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

[bucketfoot-al]

Thanks! I just placed the order.

One side note that is perhaps of tangential relevance to the earlier discussion:

Without being able to read Japanese, it is really difficult for us on this side of the Pacific to fully evaluate the various books on the IJN, up to and including the exhibits at the Kure Maritime Museum.

It is true that they have been updating the Kure Yamato model, and it is especially gratifying to see that the new underwater discoveries have not only been widely accepted as accurate, but also that the myriad plastic models of these two battleships have increasingly incorporated the changes.

[baseballbrat]

Thanks! I just placed the order.

One side note that is perhaps of tangential relevance to the earlier discussion:

Without being able to read Japanese, it is really difficult for us on this side of the Pacific to fully evaluate the various books on the IJN, up to and including the exhibits at the Kure Maritime Museum.

It is true that they have been updating the Kure Yamato model, and it is especially gratifying to see that the new underwater discoveries have not only been widely accepted as accurate, but also that the myriad plastic models of these two battleships have increasingly incorporated the changes.

Vlad,

I believe from what I have seen over the years pertaining to Yamato, a majority of the documents and Japanese Naval records written in Japanese (Kanji) are very difficult to interpret into a simple form easy to understand for the rest of us. I have seen some of these Naval Records (I think are known as incident reports?) (I may be wrongs so please correct me) are written from what I am told in not only navel terms, but a form of ancient Japanese which is no longer taught. I know of no one who is familiar enough to translate these, so I have for now given up.

I will assume that the museum has someone that can read these to the point of understanding what they mean, but possible that so many documents are meaningless that it takes a great amount to time to get to the important ones. I haven't seen many digital photos of the last dives, but IMO they are relying on the photos from the dive rather trying to piece together the documents they have on file.

Skulski's new book looks promising and even added the Musashi dives. I look forward to getting mine in May.

What's needed is a Japanese Naval Historian in Japan to enlighten us all, but that's not going to happen.

[MalX]

As far as I am aware, both Yamato and Musashi has concrete flightdecks, although (I am away from my resources), I seem to remember they were gridded into squares. You can go to my website as one of the closeup photos of Yamato at her outfitting at Kure shows the flight deck. There are also a couple of shots taken looking backwards from Musashi's superstructure that show the flight deck. The link is below my signature.

Flyhawk photo etch Musashi battleship 1/350

Yea, my guess is that Flyhawk hawk did all their research accurately first and if so, then Yamato had a different flighdeck grid pattern, because as you know, every recent PE kit shows Yamato with exactly the same grid pattern, but this is the first i've ever seen with a chess board pattern, God help me if i'm wrong ..........


http://paper-backgrounds.com/square-met ... ackground/

that is what it looks like....a raised grid 5mm square !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! all over the whole Flighdeck, i might try to get a photo for you

[bucketfoot-al]

Weird. Definitely not like any reconstruction I have ever seen. And I very much doubt that Musashi's flight deck was any different from Yamato's, except perhaps in the way the two "flight stripes" were painted, but that is not what we are talking about here....

[MalX]

Weird. Definitely not like any reconstruction I have ever seen. And I very much doubt that Musashi's flight deck was any different from Yamato's, except perhaps in the way the two "flight stripes" were painted, but that is not what we are talking about here....

Flyhawk photo etch Musashi battleship 1/350

no, but as you can imagine it really bothers me, that's it there but the rest of the PE is very accurate so i'm not sure

[Senkan]

I've seen that layout on a few models. And it might actually be the way it was. I'm wondering what Skulski's book is going to show.

[MalX]

I've seen that layout on a few models. And it might actually be the way it was. I'm wondering what Skulski's book is going to show.

Flyhawk photo etch Musashi battleship 1/350

yea, the point is the rest of the PE is excellent and far more detailed than Eduard, this tells me that Flyhawk is a quality company like Pontos, because it's definitely as detailed as Pontos..........would they have got this Flightdeck wrong ?????????

i've got till next summer so we'll wait and see what Skulski's flightdeck looks like

[MalX]

Skulski's new book looks promising and even added the Musashi dives. I look forward to getting mine in May.

What's needed is a Japanese Naval Historian in Japan to enlighten us all, but that's not going to happen.

there must be a survivor somewhere that knows what she looked like, because you deffo wouldn't forget...........mind you he'd be pretty old now.

the Musashi is lying with her stern upside down so her flightdeck is hidden from view........not much of the rest remains, so diving on her wreck wont reveal much, she's in much more of a mess than Yamato......her wrecksite is spread over a much greater area

[cplchanb]

I've seen that layout on a few models. And it might actually be the way it was. I'm wondering what Skulski's book is going to show.

Flyhawk photo etch Musashi battleship 1/350

yea, the point is the rest of the PE is excellent and far more detailed than Eduard, this tells me that Flyhawk is a quality company like Pontos, because it's definitely as detailed as Pontos..........would they have got this Flightdeck wrong ?????????

i've got till next summer so we'll wait and see what Skulski's flightdeck looks like

Im not to keen on your praises on fkyhawk....sure the sets are really detailed, but when it comes to fit and finish they are seriously lacking compared to Pontos. I lost clumps of hair dealing with the the 1/350 Maya build because many pieces required much "coaxing" and cursing to come together. Not to mention their instructions are much to be desired. 1/4 of parts required guessing and research just to figure out where it belongs.

All in all Id wait for a couple builds with this musashi kit before I make any judgements

[MalX]

maybe you're right !!!

i've been wondering for some time if i shouldn't have got the much larger Arii Musashi instead, because i dont think i can use much of the Firehawk PE, it's too small and fiddly.....i bought the Tamiya Musashi because it was cheap on Ebay.

i'm after a more detailed version of the Hasegawa Yamato, but nothing too crazy

[MatthewB]

.... Not to mention their instructions are much to be desired. 1/4 of parts required guessing and research just to figure out where it belongs.

You must really hate Five Star, then.

Because they rarely have more than ? of their parts labeled in the instructions.

MB

[cplchanb]

.... Not to mention their instructions are much to be desired. 1/4 of parts required guessing and research just to figure out where it belongs.

You must really hate Five Star, then.

Because they rarely have more than ? of their parts labeled in the instructions.

MB

I guess I'll save my sanity by not buying their parts....

[MalX]

sorry about the poor quality photos, everything is easy to find from the book on the PE sheets, it is well numbered, JUST LOADS OF IT, this Musashi has a rocket launcher on both sides !!!!!!!!.........it looks like about 14 sheets of PE including all the portholes as well.

the PE is extremely well detailed, it even has all the rigging for the flagpoles and bridge (which is PE) it has brass turnings for the deck bollards etc..........the very fine rigging shown in my photo above (USCHI) is the main mast rigging.........it has fully detailed searchlights, binoculars, ammo boxes.....................but i haven't seen any sandbags, no problem, because i have loads of these from my Yamato kit.

my only query is that damned chess board flight deck

[ijnfleetadmiral]

Major news for Yamato fans: recently someone at Mitsubishi Nagasaki uncovered 200 PAGES of plans for Musashi. Looks like there will be more revisions to kits in the future.

[baseballbrat]

Major news for Yamato fans: recently someone at Mitsubishi Nagasaki uncovered 200 PAGES of plans for Musashi. Looks like there will be more revisions to kits in the future.

Any indication if these new finds will be published somewhere in the near future?

[cplchanb]

Major news for Yamato fans: recently someone at Mitsubishi Nagasaki uncovered 200 PAGES of plans for Musashi. Looks like there will be more revisions to kits in the future.

Any indication if these new finds will be published somewhere in the near future?

Nice!!!! I wonder what took them so long to dig it up? Was it simply forgotten under the mass archives of the company or intentionally hidden in 1945 under a different title? Either way I do hope they get published soon! Hopefully they also find more material on the Yamato and possibly on the a150

[Atma]

Major news for Yamato fans: recently someone at Mitsubishi Nagasaki uncovered 200 PAGES of plans for Musashi. Looks like there will be more revisions to kits in the future.

This means the upcoming IJN Musashi from Tamiya in 1/350 is on hold to implement any new discoveries (?)

[MalX]

Major news for Yamato fans: recently someone at Mitsubishi Nagasaki uncovered 200 PAGES of plans for Musashi. Looks like there will be more revisions to kits in the future.

This means the upcoming IJN Musashi from Tamiya in 1/350 is on hold to implement any new discoveries (?)

I'm not sure, because there are loads of wartime photos showing the Yamatos looking like she does in your models, the only query is the Musashi Flightdeck, the sand bag arrangement and how black the deck actually was.

i bet the book wont tell you how weathered she was, so therefore you'll never be able to make her as she actually looked anyway.............we're just guessing right now.

the big problem with the Yamato model is, she needs to be at 1:200 to view her properly, esp all the PE

[cplchanb]

I'm not sure, because there are loads of wartime photos showing the Yamatos looking like she does in your models, the only query is the Musashi Flightdeck, the sand bag arrangement and how black the deck actually was.

i bet the book wont tell you how weathered she was, so therefore you'll never be able to make her as she actually looked anyway.............we're just guessing right now.

the big problem with the Yamato model is, she needs to be at 1:200 to view her properly, esp all the PE

Imo I think if all else it would probably just confirm what we already know from the photos. From what I can recall there never has been actual plans and scale construction drawings published of either ship. I'm assuming that aots and other books with plans are sourcing off photos and are really just an educated guess. I guess if indeed the new discoveries are actual plans it can finally put to rest the one debate of the shape of the stern as well as other fittings too small to see from wartime photos

The real shame is that apparently the photo plane during the final raid on Yamato was one of the few planes that was shot down, taking all the important photo evidence with it to the bottom

[bucketfoot-al]

*SNIP*

The real shame is that apparently the photo plane during the final raid on Yamato was one of the few planes that was shot down, taking all the important photo evidence with it to the bottom

Really? In 10 years of studying Yamato that's something I never heard of. Dozens of photos of Yamato taken during her final battle by several USN planes exist and you can see them all on my Yamato website which is linked below my signature line. The mission is extremely well-photographed as far as Pacific engagements go.

Its actually more photos than exist from Leyte Gulf, although the Leyte photos are a little clearer because it was a sunny day and the ship wasn't on fire. Very little can be gleaned from the Ten-ichi-go photos because high-altitude recon photos were impossible due to the cloud cover, and the low-altitude photos taken by attacking planes during the engagement do not show much detail due to the smoke from the Yamato's AA fire and also from the fires caused by exploding bombs obscuring all but the front part of her decks ...

None-the-less there is a high altitude recon photo ftaken over Kure the previous day that does show the new AA deck detail arrangement. If you haven't taken a look at all of the photos on my website before I invite you to do so now - you might be surprised ...