Calling all Yamato (大和) and Musashi (武蔵) fans

[herrmill]

Does anyone have plans, drawings, photos or other details on Yamato's hull plating? I have Skulski's book which shows the cross section plate detail but am hoping for more detail before resorting to conjecture towards painting the hull plates onto my 1/200 Nichimo hull. His Takao book offers an excelent profile drawing that clearly shows the plate, but not Yamato, for reasons that are certainly understandable.

While I'm asking, does anyone know of the same hull plate details or can recommend sources on this for Kagero & Akizuki class destroyers?

Thanks.

[Yamato1701]

Hi all. New here and all. I just wanted to say that of all the Battleships the Yamato's are definitely my favorite. Probably came from watching the American version of Space Battleship Yamato (aka Starblazers) as a child. Now I have one IJN Yamato built, three different scale models of the Space Battleship and a Mushashi 1/350 and a Yamato 1/200 model waiting for me to finish North Carolina (BB-55). The clas deffinitely has a more pronounced character to her than even the Iowas I think.

[J. Soca]

The clas deffinitely has a more pronounced character to her than even the Iowas I think.

I don't want to start any flame wars, But I kind of agree with him. Yamato class looked much cooler than the Iowas.

[Yamato1701]

HOLY COW! I just got done looking through "Battleship Yamato, Anatomy of a ship" and holy cow! (did I say that already?) What have I gotten myself into. This is gonna be an interesting ride.

[AC Studio]

I got heaps of photos of the 1/1 movie building set from the Japanese Yamato Movie. I went to see that in Japan. I walked on the deck and love the feeling of standing on this great ship. I am very lucky to be there.

AC

[PreDreadNut]

Has anyone done a model of the Yamoto in the early fit, when she still had the 6.1" turrets amidships?Any pics?

[Anonymous]

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

[Anonymous]

The Skulski book is definitely a valuable reference tool, but bear in mind that there are few inaccuracies based on additional photos and research done since it came out. In particular, the 25MM AA tubs positioned on the deck and on the turrets were octagonal in shape rather than round, with the rear two sides missing. There are numerous reference books available in Japan to complement Skulski, some of which have only recently been released. Can't tell you which is the best, but I would suspect its the $200 one advertised on Hobby Link Japan. I do know that the Gakken 1/100 book is also a little dated too. One other thing - period photos and recent research in Japan suggest that the decks of Yamato had faded to a very dark gray by 4/45 and were not the bright yellow Hinoki color most modelers use. I don't ascribe to the "pride and joy flagship would have been holystoned theory - the IJN was desperately trying to camouflage its ships to the extent of painted aircraft carriers to look like merchant ships and Yamato's would have been left to weather naturally. There were also a series of white heading markers painted on the deck sides, but this is actually documented in Skluski.

[Anonymous]

Sorry to bother everyone

A year or so ago I saw A russian Company, from Moscow itself if I remember correctly that was building a 1/100 or 1/96 Yamato, but was expecting to offer a Photo Etch Set at some point for it...does anyone know of them? Id appreciate any help

Mike

[Yamato1701]

The Skulski book is definitely a valuable reference tool, but bear in mind that there are few inaccuracies based on additional photos and research done since it came out. In particular, the 25MM AA tubs positioned on the deck and on the turrets were octagonal in shape rather than round, with the rear two sides missing. There are numerous reference books available in Japan to complement Skulski, some of which have only recently been released. Can't tell you which is the best, but I would suspect its the $200 one advertised on Hobby Link Japan. I do know that the Gakken 1/100 book is also a little dated too. One other thing - period photos and recent research in Japan suggest that the decks of Yamato had faded to a very dark gray by 4/45 and were not the bright yellow Hinoki color most modelers use. I don't ascribe to the "pride and joy flagship would have been holystoned theory - the IJN was desperately trying to camouflage its ships to the extent of painted aircraft carriers to look like merchant ships and Yamato's would have been left to weather naturally. There were also a series of white heading markers painted on the deck sides, but this is actually documented in Skluski.

Thanks for the info. Does anyone know where this highlighted book above can be bought from, other than Hobby Link Japan??

[Chic Sky]

It seems that the Fujimi full hull 1:700 Yamato is nice, but I'm not sure if the bow has been updated like the Tamiya version.

I will either get this alone or buy the Tamiya version and bash the lower hull.

Does anyone have experience with the Fujimi model? Is it accurate enough or is kit bashing with the Tamiya one needed?

Also are the hulls cut at the same point or do I need to modify the Tamiya hull to fit the Fujimi lower hull in case I buy both?

[Anonymous]

I just recently bought a 1/350 Tamiya Musashi (great deal on Ebay). Haveing been a long time fan of the big gun ships, I figured the two were the same. My next purchase was the Modeling Guide to the Yamato. That's when I discovered the different fit out of the two kits (Yamato versus Musashi). Apparently, the Yamato kit depicts a later war configuration, with a larger quantity of AA guns.

Would it be a fairly simple process to update the Musashi kit into the late war configuration? I figure if I'm going to cross over to the IJN side, I'd like to build the most maxed out war configuration that existed.


(This post made by TimmyC from Seebee Mike's original misplaced post)

[Werner]

Musashi had the beam turrets removed, but didn't get the extra 12.7cm guns as Yamato. Instead, she has a pile of 25mm guns.

I bet all plans for her configuration are notional as to where these guns were mounted, since we're talking about weeks from fitting to sinking.

[Yamato1701]

Started first use of photetch parts yesterday on #1 Turret of 1/350 Musashi, already driving me nuts. this stuff is either too frail or my fingers are way to big. both probably. Gonna be interesting to see what my Musashi looks like when all is said and done.

[MartinJQuinn]

RE: Yamato Hull Plating. Is this a topic that is really up for grabs? I have both the Gakken #11 and the Modeling Guide to Yamato and they both seem to show what looks like alternating (overlapping?) plating riveted together. I just finished reading the Battleship Musashi book and it mentions the huge amount of rivets that were used on the ships. It seems the Japanese didn't really trust welding as much as riveting.

Anyone have any thoughts on the overlapped plating? I have read a lot of people discussing that the Gakken books (and others) are a lot of conjecture on the part of the authors.

Note: This was inadvertently posted as a stand alone post in CASF forum, pasted here by moderator.

[Anonymous]

RE: Yamato Hull Plating. Is this a topic that is really up for grabs? I have both the Gakken #11 and the Modeling Guide to Yamato and they both seem to show what looks like alternating (overlapping?) plating riveted together. I just finished reading the Battleship Musashi book and it mentions the huge amount of rivets that were used on the ships. It seems the Japanese didn't really trust welding as much as riveting.

Anyone have any thoughts on the overlapped plating? I have read a lot of people discussing that the Gakken books (and others) are a lot of conjecture on the part of the authors.

Note: This was inadvertently posted as a stand alone post in CASF forum, pasted here by moderator.

The only somewhat authoritative sources I know of that shows the style of plating used on the Yamato are the 2 surviving original IJN engineering drawings, annotated in Japanese and dated Showa year 15, showing the midship section of Yamato and Shinano. Here the plating across the boiler room section is depicted in detail, and it shows that the shell plating of the torpedo blister consists, if I recall, of 7 bands overlapping plating between waterline and bilge keel, with 3 alternate bands raised, 4 recessed. When I compared this to Gakken model, I noticed the Gakken model got it wrong.

There are other areas where statements of surviving Japanese engineers conflicts with depictions of Gakken model. The engineers claimed that the front and rear of the ship uses flush jointed plating. Gakken model shows overlapping plating extending to the stern.

The Gakken model is an impressive modeling effort. But I notice there are many aspects of it which conflicts with current interpretation of the ship's configuration. You can compare it to the 1:10 Kure model and see the difference. Some of those that immediately comes to mind includes the shapes of 25mm gun tubs, the upper opening of the hawse hole, and the shape of the main turret face plates.

[Anonymous]

BTW, you are right about Japanese not trusting welding. Previous major Japanese warships that used welding in key structures had experienced major problems. Although it is not entirely clear if this was because welding were themselves inadequate, or if the Japanese attempted to push the basic structural envelope too far, as all Fujimoto designed ships tended to do.

[herrmill]

Am curious where one can find these surviving IJN drawings.

I've been seeking this information to better detail my Yamato. The Gakken book appears overdone with the overlapped plates, but I have no side drawings or decent close up photos of the hulls of either of the three ships.

Chuck

[Anonymous]

UNfortunately it's been a while since I came across the original. They were reproduced in a Japanese book, whose pages were then scanned and posted on an Japanese internet site devoted to the Yamato.

But at the time I had not developed an interest in building an superdetailed model of the Yamato, so I did not save the webpage.

However, extremely similar drawings, evidently redrawn from these very same originals but lacking the original Japanese annotation, are to be found in the Skuski's Anatomy of the ship.

That website also contain the only close up photo of Yamato's hull I've ever seen. It was a close up picture of the hull side at the cutback around the door of the boat storage tubes on Yamato's hull, right behind the number 3 46cm turret. It was pretty clear that the external surface of the boat tube, and of the vertical hull just side behind the tube door, between the main deck and cutback, was welded.

[herrmill]

Thanks. Skulski's book shows only the plate detail in cross section drawings but that's a good starting point. As I mentioned elsewehere on this board, I've got drawings of Takao & others, so between that & a little artistic license, am sure it will sufficient to plow ahead.