Hr. Ms. Java 1925 by Piet - FINISHED - Pacific Cross Roads - 1:350 - PLASTIC - Light Cruiser of Royal Netherlands Navy as she was in 1942

[Piet]

Thank you folks for visiting and your comments. Also my thanks for those who clicked the like button.

 

Yeah Denis, I jumped the gun with that last picture. A little premature. That pic was taken a few days later but thought it was nice to show "Java" with her super structure temporarily put in place

 

Thanks Ken for looking in and you are always welcome to drop by anytime. It doesn't happen often when a model is build with a very personal relationship.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

This post is for Days 25, 26, and 27, which brings us to December 25, 2017.

 

Day 25 was mostly taken up with some more PE parts cementing to the most forward deck house section and prepping the hull for the grey camouflage colors.

On Day 26 I painted the hull above the red with the modified Model Master's acrylic gull grey. I say modified because it was a little too light so I added some black to it. It turned out that this paint was rather thin and somewhat translucent. It didn't cover the dark grey primer too well and I had to use four coats of the paint to cover it.

While these coats were drying I painted the deck of the hull and the other parts with wooden decks with Model Master acrylic wood color paint. This required three coats to cover the dark grey primer and kept the planking feature of the mold very visible. All this took a good part of the day and looks very promising. I'll see tomorrow how well everything looks.

On Day 27, 12/25/2017 I checked to see how the paint covered the dark grey primer and everything looks great. I am now ready to mask the hull for the dark grey as is called out for in the instruction folder. Here too I had to add some black to the Model Master's acrylic dark grey. This time it required only two coats of paint. After the paint had dried enough to handle I removed the masking tape and touched up a few seep-throughs.

I then masked the hull for the 1.5 mm black waterline. For the purpose of this model as an in water diorama the accuracy of this stripe was not that important so I eyeballed it. As it turned out it came out pretty good, just a few seep-throughs that was be easily remedied.

Next I used the toothpick method and painted all the portholes black. It's a good thing I still have steady hands. I am very pleased with the results and can start putting all the superstructure parts on the deck.

 

This is a print of someone's idea of how the Dutch Navy's camouflage was. Boris Mulenko from Pacific Cross Roads may have adopted this scheme for the most part. I followed his as indicated on the kit's instruction diagram. All the superstructure will be painted in the medium grey.

 

No sense showing me painting the light grey so what you see has already been painted light grey with the masking for the dark grey and it having been painted in the dark grey.

 

Another shot of the masking and dark grey paint. The keel extension for the paravane attaching hardware show a glare from the shop lights.

 

Here she is masked for the waterline black stripe.

 

The big reveal! I'm very pleased with the results. Absolutely no brush marks anywhere.  You can see the three major components for the superstructure in the background.

 

Here is a semi overhead shot of the ship with all major components temporarily placed on top.

 

Here is a side view. She's beginning to look like a ship!

 

Cheers,

[popeye the sailor]

I knew it    she's look'in great in her camo!   nicely done.    good silhouette of her side view......I see you have the same problem I do.  with this new table I have,  the built in light is directly above and shadows any side views.   I miss my crane lights    

[Omega1234]

Hi Piet

 

...never one to disappoint!  Absolutely brilliant work

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[Jim Lad]

She is indeed starting to look like a ship - and a very nicely constructed one, Piet.

 

John

[Piet]

Thank you Denis, Patrick, Wallace and John for looking in and your kind words. And thanks to those who clicked the like button, much appreciated.

 

Today's post will again be a combo of two days. I have only been able to spend a few hours here and there.

 

These will be Days 28 and 29, which brings us to December 28, 2017.

On day 28 I commenced cementing the superstructure parts to the deck with a few small items. This took quite some time making sure that everything was squared. I used a black colored slow curing two part epoxy cement to allow me the time to measure the distances from starboard and port side. Then just let it sit till cured.

In the meantime I separated the bollards and cleats and started to cement them in place as indicated on the installation instructions. I then painted and installed both anchor chains. They are a tad over size but not too objectionable. The anchors will be painted in the dark grey but I'll wait with installing them till later to prevent damaging them with handling of the model.

One of the cleats decided to spring into never never land so I had to scratch build one from some brass wire. I lucked out again, it looks quite good - at least Gwen couldn't tell the difference after I quickly painted it grey. Yeah, call me sneaky Piet.

 

I also prepped a few PE ladders and cemented them into place.

 

Wow, a lot of stuff done these two days. Below are the pics of the progress.

 

The AA gun deck.

 

The aft mast and aft funnel with vent house/

 

The forward funnel with vent house, mast, the bridge and the #2 15 mm gun deck.

 

A strip with cleats.

 

The two large bollards cemented in place with the anchor chains.

 

6X magnification of a cleat to show how tiny they are, It is laying on one my fingers. I also had to remove the two small pieces to make it look like cleat. That's how I lost one. Making a new one from brass wire was a lot quicker then cleaning the castings.

The stern deck with its bolaards and cleats cemented in place as well as the stern anchor winch. You can also see the two ladders going up to te aft- main deck where the #9 15 mm gun is located.

 

The aft main deck with the AA gun deck and the ladders going up. I may wind up reding them and cement them against the gun deck house as the my 1:50 scale drawings sow.  I have no idea what the little doghouse is doing there, the scale 1:50 drawings only show a raised hatch like thing. I think I'll go with that.

The forward deck looking down with all the bollards and cleats installed. The only thing left is the railing but all railings will go last for ease of handling till then. The railing on the #2 15 mm gun deck was cemented on several days ago but both ladders were done today. They come as flat PE and have the handholds must be bend up as well as all the treads.

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

look'in super Piet   

[Piet]

Thanks Denis and thanks to all liking my progress.

 

This post will contain several days of work due to the many extra curricular activities around the house and other things, progress is rather slow.

So, I'll combine Days 31, 32, 33, 34 and 35, which brings us to January 7, 2018.

 

I forgot to mention yesterday that I also prepped a bunch of life rafts and separated a few more ladders from the PE sheet and cemented them to their appropriate locations.

Okay, on day 31 I painted the ladders I installed the previous day. That's all I could do.

Before cementing the life rafts to the ship I looked for any additional parts I can install before they are in the way. I want to work from the inside out you see. There are 6 vent pipes on the center deck but the ones in the kit seem to be rather small.  I checked with my scratch build drawings and see that the tops of the pipes come about half way op the AA gun deck railing.

On day 32 I tried to lengthen the kit parts with a toothpick but gave op on that because one of the kit parts broke.  I decided to make my own to fit the drawings.

On day 33 I rummaged through my pile of small pieces of wood and found a square piece of boxwood, about 5 mm. It was too cold in the garage and my lather drive belts are broken anyhow so I used my trusty #11 Execto knife blade and some sandpaper to whittle 6 new pipes as per the drawings. The proto type didn't come out to bad, a little paint and we wont see the difference.

Continued on day 34 with the whittling of the vent pipes. I also whittled a 0.5 mm pin on the bottom for extra strength when cementing them to the deck. 

On day 35 the weather warmed up enough for me to go into the garage to drill the holes for the vent pipes. I then cemented the vent pipes to the deck, making sure they were all square to the deck. In the meantime I removed the ship's boat cradles from the PE as well as those for the seaplanes. The latter will be challenging because they have to be bend into a box shape and act like wet spaghetti   I did manage to cement the boat cradles though before calling it quits, it was way past beer thirty 

 

The large rafts with wooden floors and oars.

 

Rafts completed and read for paint.

 

This is a copy of part of my drawing showing the vent pipes  As you can see they stand rather tall on the deck and are also braced with removable cables. I intend to use a few strands of silk thread I have and a small sliver of wood for the turnbuckles.

 

This shows the comparison between my scratch build pipe and the kit pipe. The background is my very dark green polished granite kitchen counter top. It actually looks black when just casually looking at it. Gwen's choice.

 

Coming close to what I am looking for on the prototype.

 

6 vent pipes ready to install. Like I said, with a little heavy paint - - -

 

All 6 vent pipes installed and started with the bracing wires. You can aslo see a few life rafts cemented to the deck.

 

Cheers,

[amateur]

That X-acto knife is getting bigger and bigger  

Your pipes look good, as does the camo-paintwork.

 

Jan

[popeye the sailor]

leave it to you to be resourceful Piet.....we've come to expect that      your almost caught up.........and look'in great   

[Jim Lad]

Wow! She's really taking shape, Piet!

 

John

[cog]

Why do you always make me run after you!?!?!? What a wonderful build, Piet. Up to your usual creativity I might add ...

[Piet]

Thank you Jan, Denis, John and Carl for visiting and your kind comments. Also my thanks to those who liked my post.

 

Yesterday and today in real time, February 27, 2018, are for me the most special.  Yesterday the 26th was the last day 76 years ago that I saw and spoke with my father for the last time before he went out with the fleet to do battle against the Japanese Imperial Navy. Today, 76 years ago is the day he and over 3,000 Navy men died in the battle on the Java Sea.

No, Gwen and I don't do anything special, just some quiet contemplation so once in a while. Nothing we can do about it but remembering the happy times we have enjoyed with him. From our religious point of view we will see each other again in the promised Kingdom of our Creator.

 

In my intro I mentioned about that last day I spoke with him and how he was dressed in his official uniform with his saber at his site. When he left with the local steam tram back to the base. I like for you all to see these things. Now you also see what I see in my mind, except for the picture of the uniform. That's just a standard tropic's uniform, not dress. Dress is long trousers, closed collar long sleeve shirt and jacket with a cap, all in white.

I sure hope you wont be too upset for me sharing some sentimental memories.

 

Shoulder epaulet for Royal Navy Adjudant.

The Royal Navy Adjudant saber.

This is then a picture of the steam tram that used to run between the Navy base to the zoo. It passed our close by. We lived next to the corner house where our street ran into the boulevard where this tram chugged along. My sister and I saw our father standing in the doorway waving at us. I should make a painting of it.

 

 

 

Marine adjudant onderofficierssabel 1843 copy.doc

Marine adjudant onderofficierssabel 1843 copy.doc

[amateur]

Hi Piet,

 

Be assured, I'm not upset.

Actually, I very much appreciate the fact that you are willing to share these memories with us.

Would you believe me: in the Netherlands this day went by without any reference to the battle of the java-sea....

 

Jan

 

 

[Omega1234]

Hi Piet

 

Thanks for sharing your last memories of your father.  While the passage of time can’t erase the past, it at least allows you to sit back and reminisce...I wish you and Gwen well..

 

Cheers. 

 

Patrick

[Canute]

Piet, it's good to remember the good times. Our minds are funny/odd in what it chooses to remember. Luckily we can keep the good memories fresh and let the bad one sink into the depths. Cherish those good ones. A lot of brave men died to preserve freedom.

[popeye the sailor]

you should do a painting Piet........I'll bet the image is vivid in your memories.   I never lived it......I was spared.   last night I watched the Mel Gibson Movie "they were soldiers"........all of the women folks lived in a barrack community.  sad to see them receive the telegram that their loved one had fallen.   it also amazes me that so many decisive battles pass by with no notice or commemorations.   your narration is really good  

[Canute]

There was a small blurb in our local paper about the loss of those ships today.

[Piet]

Hello everyone, and thank you all for your kind comments and also to all who liked my post, thanks.

 

You know Jan, I am not in the least bit surprised that you have not heard or read anything about the battle of the Java Sea. I truly appreciate your friendship and thoughts.

 

Yes Patrick, time does soften things but unfortunately the happy memories are from an 8 year old's mind. It's those not so happy memories that have been a burden. I'm not ashamed mentioned this but a week ago I had a real bad nightmare, mostly triggered by working on this model. Strange how the mind works indeed.

 

Thanks Ken. Yes, many brave souls died, American, English, Dutch and Australian. Some of the survivors died in POW camps. I am touched by you mentioning that a local paper in North Carolina had a small article in their paper.

 

Thank you Lawrence for your kind words, it's really appreciated. Yeah, I think that Boris Mulenko did an outstanding job molding such excellent small parts as well as with the PE. Some of the things I thought missing for the date of "Java's" last day should be added. I am also modifying the guns in a position depicting her in actual battle. I hope I can make it look convincing.

 

Yes Denis, like I also want to make a painting of the wreck of the stern section of "Java" as she was laying on the bottom of the sea. That section was 100 meters behind the main part.  Then I want to make a painting of submarine O19 my father served on before the war. So may things on the bucket list, problem is how much time do I have left on this earth. I'll be 84 in April but - - - I have ordered one extra life time, just waiting for the shipment confirmation 

 

In real time now, I have not done anything on the model today. I brought Gwen to the surgeon for her carpal tunnel and trigger finger problem. It's in her left hand and she is left handed too, so she is not allowed to do anything with that hand - - for a week   I am now the cook and houseboy and other chores Gwen can think of. Can't blame her, hit the iron while it's hot  No, I don't mind, she deserves a break and a little tender love and care.

 

Okay, that's all for now. Hopefully I can post Day 37 tomorrow. Right now I have to do some research.

 

Cheers to all,   

[Omega1234]

Hi Piet

 

I’m sure your extra life time that you’ve ordered will come with many additional bonus ones, as well😀😀😀

 

Having said that, I hope Gwen’s Surgery goes well. 

 

Bwst of luck. 

 

Cheers. 

 

Patrick

 

[cog]

Give Gwen my best wishes, hope she comes out well. You should be used to those homely tasks by now. We'll be patient, at least pretend to be

 

Cheers

[popeye the sailor]

Best wishes to you and Gwen.  you did well weathering your last storm...fingers crossed she does well and recovery is short  

[Jack12477]

Piet, best wishes to Gwen. My wife had that same surgery on both hands, she is also left handed, came out well. Make sure Gwen gets physical therapy post surgery, it helps the recovery a great bit.

[Piet]

Thanks to all for the best wishes for Gwen and she says tanks. The surgery was a great success. The doctor had to spend an extra 20 minutes on her hand because of so much scar tissue from the previous surgery a few years back. They wrapped her hand much too tight, which made it quite uncomfortable. She only took two pain pills yesterday, slept okay and is beginning to use her swaddled hand again, against doctor's instructions. She claims it's good exercise for the fingers. Stubborn Dutchman she is 

So I made a genuine Indo Chinese fried noodle dish, called bami goreng, our made in Indonesia used to make for my father and me, totally awesome. Even these seemingly random things do remind me of him.  For tomorrow I'll make herb stuffed salt water fish and hope they have sea bass or orange roughy, with herbed quinoa, asparagus with special sauce, and carrots. Probably have leftovers for Saturday that'll give me a break from cooing. Yes, I'll get an extra fish, hey, my mom didn't raise a dummy   For Sunday I plan on  a dry-rub roast brisket or flank steak with roasted root veggies, real rustic food.

 

Okay, back to updates of the "Java" build.

This will be days 36 and 37, which brings us to January 10, 2018.

On day 36 I shaped the seaplane cradles. A most trying job. Folding them into a box from a straight piece of PE and make them come out true was not easy. I managed to mangle two of them. I'm fortunate in having a spare PE. In the end I produced 4 fairly decent cradles. Only when we look close we can see some unevenness but we'll chalk that up to age and handling rash 

I cemented them to to deck and after the CA had cured enough I could carefully straighten some of the unevenness out.

Next I installed the vent pipe cables with fake turnbuckles so they can be unhitched when loading or launching the seaplanes.

 

I then started on the aft mass stays but got only as far as getting the thread for them ready. More on the standing rigging on another day.

 

Day 37 started with a minor setback, no big problem but my own oversight. I send a progress photo to Boris Mulanko from Pacific Cross Roads and he almost immediately send me a message back that the life rafts I cemented to the #9 gun deck are in the wrong place. I placed them more in the center instead of at the edge. I failed to look at the overhead view of the instruction sheet.

He did mention though that I am not the only one who made this error. Well, at least that didn't make me feel too bad. Now, how am I going to get them off the deck without destroying it.  I used a box cutter to gently wriggle under them and they popped off without too much damage. Most of the residue cement I could remove with my #11 Exacto blade and a knife file.  How can we explain the damaged deck to the viewer? Maybe hauling cases of gun shells across the deck?? 

I cemented the life rafts back to the deck in the right places and painted the deck again.

 

This made me wonder though how these rafts fared during the firing of that 15 cm gun so close by. I guess we'll never know, unless someone has the experience in that.

 

Okay, here are a few pics of the progress so far.

 

Seaplane cradles cemented to the deck. Now you can also see the vent pipes. Some of the unevenness in the paint is from glare of the lamp. However, I suspect the I'll have to do some touch-up after painting the cradles.

 

A more overhead shot. You can also see my fake turnbuckle at the right vents. That bare round spot is where a 15 cm gun will be placed.

 

The erroneous placing of the life rafts. You can see how close they would be to that #9 gun. But even at thair assigned location it still would seem rather close that gun barrel. Here too, that bare spot is the gun location.

All life raft relocated to where they are supposed to be. Yep, there is some damage but really difficult to see from an arm's length. This picture is at 5X magnification. Oh well, it is what it is. No sense in crying over spilled milk, eh what?  This particular location on the ship has great significance for me. It happens to be near my Father's battle station and this particular section of the ship is missing from the wreckage on the sea floor.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

This post will be days 38 and 39, which brings us to January 18, 2018.

 

A start was made with the standing rigging of the aft mast. I elected to use the thinnest polyester sowing thread for its non sagging properties. Scale wise it is still a little oversize but it does give the impression of some sturdiness. I needed to be extra cautious not to make it too taught or too loose. I didn't want to pull the mast out of plumb or with a sagging cable.  

The two forward stays were fastened to the top of the aft funnel vent housing first. I used the forward vent pipe cable fastening device - a tiny drop of CA - as the attaching point. As the CA was curing I carefully brought the thread to it with tweezers till they got a hold of it. This way I could slide the thread just enough to make it appear taught. When cured I simply cut thee excess off with the Exacto # 11 blade.

 

For the side stay, which is fastened to a deck fixture, like an eye bold, with turnbuckle. I made en eye bold from brass wire, drilled holes into the deck and used the same thread. A little tricky in that the eye in the eye bold was a just enough to let the thread pass trough. Doubling back to the stay made it look too lumpy so I just put a dab of CA on it and cut the excess of.

In the enlarged photos these "cables" do look like actual steel cables, which makes me a happy camper.

 

Next I cemented the two ship's boats to their cradles but held off with the motor launches.  I am not sure yet about it's involvement with the 15 cm gun next to it.  With the guns in active firing positions would the hot powder gasses damage them? So I need to think about this a little before making a decision whether to mount them or not. If not, then what do I do with them? Hanging them in the davits is not an option because none of the photos I have with "Java" in action shows them there.

I have the same thoughts about the gun between the two davits.

 

Next I cemented the two support beams for the machine gun deck. These also serve as the supports for the seaplane crane gantries. 

This concludes the aft mast rigging.

 

Day 39, 02/18/2018: Not much was done this day. I cemented all three anchors to their locations. Made and cemented the turnbuckles for the center vent pipes to their bracing cables and cemented the boarding ladders to the ship's side, where indicted.

The forward stays are cemented on. The side stay wires are waiting. You can see my scratch build eye bold cemented to the deck just aft of the aft davit attach point at the edge of the deck.

 

The side stay cemented to the eye bolt.

 

The machine gun deck support posts are cemented in place. Just to the left on the hull you'll see the place for the PE boarding ladder.

 

Bow anchor cemented in place.

 

Stern anchor cemented in place.  Looking at the 1:50 scale drawing it seems to be a little too large. I can either leave things alone or make a new anchor. The one shown in this photo is also a scratch build anchor.

 

 

 

 

Close up vies of the seaplane deck with cradles and the forward vent pipe bracing cables attached to the forward funnel vent housing. That's the point I used for the aft mast forward stays.

 

Bird's eye view of the aft mast deck. Here you can also see the dummy turnbuckles on the vent pipe bracing cables.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

This post is for day 40, which brings us to January 23, 2018.

 

In looking the model over I determined that the life rafts on the stern deck still have too much of the casting material to the undersides. I decided to remove them and shave off some more of the material. They fortunately popped right off without much damage to the deck. After I removed enough material I cemented them back on, looks much better.

 

I also decided to cement the motor launches to the intended cradles. I may move these guns a few millimeters further aft, perhaps.

 

In the previous post I mentioned the davits, so I figured why not cement them on.  First I rigged the tackles and secured them to the davit posts to tie them out of the way of gun action. I used a few filaments of silk sewing thread for the rigging ropes.

 

This and the next three pictures are copies I made from my 1:50 scale drawing of the davit arrangement.

 

 

 

These are the kit davits I rigged with the supplied PE hardware. As mentioned, the ropes are just a few strands of silk from a very fine sewing thread.

 

The davits cemented to the kit assigned places, which are accurate per my drawings. next to aft (right) davit you can see my scratch build eye bolt for the aft mast side stays and to the left is the boarding ladder.

 

An overhead view. That round bare spot ir for the 15 cm gun.  The motor launch is also cemented to its cradle. You would think that the aft mast side stays should be rigged aft of the mast center line. I did check up on this and found that Boris has it correct.

 

Another overhead view looking aft.

 

Cheers,

 

[cog]

Very nice details on davits, Piet. She is coming a live more and more. I like those "Piet touches"

[Piet]

Thanks Carl, yeas, she's slowly progressing. I am very close to getting to the current date. A few more installments. Currently I am still occupied with most in-house chores like cooking, dish-washing, floor scrubbing etc. besides the never ending yard work.  Gwen's hand is healing very nicely and can now straighten all her fingers out without them locking up. Still some discomfort when making a fist though, which is a good thing - - for me 

 

Okay then, today's post is for days 41, 42 and 43, which brings us to January 29, 2018.

On day 41 I started with assembling the seaplane loading/unloading gantries. First was removing them from the PE sheet with their associated PE parts. The gantry boom is etched in one piece and had to be folded double to make the complete beam. Another sticky job in not damaging the support cables that are part of the whole. Once I had them perfectly aligned I used a drop of CA to keep them together,

Next was cementing the traveling hook and pulley assembly for at the end and cemented them to the beam. I added a few strands of silk thread to the ends of the beams to simulate the mooring ropes, preventing the beams from swinging. These ropes will be fastened to the top of the rear funnel vent housing.

 

On day 42 I cut two small pieces of brass rod to simulate the observation plane refueling supply pipes at the sides of the hull and cemented them into place. Yeah, I had to scrape away some paint but I'll touch it up later.  there is a lot of touch-up work to do anyhow.  Looking at the 1:50 scale scratch build drawings there is a ladder from the deck down to the pivot part of the pipe so I got a piece from my spare PE and cemented that to the hull. My guess is for access to that point for the crew to attach the fuel hose and unlatch the pipe. There is also a gantry from the deck to the end of the pipe but I'll wait with cementing that on when I install the railing.

After lunch I installed both the aircraft loading gantries and started with the forward support stays. To simulate them being fastened to the deck I made two cleats and cemented them to the deck. No time to install the stays.

 

On day 43 I cemented both front stays. Them being from extremely thin PE it was a rather delicate operation but turned out rather good. Next I painted all the installed PE and some touch-up work.

 

A copy of my 1:50 scale drawing showing the aircraft loading gantry installation. This would be a rather fun project to tackle if I ever have the time to do so.

 

These are the main parts for the gantries. I have placed my Exacto #11 blade in te picture to give you an idea of size. I did not attempt to add the chains to the traveling hook assembly. I guess I could have used one of my hears - - -

 

This shows bothe gantries installed. Both the securing ropes will be replaced.

Both stays are installed and the securing ropes replaced, now they are taut. I guess You can also see the cleats I made for the stay.

 

Another look at the finished gantry installation.

 

This is that aircraft refueling pipe arrangement. That little bump below the ladder is a hinge assembly to allow the boom to swing out. Ah yes, I goofed on the ladder, that'll be straightened out before long and painted of course. According the drawings I have there is a rope attached to the pivot support brace at the end of this pipe to the ladder serving as a handhold. Seems rather tricky to walk across that pipe with the ship pitching.

 

Painted with some touch-ups.

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

very nice progress Piet......the PE additions really add to the model.   the cranes are cool   

[cog]

It is good to know, you haven't forgotten how to use the holystone, and make slush.

Your cranes look impressive ... in all you are doing a smashing job