IJA Akitsu Maru by Landlubber Mike - Five Star - 1/700 - RESIN

[Landlubber Mike]

This is another kit I started after conversing with someone building this kit on one of the FB groups.  This is the really nice multimedia kit (resin, PE, brass) from Five Star.  One issue though is that the Instructions aren't as detailed as they could be.

 

The Akitsu Maru was a Japanese landing craft depot ship and escort aircraft carrier operated by the Imperial Japanese Army.  It was originally intended as a passenger liner until it was taken over by the Imperial Japanese Army before completion.  It was completed on January 30, 1942 and sunk by the USS Queenfish on November 15, 1944.  With the short flight deck, it carried Kokusai Ki-76 Type 3 (Stella) artillery spotter planes and Kayaba Ka-1 autogyro observation aircraft. The ship could also carry 27 Daihatsu-class landing craft, but I will model her with Ki-76 and Ka-1 aircraft.  Interestingly, there is no hangar on this ship - aircraft were stored on the original deck under the flight deck.  This kit is of the final stage of the ship, after the 1944 refit when the rear mast was moved to behind the funnel.  As with other IJA ships, this will have a green camo scheme.

 

Here is a colorized picture of the ship, along with a picture taken at Simpson Harbor Rabaul in 1942 and a picture from a plane with the Akitsu Maru off in the distance.  There aren't many pictures of this ship out there.

 

Ki-76 spotter planes on deck:

Pictures of the Ka-1 autogyro:

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2024 by Landlubber Mike

[Landlubber Mike]

I haven't gotten too far on this one yet.  The resin hull is really nicely done.  It's very detailed, no pinholes, etc.  The upper edges of the bow were broken off when I opened the kit, so I had to redo them in plastic card.  I then taped off the hull plating lines, and sprayed then using Mr. Surfacer 500 to help delineate the plates.

 

I don't have pictures yet, but I primed the hull, sprayed the lower portion in hull red, and have the PE sheets primed with Mr. Metal Primer.  Instructions aren't too bad, but probably could be a little better.  

 

Thanks for looking in!

[Canute]

She's definitely a novel vessel, Mike. I'm in.

[Landlubber Mike]

3 hours ago, Canute said:

She's definitely a novel vessel, Mike. I'm in.

Thanks for following Ken.  The Japanese did have a number of converted vessels that are a bit quirky.  Personally, I find their auxiliary ships more interesting than their warships.

[mikegr]

great built

 

how do you dissolve the Mr Surfacer?

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Mike!  Not too much progress yet but am liking the kit.

 

This is what I use on all Mr. Color and Tamiya paints/primers:

 

Edited February 7, 2024 by Landlubber Mike

[JeffT]

Good thinner. I use it for almost everything

[Landlubber Mike]

I ended up putting in a little time on this project the past couple of days.  It's a nice kit, but the instructions - which are all pictures - aren't exactly a step-by-step guide.  One of the problems especially has been that the kit doesn't include any information on the date of the ship (and it's corresponding configuration) or even what the colors are.  Thankfully, there are kits from Aoshima of this ship in early and late configurations (this is a late configuration) with good instructions which has made things easier.  Otherwise, the Five Star kit - with the resin hull and other parts as well as PE and brass items - seems to be a big improvement over the clunkier all-plastic Aoshima kit.

 

Here is where I am with the hull at the moment.  I've added the various doors, the anchors, and the starboard area under the bridge.  Interesting thing about the Akitsu Maru is that it was designed to carry planes as an escort carrier as well as vehicles for the IJA as a Type C landing craft depot ship.  The planes were carried on platforms above the wooden deck you see in the picture below (and under the flight deck), while vehicles were carried in the hull that exited through doors that opened in the stern (you can see one of the four doors in the picture).  The ship also could carry landing craft in the hull, where the well deck could be flooded so the landing craft could float out of the ship.

I decided to also tackle the mortar - tiny little thing made up of eight or so parts...

...and eight of the AA guns:

 

The other 1/350 and 1/700 ships were a bit easier in some respects when it came to construction and painting as you could pretty much fully assemble the ship, paint the deck, and then paint the rest of it dark gray.  This is a little trickier in that you have to construct and paint in stages, as some of the interior parts (such as under the flight deck) are clearly visible but need to be painted in different colors.  This ship, like many of the IJA ships, were painted in a camouflage green as to the exterior, while the interior parts were probably not painted as such.  So my next step is to add the platforms under the flight deck and the stored planes, and then I can work on adding the flight deck, bridge, stern platform and other exterior items.

 

Thanks of looking in!

Edited August 1, 2024 by Landlubber Mike

[AJohnson]

Fantastic details Mike, those little AA guns look very neat!  👏

Edited August 2, 2024 by AJohnson

[king derelict]

Beautiful work Mike with such small parts. They look very neatly constructed.

Very interesting subject too

Alan

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks guys!  Guns at this scale are usually the trickiest, given the size and lots of parts.  I've gotten a little better at putting them together over the last few models.  Now at this scale, you will barely be able to make out any details with the naked eye.  But, they still look a little crisper to me than the kit plastic guns.

[Landlubber Mike]

While waiting on some paints to arrive for my Hs 129, I put in a little more time on this build the last few nights.  I built up the deck structures which make up the bridge.  I thought pre-painting them in black would be a good idea, given that there are windows and doorways so it would save me a step in trying to later paint the interior black given that if left unpainted, the brass would be clearly visible and annoying.  So, I primed the PE frets with Mr. Surfacer 1500 black before removing the parts.  The downside of this is that it's a lot harder to see what you're doing folding PE parts, not to mention, seeing what the part numbers are when the frets are painted black.  But, I managed to make it work.

I also built up four the Ka-1 gyrocopters using an aftermarket FiveStar set that gives you four units.  These surprisingly took a long time to put together.  The set gives you a resin body, to which you add 10 separate PE parts (three of which are stacked on top of each other to build up the engine) to complete the gyrocopter.  Some of the parts were probably less than 2mm in diameter.  Very delicate work to say the least.  When done though, the gyrocopters look much better in my opinion than the plastic ones in the Aoshima kit.  

Thanks for looking in!

 

 

 

 

Edited September 11, 2024 by Landlubber Mike

[Landlubber Mike]

I recently dusted this one off after getting inspired with some 1/700 builds I came across on FB.  The Five Star resin/PE kit differs from its Aoshima plastic kit counterpart in that with the PE, it has much better detail than the various plastic parts.  On the flip side, this kit is lacking certain details like the girders under the flight deck, winches, small funnel pipes, etc.  So, I'm using the Aoshima instructions to help detail the area below the flight deck.

 

To start, the flight deck is going to need a lot of work to add the girders.  The easiest way to approach this was to first paint the top side of the flight deck, then flip it order and add the girders and supports.  I first primed both sides of the deck with Mr. Surfacer 1500 black, then sprayed Tamiya Maizuru arsenal on the top side of the deck for the gray color.  The Five Star kit doesn't give you decals to paint the lines on the flight deck and elevator, but gives you metal stencils:

I placed the deck and stencil on a sturdy piece of cardboard, then painted the lines using Mr. Color insignia white.  As I was painting along the stencil with the airbrush in one hand, with the other I was pressing the stencil down using a wooden popsicle stick to make sure the stencil didn't lift and give me underspray.  Then, after it dried overnight, I taped off and painted the perpendicular lines at the bow and amidships.  I was pretty surprised at how well this all worked - all that anxiety for nothing!

Next I will clear coat the topside to protect the paint job, tape it off, and then work on the underside and glue on the supports, girders, etc.  As all that is in progress, I can finish up the underneath area/hangar deck.  I also have to finish up the Ki-76 planes, which are mostly done but just need a few more details to be added.

 

Thanks for looking in!

Edited Sunday at 05:34 PM by Landlubber Mike

[mikegr]

Welcome back

[Landlubber Mike]

40 minutes ago, mikegr said:

Welcome back

Thanks! 

[king derelict]

Nice work on the flight deck lines. They look great.

alan

[Landlubber Mike]

7 minutes ago, king derelict said:

Nice work on the flight deck lines. They look great.

alan

Thanks Alan - turns out I was nervous about doing it for nothing.  I assumed that the paint would come under the metal stencil since there isn't a perfect seal but it worked very effectively.