IJN Zuikaku 1/350

[StevenVD]

Thanks, Dan! Continuing the masking operation for the Gunze H59 paint.



You only need the surrounding masks, but the grills are used too for locating the center.



Here the elevator shaft was used to trim the mask.



But I had not been attentive to the instructions and the front masking part was aligned with the deck edge. In fact, you need to place it futher back a bit. Therefore I only noticed the shift when I arrived at the first camo intersection in the middle of the deck. I decided that I would try to undo this, but it only worked out to the location of the front camo intersection because I had already painted over the deck. So one of the front arrows will appear slightly moved. I succeeded to correct the front masking by making an overlap in the large masking part. I had to redo the elevator trimming too.



Masking was done, but the elevator still had to be painted in H60.





This was opened up and a paper channel was inserted to be able to paint that deep without filling up the hangars.





The final color is darker but also richer, so this won't go unnoticed. But for now we have to stay the unpacking until the hull is camouflaged in the light green color and of course the anti-fouling.



The elevator floor is now masked.



In the mean time, I succeeded in finding another of my coveted SF-designs, from the new BSG series that I recently discovered. But it has to come by the GSP all the way from California.



Now to find a decent lighting kit with the roving eye.

[Dan K]

Masks are a wonderful thing.

I agree that the rebooted BSG was a great, great series.

[StevenVD]

The raider can be followed on dradis and was last seen in Kentucky.



When I started masking the deck, a pack of snow had just deposited itself.



Yesterday this was gradually diminished, to be followed by a remarkably higher temperature. But where was Zuikaku now?



The triple 25mm guns are masked. First I had also covered the enclosed pair.





The sides are now prepared for a last session of pale green. In some schemes a triple bow wave is seen where the only blurry picture taken from the hull camo seems to suggest this. In my opinion, this is a real wave and apparently Fujimi has also neglected this.



I removed the unused masking on the covered guns because they too had to be painted pale green.



Then the ship was painted in this extremely glossy color. I will have to add quite some gloss coat to the dark green to equal this.



I tried to avoid overspray with a piece of cartboard and some tape.

The ship had to be upended again.















Now, finally the tape was removed and diligently put back on the masking carrier.



Painting seemed quite well, but some plating had to be reattached. The Shipyard masking clearly leaves glue stains on the metal parts, this may have to be washed off mildly.





















There was quite some overspray on the lower hull. This was corrected freehand.













The island was first painted dark geen, but it was overpainted with NATO green and this improved depth.





It was fixed to the deck with Bison glue.









The overspray showed that some light misting wouldn't hurt the color contrast, so this might be repeated in a deliberate filtering.

[Dan K]

DRADIS - very good

Zuikau is also looking very good. Type 21 radar - I think we discussed leaving one side open, yes?

[StevenVD]

You're seeing the closed side here, Dan. I will now fix the other antenna to the deck, it is painted pale green like it is proposed in the instructions. Or would you contest that? I think it is going to look strange from above.

[Dan K]

Understood.

If you mean the retractable Type 21 aft, I think you could leave it tucked away. No pic of it ever deployed that I can remember. Only Junyo's after the war.

[StevenVD]

Dan, I will probably repaint it dark green, it's too much of an eye-catcher not to fix it and I had already added the circular base for it.

Today I finally got this nice book.



It will be helpful as a modeling instruction for my cv-9 kit, that will probably not end up as cv-9. I'm also reading the Warships Data Yorktown book, but I have selected the Hornet as a likely subject.

Now, some Zuikaku turntable pictures.











The planes are partly painted green and in a mix of white and RLM65 passing for grey green. The fuselage wil still be masked. The guns are painted Kure grey, while the triples were masked over the gunmetal primer the single ons are painted freehand to avoid damage. Still, some had to be reconstituted, the breeches tend to snap from the base. Pilots are primered brown, seamen white over pale green.



The narrow positions of the stern deck edge guns are occupied before the railing is installed. But the inner part can not just be applied straight from the fret.



A spare deck part came in handy to serve as a template. I had no trouble fitting the railing on the ship now.



Same story on the port side, but the railing had to be expanded to the galleries here.





This should continue with the bow section.

[StevenVD]

All went well, so the deck coulod now be masked for the markings visible on the footage.



Again Fujimi delivers on the masking but it lapses over the instructions. These can be left aside because the drawn lengths of masking ribbon do not match up with what you got in the kit. I just stuck the three ribbons together and aligned this on the deck. That also matched better the top picture of the ship. The elevator part was then cut loose and attached in the hangar.



Again some PE emerges from the box. This is probably the last bit.



The anti-fouling was masked following the deck plating on the hull, but this had a rather crooked appearance at the stern. I checked by sliding a pencil on a block along the rightened hull and the crooked part at the back could be corrected.



I used Mr. Hobby dark red for about a centimeter where the hull might sink in a wave. I suppose the ship would have been less loaded with fuel and provisions at the end, so maybe a few millimeters of this can show up.



The deck markings were then painted white and I used the paint that was discolored pink from the beaker for the engraved deck parts.







The planes were then camouflaged with Mr.Hobby H59. The cowlings still have to be masked for a layer of black.

[MartinJQuinn]

Love the camo. Nice work on the markings on the deck, too.

[StevenVD]

Thanks, Martin! Today the showcase was collected at my pet shop. It costed less than 50 euros and is made of glass panels measuring 85 x 20 x 25 centimeters. I took it large enough to add the antenna pylons.









Maybe harder to see, the Tenzans have their decals already and the hull is misted over with IJN grey, blending the two quite distinct colors. Some rust is added too and more is to come.

[StevenVD]

Yesterday I started to accomodate the showcase. I used the same recipy as with Princeton, only everything had to be bigger.



If I cut down this baseplate to 85x25cm, I can make a frame around it and still have 5mm above the plank. This will keep the case in.





Typically, I chose some dimensions that caused me to fall 2cm short on the frame. I went for the remnants of the last time.



But these were all too short, so I could only bash this together.



That would of course be blasphemy on this project, so I visited the store again. Any leftover will always be useful for the next ship. I also provided a can with gold paint for the chrysanthemum sign on the bow, because I don't have any gold airbrush paint. The large pot is not meant for Zuikaku, but for the greater good of modelism.



It will provide a decent cover for this patched up floor surface where I spray my models, it must be riddled with small pieces of PE I lost in these cracks.

And now, the airwing decalling results:







I used the Hasegawa decals with the slightly more reddish hinomarus. These went on really well with Daco Strong, even to the point all panel lines came through. I only deviated from the scheme where I thought Fujimi might have some more appropriate tail signs. The schemes on the Hasegawa set do not always account for three contemporary planes. The one Tenzan scheme where Zuikaku is mentioned is of course used, but it had to be sided with two generic Fujimi schemes.



For the Tenzans and the Zeros another masking session was necessary.





Now the cowlings are painted NATO black. I also weathered the deck and the hullwith some shades of black, grey, tan and rust, but I intend to complete this with some chipping, dry-brushing and washes. The hull area after the smoke stacks is misted black too. The planes have to get their leading edge decals connected with yellow paint. I also fixed all deck cabling PE with the appropriate colors painted separately, so I did not have to prime the uncolored deck for this.

[Dan K]

Beautiful aircraft.

[StevenVD]

Thanks, Dan. I now completed the yellow decal lining on the wings with Tamiya paint.



I sprayed the heraldry flower with a gold spray can. Therefore I had to use a sheet of paper with a tiny hole to mask off the ship. That's overkill, they should invent the Gold Molotow marker for this.



This fragile installation needed 6 PE parts to be erected. I also installed all arrestor wire hooks and netting frames, painted in the deck colors, and the ship's crane.



The frame is mounted on the base with PVA glue.



The base is covered in plaster to shape the seascape.



Testing the fit. I had to clean the hull afterward, because I still had to varnish the green camo parts.





Of note during the fixing of the mast was that the Shipyard PE had the wrong provisions to anchor the kit mast. Therefore, neither that or my own version fitted and I had to redrill the three holes through the painted PE, with the drilling head quite close to the island structure. But it worked out. I think the crow's nest is a bit crooked, but correcting that angle will be dangerous.



I wanted some modulation in the water gel, so I added blackened plaster first and then dripped a grey mix over that.



The AK water gel is applied with a chisel.



Soon the aquamarine disappears into azure.



I cut the plastic sides for the base.



Because the circumference had to be 2 meters, I had to trim the short sides about 1,5 centimeters.



It seems that the height will also have to be reduced a bit.

[Tomek K]

She looks great. Chrysanthemum in place, so she's ready to launch
Looking forward with interests

[StevenVD]

Thanks, Tomek! Let's add some weathering first, after some months at sea this scheme must have looked a bit worse for wear.



The pale green paint was a lot more glossy even after a layer of Pledge, so the dark green was very hard to wash clean. This might improve if I use thinner in stead of cleaning fuel. Here you can see the Plimsoll-decals Fujimi provided.













Now, some chipping with Lifecolor products will ensue.

[Dan K]

Looking good.

[marijn van gils]

Still progressing rapidly!

[Landlubber Mike]

Wow this is really impressive work! Very nice job!

[StevenVD]

Thanks all for the positive comments!

I had forgotten to drill extra AA positions in the galleries. Now this had to be done by removing part of the railing (it came off quite nicely) and taking care not to hit anything with the spindle. By drilling through the bottom, some positions could be reached easier.



Weathering of the hull is now achieved with the set from Lifecolor, first some chipping with the shadow agent and then the Fouling Green was tested. This appeared to be ideal on Pale Green, but I had to thin it immediately because the removing agent didn't seem to work.



Some details like the heavy guns and the figures are painted by brush.







I covered the entire hull in a thinned layer of Fouling Green.







Also, the styropor base was lowered to fit to the plastic frame. Now the ship could go in.

[StevenVD]

I wanted to finish the washing episode with a dark brown to stain the NATO green parts.













The rocket launchers are installed, but a few of them had to be disassembled because the fit was wrong. The problem with the resin kit is that the location of the launcher is a bit unclear. Both parts have a location hole but this is not visible once you assemble it.