IJN Zuikaku 1/350

[StevenVD]

Thanks, Jos�! It cost me enough, so I better make it shine...

Now the Veteran rocket launchers are built:

http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNJAP_1 ... Rocket.php

The Imperial Japanese Navy developed a number of spin-stabilized rockets during World War II, but only this one ever saw service use. These went to sea in launchers containing 28 rockets with six launchers on most carriers. The rocket had an incendiary shrapnel warhead, somewhat similar in design to the "Sankaidan" Type 3 projectile used for guns, and had a time fuze set to explode the warhead at either 1,000 or 1,500 meters (1,100 or 1,640 yards).

Fujimi used slide molding for the launch tubes, but they reproduced only 9 holes. There need to be 28. Also, the gunners' housing is shaped wrong.



Veteran keeps the option for closed or open housing, both using the launcher as prime part. A lot of Pe has to be omitted if you want to use the resin housing, but it's worth it, with detailed acces hatch and smooth edges. I chose these, risking a tight set on the platform.



The pinions are cool but will not be conspicuous. There are no air bubbles, this is intended to show the pivot point.





Sadly in this beautifully engineered set, the launcher has a loose fitting and because of that it sits a bit out of the center. To avoid this you should bore the holes and insert a wire.



To make the 4 launchers fit, the partitions should be removed and replaced with something thinner, placed wider apart. For the stern quad to follow the Morskie deviations from the Fujimi plan, I still need to build an extra platform. This seems a daunting task avoiding all the surrounding structures.

Starboard railings are now added:









The work under the funnel could have been avoided putting some of this railing earlier on. If bent and unbent, it shreds easily, but it can be remade. I suppose I had to add the inside railing on the sloop and anchor decks earlier on, this will be a tedious step after painting now.

[marijn van gils]

Great progress Steven!

The rocket launchers look great in themselves, but feel a bit cramped on their platform. Were they supposed to be able to turn?

[StevenVD]

Thanks, Marijn! I now removed the partitions, so the position of the launchers can be divided better. It can still be under discussion if what you see in the top view picture are indeed 4 launchers or rather 3 and an extra structure like the director, but I'm sticking to 2x4 launchers.

The PE anchors are slightly smaller than the plastic, so they are probably more to scale compared to the Morskie drawing, be it 1/400.



For the aft launchers platform, I had only two images in Morskie to scratch from.





I compared the width to the front platform and measured how far it had to extend from the hull.



Some Shokaku parts remained, coming in handy now.



Also the steel PE remains can be recuperated.



I have to make alterations to the reference plan, as it only shows 3 launchers with support pillars. The trusses are not lateral but radiant, so I copied this from what I saw on other platforms.



Checking the height of the platform. The pillars are merged in an angle to the hull.



The front trusses are cut out without making perforations, as this material is very hard.



At the base of the platform, some unused triangles show perforations. These should be visible under the deck edges.





The launchers can now be fit to the new position.



I made a guess as to where the landing lights would now be placed.

[Dan K]

Very nice work, Steven.

The forward light array (4 green) is attached to the trailing end of the aerial mast platform right in front of where you have it now. There was, and still might have been, a short sponson/platform immediately aft of that position which held the red, 2 light array. Which means the AA rocket platform was probably placed further aft.

I've come across two interpretations of the placement of the aft rocket AA platform. One is that it held 4 mounts, and its length actually protruded further aft, into the boat deck space, The other is that the aft position was limited to three, not four AA mounts.

Impossible to say which might be correct.

No help at all to you, I know.

[StevenVD]

Thanks anyway, Dan. If you assume there are 4 launchers in front, there would likely be 4 on the aft, so I'll stick to that idea. To be able to place my platform, I had to remove the one you mention in front of the aerial mast platform, because this is right on the deck edge and would impede the launchers if it would be superimposed. On the Morskie top view, the launcher platform clearly replaces it. I made a comparison picture where I tried to imitate the projection from the sun of the deck edge on the picture on the last page of the manual. Maybe the platform was a bit more elongated. The large shadow we see must be of the rocket platform and not of the lower engine test platform, as this was closer to the centerline.



Now another interesting feature is mounted on the deck edge.



The safety netting is completely provided in PE, with some large pieces, some extending poles and a lot of connecting particles.



It looked fine at first sight, because there is a strong connection to the deck edge and the eyelets on the poles could take some tension.



It had not been evident to me before, but Fujimi, having included quite extensive instruction pages on the railing and deck support parts, fails completely on the netting parts instructions. Only the 6 large parts are ballooned on the pics. All peculiarities like the order of the variable length poles, the choice between type A17 or A19 connection parts, the angle of the netting and the location of the connection to the hull are completely based on your imagination. Seldom could I define this clearly from the pictures and it didn't help to double check with the Gakken detail pictures of the 1/100 model, because this seemed to differ from the instructions. Eventually, the nets were placed more or less straight, see the following pictures.













Tomorrow, probably the floater baskets will be made, if maybe not fixed to the deck edge yet to ease painting.

[StevenVD]

32 supports for deck edge netting had to be plied.



These nets were all very clear in the instructions, compared to the former.









I also plied the ship access walkways, that need to be stowed on the boat deck, though I wonder where the front pair would be kept. Now I started to prepare the North Star judo tournament figures. Often they broke at the ankle white care was being taken. They're put on the steel grill used for the Princeton crew. The other set will star on the opposite side.

[marijn van gils]

Luckily it's not BBQ season, or accidents could happen!

Great detailing work Steven! And fast!
I must say, I'm a big fan of gluing as much as possible before painting, but I would have probably would have left the safety netting off until after myself... But if it works it works!

[StevenVD]

Marijn, the problem was that it could not be predicted how the netting would be fixed to the ship, so any painting on it would get seriously chipped in getting it in shape. Like this, all can be painted on the spot. I'm sure the entire gallery can be sprayed by putting the model upside-down. This can still be done quite safely because the wood deck is not yet applied, I only have to provide a spacing between the netting and the deck.

Let's throw another drumstick on the barbeque with North Star's running pilot set. This was distinctively easier to clip, as all the figures stood on a platform and the pincer could be easily positioned under the feet. The legs are all very fine so they were more elastic and didn't break.

















Now all is in place for painting but one thing I left lingering and this are the 25mm ammo crates. Today I went on a shopping spree again and at a certain moment I had both the Infini PE-set and two Black Cat resin kits in my cart. I would have chosen those for ease of construction, but the sheer number of guns made me doubt if even 2x18 crates would suffice. Therefore I stuck with Infini and so in a few days another metal bending folly will unsettle these pages... I did however order two sets of Black Cat figures for a future project.

[Dan K]

Continued impressive work, Steven.

[StevenVD]

Thanks, Dan.

Masking of the bow and stern pre-painted areas is done with strips of paper. This caused some of the small nets to fall off, so these will be painted separately.









I had provided myself with a new turning disk to paint all the detail parts separately. I managed to build one extra triple 25mm gun out of Infini spare parts, though it has no base. So I'm stuck at 18 out of 20. At least a nice pack of Infini ammo crates is coming this way.



Another subject of continued detailing is the airwing. I found out that although the fuselages are cast hollow, Hasegawa didn't open up the cockpit, so I did it myself. Now some props, that will have to be scavenged of US navy PE.

[StevenVD]

In stead of grey primer I decided to use black to completely eliminate any PE shining through.





This necessitated to upend the model on a pair of blocks, fitting between the netting.











Also the small parts and the bridge were primered and the guns were also upended.



I did not find Gunze 80 Khaki green, maybe one of those discontinued numbers because my store has the complete series. So I used NATO green in stead.





















Now a dark pinwash will be added.

[Dan K]

Nice work.

[marijn van gils]

Very nice Steven! Still going fast...

Now a dark pinwash will be added.

I hope you do remember the hull was painted in camo too, with 2 shades of green? The one you painted now looks like the darker green to me. The light one was really very light, especially after a bit of Pacific sunshine.

Kasagi (unfinished) after the war at Sasebo. Colourized, but it gives a good impression:


And an actual colour photo of Amagi:


And a screenshot from actual colour film. The light green is visible from where the gun platform supports attach to the hull and above, and on the big protrusion of the support for the 12,8cm mount.


And my interpretation:

[StevenVD]

Thanks, guys. Let me explain what I meant with my "pinwash": I added some NATO black to the green, that was really meant as the darker green (if you go back a few pages, you see that part of the hull is already painted in the light color that Marijn is speaking of). Every spillage point was traced downwards. Then a bit of dark yellow made the highlights a bit more vivid.













Some of the smaller stuff is colored and the bridge is primered a bit more green.





Now there was an affair on deck that had to be arranged. Fujimi made the expansion joints a bit too pronounced. This could be filled up neatly.



There was also a photo-etch ensemble of joints. It would seem to fit right in.



But none of that, because I had to drag a Shipyard deck in to the picture...



The shipyard expansion joints are not only narrower because of the PE deck edges that were subtracted from the overall width, but the leading edge is somehow a lot larger. If I cut it out, two holes will show up next. So I started to cut some homegrown joints (that sounds peculiar).

[StevenVD]

Now it's going to be real fun, because I just fixed the wooden deck. That is a ritual a lot of carrier builders live up to, at least those who like wooden decks. First I had to finish the expansion joints you saw last time. I decided to use the Fujimi parts after all, because I had no calibrated 0,75mm strips to cut them from and it was impossible to cut them that straight and fix them like it was really a joint. I had to break loose the leading edges of the Fujimi etch, by clamping them in the Mastertools hold-and-fold and stressing them. This way I could reproduce one joint in about 10 minutes. Only the last few joints start to diverge from the plastic deck ones.







Fujimi has the deck edges of the unpainted areas in tan. I used some dunkelgelb varieties and I also painted the expansion joints in Kure grey. I will probably overpaint this in the camouflaged patches.



When two specialist advisors conspire, it is best to follow the advice and so a white strip was applied at the stern. This will then be masked, painted red and then mostly overpainted again. With the remains of the white in the airbrush I tinted the upside of the netting. When all the deck is done and covered up with the Shipyard masking, the ship will again be inverted and then the light green can be sprayed without concern of overspraying the deck edge. At that point I will also finish the netting underside.









Parts of the railing are primed on the fret and will be cut loose after painting light green. I hope the shaping against the deck edges will not chip off too much paint.



I used Bison contact glue last time I made a wooden deck, in the Princeton build. The Shipyard deck has a self-adhesive side but this can be improved upon with a stronger glue.



A caveat in Japanese carrier decks are all those tiny perforations, so you have to make sure all glue splotches are topped off. That way you can prevent a nasty Play-Doh spaghetti-effect when you apply pressure.





This is done with a chisel. I hit one low when I realised that I forgot to remove one section's self-adhesive cover, luckily the Bison glue is forgiving and it could be removed again and reapplied.



The back end was shortened to recreate the metal plate cover effect. I realised I maybe should have left these plates off until the entire wooden deck was fixed, as Dan explained that the metal plates were removable. As it is, I finished the wood with the deck edge that was removed from the ditched piece. No idea if that is completely incorrect, but it might be more aesthetic. After all, you get a nice impression of how the deck would be if it was not yet camouflaged. You also see the downside of a continuous part of unpainted wooden deck: the wood grain is very clearly visible along the center over the entire length of the ship. If you decide to use this deck for an unpainted version, then you might be tempted to transpose a few deck cutouts along the center grain to spread this effect over the length of the ship. For me it is not important, because I will overpaint 80 procent of the deck.













And now another SSN Modelbau addition, after the guns and the rocket launchers:





I needed a lot of ammo crates, so Infini was my preferred solution. The other sets are for another project, an LST that disembarks in Normandy. Therefore I needed lots of figures to accompany my l'Arsenal vehicles. This had to be soldiers and I found just the right stuff for that: Black Cat figurines.



1/350 soldiers at ease. They have action figures also but this seemed out of place.



1/350 working sailors. If not used on the LST, part of them can pass on to my Essex-class project. But now some 40-somthing ammo crates are waiting to be plied...

[Dan K]

Very nice work, Steven. You work fast, compared to me, anyway.

[StevenVD]

Without any sports or other leisure, any modeling projects are moving faster than usual. Today, I did a little painting and lots of bending.



Morskie had 25 stripes, Gakken 21. But with a 75mm broad deck and Tamiya tape being 2x3mm wide, I chose 25.



Tamiya flat red is used to make the markings.



But the fun did not last long.



No worries, this was intentional. Now in the corners the dark green color should follow.



The Fujimi ammo crates only have the top detailed.



The Infini ones are detailed on all sides. You could put all ammo clips from the other sets in, but this will not suffice.



I started with as much aswere on the plastic sprues.



I also wanted to try out the other type, though it is not in the Fujimi manual.



Take care with removing the closed type of crate, because this has some fragile bend lines. But the bending works very fast, mostly without glue.



Ready for paint.





Primered black and the Kure grey. Recommended to prime the backside before bending, because it proves hard to paint the inside afterwards.

[marijn van gils]

Still going strong Steven!

[StevenVD]

Thanks, Marijn! Just added some Tamiya NATO brown and some Gunze tan to the wood colored plating.







The Shipyard masking set is great stuff because it covers large parts of the deck camo, but that means it has a strong adhesion to everything that you might not have fixed with extra glue.



The Gunze H60 IJA camo green changes the profile definitely.





I also added some modulation with NATO black and yellow areas. It's a lot of going back and forth between all the strapping points...





For the airwing detailing I had to use a WEM leftover from the Princeton build, here still in its pristine condition a few years ago.



Right now only three Avenger props and one L'Arsenal one remained.



With these I managed to reconstitute 3 four-bladed Tenzan props.



With some effort a slight pitch could be arranged. I also saw an extra addition on the WEM fret.



Suiseis and Zeros could be provided with the smaller propellers. These both got extra spinners in the Hasegawa set. The Suiseis even have hollow spinners so the props were worked in.





The Zero's had an axle to be removed.



All cockpits were then painted with the remainder of the green paint.



Now I'm busy masking the 25mm guns painted gun metal.

[Dan K]

Great progress.