Landlubber Mike

In between projects, I've spent a little time on the Yaeyama, which is coming along pretty quickly. Five Star does a really nice job with their PE sets, and while 1/700 is challenging at times, it's been a lot of fun. The instructions are sparse, to say the least, which adds to the challenge. Only four pages, and not all of the parts are shown on the pages - not to mention, generally no directions on how to fold things. Definitely not a kit for the first time builder. I added a bunch of additional details at the bow: The deck cleats are from the kit. The bollards are resin bollards from I believe Five Star. They are probably only a couple of millimeters long and about a millimeter wide, so cutting them off the resin plug wasn't easy. They look pretty good though, being three-dimensional versus PE. For the pole at the bow, I constructed the pole and the supports using insect pins. Brass at this scale is just too flimsy, and insect pins I believe are made of stainless steel so won't have to worry about bends. The lantern at the end is a PE add-on from Five Star I believe. I also added two AA guns. I had some extras that were pre-painted on the fret from my 1/700 Hatsuzakura build, so added them to the bridge deck. I ended up re-doing the railing around the searchlight platform. The kit gave you the option of doing plain railing or railing covered with canvas (thanks @lmagna!). What bothered me was that the railing I initially installed fully circled the platform. How would someone reach the searchlight, let along get up to the platform? So, I replaced it with the canvas railing, with a tiny gap and ladder going up to it. I couldn't tell from pictures whether this is historically accurate, but seemed to be a potential possibility so went with it. Also added the Type 99 AA gun. This came with the kit minus the top of the three cylinders that at the near end of the barrel. The instructions say to add a 0.4mm rod so that was pretty easy -- but not sure why they don't include that as part of the package. I even have a spare Type 99 AA gun set from Five Star and that set doesn't include all three rods either. I also added the fore and rear masts. Here is the rear, which apparently I need to bend the very top back into shape (looks fine to the naked eye, but looks rough under high magnification): Along with painting the bottom of the hull in hull red, I also added a number of ladders to the build, and here is where things stand now: I'm getting close to the point of masking the linoleum and painting the rest of the ship. There are a some cylindrical parts that are aligned vertically on both sides of the hull. Not sure what they are, and the kit doesn't provide them. So, I probably will take some rod or sprue and shape them. I'll probably also add the hull side access ladder as art of the diorama scene. I hate adding details that can get easily broken off, but at some point they need to be added and I just have to remind myself to be more careful around the model. Thanks for looking in!

Great look to the quarter galleries! I got stuck there with my Pegasus when I wanted to try to similarly make a three dimensional look to them. I’ll have to try out the microscope slide cover technique. Great idea!

Looks pretty cool - diorama would be a neat idea.

That’s really amazing work Chris. As I said before, you have gotten really good at these card kits! I still can’t get over that these are in card - especially with all the compound curves involved. Great job!

Good to know guys, thanks. I'll be on the lookout for it. When I bought my Byrnes saw, I had zero experience with table saws. I watched a number of videos online which were for full sized saws before starting, but I still ended up muddling through it for a while. Kickbacks a really scary! Even small hobby saws are no joke!

How was the workshop? Unfortunately I couldn’t attend due to a bunch of kid activities today.

Wow nice Chris!!

Nice work KD! Looks fantastic! I have the Lutzow in the stash too - seems like a fantastic kit. I think the one I have has the torpedo nets, I’ll have to check. Will be looking for your build log on it!

That’s the foil I have in the stash too - I haven’t tried it yet. Sounds like it can have great results but then again I’ve seen a number of models where it doesn’t look as smooth as one would hope. I’ll have to try it out as the car guys seem to love the stuff for window moldings.

I haven't done many cars, and I've been struggling with what to do. Your situation is why for the few I've done, I've stripped the chrome and repainted. I've used Vallejo Metal Colors, and was thinking about trying Alclad and Zero Paints for comparison. I've used Molotov chrome pens, but it can be a little tricky as you can't go back over what you did or it gets screwed up (haven't tried it in the airbrush yet). Also haven't foiled yet. What I think is tricky is trying to get a consistent chrome finish across all chromed parts - a little hard when you're using kit parts, foil, Molotov, paint, etc. in different places.

Looks fantastic Ron, very very nice!

This looks fantastic! Really well done! You mentioned using foil for the window trim - what did you do for the chrome on the bumpers and other trim? Looks great, and a nice contrast against the body color.

Those funnels are beautiful. No PE needed, wow!

Well you know more than me! Or at least can guess about them more than me 😀 What impresses me about the IJN ships is the variety - tons of different types, especially on the auxiliary side. Pretty amazing what they were able to build when they didn’t have the natural resources we had.

Thanks Lou! I haven't come across that site before, looks like a great resource! I should have consulted you first before spending hours scouring the internet, buying a Japanese magazine (in Japanese) and trying to decipher things using Google translate, etc.! Unsure if that rear structure is a big potty or radio room. Seems that the cross-mast was removed in the later versions. I noticed also that about the guns pointed straight up. At first I thought it was only when pulling into port for safety reasons, but it looks like that was the positioning when out at sea too. Those barrels are massive! Thanks again!

Thanks John for the vote of confidence. So far I'm hopeful, but don't want to get too far ahead of myself

Wow where did you find that? That’s one of the best pictures I’ve seen. Interesting how light in color it looks. The kit includes both a railing and solid wall for the searchlight ring. I used the railing but the solid wall looks pretty cool.

Very clean, crisp work there OC, nice job!

Probably! Looks kinda spacious!

Wow, that's super cool Kevin!

Looks great - a mask and lots of decals is a great addition to kits.

While waiting on diorama bases on other projects to dry, I put in some more time on this one. First I built up the funnel. There are five PE rings that come with the kit, but the two steam pipes do not. Took some very thin brass rod (I think 0.4 or 0.5mm) and bent it to shape, and added the pipe tops to each which came from a Rainbow accessories set. Alongside the funnel is a rack which I think was used to carry wood, so I'll have to add some at the end of the build. Just behind the funnel was another structure which includes two vents, a rack on top, and then a circular platform where the searchlight goes. Next I built the stern structure. Not exactly sure what it is designed to do, as there is a rail on only one end and sort of a semi circular extrusion on the port side. The kit includes an opening for the door at the stern side, so I installed it with the door open. Here's a look at the full model - looking pretty good I think. Before I go too much further, I might add a red stripe at the waterline to avoid accidentally breaking any of the more sensitive things like the masts when trying to mask. Once the lower hull is painted, I can tape the lower hull and linoleum deck, and add the two masts and a few other details, and paint the hull. Despite the need to add necessary details not included in the kit (like the funnel pipes and the searchlight), I'm really enjoying the build. Five Star makes really nice PE parts which are a perfect fit. The subject also has plenty of open spaces so you can treat it as a blank canvas to add various details. Thanks for looking in!

You've gotten really good at these card models Chris. Very impressive how you can get compound shapes to fit so well together.

Very nice job Kevin, looks fantastic!

What a cool subject Alan, doing a great job on this one! The design is so simple, it almost looks futuristic or even Mad Max-ish 😀