IJN Amatsukaze by Dan Vadas - FINISHED - Halinski - 1:200 scale - CARD and Brass - WW2 Japanese Destroyer -

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks Popeye and John.

 

Quote

I wouldn't be game to touch a card model.

It's just the same as a wooden model John ..... no it's not . BTW - I haven't noticed if you are currently building anything. Anything happening?

 

2 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

Did you have any luck with the gray touch up paint?.......you mention here that you have the red dialed in.  mak'in some good progress here  

I haven't gone back to the gray yet Popeye. I'll finish off all the red first and then have another go at it. I think it needs a bit more white, I added 35% white and a touch of Yellow Ochre to the red and it's very close now . Close enough for me to be happy with it anyway .

 

  Danny

[ccoyle]

Quote

I wouldn't be game to touch a card model.

Now where would this world be if everyone thought that way?

[Jim Lad]

Danny,

 

I've made a very slow start on my model of the 'Meteor', but life keeps getting in the way.  I also keep forgetting to take my camera to the museum. 

 

Soon - I promise.

 

John

[cog]

Danny,

Abit late though. As the print is made up of paint dots, you could do the same with a small hard brush. Start with the yellow ochre, and finish with the red. There used to be painters which applied this technique (pointillism), which might get you the result you are looking for ... just a thought ... but you know how it is with me, all scrambled up

Cheers

[Dan Vadas]

On 29/06/2017 at 8:08 PM, cog said:

Danny,

Abit late though. As the print is made up of paint dots, you could do the same with a small hard brush. Start with the yellow ochre, and finish with the red. There used to be painters which applied this technique (pointillism), which might get you the result you are looking for ... just a thought ... but you know how it is with me, all scrambled up

Cheers

Hah, that's nearly exactly what I did , and I also used a Q-tip dipped in Acetone to go over each one when the paint was almost dry. This took a little of the paint off, allowing some of the original to show through, and taking all the shine off it as well.

 

I've finished the red touch-up, masked the grey (which I haven't touched up yet) and gave the hull two coats of Testor's Dullcote. The difference is extraordinary - you really have to look hard to see any of the touch-ups. The only ones that stand out a little bit are a couple that I'd done with a slightly darker shade of red near the stern. I'm more than happy with the result .

 

I've fitted the Bilge Keels. I had to think a bit on a way of holding them in position and came up with the following. There is a thin printed line to follow, so I used some Tamiya tape to make it easier to see as it would have been hidden once the keel went on :

Next I shaped a strip of balsa to follow the curvature and taped it to the hull :

I taped and clamped the keel to the balsa strip and ran a bead of glue on the edge closest to the centre of the ship so it won't be seen when the ship is the right way up :

The finished job. You can see the touch-ups on the gaps (or not ) :

 

  Danny

[cog]

Which gaps Looks spiffy. Seems you need to build a jig to attach a bilge keel ... unexpected for a paper model

[popeye the sailor]

gee.....if you touched up the mating line.......I can't tell     very nice!

[Dan Vadas]

8 hours ago, cog said:

Which gaps Looks spiffy. Seems you need to build a jig to attach a bilge keel ... unexpected for a paper model

Carl, you don't need a jig if you have four hands and can sit perfectly still for 10 minutes while the glue sets .

 

  Danny

[BANYAN]

Nice job on the filling Danny; the paint match is spot-on.  Those hair clips look familiar

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Jim Lad]

A pretty good job of paint matching there, Danny!

 

John

[cog]

10 hours ago, Dan Vad said:

Carl, you don't need a jig if you have four hands and can sit perfectly still for 10 minutes while the glue sets .

 

  Danny

Does a split personality work too

 

Sorry I'll retreat silently in my corner

[Dan Vadas]

I'd decided to get all the under-water bits done before starting on the decks, as they would have been very difficult to do later on.

 

I started with the Propellor Shafts and Housings. The shafts themselves are rolled around 0.8mm wire, which I left in for extra strength :

Next came the Bearing Housings. These are made of three parts. I cut a slight bevel into the adjoining edges so they meet with no (or very little ) gap. To get a really strong join I glued a piece of thin paper to the inside and rolled the piece around the appropriate size drill bit. Not only is the join stronger, it also dries a lot quicker too. Masking tape holds it together while it dries. I'll be doing all my tubes in similar fashion wherever possible :

To make the cone on the forward end I sanded a dowel to the correct angle and taped the piece to it. This made handling the tiny piece easier, if not actually possible. Once again there is a piece of paper on the inside of the join :

On the aft end is a small disc. I punched out the 2mm centre hole with my new "toy" :

The forward housings took the longest to make as they had to follow the shape of the hull plates in both directions. I cut them slightly over-size and, after gluing together complete with reinforcing strips, sanded them down to match the hull :

The completed assemblies. The support legs are at the top of the pic :

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

The Screws (Propellers) looked like being a fun build and they were. Here is the printed piece, it took some really delicate cutting to get the "spikes" bevelled. I used a single-edged razor blade, as it's thinner than a scalpel blade :

I reshaped the cone "stick" I'd used earlier to hold the rolled piece :

Here's the glued-up cone. Anyone who says he can make one of these without any filler or touch-up paint is either a genius or a liar :

The end of the cone also has a small disc to align it with the prop shaft :

The blades were pretty straight-forward to cut. I tapered the edges slightly. There are thin printed lines to follow when gluing to the cones :

 

  Danny

[Captain Slog]

Very nice clean work Danny.  Your tubes are spot on.

 

Cheers

Slog

[Jim Lad]

Beautifully done, Danny.  Just don't forget to put the propellers on their correct sides! 

 

John

[CDW]

I like it all, but the props look very convincing. Even better than some of the plastic kit props.

[ccoyle]

Danny, in card model parlance, the 'spikes' are called 'petals'. They are one of the hardest bits to get just right. Nice work!

[Dan Vadas]

1 hour ago, ccoyle said:

in card model parlance, the 'spikes' are called 'petals'.

OK, got that Chris - thanks. I guess these ones would be Cactus Petals ?

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

I filled the slight gaps in the prop cones and touched them up with a mix of Yellow Ochre, White and Black. I went over them several times with an almost dry brush to try and get a similar effect to the printing, and got it pretty close .

 

Then I fitted the legs to the bearing housings and glued the props to the shafts. I've also made and fitted the Rudder. It has a piece of 1mm wire inserted and drilled into the hull for strength :

9 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

Just don't forget to put the propellers on their correct sides

Are they right John? I hope so, otherwise the pics in the instructions are wrong .

 

 

  Danny

[cog]

You really got the hang of that pointilism, Dan. Very impressive. You got the colouring spot on. I certainly couldn't get the folding and rolling done as meticulous as you did.

[Jim Lad]

Beautifully done, Danny (and on the correct sides ).  It's easy to get them right - in multi screw ships the propellers should turn outwards-but do your research as in a few notable cases even significant ships were built with inward turning propellers!

 

John

[cog]

9 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

Beautifully done, Danny (and on the correct sides ).  It's easy to get them right - in multi screw ships the propellers should turn outwards-but do your research as in a few notable cases even significant ships were built with inward turning propellers!

 

John

 

It would depend on the rotation direction I presume ... that is a standard too for port/starboard?

[Jim Lad]

Carl, a right handed propeller on the starboard side and a left handed propeller on the port side (as Danny has fitted them) will turn outward when the ship is going ahead.

 

John

[cog]

Thanks, John, but that is when the port turns counter clockwise and the other side clockwise.  What I meant, is it standard that the shafts turn for the port counter, and starboard clockwise?

[Jim Lad]

Yes mate, that's exactly it.

 

John

[Dan Vadas]

 

Now that the Props are on (I should really have left them off until last) I needed to protect them from damage, so I made the stand. The supports under the hull are made from card in the shape of "I" beams. The base itself is timber. I tack glued the base to a piece of balsa a little longer than the hull as a temporary building board :

 

I've filled the gap between the upper hull and deck and touched up all the grey. This time the colour was exactly right :

I've also started the first superstructure - the lower part of the Conning Tower. I'll paint the PE doors tomorrow when I get some IJN Grey Enamel. There is more work to be done on this assembly :

 

  Danny

[Captain Slog]

Hi Danny,

 

very nice work. Not that I'm an expert but you would never guess this was your first card model. 

 

Structure looks great, definitely the fun parts. 

 

Cheers

 Slog 

[BANYAN]

Your quickly becoming a master of the card model Danny; nice work on the stand also.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[popeye the sailor]

some wicked nice progress going on here Danny....the props,  stand,  and the structure look great!  very neat and clean  

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks Slog, Pat and Popeye .

 

Glue doesn't stick very well to the lacquer, so I masked all the areas where parts are still to be fitted and sprayed the rest of the hull with Dullcote. This pic also shows how far the temporary balsa base extends to protect the props and rudder :

The upper section of the Conning Tower. The base of it is a "D" shape transitioning to a circular top :

There are 12 tiny Step Irons on the lower part of the tower and 15 on the upper part. These are made from 0.2mm brass wire. I made a simple jig to fold them all to the right length :

The conning tower features 8 sets of Binoculars on various types of stands. To make these tiny pieces (3mm long) I made another jig which consists of two pieces of tapered 0.5mm wire drilled into a block of wood at an angle :

The first pair finished and mounted to it's base. The base is made by tightly rolling a printed piece of 0.2 mm paper until it gets to the required diameter of 2mm :

Some pics of the conning tower with step irons and binoculars fitted. The steps will be painted IJN Grey later :

  Danny