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

[BANYAN]

Nice mods Danny

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks Pat. They're not really mods - I've built the guns the way the instructions show. Here are the finished guns before painting :

 

 

And after painting :

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Wow!  Very nice looking AA guns, Danny!

 

John

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks John. Just to blow your mind a bit more :

 

 

I had to cut the aft funnel back off the superstructure. When I went to fit the AA gun platform to it I realized I'd made an error in the construction of the funnel base - it was the thickness of the base too high . No harm done, just a waste of an hour .

 

A few posts ago I mentioned that the large pipe on the forward end of the aft funnel shouldn't have been fitted until this stage. You can see why below.

 

I've fitted the PE railing around the AA gun platform. It was a little tricky to get all the bends right, and as with the railing I'd fitted previously to the Bridge the stanchions are too widely spaced and don't line up with the marked positions. This makes it look a little odd, as the stanchions are in different positions around the bends. I can live with it though :

 

 

The railings after straightening and painting :

 

 

After fitting and painting I noticed that there are two rigging wires that terminate in eyebolts on either side of the platform . I was wondering about the two extra marked holes earlier. I should have checked the rigging plans before fitting the platform to the funnel base, as it made drilling the holes a bit harder. I made the eyebolts from 0.2mm wire in the shape of split pins, drilled 0.45mm holes for them, and CA glued them in :

 

 

  Danny

[reklein]

Pretty cool !

[usedtosail]

You have enormous hands, Dan! Seriously that is very good work for so tiny a piece.

[Jim Lad]

That's really nice work, Danny!

 

John

[cog]

Thought them to be way bigger Dan. Now the detail is even more astonishing. What's the gauge on the wire for the barrels

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you Tom, John and Carl.

1 hour ago, cog said:

What's the gauge on the wire for the barrels

I don't know about the gauge, but it's 0.2mm diameter. It's supplied by a site that caters for Crafts.

 

  Danny

[cog]

0.2mm I thought closer to 0.5 - 0.75. Did you use tweezers to roll it around the barrels!!!

[Dan Vadas]

8 hours ago, cog said:

Did you use tweezers to roll it around the barrels!!!

No, just my fingers - it was a lot easier that way. There was quite a bit of waste, but the roll I bought contains .... (I don't know WHAT it contains - a lot ) and tweezers wouldn't grab it. I used them to squeeze it up if I needed to, which was rarely. It really surprised me how easily it rolled around the 0.3mm tubing.

 

My first attempt at these didn't work so well. I used 0.3mm ID brass tubing and tried to score grooves in it to simulate the spring. I'd have run with this if the wire didn't work, but it took quite a while to make one. Here's the failed attempt, above the actual size template - the coiled ones were exactly the same size :

 

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Construction of the Aft Turret Superstructure. For anyone building this model there are a couple of things to look out for.

 

Firstly, the outer wall isn't vertical - it slopes very slightly inward at the top, so care must be taken to fit the framing the right way up. The difference between the length of the tops of the frames and the bottoms is about 1mm or even less and it's easy to fit a frame or two upside-down which will throw the whole side out of whack.

 

Because of the slope the bottom of the side (part #80) isn't a straight cut, even though at first glance it appears to be. I've marked the approximate positions of the changes in direction in the following pic. If the cut is just done straight there will be slight gaps on the bottom of the wall in various places.

 

 

 

I added several extra pieces of scrap 0.5mm card to the framing to ensure that the wall didn't buckle when I glued it in :

 

 

There is a complex curved section which needed pre-forming before gluing :

 

 

The finished structure before touching up. Virtually no filler will be needed :

 

 

  Danny

[Reg]

Hi Danny,

 

Wonderful work!  Very innovative with your techniques.  You are a real asset to the card modeling community. 

 

Thanks,

 

Greg

[popeye the sailor]

the guns in your hand Danny are a mind bender..... your gett'in to be quite a pro at this    well done!   great job on the structure as well   

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks Greg and Popeye.

 

Lots of updating to do. This is part of the second aft superstructure, some tricky bends :

 

The start of fitting out the sub-assembly begins with a small structure with a curved roof :

 

Next is a (comparatively) large ventilator. I used a "modified" clamp to hold the tube while the glue dried :

 

I can go to great lengths supporting some of the tiny pieces :

 

Another PE Reel. I've finally worked out the right way to build them :

 

 

Continued in the next post .......

[Dan Vadas]

.... continued.

 

I CA glued tubing together to make the cowl for a small pipe, and also used it for the braces :

 

Not sure what this assembly is (nothing unusual there ) :

 

Quite a few small ventilators, the reel and a viewfinder :

 

An overview of all the fittings glued to the superstructure. I've also fitted the PE railings and 0.2mm wire handrails :

 

Final assembly for this section is the aft Mast, all CA glued together. At the moment it's dry-fitted, I'll spray paint it before final fitting :

 

  Danny

[Canute]

Dan, that tube with the fins is a paravane, used for mine sweeping.

[Reg]

The brass work looks great!

 

Greg

[Dan Vadas]

39 minutes ago, Canute said:

Dan, that tube with the fins is a paravane, used for mine sweeping.

Thanks Ken, I had an idea it was something like that . They didn't have those on 18th century ships .

 

Thanks Greg.

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

That's really looking very nice indeed, Danny!

 

John

[cog]

They neither had a lot of mines in the 18th century ... Marvelous details. I especially like your setup of heavy metal to keep a piece of paper into shape!

[Dan Vadas]

And thank you John and Carl.

 

12 hours ago, cog said:

I especially like your setup of heavy metal to keep a piece of paper into shape!

You'd be surprised how much weight you need sometimes to keep a join tight, especially on very small parts.

 

  Danny

[Fernando E]

Nice work Danny.......and I thought a wooden kit build was difficult!!

 

I just pulled up a chair to keep an eye on how the professionals do it!

 

Fernando

[Dan Vadas]

9 hours ago, Fernando E said:

Nice work Danny.......and I thought a wooden kit build was difficult!!

Thank you Fernando. With a pre-coloured Card kit the hardest part is getting the joins to fit together with the minimum of gaps. A wooden kit has a much bigger margin for error.

 

The three Main Turrets, which are all identical. Here are most of the card parts for one turret - the base on the left has already been folded and glued :

 

Before cutting out the turret top I cut the two slots for the barrels. I used my punch to do the rounded ends first, then a scalpel to join them :

 

The movable barrel base. I strongly suggest that anyone making this kit, or something similar, to actually get them to work freely. This allows you to move the barrels up or down when fitting the railings later :

 

The barrel "boots" fitted to the turret base. The 1.0mm brass tubing barrels haven't been glued in yet, as they would get in the way of future work :

 

Next step was to fit the turret sides :

 

The turret ops cut out. Most of the edges are bevelled :

 

 

Continued in next post .....

[Dan Vadas]

.... continued.

 

Gluing the top to the sides begins with the straight join at the front of the turret :

 

Next are the rounded edges :

 

Moving on to the cube on the left side :

 

Finally the large areas at the back of the turret :

 

Before fitting any railngs I glued on the PE Doors and Hatches. I used 0.2mm wire for the railings, starting with the legs on the top section :

 

Then I bent, rolled and fitted the trickier pieces at the front :

 

I used CA to glue the rails to the legs, one at a time :

 

Then the side railings using the same methods :

 

  Danny

[maaaslo]

nice work i must say.

[BANYAN]

Some really nice detail you have achieved on those turrets Danny.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Jim Lad]

Beautifully worked turrets, Danny!

 

John

[ccoyle]

Outstanding, Danny!

[Reg]

That is some exceptional wire work!  Are you planning for blast bags? 

 

Greg