The Ship Model Forum

I have often wondered if they might not have pulled a few more knots out of these ships if they had bothered to streamline the superstructure just a little.

MB

Racing brick?:)

She is coming along. I might end up stalling the build though. Depending on how fast Flyhawk can get the corrections done.

Angeliccypher wrote:Racing brick?:)

She is coming along. I might end up stalling the build though. Depending on how fast Flyhawk can get the corrections done.

Corrections?

I know what you mean about stalling while waiting on things, though.

I have my own 1/700 Nagara build, which has not had much done save for a tiny bit of styrene scratch building of the aft upper deck supports.

I have also stuck some hatches on the aft deck houses, and plugged some holes in the well-deck of the forward torpedo tubes. I had to significantly alter the well to accommodate the new bridge that will be going over it (I am leaving off the box that supposedly held the spare wings, though). The few later photos I have seen of the ship showed the spare wings moved further aft.

But I am glad I checked out your build, again, as I noticed on the PE frets I am working on that I need to include some running lights for the bridge (P/S red/green lamps). So I need to design some parts for those.

Also, I have been comparing the mast platforms of the Nagara and the Sendai from this period. And it looks like many of the structures were very similar (not exactly similar, but very close).

So this has allowed me to copy the Five Star mast platform parts for the IJN Sendai PE upgrade, and then alter them as they exist on the Nagara. This has simplified things greatly, and having your build to compare to has been a huge help as well.

MB

Glad I can provide some help. I will say that at this time I am not the kind of builder that wants to hunt down the flaws of dimensions or placement of things the way some of the guys here do. I have great admiration for what they do, just not my thing. I will change things that are obviously wrong in either kit design or modification for the time frame like the forward AA platform on this build. Speaking of which......

You had mentioned awhile back that you wanted to see how I did that. I would say that using mine as reference is a dodgy enterprise at best because frankly there are no pictures of the changes done to it in May '42. So I looked at what was done to some other ships in class with it (which appear to vary a bit) and did a TLAR approach.

Flyhawk had a redesigned section for the gun tub which is correct for the quad 13mm mount that was there until the mod. I used the bottom horizontal piece of that assembly with their support braces. The deck on top of it is sheet styrene measured against the kit with calipers to fit the width and depth. Rounded down the corners a bit as this was done on all of them in the class I have seen. Measured the gun locations to be even spaced and drilled them out. The splinter shield that was supposed to for the Flyhawk tub was repurposed for mine. The dual 13mm are Fine Molds.

Hope that helps.

One thing I am contemplating is using the larger officer gig for the boat in the water (the Flyhawk set works for that one). As if that one was one of Akagi's boats being used to send the Admiral over. This would make more logical sense in my head for what was likely done. Albeit a guess though. If I did this I would build all the boats for Nagara in stowed position. The flip side is to use the Nagara boat in the water which would allow me to do something that is technically more challenging. Having the davits crewed and swung out with the hooks lowered ready to receive the boat once the Nagumo gets off it. Opinions are welcome on this.

Those were two twin 13mms on the front?

I thought they were two twin 25mms?

Now I have to go buy some more Fine Molds IJN guns.

MB

very nice build.

and thanks for interesting discussion in between

Not the prettiest class but these ugly ducklings did better than any of their battleships. Excellent progress



Jose

J. Soca wrote:Not the prettiest class but these ugly ducklings did better than any of their battleships. Excellent progress



Jose

Yeah.... I have often wondered how Japan would have fared had it gone ahead and built all of the Destroyers it faked building to built the Yamato and Musashi.

Or how it would have fared had it not begun the Shinano, and built several dozen more DEs, or another two CVs.

Or, if it has asked to trade its BB tonnage for Cruiser tonnage.

MB

And yet another issue with the Flyhawk set. The davits for at least the aft set of boats are too short. I endured up using the kit pieces for them. Pics to come shortly.

I actually worked on my Nagara today.

I added the supports to the Starboard Aft upper deck overhang. I finally got some rectangular styrene rods. And I filled in the holes in the Forward Torpedo Well Deck that were remaining from carving out plastic bits that did not belong there (The old Fujimi kit has the walkway off-center).

I am getting really anxious waiting for the money to get the PE sheets done to finish the Bridge Superstructure and the walkway over the Torpedo Well deck. I may break down and go ahead and build one out of styrene, and I can always build another Nagara later (for the 1943 Battle of St. Augusta Bay) that uses the PE. I would really like to have the PE Handrails for the bridge, though.

But I have the Photo etch for pretty much everything else (hatches, ladders, railings, etc.) I just would not have the textured decking I need for the walkway and the Spotlight towers.

MB

Oh. So. JEALOUS!

MB

Nice work!!




Bob Pink.

Matthew, I am not sure what you are jealous about, but thanks.

Bob, Thank you:)

Latest updates. I have the chrysanthemum and ship name attached. The third pic is the PE boat stands that I put into place. The fourth has the midship boats installed. The Flyhawk pieces for these davits do not fit either. They are simply too short to reach the boats. I will likely add some stretched sprue to make the difference in length needed here. I see a scathing review coming on for a poorly engineered aftermarket set......
As always, thanks for looking and comments welcome.

Me likee!

Thanks Martin!

Oh, the boats in the boat cradles (stands - on the deck) aren't supposed to reach the davits.

They left them in those cradles when sailing, as the boats then did not swing about, and it was better than strapping the boats to the davits (which you see in various IJN DDs).

MB

That makes me feel a bit better then. I guess I will just putty the holes and add the PE to the davits then. Thanks.

Wow.....that really is coming along! Based on our discussions, I had visions of disaster, but I'm certainly not seeing that here!

I really need to spend more time with my 1/200th Mo...

Keep up the great work!

Tim W.

Matthew is correct in that most times, the boats were left in their cradles. Depending on how detailed you want to go, it becomes a matter of just having the boat pulleys extend down to attachment points on the boats, or to the davit. The attached photo of Sendai illustrates this well, I think.