Jeff59

On 1/5/2022 at 10:57 PM, Boydie said:

First time reading your build log. Amazing job so far, along with your Arizona. 

Thanks Boydie, still got a lot to do but trying to keep it progressing, regarding the Arizona was one of builds that I decided not to paint the photo Etch to highlight all the work involved in building a ship, think the only thing I will do with her is paint the lower hull and possibly the main gun barrels, just to make it look slightly more complete.  The Mikasa shall be the first model I will have finished in over thirty years 😳 here’s hoping, thanks for liking it. 🤛

Well that brings me about up too speed with my build , it’s going to take a while to progress from here, so I hope you all have a good year in front of you. Regards Jeff. 🤛 

Finally removing the masking to see if it looks okay, just some minor bits needing touched up also got the forward and aft decks fixed down, so no going back now. Feel at last I have turned a corner. The forward bridge structure got some minor corrections in the port hole positions, the ones on the front didn’t match the side port holes in height, so filled and repositioned them using actual ship as reference. 

Started with the Tire black, here’s where we find out if the colours work, fingers crossed.

Started masking of hull, the paint has had about six months to dry so shouldn’t peel off on removal of tape. 🤞 Next was the painting of hull, did try various shades to try for some shading effects, but didn’t work this time because I don’t know what I’m doing, did say lm a novice with air brush, first shot, learn by mistakes, I hope. Time to put on the etch camouflage. 😳

The small beads are the discovery of Jaqueline, my lovely wife who help me find this for the top rail on stern walk, Don’t know if this is right for period but hope it looks okay, easy to remove if not liked. Believe it or not for decoration of female finger nails. 😂 the bag has thousands in it, so get plenty shots. 🤪.

Hello to all modelling fans, hope you had a You had a nice Xmas and all the best for 2022. I think I got locked in the modelling room and told to stay out of the way 😂, result I actually progressed with the Mikasa. Finned adding almost all the etch down the port side, then came up with some daft ideas on detailing the stern walkway. Once finished it was then going to masking of the lower hull, done it right this time, fed up with scraping overspray off 😂 Shall put some photos up to show this stage of build.

Also had to break of the gun hatches at bow and re-set them to accommodate the anchor chains, found a fine piece of wire helps here, must have worked like this anyway. Finally the small davit arm on forward deck next to locker was made from brass wire styrene tube and parts of etch cut from the flat etch davit arms for boats which I didn’t fancy using. Also cut the first deck handrail to try as template for positioning forward resin cleats, this was an eye opener as to how delicate these actually are, broke it during the folding process, just as well I need another set. Don’t have the necessary jib and hooks for forward mast, don’t see PONTOS doing an additional set for this, that’s a shame, there are so many additional parts required, ha ho. At least I can paint the handrail dark grey to see if that works for me. 👍 Shall put some final photos up. So if I don’t advance enough for another post before Xmas and New Year you all have the best time possibly. Again thanks for the experience of doing this, have really enjoyed it so far.  All the best Jeff. 🤛

Did start by carefully cutting of plastic shackle that looked way oversized, thought  I could alter this, but then came up with a better solution, used a bit fuse wire to form up new shackle, and managed to flatten end with pressure using flat pliers for working with etch, and luck has it passes through the anchor chain 🤪 A lot of scraping away at plastic and continually looking at the shape of real anchor payed off , also drilled through the head and inserted a piece of styrene rod, but didn’t go as far as putting a nut on it, got to draw the line somewhere. 😂 also noticed how the anchor seems to be lifted into heavy bracket and bolted in, then secured by chains up to the deck using some sort of mechanism using levers, incidentally on looking at aft anchors, seems they used similar mechanics, so had my best guess at this as well.

Looking at the actual anchor it took a while to pick away at it to get to were I was happy, hope you think it was worth it because I still have two to do.

Can kind of work out how they lift and secure the anchors from this photo, does look like a lot of work for quite a few sailors to drop and way anchor, no wonder they changed to just pulling them up into the hawse-ways when you see all the space and manpower needed to store them on sides of ship. 

Back again for final post, thanks for the kind remarks, always good for The spirits, here’s a photo of ships anchor  to show the details that I have tried to copy, well as good as I can with a knife and some styrene. 

Shall try and do another post tomorrow guys. Take care. 🤛

Drilled these hole out, gradually increasing the size till the anchor chains would pass through comfortably, angled forward at about thirty degrees, also making sure the plastic parts are also going to accept the chains.

One downside is there are no holes in this etch that lets you feed the anchor chains down into the chain locker rooms so had to make my own, again best guess, oh for a decent detail book on the Mikasa, how much easier would this build be.

On the etch anchor plate that has both chains on it you will see a tiny piece of small etch at bottom left hand side, it dawned on me that this is the same size as the cleat and shackle point for securing the anchor chain further forward, so I think Pontos might have looked at this but didn’t want to commit ? They did supply four of these cleats, think I shall fit the fourth one at the top left of this plate. I see this working as both chain could be man handled over the capstone, it also means the chains all pass into chain lockers from the rear, stops them taking green water. That was a bit long winded but hopefully you can see we’re lm coming from. 👍

Well there are quite a few deck details to wade through on the forward deck, always more than you think. Have noticed for a while that there’s a lack of guidance as how to run the anchor chains, either with kit Pontos set or even at the ship museum, so have came up with my own solution, doesn’t mean it’s right, but my best guess. Mainly the spare ? anchor if that’s what it is, not sure , but there are only two capstans. 

Hello again, thanks for the nice comments, very encouraging 👍 This is the forward deck we’re I left the last post I think. Decided to try fitting pipes for anchor hawse pipes, don’t know if that’s how you spell it, but you know what I mean, this means lifting the gratings and reaming out the plastic to suitable contour using dremel with a small bit, have to be gentle as this chews the plastic out very easily, so slow and sure. 👍 then cut some suitable plastic styrene pipe at required angles and lengths, this might take a few shots to get right, or at least good enough. This stops you seeing right through the hull at these points and helps when it comes, to introducing the anchor chains. Is it worth the bother? well that’s up to the individual. Glued these pipes into position using styrene tube glue. Remember building all my Airfix models this way from a very early age. 😂 Just make sure everything is lining up to your satisfaction. 🤛