IJN Zuikaku 1/350

[Dan K]

I have all the decks, and the Shipyard planking is very close to scale. Not so the Fujimi versions.

[StevenVD]

Let's paint some boats.



Cabins are fixed with glue, the excess is drilled away through the window covers.



I placed 8 rudders and propulsion systems.



Trying to make vents from brass wire, a bit overscale but better than nothing.



The vents are added and thye portholes redrilled.



The passenger areas are painted white.



The rear davits doesn't have the clearance to run straight.





The ceiling is primed in grey and then painted white.



I hope the front is not very visible, a lot of pinmarks there.





Both extremities of the ship are now primed grey but must receive camo colors.



The undersides of the storeys are also painted light grey.

[Dan K]

Your boats look very good.

[StevenVD]

Thanks for the support, Dan. Yesterday I got them almost finished, and the deck was painted Pale Green. I never used this color before, it gets quite glossy. Then I shaded it with olive green.











I decided to go for a dark pinwash along the cabins.



The Shipyard deck had a tremendous fit on the boats.



I pre-painted the railing, still planning to do some dry-brush on it.





Fujimi gives no instructions on how to stow the PE on these boats. If you erect the masts, it will not fit any but two of the boat positions.





Still some hand painting is needed and then a matt varnish before the glass goes on. This will be achieved with PVA glue.

[StevenVD]

After some green wash and some scribbling with a pencil on the anti-skid surface, the deck was ready for the matt cote.





Some rust on the chains and dark metallic colors for the heavy duty areas.



The AA platforms could now be added and weathered likewise, with the ammo crates painted grey.



The sloops, now matt-varnished, got some Crystal Klear windows. I accidentally treated the top roof construction as a windshield, but this seems only a rail.



The hull was always a wobbly affair with that narrow keel under it, I decided it was already overdue to cut a styropor base. This was conveniently recycled out of a remnant packing of our newly installed gas boiler. Therefore it easily contained the hull beam, this block measures 80x20cm.



Depth was also satisfactory, the block only having a small central hole where it shone through after cutting out the hull form.



The ship sits confortably in its docking.







Now the glass is done on the motor launches and most of the rigging is already bent down to get the boats stowed under the deck.



The model in Gakken had red-white lifeguard equipment, so I copied these colors on the Fujimi PE.



4 sloops neatly sitting on the lower deck, not suspecting what came next.



Here befits a warning to all who intend to install the 11m motor launches with Fujimi PE on the lower deck of the Shokaku-class kits. It's impossible without razing the roofs of the sloops and milling your way almost through the ceiling above them. When I tried to add the superior deck part, it would not sink down to the stern until touching any of the supports, leaving a gap of a millimetre. The thing I presumed a windscreen was flattened completely by pressing down the deck and had to be removed (not that that bothered me really, because it would have been impossible to see anyway). Only after milling two cavities inside the ceiling where the boat cabins went, could the deck supports be inserted properly in the locator holes. I had to make it curing through the night with a strap around the hull and the deck to keep it down and you can still see a minute bulge where those unlucky sloops are. I think this will not show in the end, but it is possible to look through the under deck from left to right because of the bad fit of the bulkhead separating the left and right half of the lower deck. This bulkhead does not follow the slight curve of the lower deck surface. Fujimi made a door in the middle of this bulkhead, though the Morskie side view for 1944 Zuikaku has this door more in front. I read the discussion in the "all fans" topic over here, about the practicalities of getting the launches ready for hoisting and I'm also puzzled about the cramped construction where they would be held.

A bit later on, the same story happened on the upper deck. The last motor launch wouldn't fit under the gallery even if you would remove the excess PE.



So at the moment only 7 out of 8 boats are installed and probably there will be little occasion where the last one can come in, if I want to have the ship operational and cruising.

[Dan K]

Great work on so any things, Steven. And, a terrible (but not shocking) shame on Fujimi's poor design. Worse is what it has meant for your fine boats.

Love the anchor chain, interesting paint.

I realize this "tutorial" was a costly & frustrating experience for you, but very helpful to the rest of us. Thank you.

[StevenVD]

I didn't mourn long over the boats, because now the deck could be fixed, after the drilling of the 25mm positions. Isn't this the most satisfying step in a carrier build? But the preparations always look complicated.





Also great fun is removing all excess support structures and doors on the catwalks.



Not least some ejector pinmarks had to be leveled. While the replacement of the plastic structures will be worth the detail, one aspect is also lost. Each of these plastic triangles has two transverse supports and this is not replicated in the PE.



Let's get to the steel parts.

[StevenVD]

Very slowly all the casemates are stripped of their plastic girders and provided with hundreds of perforated steel triangles, that are either impossibly small or dangerously sharp to handle.





All eight pieces of the former posting are now improved.





These do not sting, but getting them fixed to the deck rather than to my tweezers is a lot harder.





When I was past the middle, I exhaled.





But when I turned the cutting mat, it knocked 5 off again.







F29 is methodically razed and rebuilt.





I noticed 1 error in the naming of the views in the PE instructions. It's best you begin at the long series of girders I showed in these pictures, because it follows the hull length from 1 to 181. I started the other side of the ship and was misguided by the naming error; luckily this doesn't show. Some of the smallest triangles are best placed before fixing the deck, because now some are hard to reach.

[Neptune]

And the funny part is...

People don't even notice that. Even I, as a modeler, wouldn't notice them being there are not, let alone being in scale or not...

Anyhow, a certain proof of infinite patience and a great result so far

[Dan K]

All too true, on both points.

I marvel at those modelers that install these deck edge trusses in 1/700. Almost impossible to discern.

[StevenVD]

It's true that while I'm struggling with this Sisyphus job I realise that from a normal angle of view this will be out of vision. Therefore I inted to mount the diorama on a base like I did with Princeton, so all will be elevated as high as possible.





Now a word about the PE set. It was clearly meant for Shokaku, as is recognized by the ASW lookout platform step. Here, the aft part is different in Zuikaku, sporting an extra rangefinder. Therefore, all trusses behind the green line are out of dimension and should be replaced. I'll finish the fret before I come up with a solution. Maybe some unused ones remain.

.



The supports should be guided to the middle of the barbettes. The angle of the platform is modified with some plastic pinchers. Some parts of these have to be replaced with brass.



Do not search for a set H30 on the steel PE fret. Again this is a naming error in the instructions and comparison with the Fujimi manual teaches us it has to be F30, that does give a result. But why not provide a correction to these instructions?



Here, the order of installation was not ideal. The frame for the funnels is obstructive.



Another remark is that the PE girders often interfere with what seem to be ventilation shafts or stuff fixed to the hull. Apart from the position probably being too close to the platform, these project a bit from the hull surface, separating the girders from the hull. Also, a fair bit of the girders have insufficient notching so they will not rest flatly when imposed on the notched rails.

[StevenVD]

The starboard support structure is made.





I replaced some of the earlier built girders to correct the manual mistakes. Here, a single brass piece of catwalk is placed.



Now 2 double 127mm guns Type 89 A1 Model 2 are constructed.



https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... se_gun.jpg

The unarmored variant will feature later on.



http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNJAP_5-40_t89.php

These are Model 3 guns on the Musashi, with extra blast resisting armor. Zuikaku only had model 2, protective against the downward angled exhaust smoke.



Sometimes it's hard to place some of this latticework exactly on the same spot.





The starboard stern barbettes have a different structure than meant by the Fujimi manual, without the transverse connections to the smaller barbettes. I didn't finish the antenna mast assemblies, those would probably be broken too soon.





The middle starboard barbette has a complicated assembly that should not be followed out of the book. I did and thereby I lost some of the girders placed earlier, while pushing in the support columns.



The 127mm guns as a dryfit, I will paint them apart from the hull. These strange "benches" on the catwalk will be replaced with PE I newly discovered.



The rangefinder near the island can be kent apart to keep the deck flush as long as possible. The searchlight is quite detailed.

[StevenVD]

The barbettes are done now, let's get to the island structure.



Here are the closed bridge, the lookout platform and the radar tower.



I used the PE part for the windows in stead of the clearpart. Because I have the Gakken bridge drawings, I wanted some interior to be visible. I made an inlay to hide the pin-marked floor. Some of these pinmarks even have an anti-skid pattern in them, based on the surrounding pattern. I never saw an ejector pin mark with texture on it...



Here you can compare my creation with the drawing. The instruments were in some sort of cockpit in front, so I made a partition. I made the compasses with Evergreen and then I painted all grey before I added it to the bridge.



The bridge before all the additional PE will be added. Sadly the rear windows extrude behind the bridge walls.



It's dryfitted here, but will only be fixed after the deck is finished.



A view from the recently finished part of the hull, with the starboard walkway.

[Janssen]

Very Nice work Steven!

[marijn van gils]

You're making good progress Steven!
I guess you're having time off from work?

[StevenVD]

About one week now, Marijn, but it has to be taken in account that at the same time, I'm also doing this: https://www.scalemates.com/profiles/mat ... ject=89458. Luckily, the girder fret is now completely finished. Only some unusable parts and the rest of the davits remain. I won't miss it. For people that got envious, the ideal technique of removing the triangle is first cutting along the long side of a triangle and then turning the scalpel while cutting the short side with the second connection. While doing this, hold your finger on it, because the small ones will definitely pop away. Have your fingernails unclipped at least for two weeks before attacking this fret, because you will lose at least a millimeter while filing triangles that are so hard, they will turn away from the file if you don't support them with your index finger.



The 32 supports for the front rocket launcher assembly are also erroneously numbered. If you study the symmetry of these constructions, you will find out the actual numbering.



Then apply the 4 different pillars.



While placing this platform I was wrestling with the references I had. Fujimi provides a quadruple installation in front as they did on the aft. I removed the navigation light as it would be completely impeded by one of the launchers. The small platform near this installation I left in place and the position of the catwalk below it could remain. I wouldn't want to be the one walking on it though, as on one side would loom a descent of about 15 meters to the ocean surface and on the other side an overhead obstruction that would force you to hang over the railing. That happens all the time on 1/350 carriers though, these North star or L'Arsenal figures must be plagued by nightmares after visiting my models.



Gakken shows a comparable quadruple construction, with two differenes. It has a large platform under the catwalk, at the location of the door in the hull Fujimi provided. Also, a small barbette is added to the launcher platform, even adding its own perforated girder (A).



Morskie Monografie has this scheme for Zuikaku in 1944:



It only accounts for 3 launchers, as it did for the aft platform on a higher level, but these 3 are spread over the same distance. It also shows the extra barbette, probably with a director in it. It does not show the small platform after the launching pad and only the door below the catwalk, so no platform there either. Compare to Shokaku 1941:



The small platform after the launchers and the navigation light are still there. I decided to continue the quadruple construction, hoping that the Veteran launchers will fit in. But I will have to add the extra director.

The island platforms were also supported:





Now, the rest of the triangles went on the hull halves but they had no instructions for this. Luckily the order in the fret is following the hull side. Strangely a whole section of the flight deck is now unsupported, I expect about 20 triangles to be overlooked by Fujimi. Not planning on scratching this myself as I have no source for the placement.









An overview of the finished galleries:









Probably, somthing like this will await me in a few years when my Essex kit will be provided with the Pontos set. Let's not think too much about that.

[Dan K]

Great work on those girder supports, Steven. That's a lot of work, and the tutorial is appreciated.

these North star or L'Arsenal figures must be plagued by nightmares after visiting my models.

The standard rocket launcher configuration was four mounts, plus a director. The overhead of Zuikaku at Cape Engano certainly seems t show that.

The navigation light was almost certainly moved to the forward end of the platform.

[StevenVD]

@Dan: thanks for the confimation of the number of the rocket launchers. I had overlooked that picture. Sadly it is not possible to check the aft row of launchers on it, but we'll assume that it is equal to the front. You will find some tips on the Shipyard deck in this post: it's quite good, but not perfect either.



So, it's down to the deck edge anti-skid plates. Therefore I have safely boxed the island structure after placing all details I could add from the kit.







One caveat is in the construction of the box antenna. Don't forget to include the internal antenna part. I did and had to pry open the box. I also camouflaged the bad fit of the rear windshield with some stategically placed pieces of Evergreen. One ladder broke down but it could be replaced with the one you're supposed to glue inside the island. I think this was done for the people who wanted to open one of the side doors, because why include detail on the inside of a closed down room? In my opinion Fujimi had to include a Pe venturi for the bridge. Also I'm planning to add some of the complicated tubing seen under the platforms.

And now, the big brass:



I soon understood that the pink Zap would have to be put aside for a few hours. I had twice tried to apply it on the front plate but that would always just attach itself a bit off. This resulted in a patch of CA to be chiseled off, taking a quarter. That brought me to a tube of Bison superglue that has comparable strength combined with a much longer curing time. It's only a bit thicker to spread and clean off the edges.



At various locations, a strip of anti-skid plating has to be shortened. I don't count this as a great issue because it will not result in any remarkable deformations. I sketched how I clipped part of the plate between the edge and the middle of the strip.



If then the edge particle is first added and the shortened strip continues, it will not give away this intrusion. This must have been apparent in any testing Shipyard would have done, though. The problem could have been dealt with by superimposing two strip ends, but this would always show up after painting.



The plate is guided in its slope by some pinchers.





The next two locations where a clipping had to happen. I hope this will not have consequences for the braking cable alignment.



And then I encountered an issue that maybe was overlooked a bit in the kit; I don't remember having read about it in the Zuikaku thread either. The ship's crane has been provided in the kit and on the Fujimi extra PE sheets, but the deck is not opened up to provide the stowage bay that these ships apparently had. It appeared that Fujimi simplified the cover for this stowage bay as a 6-part rectangular plate, originally depicted in Morskie as being somewhat angular and aligned to the crane shape, and about 10-part if you compare to Gakken (but this might be more of an artistic impression). I copuld not change that shape, but the Shipyard part has the option to be opened up. Now the crane could be built as it would have been implanted in the deck, but that means that the plastic deck had to be perforated by force.



To have at least a straight side, I used the Airwaves rounded sawblade. This is a cheap and effective way to cut out rectangular shapes, any scratchbuilder should have one.



The short sides are cleared with a drill. Fujimi did partly provide a bottom to the stowage with a plastic part.



But the part is backed by the hull edge, impossible to remove by handsawing.



A sandpaper disk takes care of this. The removed deck section is used as the bottom and the crane base is fortified with some Evergreen profile.



That concluded the deck edge plating.



As could be deducted from the plating errors I just demonstrated, the location of the middle and aft Shipyard elevators had to be reconsidered. Especially if I want to time out the placement of the wood deck parts until after priming of the photo-etch plated hull.



Also the elevator edge has to be leveled unto the deck to facilitate the PE application.



The difference accumulates to one millimeter in the aft elevator.









All elevator plating is now glued correctly, I left the elevator edges fixed to the elevator floors to keep it level. The large deck-wide plate behind the ship's crane was provided as a Fujimi extra PE part, but the Shipyard part differs in having no anti-slip texture on it. I presumed that that must have been intentional and therefore it is preferable. The front plate is partly polished by the removal of CA on a tile, magnified as this is on the picture this will not show up after painting.

[Dan K]

Great work on the deck edge treading, and all the adjustments. I had similar issues with Taiho. Also, good work on removing the collapsible crane plating. Yes, no treading on the plating. It was sectioned so it could be drawn back and stored in a smaller footprint while hidden away.

Uhm, about the Type 21 radar - Fujimi has it wrong, and it looks like you may have used it as they instructed. The front side was open, with no grid covering the sensors. Only the back grid should be used. The front really should be removed if it's there.

[StevenVD]

Oh, I see... They even did it correctly in the plastic version. It shouldn't be very hard to correct, and I removed the front part of the 2nd antenna still on the sprue. But now something about the other antennas.



These will become the wire antenna pylons.



The upper part was replaced with 0.3mm steel wire.



The first attempt at making the yardarms. This was as overscale as the kit part and the angle was wrong.



Osprey drawing of the antennas. The yardarms had to be shortened and turned.



This looks better.



Fujimi again errs in naming the ladder parts for these antennas. Moreover, they provided no extra ladder length and I already borrowed a piece for the bridge, so now I was 10 mm short. So I went for my WEM Independence-set.



These American ladders appear too wide to use here. Therefore they were bent in an U-profile shape, in fact creating the ideal ladder to glue directly to a surface because it has its own spacing. But the bending should of course happen very cautiously.



One of the antennas got the replacement ladder, but the lense wouldn't pay attention.



This is the 8-piece antenna for the main mast.



This mast is first constructed out of the box, but will be replaced because the pieces seem overscale.