IJN Zuikaku 1/350

[StevenVD]

The mast was replaced with 0,6mm copper thread. Only the search light was reused.



The antenna and another Fujimi PE part could be integrated.



Checking the alignment of all axes.



As Dan suggested, I used the pictures of Junyo to change the yardarm.



Another detail that could be boxed, but I added a ladder to it in the mean time.





Let's finish the 127mm-pieces now. This would not be that hard to do, because there is only one metal addition.



It's the second pack of Aber barrels. They appear somewhat shorter and finer, with a better bore, though the plastic ones were also cast slide-moulded.



The barrels were soon installed and the equilibrators added. It became obvious that the locator pins on the turrets had to be largely removed to be able to click the barrels in. This would not even have worked with the equilibrators added later on.





But the end result is perfect and most small details from the Gakken pictures and drawings were replicated on these few plastic parts. The base piece has to be sanded for a perfect fit.

The Hasegawa late carrier planes clearly have more panel lining and smaller details. Only the Type21 Zeros showed signs of shrinkage. This could be filled in. But shoukd these be included in the Zuikaku airwing anyway?









I'm always mixing up left and right tail planes, but they seem identical either way.



The Type 52 Zeros are tackled first.

[marijn van gils]

Nice work on that mast!

The regular plastic planes will also be more fun to work with than the brittle transparent ones...

[StevenVD]

Thanks, Marijn! I don't think I will miss carving cockpits out of that clearpart plastic. I intend to use US airplane propellers Pe for them, the props remain quite heavy and the after side is flat. I don't have to keep those in spare for the Essex, because the Pontos set has all that in extra.

I also built the Suisei bombers, with their very fiddly undercarriage.







I found out that some stairwells in the galleries are undersized or completely absent, I had to drill a hole in the port middle gallery. I also discovered I was bending the stairs wrong. I had the steps pointing aft while they should be forward. I doubt this can be corrected, so I'll leave it at that, but these new additions should be correct. I have also glued the landing lights, but I seemed to have lost one. It had fallen under the ship and I couldn't find it. A few minutes later it reappeared, sticking to my fingernail. Surgery was not needed.















I said last time no PE was needed for the DP guns, but I foud some instructions for them. The bending was explained, but not the placement, so I improvised.



The bending went surprisingly easy for the scale..



It really creates some detail in the guns, sadly on the side facing the hull.





Now I want to attack the 25-mm guns, but the single ones all have an optional base plate. I wonder which of the positions could have used any of these, if any.

[Dan K]

Really nice work all around, particularly those masts.

The actual locations of the single 25mm mounts is up for debate. Round bases are typically for more permanent installations, square bases could be moved around.

[StevenVD]

Thanks for the guideline, Dan. I found a picture of one such mobile gun on Junyo, and also I found a build of a 1/35 gun on a forum that explained quite some details about the bolted-on base: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/ind ... mm-aa-gun/.



But first I had to replace the removed parts of the barbette supporting pillars. These are surprisingly hard to position, because they are in the opposite angle of ordinary tweezers. So they all at least fall down once before sticking.



At starboard you don't get any instructions. However (I really am watching too many Drachinifel movies, it's getting into my vocabulary) the parts are numbered so that you can derive the right position from the Fujimi manual.



One of the supports is on a solitary location. I placed some of the davits, at least those that can be paintd with the rest.



And now the real production plant work is starting off, with Infini's triple AA guns. You get 45 barrels standard and I almost got to 16 carriages minus one barrel in this pack. There are enough spare from the single gun packs, so it's only two additional carriages to scratch.



Positioning the barrels is actually the difficult step in this build, because they tend to jump out when you bend the casing down on them.



Also, the visors have very small bending lines, so you can easily miss the bend.



On a plus, the magazines are easy to locate and don't need to be cleaned up, because the burrs serve as locator pins.





Therefore, this step takes only 20 minutes.



And for dessert, you get the pinion wheels for the elevation.

[Dan K]

OMG, what a production line!

I have a book of the AA schematics of all major remaining IJN vessels in the summer of 1944 drawn by then Lt. Constructor Shizuo Fukui. Zuikaku's 25mm emplacements, including singles, are part of the volume. My home scanner isn't working at the moment, so I will try to scan it elsewhere.

In the meantime, here's one movable mount at Cape Engano.

[Dan K]

Ok, this schematic shows all of Zuikaku's 25mm AA positions as of mid-July, 1944 at Kure. The mounts in red are the newest additions. This does not account for additional single 25mm AA mounts that may have been added between then and early October.

[StevenVD]

Thanks a lot for the scan, Dan. There are even more triple installations than Morskie described in the technical data, I count 20. It would mean I have to make 4 bases out of scratch and I don't know if I have the extra barrels at hand. Right now I have 15 almost ready, now I arrived to the step where the splinter shields have to be added. We know at least the bow installations had them from that video still that was posted earlier, so I'm going to add these to all.

[Dan K]

Keep in mind that 16 of the triple 25mm triple are of the regular configuration, while the four on the aft, starboard quarter are in enclosed shields.

[StevenVD]

That's right, I forgot about those. But Fujimi only provides 2 enclosed triple 25mm guns, did you count the DP guns in those 4?



Though these turrets seem easier to scratch than the Infini gun mounts...

[StevenVD]

A small addition was done to the gun cradle. Take care not to spill much glue in the cradle up to this point. There are 4 locator holes in the bottom that need to stay open.



The seats even have rivets on them.



Seats are placed easily and also the left gunner's instruments are fairly reasonable to fix.



It's the right ones that will make you suffer some tedious hours of fixing the flywheel and bending the pedals up, which are sometimes wrung out of shape simply by cutting these tiny parts. If bent, they then break, ore the wheel comes loose because you didn't want to drench it in CA.



The aforementioned covered triple guns have a plastic mantlet with barrels, that should be removed because the replacement barrels are longer than the plastic ones. They are actually to be fixed inside the turrets so as not to pass beyond the red line. Here are no shutters in the mantlet, so I scratched the mantlet plates out of thin aluminium sheet. There should also be railing for these, but it is not mentioned in the kit so we see what remains for this later on. What I did find were the PE shutters for the visors.







Splinter shielding was relatively easy, but now was the moment to align some stuff. The disks are the gun bases.



An axle is to be scratched and is not described in the instructions. I used 0.6mm copper thread.



At last the guns can be parked among the other jewelry.

[Dan K]

You are correct about there being only two shielded 25mm AA mounts. My mistake.

Beautiful work. Lots of patience there.

[StevenVD]

Thanks, Dan! That would leave us with still 3 triple gun assemblies to scratch. I should still have a total of at least 56 barrels at hand, so it should be no problem.

[StevenVD]

Over to the single 25mm guns:



All breeches had to be shaped. Half of them got overstressed while being removed from the sheet.



This caused half of the aiming devices to fall off. But these wouldn't be the smallest or most numerous parts you have to fix in this Infini set. Consider it a test of what is coming.



Apparently I will have just enough spare barrels to make some extra triple guns.



These can be installed very easily.



The aiming devices have to be bent twice, so some more came off.



The clips are identical to the triple gun set.



A note about the pintle mounts: because of the forked shape some of these will launch themselves from the gun, so check for the slight movement.



My installation of the gun bases looks like a giant prehistorical arthropode.



All the previous seems to be conceived for noobs, as suddenly there looms an admonishing label.



Maybe this is really not out of place.

[Dan K]

I just don't understand how you have the patience for all of that. Daunting, for sure.

[StevenVD]

You just have to turn the switch to shut out everything but a bit of Youtube movies that can be followed easily without watching the images.



These are the tools that were of some use to moving around the tiny brass morsels: an airbrush needle with some gum on it, more gum to deposit the gun base and a scalpel tip to apply glue to the base ring. The base is turned 90 degrees after each deposit.



Like this, 25 bases were finished in about 3 hours. The triangles are not all upright, because curing goes fast.

[ModelMonkey]

Wow. Very nicely done.

[StevenVD]

Thanks, Steve. Still some 12 to be finished, so I took a break and placed the port railings. The railings are very fragile where they are supposed to be bent, especially where there are passageways with two bend lines.

[StevenVD]

The scale became somewhat less microscopic and a lot of bending was needed. A fine screwdriver aided in this matter.



An army of gunner harnesses turned up, I almost felt like MacGyver without a flame thrower.



These little latches had the tendency to be launched into oblivion.



Finishing these, I only have to tackle the rocket launchers and then the weaponry is ready.

[J. Soca]

That is alot of brass Love the work




Jose