IJN Mikasa by Herby63 - Merit International with Pontos set - 1/200 - PLASTIC

[Herby63]

Next I drilled 2 4mm holes in the bottom of the hul and attached it to a temporary bottomplate in order to diminuish the risk of damaging the added detail when handeling the ship.

 

Wishing everyone lots of modellingfun.

[rcmdrvr]

Just found your build which I will follow.  I have moved over to the "dark side" and started a couple of plastic ship models.  Not as complicated as your Mikasa but still full of very tiny parts.  I am interested in waterline presentations which I think shows off the model in a more "active" setting.  Hope to learn more about plastic ship building by following your build.

[Herby63]

Next step was to bend and solder the 16 eyebolts (part 53) and glue them and the ring (52) with a little SloZAP in the holes in the hull.  The booms for the anti-torpedo-net will be hooked in them.

 

Wishing everyone lots of modellingfun.

[yvesvidal]

1 hour ago, Herby63 said:

The booms for the anti-torpedo-net will be hooked in them.

 

Great feature to display.

 

Yves

[Herby63]

6 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

Great feature to display.

In order to save som place , I plan to deploy the torpedonets on the portside, but to attach the booms to thull on the starboard side. 

[Herby63]

The admiral's walk:

The Pontos-instructions 

Baseplates 213 and 214 soldered together, and topped by part 205.  Bent the railing (part 215) to fit the handrail (part 202)

By the way, the Pontos-instruction is correct, I avoided mixing parts 205 and 202 up by cutting 205 loose and fitting it first, and only then I cut 202 loose and fitted it to part 215. 202 is slightly longer then 205.

 

Next I soldered the railing to part 205 on the walkway.

 

Then I bent and soldered the 2 halfround platforms to the bottom.

 

After bending the nameplate to the correct curve, I soldered this to the railing.

 

Finaly I soldered the 9 supports to the bottom.

 

A testfit results in this image, whuch is quite pleasing to me 

 

[Haliburton]

Very nice work. Can you show us some pointers on your soldering technique?  I’ve often thought I’d like to try but am a bit intimidated - thinking I’d make a big mess. Scott 

[Herby63]

20 hours ago, Haliburton said:

Very nice work. Can you show us some pointers on your soldering technique?  I’ve often thought I’d like to try but am a bit intimidated - thinking I’d make a big mess.

Hi Scott.

I was a bit worried about my soldering skills too, with my +40 years old soldering iron, ad resin-core solder, that oly allowed me to solder things using far too much solder.

So I invested in a new soldering station with adaptable temperature, and soldering paste in a seringe.

 

I try to apply the smallest amount of soldering paste, using a small brush.

Works quite well.

The video's by Captain Slog (Plunging fire scale modeling) are a big help too.

Edited November 4, 2023 by Herby63

[Haliburton]

Thanks for the tips!  Again you are to be congratulated on such clean work.  Scott

[Herby63]

I made up some brackets and attached them to the hull with SloZap above and below the front casemates (both sides). (Pontos parts 354, 603+607+606 and 366/367)

[Herby63]

16 more brackets assembled and glued to the hull.

 

 

Wishing everyone lots of modeling fun.

[Herby63]

A carwalk runs alongside almost the full length of the hull.

I did not manage to solder the supports to the white metal grills, the solder just turned into tiny beads if tin that would not adhere to the piece, so I switched to PVA-glue.

Here the grills 54, 55 and 56 have received their supports and those for grill 57 are waiting to be attached.

 

Wishing everyone lots of modeling fun.

[Herby63]

All the segments of the catwalk have now received the supports.

 

Wishing everyone lots of modeling fun.

[Herby63]

I positioned the catwalks on the starboard side of the hull. (between the 2 red arrows)

 

And then I glued them with pink ZAP, holding them temporarily in place with a piece of tape, where needed.

 

The struts received a dash of yello ZAP.

 

And finaly I replaced the downward folding parts of the casemateshutters, because they rest on these catwalks.

 

Wishing everyone lots of modeling fun.

[Herby63]

The torpedonet booms on the starboard side will be mounted in the "net not installed" position, and on the port side in the "net installed" position.

 

So I soldered 8 pieces 721, 725 and 726 to the ends of brass turned parts 23 and glued 8 stainless steel hooks (Pontos 51) with SloZAP in the hole at the other end of the booms. To get an impression, I positioned them in the eyepolts and against the catwalks.

 

The parts for the port side collected, bent and positioned on the booms, ready for soldering.

 

Brass parts (721, 725 en 724) soldered to the ends of turned Brass part 23 .

 

I drilled out the holes in the other end a little bit deeper (0,4 mm drill) so that the stainless steel hooks could be glued in a lttle bit deeper.

 

I removed the parts of the casematshutters that fold down and filled the recesses for the hinges with some putty.

 

I degreased the torpedonetbooms with IPA and primed them with VMS Metal Prep 4K.

 

Wishing everyone a Merry Chrismas, a Happy Newyear and lots of modeling fun.

[Javlin]

Moving along well on this one Nice work!

[Herby63]

Thanks for the nice worde, Javlin, and thanks to all the folowers for clicking the like-button .

 

Before mounting the torpedonet booms, I assembled

and placed the 15' booms for protecting the propellers.

I used a "holderdowner" as Ron Calverley has demonstrated so often in his Youtube series "The Model Ship"    to hold the piece in place while the glue was drying.

 

Wishing everyone lots of modeling fun.

[Herby63]

I assembled the stern achors with the Merit and the pontos parts,

 

and glued them to the hull, under the stern walkway, with SloZap.

 

Wishing everyone lots of modeling fun.

[Herby63]

Now I placed the port walkways with SloZap.

 

 

Wishing everyone lots of modeling fun.

[Herby63]

Hello Fellow Mikasalovers,

Can anyone who has (almost) finished the 1/200 Mikasa with Pontos add-on set please measure the hight of the finished model, from the bottom of the keel to the highest point of the main mast? Preferably in metric.

 

As the hull is nearing completion, I have to decide wether I have place to put the model on pedestals or wether I have to put it directly on the bottom plate of the showcase.

 

Thanks,

Herby

Edited January 31 by Herby63

[Herby63]

Hello fellow Mikasalovers,

Jeff59 answered my question in his build, thanks for that Jeff 👍

 

Next on the tasklist were the rear deck davits.

They sit in brachets attached to the side of the hull.

 

I detached the pieces from the frets and bent and soldered them.

 

After redrilling the topholes with a 0,7 mm drill, I glued the top brachets to the hull.

Then I inserted the davits so I could determine the position of the tiny lower supports.

Davits temselves remain detachable for futher manipulation of hull an rear deck.

 

Wishing everyone lots of modeling fun.

Edited February 8 by Herby63

[Goodshipvenus]

Are you going to paint the photo etch parts or leave them as they are?

[Herby63]

On 2/8/2024 at 7:17 PM, Goodshipvenus said:

Are you going to paint the photo etch parts or leave them as they are?

Thank you for reacting Goodshipvenus,

Not only the photo etch will be painted, but also the plastic.

In previous posts I must have mentioned priming the photo etch with VMS Metal Prep 4K, otherwise I must have forgotten to do so.  😀

 

Paintjob comming up soon, I promise.

Edited February 18 by Herby63

[Herby63]

After positioning the parts, I decided not to install the deployed torpedonet at port side as it will be too fragile for future handeling.

 

 

As I shall try to light up the model, I enlarged the holes in the bottom of the hull to be able to pass 2 hollow tubes woth M10 thread ( parts for lamp fittings).

This way the wires can be led from the base to the inside of the model without being seen.

 

 

 

Wishing everyone lotss of modeling fun.

[Herby63]

I did some masking of already painted surfaces,

 

and painted the hole outside with a redbrown primer.

 

Keep it safe 😁

[Herby63]

I masked off the waterline with 1 mm striping, then a wider tape and covered the whole bottom with paper and masking tape, to avoid overspray.

 

On to the spraybooth in the garage.

My prefered collor for this is Anthracite, but only Revell has it colled this way, but my experience with it on Bismarck was not that positive.

This time I went for Vallejo Model Color 70.862 "Black Grey".

 

Removing the maskingtape did some minor damage, 

 

so I did some touch-ups.

I am quite pleased with the over-all result.

 

Kind regards,

Edited February 19 by Herby63

[Herby63]

The Admirals balcony:

I first painted the gratings and handrail with Vallejo 71.077 Wood, which I thought corresponded best to a recent picture of the ship.

As it turned ou to be a little light, I covered these parts with Vallejo 71.034 Sand Brown.

Now I found it too dark.

So I applied a third coat of Wood with a few drops of Sand Brown and a few drops of water to improve the flow of the paint.

Now I like it 🥰

Then I put a spot of gold paint on the crossings of the bars, inside and out, and, inspired by JEFF59's build log,  finished it of with tiny golden balls on the handrail.

 

  

 

Kind regards,

[Herby63]

After priming and painting the 6" and 3" guns in the same color as the upper part of the hull, I installed them in the apropriate places.

 

Then I applied the Pontos dry-transfers, rubbing them on with the blunt eye of a large needle.

The bottom of the lowest roman digit is placed at 1,53 mm (times 200 = 306 cm or 10 feet) from the bottom of the keel when layed flat on the table.

 

I put a little piece of depthmarks at the back too, just above the struts for the propeller axle.

I touched the torpedotubes wits some Vallejo Model Wash 76.518 Black,

 

and sealed all with a coat of Vallejo Matt Varnish for protection of the dry-transfers and an even shine on the entire hull.

 

Till next update.

Edited March 6 by Herby63

[Herby63]

I filled the portholes from the inside with Mikro Kristal Klear.

The full hull thickness allows for the drop to partialy fill up the hole, without protruding or touching the vertical bars present at some potholes.

 

When drying, it becomes completely transparent.

 

Then I prepared 3 carbonfibre tubes to connect the holes for the anchorchaines at the bow with the holes in the deck.

This is to avoid lightblead as I intend to light up the model with some LED's.

I enlarged the holes in the deck slightly to allow for the 5 mm tubes to pass through.

Then I cut 3 pieces of tube, 14 mm long.

Then I beveled?? the tubes at the underside to fit to the hull, and glued them in the deckopenings with some SloZap.

 

I reinforced the joints at the underside of the deck.

 

And finaly, I sanded the upper parts of these tubes flush with the deck.

 

That's all for now folks, See you next time.

[Herby63]

I copied the details to be removed from the main deck from the Pontos instructions

and removed them with a small chisel in an X-Acto handle and a small jewelers hammer.

This went very well and asks for very little aftertreatment with a medium sandingstick.

 

Till next time, enjoy modeling,