Tamiya 1/350 Yamato (new tool) The definite mad edition

[Joe Simon]

I'll be following this one. Nice work so far!

[J. Soca]

I'll be following this one. Nice work so far!

Me too



Jose

[Koppalakki]

Part 3:

After the enamels dried I applied satin varnish, after that I picked some details on the gun with chrome silver.
And it's done!





I also finished the aft AA tower. Followed the same steps as before, but this time I added some streaks to the sides of the tower aswell. This was achieved by painting small dots and streaks of different colors, then using thinner to streak them down. I kept it really subtle. To top it off I sprinkled some pigments on the floor using a brush. I kept to the corners and after application I used thinner to seal them in. Just dapped the brush with thinner onto them and manipulated them a bit while still wet. The guns were painted with Alclad gunmetal then drybrushed with chrome silver.

Finished!

[Christian M.]

Wow ... Amazing and awesome.
1 question ... could it be that you learned this excellent techniques in 1/35 armor area?

About your heavy weathered hull, perfect! I can't say for current Navy ships, but last year we made holiday in Gdansk and there were several running merchant ships which looked same way in bad shape...

[Koppalakki]

I actually don't do much armor at all. I used to do more planes though. The techniques are from armor modeling, I just don't apply them to armor !
Also looking at modern and older naval ships, the crew tend to clean the superstuctures while on duty, for example ships that have been in the atlantic for months tend to get pretty banged up, hence the hull usually looks like :censored_2: but the upper superstructure seem to be tended. Only on ports do they seem to have time to tend for the hull aswell.

[GewoonWouter]

Nice work indeed!

And true: the crew kept the ships in mint condition, very much so for Yamato since she was a flagship carrying the old name of Japan. Also, as far as I know, she had quite a fresh paintjob when taking her final sortie.

[Goodwood]

Depending on the sea conditions and whatever port calls are made, I could imagine the crew of warships at sea making some effort to keep her hull looking decent, or at least to try and deal with the worst of the chipping and rust, etc., as well as keeping anything from the weather deck up in tip-top shape. For example, the Pacific is usually calm enough for a few bosun's chairs to be rigged up for a few sailors to chip and paint one or two particularly ugly spots. Any time a destroyer or submarine would tie up alongside a tender, there would also be some opportunity, as well as when they dock at whatever supply station or port they might visit for re-provisioning and/or shore leave; those who aren't on liberty rotation would need to be given something to occupy their time, after all.

Take all of the above with a fairly large grain of salt, however, since it comes from a man who has never been in the Navy, or even aboard a proper ship at sea.

[Koppalakki]

Another days etch work done!

The crane











I left some parts off for now untill I can be sure it will be on the correct height when put into place.
Take care, the whole operation is pretty gimmicky and will test your patience.



A finished paravane.





These buggers are pretty small too! About 15 parts to make one.



Then some more AA mounts that will be on top of the main turrets.

[GewoonWouter]

darn mate, you are going way too fast

Looking good from here though!

[Koppalakki]

I did some experimenting with the searchlights.

Finished the piece like I usually would. I left the clear resin part and the etched grill off.







After that I painted the clear resin parts back with chrome silver.
After that the clear part was glued to the searchlight. After that painted grill on top of that.
Now the grill was closed with Kristal Klear. It's a white glue type to glue clear parts, and you can also make windows out of it.



Waited for the glue to dry.

Voila!

[baseballbrat]

What glue seems to work best for your PE parts?

Jim

[Aop Aur]

Yep you are going real fast! Must be that you are really quick at PE...

Aop

[Koppalakki]

What glue seems to work best for your PE parts?

Jim

For the most of my work I use ZAPs Thin CA. It's good when you can hold the pieces together as it almost instantly joins them together. It's also nice as it runs along the seams on its own.
I usually place it on a small stray and apply it with a small wire.

For pieces you need some time to manipulate or want to hide seams I use ZAPs Thick CA. That one is almost gel type.

[Koppalakki]

I made a test of the single 25s.

Damn these are just tiny!

[Koppalakki]

Some more experimenting.

Here's my take on the deck.

So basicly there's 2 choices, have the deck stained "coal" or just keep the wood shade more.
I myself believe that the deck wasn't painted on, feel free to disagree, and it only looks really dark because of weathering and being wet.

Here's my 2 samples:



First one being if it was painted on. I stained the deck with antic oak. It produces really worn out blackish look. I sanded the center to give some variation just to see.



Second one being more natural looking with different shades of brown and red. Also sanded a bit after drying.



And a comparison side by side.

Like I said I'm leaning towards the more natural look. Maybe add some more darker brown/black spots aswell.

Everyone's welcome to chime in their opinion. And if it wasn't clear I'm aiming for the Ten Ichi Go look.

[Dan K]

Great work so far.

There is an eyewitness account by a Japanese officer in the book "Requiem for Yamato", written right after the war, about the decks being darkened just before departing for Ten Ichi Go. Up to that point, the decks were just plain, though probably weathered to a degree.

[Aop Aur]

Are you also an artist? Just ask because artists tend to be very good at colouring and weathering, like Chris Flodberg. Topic subscribed! I will be watching the next updates! It would be pretty soon too to finally see her finished at the speed you currently are building!


Aop

[Skiper]

I admit I have never been aboard a battleship nor do I know if Yamato's deck was painted or not. But imagining a model with a deck of such finish must be amazing. Most realistic wood representation I have ever seen.

[Koppalakki]

Cheers guys!

And no, I'm not an artist, I'm a hard working man! Who just likes some ships!

But in all seriousness, I'll do the step by step thing with the deck for sure, in truth, it's super easy, granted if you use a laser cut wooden deck!
Though the same method will work on plastic aswell. Basicly nothing fancy, just throwing some washes on it.

On a further note all of my weathering and painting processes are easy, they may be time consuming if you think spending hours on just small gun,
but in my opinion definetly worth the effort.

[GewoonWouter]

Weathering sure is a part of the deal which can't be skipped in my opinion. All too often I see builds which are awesome but after the paintjob not much attention is given to weathering, which is a shame because it really makes the model become 'alive'. Nice assembling and painting there.

I like the weathered deck but I agree with Dan K. I just read Requiem for Battleship Yamato from Yoshida Mitsuru who was serving as ensign at Yamato during Ten Ichi Go and he described the deck as painted 'jet black'. But it's modelling and we can all use a bit of artistic license. All depends on the timeframe at which you depict Yamato as well.

Keep it coming (darn, I'm a snail in comparison to you )