Landlubber Mike

Oh yes, sorry, completely forgot that I had seen your beautiful build! Glad I have company in the 1/700 asylum What did you think of the kit? Nice to have the kit and PE in one box. Seems to be a fairly comprehensive PE set as I look at your pictures. Which Akagi do you have? I have the early three deck version with biplanes, along with the 1/350 kit of the later version.

Awesome choice Craig, especially with the carbon fiber decals. I saw a video build of I think this exact set up on Youtube a while back. It might have been a Plasmo build, I forget, but the model was stunning with those decals.

Now that is tiny! Are you building this one? I had the Tenryu on my list, but ended up getting the Tamiya Tama with the Rainbow upgrade set. I think the Tama, as part of the Kuma class, was like a larger Tenryu. I love the three funnels on it (if you like funnels, ships like the Sendai light cruiser have four!).

Nice job!

Come on Popeye, you can do it, I have faith in you!

I got stuck here because I couldn't figure out a good enough solution for the lettering (I didn't want to use the paper approach as I think it might look weird against the black of the ebony), so I ended up switching over to the La Renommee in part to help PiratePete have some material for his excellent Euromodel Build Notes, and then got sucked into the plastic world. So, unfortunately, no further progress here. I also have a half finished Pegasus on the shelf as well. I think what I might do is prioritize finishing the Pegasus since it's furthest along. I had stopped that build to wait for carving tools to arrive so that I could carve the various decorations in lieu of using the PE in the kit. Either that, or work on the LAR. The Morgan might be last in the queue, but we shall see.

Fantastic, I'll happily take the blame! Hopefully you don't mind posting a build log - can't wait to see your work!

Thanks guys, I appreciate the kind words. Frankly if I can do it, you guys can too. It’s not too difficult, just takes some practice to find what tools, adhesives, techniques, etc. work best for you. A few sections of this model certainly could be better, so I’m hoping that I’ll be able to take the lessons on this one and put together a better one next time.

Wow, that's really cool looking! Love it, very unique display! Those Zwillings were crazy designs.

That satin black is gorgeous. Very nice job!

Great start! Looks like it will turn out a beauty in your hands.

Coming along really nicely! Very well done!

So that's why I couldn't find any clamps at Home Depot. Now I know! 😳 Great job Chris!

From another website - looks like the crest was on cruisers and above: https://www.kinenkan-mikasa.or.jp/en/tourmap/central_exhibition_data/bow_crest.html In June 1898 Japanese Navy, following the Royal Navy decided to put the Imperial Crest of Chrysanthemum as the bow crest of all ships above cruiser class and was referred to as Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). This Bow Crest was equipped on MIKASA's bow from her commissioning till 1987.

Looks fantastic Jason! I seem to recall anchor buoys being about 1/3 the anchor length as well, but can't recall where I saw that (maybe in zu Mondfeld). My approach was similar to yours, except I used clay for the buoy part. The rope work around the buoy is a real pain but it makes for a nice detail not ordinarily seen in models.

Thanks Ken. I've seen them on carriers and battleships and other larger ships, I don't recall seeing them on destroyers. I have some extra PE parts that are little round discs - I probably could use one of those. At this scale, it doesn't have to look like the flower. Edit: looks like the chrysanthemum may have only been reserved for the capital ships: https://forum.worldofwarships.com/topic/79574-why-do-ijn-cvs-cls-cas-and-bbs/

Thanks BE - it's been a learning experience for sure. I'm curious to see what things are like when I start work on my 1/350 Shimakaze - I bet the PE will look huge in comparison to what I've been used to on this 1/700 model.

Felt good to finally get some paint on this, after such a long period of it sitting on the shelf. I ended up priming with thinned Vallejo black primer. For the gray, there are various grays used by different shipyards. This ship was built by the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal. Some companies like Tamiya make paint colors specific to the various shipyards (Kure, Maizuru, Yokosuka, etc.). I wanted to stick with Vallejo, so I went with Vallejo Medium Gunship Gray with a tiny bit of Vallejo Intermediate Blue mixed in to get what I think is a fairly close match to what the Tamiya paint (XF 91) looked like. It gets a little crazy trying to be exact, as colors render differently on the computer and even vary across pictures of the same paints posted by different sellers. With shading and weathering, things will change in the end anyway. I like how things came out. With the black primer base, I lightly sprayed the gray so the hull is already shaded in the various recesses, which makes things much easier. Next I'll try to add some washes and a touch of highlighting, and then start adding the remaining details like the rails which are still on the PE frets but painted. Thanks for looking in!

There is a tiny PE piece that goes at the very tip of the bow in the Five Star set which might be the chrysanthemum. A little hard to tell from the pictures and the instructions. It's like a facing down C in shape. The pictures of the completed model on the Five Star box seem t show a little bead or something possible in the middle of the C, but it's really too hard to tell from the pictures.

Some great research there! This is going to be spectacular!

While waiting for other models to dry in the spray booth, I have been plugging along on this one. Lots added - front post, the larger davits, a few more single AA guns, depth charge rack, etc. I think this is about all I can do at this stage before painting everything, and then separately adding the remaining details - which there are still a bunch! I thought a destroyer would be a good entry to the 1/700 world, but there's actually tons of details peppered throughout what is a smaller ship. Some fun comparison pictures... Comparison of kit depth charge rack (left) with PE: Davits - these are created with two pieces, the top part which you fold two halves together to build up the thickness, and then the base. The base is only maybe 3-4mm long, and you have to fold the two ends in to make it a U shape. Then you take the top part and insert it through a very tiny hole in the top of the base, and have it settle into an even smaller hole at the bottom of the base. I had the dreaded "ping" off the tweezers on one of them, but fortunately I was able to find it. I don't know what I would have done if I lost it, but all is good. I almost forgot that the front funnel had a long pipe that attached along the port side, so scratch built one since the kit one was way out of scale now that I added the PE rings. I think I did this in 0.30mm brass wire - probably a tad underscale, maybe I should have gone with 0.50mm. I'm worried about trying to remove it and ripping out some of the other brass on the funnel, so I'm just going to leave it. I am wondering though about the kit radar on the top of the bridge - seems a bit overscale. I might have a resin replacement I can use from FineMolds, will have to check the stash. It's probably not too bad, and will look smaller once painted and no longer stark white. Some other pictures. I have to remind myself that these are taken at extreme magnification because they look a bit disappointing in the pictures, but to the normal eye, they look fine. I think at this stage I'll prime and paint, then add the remaining details which include another 10 AA guns, the rails on the deck to cart munitions, small boats, rails, a bunch of things that look like crates, etc. Then there are some optional details like ammo boxes. Thanks for looking!

Looking great! Now all the fun with the tasty details....

Another beauty Craig. Filling up that new case quickly

I've been on a roll moving this project forward this week, so continued it again the last couple of nights. I've added what I think I can in the middle of the ship, including single AA guns, rangefinders, on deck davits, railings, etc., as well as the anchors. I've been debating whether to add the outer hull details like the steps for fear of knocking them off, but I think I'll take the chance to add them now rather than later and have to touch up the paint to cover glue marks. Once all that is on, I think I can paint and prime the ship. Then I'll remove the masking, and add the remaining deck details. For those details, I think I'm going to have to prime and paint them on the fret, and then assemble and add to the ship. Given portions of the deck are linoleum, I can't just add all those details now as many sit on the linoleum portions. Here are some pictures of where things stand. My apologies for the quality - it's a little hard to take them using my iPhone at such high magnification, though frankly, I'm impressed that the pictures even came out this well. Thanks for looking in!

Wow Tim, that looks fantastic! Would never know it's wood.