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

[Jeff59]

Great progress on your Mikasa Herby, think everyone who completes this model should get a medal, it’s such an involved built, certainly a gem for the ones who love to work with photo etch, it’s good to watch others tackling it especially when the pain is behind me 😂 doing a splendid job Herby 🤛 

[Herby63]

Thank you for the lovely comment Jeff, makes me want to continu and publish a long awaited and overdue update.

 

Due to multiple personal events in 2024 I was a bit discouraged to work on al this fiddly stuff, so I fulfilled a childhood dream for some 1/16 panzers, that I documented on the dutch modelforum.

Tiger I, Elefant en Königstiger 1/16 RC by Herby63 | ModelbouwForum.nl

Tiger I, Elefant en Königstiger 1/16 RC by Herby63 - deel 2 - Elefant | ModelbouwForum.nl

Tiger I, Elefant en Königstiger 1/16 RC by Herby63 - deel 3 - Königstiger | ModelbouwForum.nl

 

Now that these are finished, I am slowly taking up this build.

 

So lets see what has been done in the past 5 months.

 

I passed on to the main armament (step 40 in the Merit manual, to be completed with quite some pontos-parts).

Here you see the parts to be assembled:

 

I soldered the barrels to the trunions, and the tiny hooks to the rings.

 1 square = 1 cm

 

Then I glued the brass rings to the turret bases with pink Zap.

 

I soldered the supports for the ladders that go to the sides of the turrets to the brass top plates and glued the top plates to the turret tops with pink Zap.

The barrels are attached to the turret bases and the 3 small cupolas were glued to each turret top with thin cement.

 

The fine brass linings of the turret openings for the barrels are glued in place with some pink Zap and the turret tops are glued with thin cement to the bases.

Finaly the ladders are attached with a little pink Zap.

 

After applying a basecoat, they have been airbrushed Insigna White.

 

Until next time, enjoy medelling.

[Herby63]

Next in the Merit instructions are the masts (steps 41-fore mast and 42- aft mast).

They are entirely replaced with Pontos parts (turned brass and photo-etch.

As i am painting my model in the 1902-sceme, the platforms, which are in the Merit parts will be added, albeit in a very late stage. 😱

 

Starting with the fore mast - The Pontos instructions:

 

The 2 parts of the lower mast are glued together, my soldering iron does not get hot enough. so the rings 281 and 282 are glued as well.  Brackets 298 and 299 are bent as per the instructions and glued in the center of the yards,  Brass 15 and 16.

 

 

Brackets 291 and 292 are glued to the main yard.

Lifts nr 325 folded, slid over the yardarms, slid the assembly over the fore topmast and soldered the bracket of the main yard to the topmast.
Mini crow's nest nr 307 folded, soldered and slid over the fore topmast.
Brackets 293 slid over the small yard and glued the foot horses 276 to it.
Lifts 326 folded and attached to the topmast together with the small yard.


Bracket 294 slid over the topmast.
Bracket 306, ring 288 and top light (Brass 32B) soldered to the end of the topmast.
Brackets 279+305 soldered to the side of the top of the topmast.

 

Supports 271, 272, 273 and 274 soldered to the underside of platform 312.

 

Platform 312 slid over the masthead.
Brackets 314 and 313 slid over the masthead.
The topmast slid through the brackets 313 and 314 and into the hole in platform 312.
Brackets and topmast soldered.


Fence 327 rolled/bent into shape and soldered to the platform.

 

 

Ladder 328 folded at the top and soldered against the mast head.
Front rigging (2 x 761, 762 and 763) placed, the bottoms soldered, the tops glued with SloZap).
Ladder 324 glued to the fore topmast.
The horses glued under the fore yard.
Ladders 375 and 376 folded and glued to the foremast with CA glue.

 

Next update will be the assembly of the main mast.

Kind regards.

[Herby63]

Main mast (or aft mast, they are both the same height)
Bracket for loading boom folded and glued to the lower mast

 

Rings glued

boom ends soldered

Platform double folded and brazed

Yards, topmast and flagpole assembled.

Platform 323 slid over the masthead.


Railing 327 rolled/bent into shape and soldered to the platform.

Glued the Topmast with brackets 277 and 278 to the masthead.
Ladder 328 folded at the top and glued to the mast head.

The foot horses glued under the main yard.
Front rigging (2 x 764, 765 and 766) placed, the bottoms soldered,


Tops of the stays glued to the topmast with Slo-Zap

Enjoy modeling, til next update.

[Herby63]

Neither Merit's nor Pontos' manual show the cylindrical platform placed halfway up the mast.
Merit does supply the parts for it.
A bit late, but I'm going to try to fix these platforms in the right place anyway.


Platform cut in 2 and glued the largest half to the mast with pink Zap.

After drying, the other piece, after removing a piece to make room for the ladders, glued with Extra thin cement to the already attached part and filled the seam with Vallejo Plastic Putty 70.401.


Platform mounted in the same way on the aft mast.
Ladders 374 and 376 folded and glued to the aft mast with CA glue.
Main artillery airbrushed with the transparent VMS metal prep 4k and then sprayed in a light gray primer.
Airbrushed both masts with VMS metal prep 4k and then sprayed them in a light gray primer.

The lower part of the masts, up to and including the round platform, is airbrushed in Black Grey. Then the masts were airbrushed in Insigna white. The floors in the conical platforms painted dark green.

 

Glued the lenses in the searchlights after the inside was painted silver. 8 47mm guns (Merit K8) Insigna painted white.

 

Cannons and searchlights glued to the platforms of the masts.

 

Parden me for the poor English as I note down a record of the work I do, and for this time, I used an app to translate.

 

Enjoy modelling, next update will show the funnels.

Edited March 2 by Herby63

[Jeff59]

It’s a lot of work at this stage of build Herby , the model becomes more and more delicate from this point. Little point to watch for that l had problems with is the actual fitting of masts to ship, the fixing point isn’t particularly strong and can easily work lose, which is rather difficult to repair once in position, guessing this isn’t suitable for this rather heavy piece of metal construction, worth having a look at for a remedy. I tell you, you do forget how much work this model actually is, doing a brilliant job. 🤛 👍

[Herby63]

Hi Jeff,

Thank you for the kind words.

I test-fitted the bottom part of the mast in the holes in the deck before mast assembly.

After enlarging theze holes just slightly, that's a perfect fit.

For keeping the masts perfectly upright, I count on copper wire and micro-brass-tubing.

This should allow for micro-ajusting of the stays.

I just hope it works out as planned.

Kind regards,

Herby

[king derelict]

Absolutely beautiful work on the masts.

alan