Landlubber Mike

So I’ve decided to go to the true “dark side” and try out a plastic model with infinitesimal PE add-ons. Can anyone recommend a good optivisor? There are a million on Amazon so thought I’d ask around here first. I don’t mind spending a little extra to get something of better quality. Thanks in advance!

Joe, what a beautiful build! Congratulations! What's next? Hope you are feeling better. Best wishes to you.

Looking good. I think it takes a hull under one’s belt to appreciate what goes into nice planking. For straighter plank ends, you could look into getting something like a Chop-It or use something like a disc sander. I have the Chopper from Northwest Short Line that is pretty helpful: https://www.amazon.com/Northwest-Short-Line-Chopper-II/dp/B004P3SRI0 Love the name by the way...

Really nice work Kevin! What PE sets did you get? I just got back from vacation and the Shimakaze was waiting for me. I’m going through the kit now. Seems fairly straightforward. I got the Hasegawa PE set, Hasegawa linoleum deck, and the Infini Detail Up set. There is a little overlap between the two PE sets but man, the Infini set has really amazing upgrades. My guess is that I’ll need glasses with one or two steps of higher prescription when I’m done with it.

You can buy metal and other decorations from Euromodel.

Nice progress! Love the Mogami - what an interesting subject!

No, but I'd probably at least need a keg orator

Looks really awesome! A 63" finished kit would have my wife making me live in the garage though.

No Idea and Kurt, many thanks for your insights. Really appreciate it! No Idea, sorry to have missed your post from earlier today.

Thanks Jack that looks great! Like the fact that it collapses - I was a bit worried about trying to find a place to store one of those box-type ones.

Very cool! This PE and other add-on stuff is a whole new world from the plastic models I build as a kid. I went with wood models because I didn't want to do the insert tab A into slot B thing, but now with the accessories, books on the modeling subjects, etc., this looks like a lot of fun. Then again, after looking at some of the PE pieces being hair thin, maybe I'm just a masochist. For the Shimakaze, I ordered the Hasegawa detail set and the linoleum deck. I also ordered an Infini Detail Up set for it - was very hard to find the kit, but found it for a reasonable price from a seller in the UK. I also bought the Top Drawings and Super Drawings in 3D for the Shimakaze just to torture myself a little more.

Nice Javlin, I'm in for the ride on this one. I looked at this kit but ended up going with the Hasegawa Shimakaze (also a Japanese destroyer) for my first plastic model.

Thanks again for all the tips and resources, very helpful! I'm leaning towards just going Iwata for both the airbrush and the compressor. The Iwata compressor I'm looking at is not the most inexpensive, but it gets good reviews and seems to be a quality product. Like most tools, I just prefer to spend more on quality and hopefully only have to buy once. Couple of follow on questions if people don't mind: 1. Any dealers of Iwata products in the US that people will recommend? Everyone seems to generally have the items for the same price that Amazon carries them, but I get a little nervous buying things like these on Amazon when there is a risk that the sellers might be selling counterfeit products. 2. If I'm doing scale ship models, do I need to buy a spray booth? I can see buying one when painting smaller parts of the model, but when it comes to painting a hull that's 20-30+ inches, what do people do aside from spray outside? Thanks in advance! Mike

Very nice work! Thanks for sharing. I have one that I'm working on, need to get back on it.

Mike, I took a trip down memory lane and re-read from Unicorn log from a few years ago. Interesting stuff! Brought back fun memories working through the plans with Ian and JohnB. I think it was JohnB who said it best (paraphrasing): "We all might have been better off if we hadn't seen the Chapman plans." 😀

I don't want to speak for JohnB and Ian (Ian hasn't been on this site in a while, hope he is ok), but I ended up scrapping my build. After doing a lot of research, I decided that I wanted to do the Lyme, the sister ship to the Unicorn. I bought the NMM plans and tried working off them, but the dimensions of the Corel kit were totally off from it, making it really hard, if not impossible, to build the Lyme according to the NMM plans using the kit. I think I chronicled some of the issues on my log - the easy fixes would be with respect to the figurehead (as you have done), the lack of a stern post, the rear windows, and the open waist. The tougher fixes were with the deck angles, particularly at the stern, and the overall height of the hull which is taller than the NMM and Chapman plans. Because the hull was taller, it was almost impossible (at least at my skill level) to recalibrate the height and slope of the decks from the keel. After many hours of frustration, I decided that rather than spend an inordinate amount of time trying to make a more accurate representation of the Lyme using the kit (and probably couldn't get there anyway because of the hull dimensions), that I would eventually just scratch build it in the future. All that being said, the Corel kit makes for a very nice model as yours clearly shows. The wood and detail pieces are very nice, and the curves of the ship are beautiful. Just making the changes you made, one can improve the build considerably. I have to say that even though I scrapped my build, I learned a ton working through the issues with Ian and JohnB - which was almost as fun as building the model itself. I'll be following your build log with a lot of interest!

Really nice job Mike!

Welcome back! Looking forward to seeing your progress.

Wow that’s amazing work. Where was it posted if you don’t mind me asking? I have the Seawatch Waterline Dioramas book (which is fantastic by the way) and have always wanted to do a diorama build. I can’t do it with the wooden kits I’m building now because the dioramas would be way too big, and plus you either have to cut the hull near the waterline or have a much higher base, both of which seem like non starters for me (at least at the moment). So, I thought I’d try out a plastic model instead precisely to do dioramas. I like the ocean displays, but that diorama you posted with the cliff side is absolutely fantastic. What a way to bring things to life!

How do you like working at 1:700 scale? I'm going to dip my toe into this crazy world of plastic kits and microscopic photo etched detail sets, but I'm starting with larger scales (1:350 and a 1:144). Those seem so small, I can only imagine how cross-eyed I would be working at 1:700!

Looks great!

Guys, thanks very much for all the information. Really appreciate it! Like all tools, just want to make sure I go for quality, and these tips and resources are invaluable. It's funny, I went to painting with wood on my wood models because I hate painting, but doing plastic it looks like painting is necessary. So, maybe I'll go back to painting my wood models - it takes a lot to paint with wood, particularly when the color scheme is more complicated. Thanks again!

It looks like I'm going to do some plastic kits with my daughters, and of course in looking at the logs on here and the various kits out on the market, I'm thinking of doing a kit or two myself. So, I'm looking to get an airbrush set - any recommendations? I don't mind spending a little more money on a good one that will last. I've been watching videos and looking at airbrushes, but I figured I would see what folks here are using. Something good quality, not as noisy, etc. Thanks in advance!

I’ve dealt with Euromodel twice, and they have been nothing short of fantastic. The first time was to buy one of their lion figureheads because I was building the Lyme using the Corel Unicorn kit. The second was to ask them about replacing a missing plan sheet and warped keel on a used La Renommee kit that I had picked up on eBay. Not sure if he is still there, but Massimo was such a nice guy to deal with. Just be aware that they are shut down in August believe for the Italian summer holiday. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy from them. I agree with Mark that the Euromodel plans are among the best out there, very detailed. And Pete’s built notes are an invaluable resource.

Hey Martin, your Fly looks fantastic! For what it’s worth, I would go with a more rounded quarter badge. I just personally prefer that look to a flat one. Also, it seems with all the enhancements you made to the stern, a flat quarter badge would look out of place. If you had done the stern with the built up kit PE pieces, then the flat quarter badge would give a consistent look. With a more rounded stern, I’d think a more rounded quarter badge would look better. All that said, a rounded quarter badge will take a lot more work. I started building the pieces for my Pegasus, but got a little stuck trying to figure out how to do the top part and incorporate the two dogfish design. But I have faith in you - if you can do the stern as great as you did, the quarter badge will be no sweat for you.