1/700 IJN Hyuga (1944, Battleship/Carrier Hybrid)

[Nopefield]

Hi everyone, this is my second build ever at ship modeling (check my first finished ship Mogami!), and i decided to do IJN Hyuga in her 1944 hybrid configuration! I just like the ship by how it looks, unfortunately her contribution to the war is not really that much. I would like to document my build process here, hoping to get some feedback and help, especially in reference on how the Hyuga should look like in real life.

Currently my reference is TamTam's wonderful 1/100 IJN Ise and many info that i still compile from Ise-class CASF thread. My starting point is Hasegawa 1/700 Aircraft battleship IJN Hyuga. I also planned to scratchbuild some part that i see feasible.

I start by building the hull. I'm not yet gluing any parts except the side hull, the waterline plate, and the elevator, as i currently just assembly this in order to see how it looks. I still gathering some reference, so assembled hull would make it easier to spot hasegawa error. Some parts of the aft deck need to be cut in order to give room to hangar and aircraft elevator. Not the cleanest work but i'm happy not to break any parts.

Here is with the flight deck attached.

And here with the full deck attached. At first i planned to paint the wooden deck, but then i see big seamline at deck bellow the funnel. It's rather hard to fix it without losing the wooden deck lines, so i think i'll try to order a wooden deck somewhere. I don't know if i could though.

For the next part, i planned to temporary assemble the bridge, but i don't know how to do that without perma-glue it though

Hopefully i could learn from you all As beginner, advice and feedback on modelling technique and error is appreciated

[Dan K]

You want to temporarily assemble the whole thing at once, or just a level or two at a time?

[Nopefield]

I want to assemble the bridge all at once temporarily. I successfully did that using using double sided tape, though i'm not sure if it will be easy to remove the tape residue from the plastic. Here is the fully assembled bridge without some small parts and details

And here what i found in CASF thread for comparison. There's a lot of work to do!

I also found a really well-documented build of Hyuga in this blog. It's hard to find, as i can't read japanese and google translate it as IJN Hinata.

Apart from the bridge, other error that i found so far is some missing portholes and missing extended deck in both sides of the ship. I still collecting data though.

[Nopefield]

The progress was small, after some vacation and lot of work-related things. I decided to make the inner of hangars because i want to lower the elevator. So i flatten the deck below the flight deck and add flooring

But then i realise that it would be easier to finish the entire hull first. So i stop the hangar building and start working with the hull.

There are not much to fix, but each error require some good amount of efforts. The first one is to extend the bulge height to the deck. I use epoxy putty and finish it with some white putty. It works, but did not quite like the result. I failed to make the side angle 'sharp'. This is my first time to use epoxy putty to create shapes. After leaving it to harden for 12 hours, i sand the putty with metal file, but somehow the sanded putty sticks to the file, make it hard to clean I also close the gap of hull parts and waterline plate with white putty.