hexnut

Thank you so much for all the encouragements, the "Thumbs Up" and the support. Today was a major milestone with the completion of the electrical circuit: 

As you can see, we do have a lot of wires, connectors and adjustable resistors. Everything works, which is refreshing: 

First, the lights circuit: 





Then some special features: 

Display in the Radio Room.... The Sonar screen died during the construction :-(

The dangerous job of checking electrolyte levels in the Batteries room.

Fuel tanks lighted under the Kontroll Room. The main ballast was supposed to have some light too, but the LED is obviously too weak to penetrate through the greenish water....

The rear batteries compartment.

And the galley.... My camera does not cope very well with these light scenes and I will ask a professional to take some pictures, when the model is completed.
 
It is a very large model.....



There is still plenty of details to address and tons of work on the deck and conning tower. We are getting there....little by little.
 
Yves
 
 
 
 
 

Thank you Bob!
 
And 🙂 if things speed up, they speed up 🙂
 
Missing the mast for proper alignment, I put some irons in the middle as spacers for orientation.
 

 
And suddenly things are done.
 

 

 
Knowing my fat fingers, I will do the final alignment just before the final finish.
 
And too, looks like I need better light on my working place - for better enlightment and pictures 😉
 
 
XXXDAn

I always love your hyper-detail updates.  I am making the same face as all those deadeyes!  😮
 

More progress this week, finally painted the lower hull last weekend in preparation of fixing the two halfs together, done yesterday and the upper wooden decks fitted. The decks arn't a bad fit by any means but they do need careful handling as some details are just not quiet right a number of hatches were typical 25 thou out of position as where the anchor chain pipes so a little bit of trimming was needed. the one frustating thing about the Nautalis deck is that its designed to use the plastic steps in the kit, I am using the White Ensign P/E so I have to fill several gaps in the deck. Some of the deck fittings are a bit more out to the deck and I am going to have to insert some pieces up to 40 thou wide in places.
 
Paint the anti-fouling red oxide was on the limit for mt aztech airbrush even using the largest nozzle I have for acrylic paint it is a hard job and I had to start again after rubbing it all down - Tamiya XF9. Anyone considering a hull this size it might be worth looking for a rattle can of automotive paint, the colours are very much like that.

I am waiting for HMS Hood in 1:200 hopefully that will be on the cards with Trumpeter. Next to build is the Dreadnought but shes 1:350 a tad easier to move around, the Arizona has stretched my limits in both skill and space to maximum she is big at just over 36 inches long but its the level of detail as well in her. Currently I not a 100% sure on how I intend to mount the model - whether it will be on the plinth you see here or whether she will be mounted directly to the base of a cabinet yet to be purchased.
 
 
 
 

Progressing steadily again have started to paint the upper hull and I have prepared the lower hull for assemby.
 
G Factor Screws ready to fit
 
Pontos pedestals fitted to the lower hull with captive nuts bonded inside the hull with some old P/S i had laying around.

Have had issues with the chain plate on ther forward deck as its not designed for use with the Nautilus wood deck, it was designed to correct errors in the kit so I am leaving it out as theres to much bashing to do.

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Greetings,
 
As far as I can tell, I’m the only IJN Mogami build log on here.  I decided to take this project on as I wrap up other projects which is very different from the stick and string models I usually like to build.  I found this subject interesting because of the hybrid characteristics as an aircraft cruiser which she was converted into in 1944.   Commissioned in 1935 and named after a river in Japan and was the lead ship of four of her self-named class of heavy cruisers.  Served in numerous battles in World War II until she was sunk at the Battle of the Surigao Straight in October 1944. 
 
This is a 1/350 Tamiya kit and I’ll be using the Flyhawk detail photo etch kit.   Below are some photos I’ve found, mostly courtesy of Wikipedia and my unboxing of the kit and PE details.   Should be an interesting challenge. 
 
All the best,
Joshua 

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I am just posting all of the pictures I have taken to date

I have located the pictures relating to this build and I am hopefully going to post them in same order but withouth the build comments I am affraid.

Dear Yankovitch:  Not to worry, this log will continue until the bitter end.  I tend to go a while between entries as opposed to reporting daily details. 
 
I worked for a time on painting deck machinery.  The instructions say to just cover all winches, bollards, capstans, and cleats etc with matte gunmetal grey, but that sounded awfully drab for the pride of the Laeisz fleet.  Instead I painted the machine "frames" the same green that I used on the bollards, and used tank grey on the "innards", just to accent them. Here's a picture of the wheel just in front of the chart house on the midship bridge deck.
 
Incidentally, I wondered what those black round things were at the corners of the house until I noticed a line drawn in the instructions, with no reference. I realized the steering lines from the ships wheel pass round these swivels then go down through the deck in the slots just beside the aft ventilators.  Does anyone know if that would be cable, or chain? Thanks in advance.
 

Here are all the decks at the moment.  As I mentioned in an earlier post I decided to paint a white "waterway" at the edges of those decks confined by bulwarks to make painting inside those bulwarks easier after I glue in the decks. Capstan barrels are all glued in but not yet the heads with bars because they're fragile.

Of particular interest to me are the Jarvis triple brace winches. The photo below shows Heller's rendition of the full set of five beside one of the cargo winches. Each of these 1/2"x1/4" machines has three pairs of brace lines emanating from it. Looking forward to rigging them **not**.  Also I want to add a shaft with hand cranks at each end from brass microrod, somehow. Don't know why Heller didn't provide cranks - the pumps and halyard winches have very detailed little crankwheels and such.  Incidentally, "Royal Clipper" replaces each of these triple brace winches with a pair of hydraulic winches turning in opposite directions with each single brace line from a winch fanning out to the three lower yard ends on its side of the ship. Not sure how they handle the brace geometry problem which these brace winches with conical barrels were designed to solve.

 
 
I also painted the gilt work at the bow and stern.  This has given me the merest hint of what it will be like to paint all the gilding on the "Soleil Royale" when I get to her next. It is pictured below, not ideal but pretty good to naked eye. I'll need to improve. I ordered vinyl adhesive lettering for the name "Preussen" in white letters aft of this gilt work on each side, and also the name and home port in gold at the stern.  Unfortunately I could not find sub-2mm letters so I will have to use the decal for her name in the gold-framed spaces which is too bad as I expect the decal will show between the letters. The order was from UK and it is certainly taking its sweet time getting here.....alas covid....

 
Getting tired of green and grey machinery I decided to start assembling the masts. First I had to try to reconcile Heller's basic diagram with Underhill to decide where all the stays and backstays attach.  I cut off the too-large molded plastic eyes and drilled holes for copper eyes. Then I started painting the masts and lower yards, completely painted in one colour as in ships of the time (Humbrol #63 according to Heller, which looks about right).
It was a long and ongoing process:
 
                     Wife"What did you do today?"                   Me"Painted spars".
Next day:     Wife"Did you work on your ship today?"    Me"Yes I was painting spars".
Next day:     Wife"Did you paint spars again?                  Me"Yes""
Next day:     Wife"Are you finished the spars yet?"          Me"Nowhere near"
 
There are many many spars on a 5-master.  My #63 paint seems to need four coats to give a consistent colour coverage.  To add to the pleasure, every one of the thirty yards on this ship has five ejector pin marks to fill on its upper surface.  Could not Heller have put them on the lower surface , out of sight? Similarly, each topgallant mast has three of the same on one side. All these parts are each molded in a single piece so perhaps Heller were making sure they'd come out of the mold without warping?
 
I mentioned earlier that the Passat model has much more detailed yard trusses.  Here is a typical yard (as yet unpainted) from this model. Not a very realistic appearance. The mast has a tiny little semi-circular pin to engage the hole in the "truss".  I've decided that the risk of these attachment points breaking if I brush a yard while rigging is too high, and could be a nightmare to fix, so I am going to make some basic trusses from 1/32" brass rod.  Nothing fancy, just replicate the basic shape and not worry about trying to produce bolt heads etc at the swivel points. This stalled for a while due to COVID isolation until I discovered that my local hobby shop is doing curbside pick-up of orders so I just got some rod yesterday. I will do the same as on my Heller "Victory" i.e. have the rod inserted in a hole drilled in the mast, unglued, so the yard can "give" if I happen to knock it.
 

Speaking of rigging, this kit does not provide the rigging screws to tighten the shrouds and backstays.  I figured I would make something out of micro brass tubing and 0.3mm brass etched eyelets.  I've discovered that K&S no longer sells 1/32" brass tube at the retail level.  One can, however, order direct with minimum 30 pieces at USD$3.60 each.; you can do the math. Fortunately I've since found tubing by Albion Alloys in even smaller sizes and plan to order from UK.
 
That's all for now.

I love your serving machine made with Meccano/Erector parts. It brings back a lot of fond memories.
 
Yves

Rob,  I love your Cutty Sark diorama with the famous jury rudder!  And your "Great Republic" scratch build is incredible.  I fear my efforts will seem simplistic to you, but here are some photos anyway.
 
Hull plates I added below waterline:


I taped the decks in place so we can see where we are going.  That's my serving machine in the background (it makes a handy stand for the upside-down hull at this point):

 
Deck close-ups.  This is the first time I ever used a wash and I like how it turned out.  But there are so many coats of paint and varnish I worry about gluing stuff down, especially the pin rails which will have stress on them when rigged.  Haven't painted the inside bulwarks yet. I think I will paint a white "waterway" along the deck edges so I can glue in the decks then paint the bulwarks without fear of getting some paint on decks. They call for the cap rail to be painted Humbrol #63 (same as all spars) but I may leave it white just to make it easier.

 
That's all for now.
 

Hello Shipmates
 
I have done a wee bit more on the ship.
After I did the filling and sanding down again I applied two more coats of brown primer, this was left to dry for a day.
I then sanded the primer down with 400 grit paper, then applied 4 coats of Tamiya Dull Red, I may give it two more coats.
Next job to do is mask the water line and coat the top part with Tamiya Black.
 

 
I don't know what they have done but the photos took forever to load up.
 
Happy days.
 
Jo.

Hello all
 
I re-filled the planks yesterday and I have to say sanding the filler down I was surprised how much I have missed the first time round, or maybe it had shrunk?
 
I will re-prime it tomorrow.
 

Happy days.
 
Jo.

Still waiting on the Walnut decking to come in, so I moved on with a few things. I decided on a paint/style I was painting this. Walnut clear poly deck, Blue body, and gold cowl. I also designed a little paint scheme for the back fin. So, I worked on that this weekend, I'll be clear coating everything afterwards. Also, since this boat will be a tribute to my dad, I remember when I was young he was part of a CB radio club and his handle was "TRUE BLUE". So that is was this boat will be named. I'm even making so decals from waterslide printer paper to go on the body.
 
I don't feel this is straying from the "Miss Unlimited" the kit is titled, because the kit is meant to build 1 of 4 or 5 separate popular boats from it's age, I'll just be customizing my own.
 

Continuing on with bringing this old model back to life. I trimmed and filed the aft deck panels to match to contours of the boat. Other than that it's been a lot of filling and sanding , then filling more spots and sanding just to get the little imperfections out from some cracking edges over the years. Other than that, I'm waiting on the decking walnut strips to come in. I didn't realize I ordered from overseas (modelers central) to USA when I ordered, so it may be a little while.

I added this filler brace to the front access panel cavity because it was teetering on the middle brace, and panel wouldn't always sit flush. This assures a flush fit every time its installed.

 
I need to make a little filler triangle here where walnut decking will be. I'm not very happy with how you had to cut the plastic formed cowl pieces out of the model kit. There's not a good guide where the exact cut should have been. I'll still use the pieces (because I really have no choice), but for what's going to be a nice wooden sturdy boat, these flimsy plastic cowl pieces are not going to be the best. Although I have no plans to make this RC controlled, I'm still leaving access just in case I change my mind.

Jumped right in yesterday/today with making some progress on the build. I added in the bracing strips for the aft decking. I had to form some pieces out of wood scraps for joining the aft deck contour to the front deck. . Then glued the decking panels on. They slightly overlap, so there's a lot of filing and sanding to do for it to follow the hull. I filed/sanded one side already. Still a lot more to go.
 
I decided I'm going to plank the whole upper deck with 3ft. mahogany strips (1/4" wide strips are on order). Since the forward deck was already painted white and sanded, I'd never get the aft to match. I want a nice varnished mahogany deck front to back, with solid paint hull, and possibly a white trim line dividing the two. Still planning that part out.
 
 

OK, this is going to be an interesting build. We are setting up to have an estate sale for my Mother and Father's home. I was remind that an old boat that he was building may still be up in the attic. I remembered the boat from seeing in when I was young in the 70's and 80's. Just remember it being a speedboat of some sort. Well anyway, the estate lady did find the boat and handed it over to me and I didn't know how it was built, or where I would go from there.
 

After asking some questions on here yesterday trying to find out what kit this was, I had it narrowed down to Miss Unlimited. I asked the Estate lady if there was a box for it, and she said no, So I figured I had to scratch build the upper section of the boat (which comes as plastic molds). But surprisingly a few hours later I received a text with these pictures asking if this is what I was looking for:
 

 

 
I was ecstatic to get to see this. I drove over and picked up the box. I want to finish this boat as a tribute to my dad, but I didn't have and intention of making it motorized/RC controlled, just for display. I don't know if I will change my mind later. But for now I just want to finish it and give it an interesting paint job. There isn't a whole lot of pieces left to finish, but I'm still going to make a build log for this. Working with a model that has been in the attic for 40 years will be a challenge. I already had to seal a lot of spit plywood with a thinned out wood glue mixture and some clamps. That worked out great.
 
Also, the model appears to have a whitewash paint over it, it came with mahogany sheets for the top, but so  much for making a nice varnished top. I will improvise with the paint job to get a finish I like. The main reason Im glad I found the box was for the plastic molds. The contests of the box left are this:
 

One other funny thing:

Good morning everyone
 
i have been working on the cockpit (not sure if thats the right word for the pit), i am using  lime strips, not the wood that came with the kit, also i am using red mahogany gloss/stain for the contrast, i will also use this for the centre plank and other deck accessories