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

[Dan Vadas]

Another update on the Main Superstructure. All the lower components are now done and ready for filler and painting :

 

  Danny

[riverboat]

Danny.... that is one sweeeeet!! looking build...... and your skills are perfect..... as always!!

 

Frank

[CDW]

I need to take a trip to the art supply store to have a look at water color paints. Just having a hard time getting my mind wrapped around water color paints. All I can recall are the little sets of kid's water colors...and I am guessing there must be some adult variations on the water color paint theme. Right? Whatever it is, you seem to have mastered it to the degree necessary to do touch up paint that is darn near a perfect match for your printed parts.

You are setting a high bar for anyone who tries to follow in your footsteps with this build. 

[amateur]

Actually, for the simpler models, the kidsversion works fine:)

 

Jan

[Jim Lad]

Just catching up again, Danny.  She's really starting to come together.

 

John

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks Frank, CDW, Jan and John.

 

5 hours ago, CDW said:

All I can recall are the little sets of kid's water colors...and I am guessing there must be some adult variations on the water color paint theme. Right?

I use watercolors that come in tubes, brand is Mont Marte. Water needs to be added periodically, as they dry out fairly quickly but they keep working OK even when they do - still all right the next day .

 

  Danny

[cog]

Would have expected gouache (less translucent) instead of water colours. Not heard before, water cloours dryin' up in their tubes, i.e. unless without or with a bad fitting cap ...

[Dan Vadas]

They don't dry in the tubes Carl, rather on the palette. The paint revives with a little water and becomes usable again for about 3 minutes.

 

  Danny

[BANYAN]

You're becoming a dab hand at this cutting lark Danny, those funnel bases look very trim and neat!

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks for the comment Pat - I'm getting the hang of cutting the edges with a bevel where needed. That makes for tighter joins. I also use my straight-edge on any straight section over 1mm long - this prevents any joins from having a slight gap top or bottom.

 

I've made the Forward Funnel which has turned out really well. The thin angled band under the top section went on with no problems. I glued it a couple of millimetres at a time :

I thought the angled deflectors at the top would have been problematic, but the accuracy of the printed parts made them really very easy to fit :

There is a lot of Pipework surrounding the funnel, which I'm working on at the moment. There's also a lot of PE to come.

 

Here's an overall pic of where I'm up to at the moment. The Sub-assemblies haven't been glued on yet - I'll complete each one before I fit them permanently :

 

  Danny

[popeye the sailor]

great progress Dan........really looking nice  

[demetri]

Looks great.

[Jim Lad]

She's looking very impressive, Danny.

 

John

[Dziadeczek]

May I ask you, what kind of glue do you use for your model?

Regards,

Thomas

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you popeye, Demetri, John and Thomas.

 

2 hours ago, Dziadeczek said:

what kind of glue do you use for your model?

Four kinds - mostly an acid-free PVA Craft Glue made by Mont Marte (straight or thinned with water where needed), Roket Card Glue (solvent based), thin and medium CA for attaching metal parts.

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

I've rolled most of the Pipes for the funnels. I used various methods of getting a good straight tube out of them, including using a piece of PVC pipe drilled to the right size to clamp the joint together until the glue dried :

For the long bent pipe I inserted a piece of 1.2mm OD brass tubing into it and bent the tubing into the correct shape. The tubing stays in the pipe for strength (besides, once it was bent it was no longer removable ) :

Two of the pipes have "rabbit ear" cowls at the top. These were fairly easy to roll into the correct shape :

The pipes still need cleaning up, filling and painting.

 

  Danny

 

[Jim Lad]

A cunning method of clamping your pipe joints, Danny! 

 

John

[cog]

2 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

A cunning method of clamping your pipe joints, Danny! 

 

John

 

Cunning ... yes, but now he destabilised his ship and needs to move his ballast around

 

I should have known this method when I was working with paper. Darn good!

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks John and Carl.

 

A lot of work has been done lately, even though I haven't posted an update in nearly a week. It might be time I did .

 

I've made the Funnel Bases. These took some tricky rolling. I've filled and painted them, not much filler was needed . The paintwork comes up much better when the Testors Dullcote is applied later :

I've also finished all the Pipework associated with the funnels. I'm quite happy with my improvement in this area :

The Main Vent has been filled and painted :

Last, I've made a Jig to bend the Step Irons for the funnels. There are about 50 or 60 of these to make for the model, and no doubt hundreds for Bismarck later on, so it was worth the effort. The irons are made from 0.2mm wire and are only 1.6mm wide. To see how the jig works follow THIS LINK :

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Nice progress, Danny - and a very clever jig.

 

John

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks John.

 

I've fitted the rails around the main funnel (anyone know what they are really called, and what they do?) These were a bit of a pain to fit, but they got a bit easier as I gained some experience. The holes for their legs are a tiny 0.2mm, so you can imagine how fragile these things are .

 

A lesson learned here - never assume that the legs of the PE rails will fit the marked positions of the kit pieces, even if the same manufacturer makes both (I used PE from Tom's Model Works). They DON'T, especially on a round piece. I'll have about 50 little holes to re-fill .

 

  Danny

[popeye the sailor]

perhaps they are used in the same way as foot ropes.  nicely done Dan  

[BANYAN]

Hi Danny, in my day they were just called rails and constructed exactly the same as the inboard hand rails.   Their purpose was several:

1.  Tie rail for the canvas/vinyl weather cover over the top of the funnel when the boilers were shut down.  

2.  Grab / safety rail when working/checking the top of the funnel

3.  Tie rail for the bosun chairs or staging used when painting the funnel (safety lines were not secured to the same rail for obvious reasons). 

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you Popeye, and thanks for the explanations Pat.

 

I'm getting better at fitting these rails - this is the Aft Funnel all done. Maybe I should zoom out a bit - they look MUCH better in real life . They will of course look better again when I paint them. But first I have to fit the Guards on their tops.

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

The Funnel Guards fitted. I made an error initially - I had the wrong one on the aft funnel and had to cut it off and replace it. You can see the mistake on the two arms at 10:00 and 2:00 on the rear part of the forward funnel, they should go to the edge of the funnel but I'd cut them too short. Oh well .....

 

Once they were painted the mistake wasn't so obvious :

 

The aft funnel has been glued to the superstructure. There are four small boxes surrounding the funnel - there should be one more 1/2 the size of the smaller ones, but after spending 20 minutes making it I breathed a little heavily and ..... no doubt I'll find it one day years from now, unless my dog has eaten it .

 

NOTE - The large pipe with the "rabbit-ear" cowl should NOT be fitted yet, despite what it shows in the instructions. I followed instructions and had to remove it again later . The AA gun platform has to go on first, and the bottom of the pipe sits on that (see post in next page).

 

 

The horrors of Macro Photography :

 

I've also finished all the pipes and supporting rods on the forward funnel. The two pipes are 0.3mm nickel-silver tubes, the rods are 0.2mm wire :

 

An overall view of the main superstructure to this point. A couple of coats of Testor's Dullcote are yet to be applied :

 

  Danny

[popeye the sailor]

looks great Danny  

[BANYAN]

Coming along very nicely Danny; if you hadn't pointed out the shorter arms due to initial misplacement, i for one would not have noticed

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Jim Lad]

Mistake? What mistake? 

 

She's really looking the goods, Danny!

 

John

[mtaylor]

Even though you pointed out the arms on the funnel guards, I still had to look hard to see what you were talking about.   Lovely work.

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks guys .

 

The Platform for the Anti-aircraft guns. Two tubes, two cones and seven gussets :

 

The start of the 25mm AA Guns. There are only two of these. Each has 24 parts, a combination of paper and wire :

 

The Gun Mechanisms are folded tubes 4mm long x 0.6mm x 1.0mm :

 

The two Handwheels. The printed ones didn't look like much, the detail on them didn't jump out, so I scratchbuilt a couple. I used two small sections of PE handrail with a paper rim. To make the rim I first punched out the centre, CA'd the spokes in, and then cut the outside of the 1.5mm rim :

 

The gun barrels are made from 0.3mm Ni-Ag tubing. The recoil springs are soft 0.2mm wire :

 

  Danny