A proper 1/700 Yugumo class DD

[Dan K]

I managed to repair the damage to Kazegumo, below. I added new piping and venting. But, unbelievably, while working on similar improvements to Naganami, I utterly destroyed Naganami's aft mast and PE works. And I mean utterly.

I can't take it anymore!!!!!!!!

I may have to take up knitting.

[PetrolGator]

Dan,

I did the same thing with the Haursame I built MULTIPLE TIMES. Dude, you're build here is too impressive and too informative for you to take up knitting. The idea is a simply travesty and will offend the modeling gods in ways I am not sure you are willing to deal with.

Seriously. You're an inspiration.

[sirpaul]

Why don't you take one of your 350th ijn destroyers out of the closet and start it side by side with these. When you can't seem to cope with the little ones do the bigger one. It should give you the positive juice to go back and crunch out some good work on the 700 ones. Thats why i started 350th again.

[Dan K]

Thx for your thoughts, guys. I'm venting.

PG - You know, setting aside the frustration that comes with &#%ing up bigtime, repeatedly building the same thing is really boring. Not to mention the waste of time. I could have built a 3rd DD with the amount of time and effort spent in repairs.

SP - I've thought about it but, truthfully, I don't want to just work on any kit; I'd want it to be a project that I relly want to work on. A conversion of the 1/350 Tamiya Yukikaze to a Yugumo is what I have in mind but, I'd like to use the PitRoad Yugumo kit bridge. Just can't find one.

I have been toying/working out another 1/350 project but, with the amount of correcting invloved, it's almost like a semi-scratchbuild.

[Devin]

Dan, correcting kits is the slippery slope to scratch-building as it is. Might as well go all out!

Nice looking DDs. Any hope of seeing one on the table in two weeks at MosquitoCon?

[Dan K]

I'd say it's virtually impossible to finish one in time for MC, which really sucks, because MC was my motivation to complete these.

I managed to rebuild the aft deck house fixings on Naganami over the weekend, very nicely, I might add. But, I destroyed the railings aound the searchlight platfrom, and (of all things) the bow fairleads while doing so.

I'm slipping even further backwards.

[Dan K]

I had been making nice progress repairing Naganami's aft rig. Maybe even cleaner than before.

[Dan K]

I was attaching the last of her forward davits, customized to the proper configuration. I was looking forward to the start of attaching her main deck railings, because that meant that main coat painting would be next. The RDF loop turned out nicely.

And then, I dropped Naganami yet again. I've never dropped any model twice. Ever. Maybe it's cursed. Or, I am.

The only positive thing is that the #1 funnel took the brunt of the drop and popped off cleanly, along with some of the PE. I just need to re-attach the forward half of the funnel grill and re-spray with black.

[Dan K]

Naganami is finally ready for painting, though I want to complete Kazegumo before I actually paint. I did manage to damage the thin "Y" tips of the foremost auxiliary piping on Naganami's #1 funnel. I'll fix it.

[Devin]

Looks good, but what are the tiny brass pieces on the fantail (and DO NOT TELL ME that you assembled something that small!)

[PetrolGator]

Dan,

I'm glad to see you still at work on this. Your work is inspiring and your step to step process is helping a lot with my own work.

[Dan K]

Well, if my sweat and tears pays off for someone else, then I suppose I should be pleased.

Those tiny brass pieces are depth charges (LionRoar, IIRC) for the single racks at the stern.

[PetrolGator]

Well, if my sweat and tears pays off for someone else, then I suppose I should be pleased.

Those tiny brass pieces are depth charges (LionRoar, IIRC) for the single racks at the stern.

I have some frets of these I picked up at a show a few months back. How do they fold? I had some old Tom's PE racks that seemed to fold when I tried to glue them down.

[MartinJQuinn]

Great work Dan. Mighty impressive.

[Dan K]

Thx, Marty.

PG, those are solid brass, round, single depth charges. IIRC, they come with a a couple of PE racks, that have to be folded into form. Is that what you're referring to?

[Dan K]

I finished Kazegumo's railings over the w/e. Next step is to work on turrets, TT tubes, AA, boats, etc. so that everything can be main coat painted in the same session or two. Both ships posed here with their bridge assemblies in place, not glued.

[FlowerPower]

Dan...your builds are inspiring!

I feel your pain when gravity accidents happen...I had my share...specially when rigging WWI planes.

Good luck and keep going.

Cheers,

Rob

[blacman]

Looking very good!

[Dan K]

As I'm theoretically done with damaging and rebuilding my models, I've spent the last few weeks working on small components.

First up were the TT tubes. The appearance of the PitRoad NE04 & 05 equipment sets was an unexpected gift, so I chose to use the quad TT mounts as these are the best currently available in 1/700. And, they are nice. However, I did not count on these new mounts not fitting the premolded bases on my DDs. (Strangely, they don't readily fit the PitRoad Yugumo/Kagero/Asashio clss kits either as one might assume, but it appears they might fit the new Fujimi Kagero kits.)

So, an extreme mod to the TT mount bottom is required. First, I drilled out the orignal bases on the DDs themelves with a series of ever larger micro drill bits, then sliced off the remaining walls with a razor blade. I then ground down the remains. The new bases are wider than the old bases so, nothing shows. Then, I cut a slice from �� styrene tube and glued that on to the bottom of the TT mount. Since I had to change it, I changed it to approximate the actual width of the mount. The underside of the actual TT mount resembled the underside of the main 12.7cm turrets. However, doing so meant that the quad torpedo kit part would not fit underneath the tubes as is, so I had to shape the end to fit the new modification. I hope the photo makes that clear.

I used the FineMolds generic DD PE set for the cross-deck depth charge rack. I cut down the rack legs so as to make it closer to scale height. I added a small davit of brass rod. Maybe I should have used .006" instead of .008" on the brass.

The Rainbow A-C II set comes with what I believe are torpedo trolleys. These are probably meant for aerial torpedoes & flight deck applications but they seem to fit a Long Lance just fine. These trolleys are also sized to the correct width of the torpedo trolley rails molded onto the DD decks. That nice Type 93 Long Lance comes with the NE04 set.

[Dan K]

I suppose it makes more sense to show how the TT mount looks aboard ship. Also, how the orignal mount bases need to be eliminated. At this point, I've also added propeller guards from the Tom's DD set. Maybe a little oversized, though once covered in grey paint, it won't be noticable.

Paravane and davits come from the FineMolds NanoDread WA16 set. THey are beautifully molded, as are the paravanes themselves. FM has included outriggers & a pulley setup in the molding, which, as the GPS illustration shows, was part of the equipment. I think it way overscale and intend to to remove them completely.