1/700 Taiho (??) 1944 - Fujimi

[Dan K]

I started with the forward elevator. It took four iterations to work out the most likely number of counterweights per side and their channel placements on the sidewalls, along with the large guiderails (2 per side) within the confines of the kit hull. At first, I thought that either the location of the aperture on the kit flight deck or the width of the bow underneath was in error. Not so, it turns out. Fujimi got that right. It�s just a very confined space with just enough clearance for a well, given the placement that far forward in the hull, along with sidewalls that were scaled to the correct combined height for the hangers. (Approximately 15mm total height.)

Most IJN carrier elevators had parallel sidewalls, along with platform shapes and platform weights that required four to five counterweights per side. However, Taiho�s forward elevator platform was an elongated hexagon, armored and weighed in at 100 tons, which was greater than usual. (The same armor and weight applied to the aft lift.) The long sidewalls of the forward elevator could not accommodate more than four counterweight channels per side. If left as is, the forward third of the elevator would have been unweighted, and the unit unbalanced as a whole. So, at least two more channels per side were required on the forward set of sidewalls. Which I installed.

The elevator is set so far forward that there can be no hanger spaces forward of the well. So, I took some cues from the similar arrangements of their light carriers and closed off any access forward aside from some emergency hatches that would open to crew�s quarters placed forward of the elevators. The narrow confines of the space at the bottom of the well made it difficult to replicate a platform properly recessed into an aperture that lies level with the lowest hanger deck floor. So, I have merely laid a styrene platform on top of the flooring. Its shadows make it seem like it is properly recessed.

The sidewalls of both decks were detailed with hanger deck girder columns from Rainbow, which come properly sized for height. The deck separating the upper and lower hangers is removable, to allow painting both levels. Afterwards, I�ll glue it into place. The platform for the fully raised position is the kit piece, slightly enlarged and placed upon a tripod of sorts cut from styrene shapes. And, the entire well is assembled as a modular unit. (That was a happy accident.) So, the whole thing will be painted separately, then glued in place from under the flight deck.

[Dan K]

Construction completed on forward elevator.

[Quincy]

Really fantastic work, Dan!




Bob Pink.

[Surfsup63]

That is some very impressive work my Friend.....Cheers mark

[Dan K]

Thank you! I must confess, I'm pretty happy with it.

A preview of the aft elevator:

[Vladi]

Looks great, fingers crossed!

[PetrolGator]

Impressive, Dan. Very impressive.

[EJFoeth]

Very nice! Going to follow this build.

[taskforce48]

Dan,

Absolutely stunning work so far! I am eagerly taking notes on your build to apply to the 1/350 edition someday. Couple of things of note,

- I have waffled on the Wood Deck for quite some time, good evidence for it, good amount against it. If you agree with it, guess I will too.

- What is your plan for 100mm gun mounts? Back in the day, Tamiya depicted them as open backed Akizuki type mounts. I wanna say the Miyukaki(SP) has this as well, but we get into the AJ volumes and the Gakken's and we see open topped semi shielded mounts. I would assume she would have had the same mounting as the Oyodo, but I can't find any clear shots of her guns either. Thoughts?

Keep up the amazing work!
Matt

[Dan K]

Thx, guys. Much appreciated.

Matt, maybe Veryfire will do our work for us. Fingers crossed. I do believe what I'm doing here with the planking and elevators will work on the Fujimi 1/350 kits as well, and be even more in scale. I've been playing around with my Hiryu without doing any cutting. I'm pretty sure it will work. That build to come one day.

I've found the photograph of the two officers on deck of Taiho, and the background information, to be pretty convincing of Taiho having a wood flight deck. The Japanese have pretty much all endorsed the wood deck, and even Lars Ahlberg (co-author of the two Profile Morskie books on Taiho) has come around to it. It also make sense it terms of how the Japanese viewed their flight decks.

All the information and confusion about a latex or non-wood covering comes from a Taiho model built by Kawasaki after the war. That model showed no such wood deck covering, and since Kawasaki built Taiho, the reasoning was that they should know what they're talking about. However, it's not known who actually built the model, how much information/references they had, if they had even been there when Taiho was built. It could have easily been just something that Kawasaki management just wanted in their showcase and asked their shop to build; it wouldn't have to be 100% correct.

10cm mounts - I haven't really focused on these yet, but I do believe they are A1 or A2 shield with open back mounts, sorta like what Fujimi has provided. I hope to improve on what's provided by the kit. The shield face does resemble that of the known land based emplacements. They are definitely not fully enclosed shields, like on the Akizukis.

[Dan K]

The aft elevator is very similar in construction and appearance to the forward one, given the relatively same parameters of the hull aft.

[Dan K]

However, there were a few unique conditions. For starters, one of the wide cross-braces molded on the bottom of the hull to help keep its form sits in the way of a full height elevator well. I pre-cut both sides of the cross-brace with a small saw prior to gluing the hidden bottom plate onto the hull. I didn�t remove it until afterward, wanting the hull to maintain its shape until the bottom plate could shoulder that load. Once that plate was dry, I took a blade and easily cut away the band. I did reinforce the area afterward.

A little more challenging was a large part meant for the aft end of the kit (part T10). It serves as boat storage and support for the aft bulkhead to the upper hangar deck, and sports an internal deck that could be used as a portion of the aft, upper hangar deck, should someone choose to dispense with the kit elevator well and scratch-build their own for just the upper hangar deck. It�s an interesting add-on from Fujimi, but it interferes with the full, two-story elevator well that I�m building. I cut a hole within the deck large enough to accommodate my structure using the old hot blade approach. I wanted to retain any rigidity that the piece might impart to the hull. It worked fine and I wasn�t concerned about neatness, as the cut will be hidden out of sight.

The larger challenge here was getting the completed elevator assembly to align correctly within the hole, as there isn�t a whole lot of room to work with. It turns out that the bulkhead that lines the left side of the boat storage chute on part T10 does not properly align with the axis of the ship. The kit part angles slightly toward the centerline, impeding on the wall of my unit. Fortunately, I was able to file and thin the wall enough to allow the new elevator well to align.

I closed off the aft end of the well at the lower hangar deck level as there were only crew quarters on the other side, similar to the forward elevator. Again, I added an access door for emergencies. I left the upper hangar deck access open because the aircraft engine repair shop was located there. Full access from the hangar deck, across the lift platform, seems reasonable.

[Joe Simon]

Dan I just saw this thread. Really impressive work here. The elevators are amazing. I have the big Kaga so I will be taking many notes. And yes it has been awhile since you built the big carriers.

[MartinJQuinn]

Fantastic...that looks amazing.

[Dan K]

Thx. I'm pretty happy with the way the elevators turned out.

Ok, I finally washed the flight deck.

[garyrunnalls]

Beautiful work for such a fantastic ship!!!

[Dan K]

Thanks, Gary.

As mentioned earlier, the thickness of the Evergreen sheet used for deck planking is 0.02�. The thickness of the PE metal treading around the edge of the flight deck is 0.005�. In actuality, the two surfaces met at the same height. So, it was necessary to build up a substrate layer of 0.015� styrene strip around the flight deck. This was a straightforward task, though an extra plank�s width of stripping needed to be added to various spots around the planked deck, as my cut was not entirely accurate. This occurred mostly over the forward third of the flight deck. The addition required taking single strands of .01� x .02� styrene strip, painting it the same flight deck base color along the thinner edge, gloss coating and washing that same edge, and then gluing the strip into place with that edge up. It was an interesting little exercise.

[Dan K]

Btw, this is a comparison shot between a flight deck (Junyo) painted with the base coat (actually, a slightly darker variant than what is used on Taiho) and the washed deck.

[Harpy]

Really nice build Dan.

[J. Soca]

Sweet looking elevators!





Jose