mikegr

The assembly is finished, managed to use 90% 0f PE parts some were too tiny to be used. I sprayed the kit with light grey. I will do shading, weathering, and rigging.Also will make a wooden base and a sea bed with epoxy.

On 7/19/2021 at 8:29 AM, Tony Hunt said:

The perfect subject for a PE upgrade-fest! 😀

Indeed PE parts are a must on this kit, will take it to another level of detail

Ι have started using PE parts from stern to bow. Depth charge frames (some damage couldn't be avoided) rails, mast and guns.

I have built many 1/700 kits 25 years ago. Now I rebuilt them one by one. The last built was Yamashiro.

I made 2 20mm single guns with the shields. Another one was lost and the last one was over sprayed with primer and is beyond repair. Looks like I'm going to use 2 of those included in the kit. They will look like 40mm ones as they are bigger but i guess i can live with that😁

a nice step by step action by a modeler which i consider quite advanced even using simple materials

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=8912&start=20

On 6/24/2021 at 4:16 AM, CDW said:

The plastic is not quite as good as other Flyhawk offerings have been, but it's not bad either.  As can be seen, the upgrade package is extensive.

Trumpeter's plastic is a bit average but for the price paid is quite acceptable. This and the growing variety of models puts the company in a good way.

They are getting bigger.

From 1/350 to 1/250  and lately 1/200

21 hours ago, ccoyle said:

 

How can a gun barrel not be included in a kit? Seems like kind of an important part for any warship model. 🤔

Because barrels are cylinder shaped unlike PE parts which are flat.

In 1/700 you can buy extra brass barrels for big caliper guns. Smaller caliber guns are sold as a whole, as an extra upgrade. The ones in the kit were a single piece with the gun house so i couldnt use them.

I made the 4" guns. Each one is comprised of 4 pieces. The gun tower, the base, the canister and the barrel which is not included so I made some from 0.4 mm rod

Nice I was looking for some details on that kit 

So basically it Trumpeter model with Pontos PE plus wooden deck.

Sounds like a really good deal for 40€ including shipping.

A straightforward assembly. One hour work including drilling of portholes. Time to look at PE parts starting from the cannons.

Back to the small scale for a while.

I bought this Tamiya kit for 9€. Like the German Z class kit of the same company it has two models. I'm going to built one including some PE from an ex eBay seller. Probably in light grey adding the seabed.

So Bender is the most popular 3d design program?

I built dozens of 1/700 ship models using paintbrush long time ago. In this scale airbrush is not a must , my thought. But if you enter the world of dioramas an airbrush is a great tool for creating different shades of the sea water, making your work looking very real.

Now I am scratchbuilding large projects about 1 meter long using spray cans. Although I get the job done, for painting smaller parts airbrush is essential as it can regulate the amount of paint and prevent overflow. However its still a big machine with a considerable cost. So I am about to buy a starter kit with dual action airbrush to see how it goes before I opt for a big set of airbrush+compressor.

Hello

MCO has been over, at least for now. Some new material ordered as well as a few tools. Meanwhile I have been working on the superstructure level by level. The main silhouette is clearly shown now I will start gradually building details while correcting some imperfections.

I am also experimenting with the deck color which varies from picture to picture of the real ship, depends the time those are taken as well as weather condition.

I love the θ shaped chain. The epitomy of perfection.

I need to cut 1mm wide fillets of wood. Looking for a tool I found this one which might be useful

cutter

Everything can be worked up to a good point. This is how my 1:700 Yamashiro looks after restoration. A project built 24 years ago with brush only ofcourse.

I have been started making the superstructure. Unlike modern cargo ships it has a round delicate shape, its not a square box. That makes it more challenging to built. For the front curved areas I use aluminum sheet 0.2 mm thick, quite easy to bend. I drill it then making window frames using staples cutting in L shape pieces. After gluing  them and  dry i have to trim it to give he perfect shape Quite time consuming procedure.

There has been some snowfall which slowed down my progress.

I have finished the polysterene work on the hull. Also, due to fact i used 8mm thick plywood for the frame, i had to sharpen the stern and bow as well. Some smalls frame parts from the paper model were trimmed down to almost elimination.

The next step was to aplly filler is some areas and sand them. It took me two evenings to finish it.

Next thing was to cut the deck. At the moment and cause of lockdown the only wood available was 4mm MDF.  I managed to sand it down t 2,5 mm aprox. Then cut it and fit it to hull.  As found out MDF was is a very absorbing material i sanded it to remove the water based primer and gave it 3 coats of specialized white primer for MDF.

One thing that made me happy is that i shaped the bulkheads in that way so deck has the inclination from center line to edges, present to all merchant vessels. Most ready made models don't have this detail which i believe is a must.

Finally i did my first wood scratch built. Unlike planking i found out that shaping things out of wood can be very fun

The initial paper model plan calls for a 3 decker ship. In my A4 printed test model this proved quite rigid even not proper paper have been used. However that would require too much woodwork which I would like to avoid as a begginer.
After weeks of research i decided to plank the hull using pieces of aluminum sheet 0.2mm thick, which is easier to work with, than wood. But this thing has to sit somewhere solid so my model won't end up as a Coke can. After research I decided to use polystyrene, light and easier to give it shape.
Polystyrene has its drawbacks. If pressed even gently with fingers can be curved. But what is important at the moment is to sit in alignment with the frames so my hull will look as smooth as possible. This will allow me less filling-sanding effort. It doesn't look as beautiful as wooden models but I opted for the easy way. Time will show.

Ok after a week on evening work managed to fit bulkheads on frame. Fitting them vertically was the one thing. In my ocassion I had to measure the distance from frame to bulkhead edges to make sure are well positioned. Redrawing and cutting fitting slots by hand is a job that can't be done perfectly by a begginer. I  ordered a PU glue so I can fill in gaps easier but cause of lockdown, shops only accept online orders and courier services are overloaded so delivery time is 2-3 weeks!

Anyway I just used some wood filler. Not of great importance but I wanted the hull to look a bit better

I cut the two parts of the central frame. I use plywood 8 mm. Noticed some peeling off after cutting so I coated all the  edges with epoxy resin which sealed the wood. I marked the cutting areas with modeling tape, slots were redrawn from 1mm to 3 mm wide so they can fit the bulkeads.

Done with bulkheads. I had to redraw the slots from 1mm wide to 8 since I'm going to use 8mm thick wood for the frame