Mikasa by madtatt - Merit International - 1:200 - PLASTIC - pre-Dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) - appearance after 1905

[Jeff59]

On 1/14/2025 at 5:47 PM, madtatt said:

Hello Jeff.
That's very kind of you. Respect that you bought an extra Pontos set for it. I just thought I was crazy enough to work with two sets. Nice to find a like-minded person here.
But I'm afraid that despite everything there wouldn't be enough coal hatches. There are 22 on the main deck and another 14 on the outer deck. So basically you can only have eight hatches. But that's not a bad thing because I still have plan B. There are still hatches from my KA set, but they are much smaller.

 

 

 

And since I followed your build report closely Jeff, I don't use the Pontos guns for the 3 pounders. I also have them as a 3D print from Micro Master.

 

 

And so I can use the bottom flange of the gun. In conjunction with the too small KA component, a formidable coal hatch is created.

 

 

I'm really happy with that. And by the way, I put the deck together loosely. Fits perfectly even before sanding and looks really great.

 

 

On 1/14/2025 at 5:47 PM, madtatt said:

Hello Jeff.
That's very kind of you. Respect that you bought an extra Pontos set for it. I just thought I was crazy enough to work with two sets. Nice to find a like-minded person here.
But I'm afraid that despite everything there wouldn't be enough coal hatches. There are 22 on the main deck and another 14 on the outer deck. So basically you can only have eight hatches. But that's not a bad thing because I still have plan B. There are still hatches from my KA set, but they are much smaller.

 

 

And since I followed your build report closely Jeff, I don't use the Pontos guns for the 3 pounders. I also have them as a 3D print from Micro Master.

 

 

And so I can use the bottom flange of the gun. In conjunction with the too small KA component, a formidable coal hatch is created.

 

 

 

I'm really happy with that. And by the way, I put the deck together loosely. Fits perfectly even before sanding and looks really great.

Looking great Jolle👍 l also used the 3 pounder guns from Micromaster, had them up in gun tubs on masts, found them tricky to remove from their spruces, very delicate. Ended up purchasing extra sets to cover for miss-haps, same for the ships boats, very tricky to remove without damaging the tillers. Can see you are at a point where another discrepancy appears, it’s with the Pontos step ladders from boat deck to bridge structures and the step ladders from the main deck to the boat deck, they are the wrong length or angle, seems to be a height issue error from Pontos, the main deck steps to long and the boat deck steps to short, you can see how l ended up resolving this, it’s also tricky trying to get the handrail around the opening in the boat deck here where the steps are, doesn’t work like the Pontos drawings suggest so take time when bending these, tricky to get good. While you’re at this point of build another thing to watch for if you’re using Micro Master boats, involves their boat cradles, if you can still look at my log, l had to add extra styrene for supporting the cradles, this was also used for tie points for funnel rigging. Worth checking out at this stage. Hope lm not being a pain here. 🤞

 

[Jeff59]

By the way, the deck finish and texture is excellent. 🤛👍

[madtatt]

1 hour ago, Jeff59 said:

Hope lm not being a pain here. 🤞

 

Absolutely not Jeff.

I'm happy about any hint you can give me. I think that the purpose of a forum is to pass on the experiences that have arisen during such a construction.

Edited January 16 by madtatt

[madtatt]

After a long break, I'm finally getting back to work.
Thanks to Jeff's tip, I've been thinking about the deck being too high and how to deal with it. I also created the remaining 12-pounders.
And since it's very monotonous, it took quite a while.

 

 

They stand beautifully in rows.

 

 

And again, Jeff, you're not annoying at all. I'm very grateful for your advice, as it helps me avoid such annoying mistakes. What would be the point of a model building forum if you couldn't build on the experiences of others?
And so I simply shortened the carriage of the eight guns that go below deck.

 

 

Let’s move on to the next conversion. Again, I liked the MK set better than the one from Pontos. Since I will be showing all the gun port covers open, I thought the rope shown was very nice.
What I changed are the hinges. Since they fold down when open, I simply replaced them with a narrow piece of profile.

 

 

This is what it looks like for me. I used a slightly lighter grey to accentuate it.

 

 

And attached to the gun ports.
These are the first external structures. Since it is inevitable that the gun barrels will stick out here, I wanted to have them attached already.

 

 

And so the eight 12 pounders could take their place.

 

 

A few boxes are still missing.

 

 

And so I am quite happy with the position of the guns.

 

 

Now they urgently need the protection of my sheet pile wall. After applying the clear varnish, I will screw it to the dry dock . I am curious to see if I will tear it down again before the construction is finished. 😵‍💫