The Ship Model Forum

So, the gun barrels are now rigidly mounted, glued together, and stable.
This doesn't bother me, since I always build the main turrets in the moving position anyway.



The green arrow shows the defective primer.



After painting, you shouldn't notice any of it anymore. Now I can continue working on them next week.

So, another little update today.
The primer was smoothed and repaired again in the damaged areas with 1000-grit sandpaper.
Then I cleaned and attached a lot of microscopic parts.
The turrets are made almost entirely from the Pontos kit. Only the armor plates of the small turrets were provided by the KA kit.

See green arrow.



This allowed the base coat and a first wash to be applied.
Bow:



And stern:



Mikasa�s face continues to become more complete.

Very nice work

Thank you Dan.

I actually wanted to finish weathering the towers today. But firstly, things don�t always turn out the way you expect, and secondly, they don�t, right?!

While placing the large
artillery pieces in their barbettes, my attention was drawn again to the bridgehouses with the structures I had modified from styrene profiles.
Wait a minute, I thought, I did that on the hull too. And that�s where the supports for the torpedo nets are attached directly to the hull.
Oh dear, open the dry dock carefully immediately.



And indeed, the supports run along the hull at the points marked in green, and the profiles would create a large gap there. So, I marked the height with my waterline marker.



I put the Mikasa on its side, put a new blade on the scalpel, and started carving notches. My little dry dock is invaluable again. It allows me to rest my hand properly and perform open-heart surgery with a steady cut.



So far, so good. A scrap piece of an old etched circuit board was cut to length and applied. No gap visible anymore, perfect.



So here�s the result. The notches run exactly under the green line, which is supposed to represent the torpedo net support.



Then do the same on the other side. Since I�ve already opened the dock, I checked the positions for the barge and the cutters. That should be fine.



Of course, I added the bridge decks for posing. I rarely see my model like this.



This model really keeps me awake at night. But whatever, this beautiful ship deserves a little effort and attention.

My big towers took a little longer, but they�re finished.
So here�s another little update today.



Into the barbettes. With their wedge shape, they could still win a design award today, I think.



And towards the rear. Its unusual shape is truly impressive.



This completes the main armament and I can now focus on the bridge.



The Mikasa looks so cool from the front.

I see this, it inspires me to undust the bench and start working again. love this mikasa interpretation. She looks like she has seen some battles (well, she has). Very good stuff.

Thank you pascalmod.
Then up, I would be happy to see something new from you.

Just a quick snack at my shipyard today.
Before I start on the bridge wing and the wheelhouse, I wanted to make a few neat handrails to simplify and make things safer.
For this, I made small, custom-made handrails out of a multiplex board.



Then cover the surface with BluTack.



And the two components were placed on top.



Now I can work on them properly without having to worry about tearing off the outer support struts again.



I always play it safe whenever possible.
That’s how my workstands, which I like to call dry docks, came about.
By the way, if anyone is interested, I’ve created a short construction guide on the IPMS website.

https://ipmsdeutschland.de/wordpress/20 ... u-schiffe/

I don’t have too much to report today. I’m finding very little time for model building at the moment, and I’ve had to rethink and implement a few things.

First, the ingredients for the next construction phase.



First, the door frames were installed. These were painted with a slightly lighter grey to increase the contrast.



The partition wall and interior fittings for the wheelhouse were then made from styrene.



Difficult to capture with the camera, but you can get a sense of the room’s interior. More staff will arrive there later.



On to the steering rudder station. Here’s picture of the large compass.



Only the MK1 kit offers anything here. But I didn’t like the way it was supposed to be assembled. The sight glass was simply placed on top of the brass turned part. Unimaginative.



At first, I considered using the part from the original kit. However, I was annoyed by the poorly designed sprue attachment points. Why not just attach it from below? But I couldn’t really warm to that part either. It was too crude.



So I looked at the brass part again and thought, hey, I’m a locksmith and I do have files…



Better…



And here’s a direct comparison. Which looks better?



I think, for my part, the Ka set has won the race again. With a little help from me.

I would still cut the compensation spheres from the plastic kit and attach them to the brass parts ... they need to be painted anyway.

Good idea, Eberhard.
I got some 0.5mm steel balls to improve the compensation spheres. I didn't like the discs too, that were supposed to represent them either.
But I didn't want to destroy the compass from the kit.
Who knows what else I might need it for.

Well done Jolle, great interiors and compass! excellent idea to change the flat discs with the steel spheres. An alternative could have been some inexpensive soldering balls but steel spheres look great and seem a better choice! a propos where did you find them?

Thank you, SG1.

That would have been another idea. I got the steel balls from Amazon

You can find steelballs on ebay in almost any size you can imagine, but they are very hard, because they are for ball-bearings.

I recently came across an offer for aluminium-spheres down to 0.5 mm diameter: https://www.ebay.de/itm/405188608551?var=675284784282 (usual disclaimer of not being connected in any way to the seller). I have not ordered any, so I cannot comment on the quality, but they would be easier to drill than the steel ones.

Thanks for the tips Jolle and Eberhard!

Your build continues to impress. Love the details and the way you work around obstacles. Well done!

Thank you very much, Martin.

Especially since I have to overcome the next obstacle right away.
The compass was finished except for the correction balls. I then placed it on the two wheelhouses for a test fit and thought, wow, that’s quite a big piece.
Then, together with a sailor, I placed the compass on a piece of modeling clay and wondered, were they really that big, or did Trumpeter and KA Models make a slight mistake with the dimensions?



The viewing window comes right up to the boy’s chin. And that would mean this compass would be at least 1500 mm high. Probably higher.

I asked in a German forum with some maritime experts whether that could be the case. The unanimous opinion was no.

But I had almost expected and feared as much. But whatever, we’re model builders after all, and we’ll master the challenge.

So, I’m starting my compass challenge now. Well, I have plenty of styrene profiles and quickly found the right thickness: 1.5 mm instead of just over 2 mm should be correct. Then I roughly cut them to size to see how they look on a person.



Next to it you can already see the attempt to create a foot from the good old scrap box.



What’s still missing is the compass head. I’ve ordered some more parts online for that. This time, 2mm ABS beads.

They’ll arrive tomorrow, and then we’ll see what’s next.

The binnacle window has to be at a height at which the compass rose can be viewed comfortably by the helmsman.

Sometimes, the helmsman can actually stand on a grating behind the wheel to keep his feet dry, particularly on open bridges. Was this perhaps the case here? Then this would add another 15 cm or so the helmsman's height.

A good point, Eberhard.

However, I know nothing about a grating that might have been on top of the wheelhouse.
And the same compass is still in the wheelhouse, and there certainly wasn't one there.

I measured the compass this morning. I could have done it right away. The result is 8.2 mm. That means it would be 164 cm tall ( 64,5 inch). The diameter is 2.3 mm, which would be 46 cm(18 inch). So, quite a hefty piece. I don’t think that’s going to work.

So, I already started tinkering with the new compass this morning. The beads won’t arrive until this evening, but I was able to take care of the base.

I think it looks a lot more authentic now, both in height and diameter.

So, I’ve finished my first test compass. A few things are still missing, like the compensation spheres, since it’s just a prototype. The acrylic beads are quite easy to work with. It’s just rather difficult to hold them steady while cutting them. But it worked.



And here it is, primed. Now you can really see if it turned out well.



I think the compass looks quite good. It’s just a prototype; it can be made a bit more accurate. But now I’d like to show you a picture of what actually triggered my compass crisis.



When I placed the huge thing on the small wheelhouse at the stern, I thought to myself, something’s not right. That’s why all the fuss.

So for now, I’m just glad I’ve found a solution. I’m actually still considering making it half a millimeter taller so it reaches halfway up the window.