck was also detailed. It is left separate for easier painting:


I hit one snag on this one!
Amagi's deck edge is slightly different from Unryu in this area: there are two protrusions for single 25mm guns.
So I modified the kit part.
From this:


To this:


The advantage of building only half a ship, is that you can scavenge from the rest of the kit. The platforms were added from small bits of plastic sheet, but the rain gutters were cut from unused parts of flight deck. Seams were filled with superglue. Job done!

Or so I thought�
After adding all other details, I eventually found out that I had positioned the rear platform way too far aft, and it was now hovering closely above the searchlight platform below which it shouldn't�
So I cut it away again, being very careful not to damage any of the other detail, and redid it:


By the way, for anyone building this kit: I advise to use the Lionroar PE windscreen, even if you keep it closed like me. The kit part is noticeably too narrow, but the Lionroar part is correct.

And finally, a little overview (without the island):


Cheers,

Marijn

[marijn van gils]

And two snapshots with the island.
Also note the superb Shelf Oddity 110cm searchlight (very highly recommended!), only blue-tacked in place. I used two of them, cutting the light from one and the mounting from the other, so I could combine them to tilt the searchlight upwards a bit.





And the real thing:


Cheers,

Marijn

[Rui Matos]

Hi Marijn

Check, double-check... triple check
Excelent details and great tips...
Carry on the SUPER WORK
Cheers,
Rui

[EJFoeth]

Nice progression

[Quincy]

BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!





Bob Pink.

[Daniele]

[GewoonWouter]

Wow, that's very impressive stuff there again Marijn, I like it a lot!

Question for you: when you glue on the very fine bits, like around the funnel, could you describe how you do it? I assume you use very thin CA glue? But how is it applied. I glued some railings (1/350) on a gun turret of my Yamato and used a tool called the 'Glue Looper' to add very thin CA to the connection points (it uses cappillary action)...but I still have some glue marks...

Quite hard to do right those teeny weeny things...

[Joe Simon]

Great work my friend!

[Goodwood]

That is just utterly nutterly butterly!

[Aop Aur]

Oh no! Your 1/700 handrails look much better than my 1/350! Shame on me!...You are too good!

Aop

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks guys! Your kind words are very much appreciated!

Question for you: when you glue on the very fine bits, like around the funnel, could you describe how you do it? I assume you use very thin CA glue? But how is it applied. I glued some railings (1/350) on a gun turret of my Yamato and used a tool called the 'Glue Looper' to add very thin CA to the connection points (it uses cappillary action)...but I still have some glue marks...

First the process:
- I first bend the handrails as correctly as possible, dry-fitting constantly, so I have to bend them as little as possible while gluing them in place.
- For gluing, I first tack only one or two points in place with gel-type CA. The gel takes a bit longer to dry, so I can position it more carefully.
- This barely holds the piece attached. Now I carefully manipulate the non attached side, pushing it gently to it's correct position.
- Then I apply thin CA to each attachment point, fixing the handrail as firmly as possible.
- Even though I apply glue in tiny amounts only, I still get glue spots here and there. I carefully scrape these away these by using a fresh sharp scalpel blade in a scraping motion. Slowly and carefully of course, not to detach the glue joints again.

The equipment:
- For applying the thin CA, I use nothing special, just thin copper wire. I bought a spool of electric spool winding wire of 0,1mm thickness at an electronics supply shop (Aitec in Heverlee), and have been using that for years now (it has 700m on it!). It can hold tiny amounts of glue, and I can bend the application end in any direction and hold it at any length. When glue builds up, I 'refresh' the end quickly and easily by simply cutting the end. When the piece of wire becomes too short, I simply cut another pice from the spool.

But of course, stuff like handrails still take a fair amount of time, patience, and a lot of cursing! Often I have to re-attach pieces several times before I get it correct. Isn't modelling fun!

Cheers,

Marijn

[Koppalakki]

Sounds like we both have the same technique, Marjin just takes it even further and doing it in 1/700 scale.

Very nice work btw, like I said on the Lexington , just can't fathom how you are able to produce all that in 1/700 scale!

[Dan K]

Superb work.

[GewoonWouter]

well, that's sound advice, thanks for answering my question Marijn