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

[madtatt]

Thanks for the info, Jeff.
You're absolutely right, these fantastic prints from Micro Master add so much more depth to the model.
So it doesn't matter if they're not entirely historically accurate. 😉

[Javlin]

Jolle those boats do look great and 3D is a game changer in some areas on my build of the Scharnhorst I am using them for small parts that simple plastic injection would never get there.The cost they add to the build can be some what substantial in the end but I feel it's well justified in these 1/200  ships.Keep up the fantastic work you are doing will be checking in.

[madtatt]

16 hours ago, Javlin said:

Jolle those boats do look great and 3D is a game changer in some areas on my build of the Scharnhorst I am using them for small parts that simple plastic injection would never get there.The cost they add to the build can be some what substantial in the end but I feel it's well justified in these 1/200  ships.Keep up the fantastic work you are doing will be checking in.

 

Oh yes, Javlin.
Tell me, when I think about how much money I've put into my Bismarck, unbelievable. But it's just money. And when the result is pleasing, it makes the model builder's heart happy.
I'd be happy to hear more from you. 😊

[Javlin]

On 7/21/2025 at 8:50 AM, madtatt said:

I think about how much money I've put into my Bismarck,

I think that will be the next ship  Jolle I  like German engineering and the Atlantic Bow design.

[madtatt]

On 7/23/2025 at 8:18 PM, Javlin said:

I think that will be the next ship  Jolle I  like German engineering and the Atlantic Bow design.

 

Very nice, I'll definitely be on board. When I see your Scharnhorst, the Bismarck will definitely be a great model.

By the way, if you need materials for building the Bismarck, contact me. I have quite a few photos of this ship. Even pictures that aren't available online. 

[Jeff59]

Did find whilst using these Micromaster boats, that it was necessary to buy extra off each type as they are very delicate and easily damaged, even removing them from the moulding is extremely tricky, besides you can’t go wrong with to many boats for future projects 👍 Wish Micromaster would do a set of boats for Bismarck and the rest of the Second World War  German warships in 1/200 they are generic to most off the Navy. Same goes for the Japanese ships of same period, these would prove immensely popular I think. And Titanic 1/200 , can you imagine what could be achieved by this team. Pushes the modelling price up a tad but l’m a sucker for details 😂 Also in process of committing to purchasing Scaledecks Wooden decking for 1/200 Titanic, trying to to source one for Bismarck seems a bit of challenge, can’t understand why they can’t make to order after all the work done to bring on market. Anyway Jolle your Mikasa is coming on a treat, as l said a while back, she’s a lovely model to have in your collection, especially when you know how much effort has been poured into it, display case absolutely necessary, still to complete my own one, be glad when that’s done. Looking forward to your next update 🤛

Edited July 31 by Jeff59

[madtatt]

Ahoy, Jeff.
Good point, I thought so too. I also ordered more boats than I needed.
It would be a really good idea if they made boats and accessories for specific boat types. That would make things a lot easier.
And we have the same opinion about the wooden decks. I also wish I had gotten a deck for the Bismarck from Scaledecks. It was out of the question, and eventually I gave up and used the wooden deck from Pontos because I wanted to get further.
And it wasn't suitable for the Mikasa either, since they don't even offer one for that boat. I even wrote to the company and asked if they could consider producing one for the Mikasa.
I never received a reply. 🫤

 

Thanks for the flowers, Jeff. I'm taking a little break from model building at the moment. I have a lot of other things on my plate and don't want to lose focus while working on the Mikasa. 😉

[madtatt]

Ahoy, landlubbers.
After a short creative break, I’d like to return with a mini update.
I’ve pushed the pinnaces back again because I first have to take care of the funnel’s shrouds.
I’ve given this a few thoughts. Rope tensioners definitely need to be installed; anything else would be illogical.
How can I best do this without too much effort?
Here’s my solution:
First, I cut stanchions into small pieces. The green arrow points to pre-cut stanchions in a scale of 1:200. I want to use them as rope tensioners. The yellow arrow shows some in a scale of 1:350. They’ll serve as eyelets on the funnel.

 

 

First, the rigging twine was attached to the eyelet and glued into the lower hole of the funnel. It’s working very well so far.

It’s important for me to always use enough twine. This simplifies the whole knotting and threading process. Being cheap isn’t cool here.

 

 

Then I thread the yarn through the two holes in the cut-off railing support.

 

 

The yarn is passed through the deck eye and the second rope tensioner is put into position.

 

 

The first piece of rigging on the funnel is finished. Painted with aluminum paint, the thread running along the outside of the rope tensioner is almost invisible.

 

 

I’m happy with that and can now focus on the next pardunes.

[yvesvidal]

It is hard to believe that this is 1/200 scale. It looks so realistic and perfect.

 

Yves

[madtatt]

Thank you very much, Yves, for the great comment.

 

Today just two pictures of the finished guyed funnels.

 

 

This completes the first piece of rigging work.

 

 

Now I can devote myself to the pinnaces again.

 

 

[Javlin]

Looking most excellente'!!

[madtatt]

Many thanks again, Javlin.

This weekend, I had planned to finally finish the pinnaces.
The funnels had already been laid down and installed, but there were still a few small items missing that I wanted to add shortly before the end to avoid tearing them down again.

 

 

Two more boat hooks scratched on each pinnace and the portholes glazed.

 

 

A chain hoist is installed to secure the boats.

 

 

Railings and companionways mounted on the foredeck.

 

 

I need to refinish the deck where the pinnaces rest. During all the adjustments, I scratched the paint surface and had to patch it up. I’ll have to go back to that.

 

 

Slowly life comes into the place.

 

 

A new sailor has also started his service.

 

 

He checks the tension on the pinnace’s chain hoist.

 

 

 

[Jeff59]

Looking absolutely brilliant Jolle, your painting of the model even more so 🤛 👌 good to see you back in production 👍

[madtatt]

Thank you very much Jeff, very thoughtful. 😊

 

Let’s move on to the next yawls: the small steam launch. 

I haven’t found a 3D printer for this one, so I emulated Jeff..
Originally made from the box, the boat really doesn’t look anything like it. First, I removed the rough outline of the engine and the bulky center bar of the upper section.

 

 

Then I inserted a grating floor. The Bismarck’s former bridge wing was trimmed and fitted. Cheers to the etched parts grab bag. And I removed the suggested grating at the rear.

 

 

Now I made a bench seat and glued in the ribs from profiles. I attached an etched grille from the KA set to the rear.

 

 

We still need a boiler. It’s also only rudimentarily represented in the original, so there’s room for more. A small profile should represent the engine and its cylinders. A few flanges on top—you can never have enough.

 

 

Then, little by little, more details were added: piping, a handwheel, and a support for the tilting funnel. A small instrument panel at the front rounds it all off. Everything is then mounted on a styrene strip for easier handling.

 

 

More piping and a second handwheel. It never hurts.

 

 

And then I am quite satisfied with the whole facial expression.

 

 

Let’s put the whole thing in the little boat. Let’s put the funnel in for a test.

 

 

Ferrules are really great for small funnel.

 

 

So far, so good.
Now we’ll apply the paint, and then we’ll add the small parts like the propeller and rudder.

 

[madtatt]

I have a question for you about the boiler of the steam boat, which I just painted in my favorite color, gray.

 

 

Now I'm looking at the boiler and wondering, were they really painted gray?!
Or were they perhaps painted black, since the gray wouldn't last long in the heat and might burn and peel off.
Do any of you have any information about this?

 

Edit:

Hello everyone.
This question has already been answered in other forums, and I'm going to paint the boiler black.

Edited August 31 by madtatt
New Information

[madtatt]

Okay, so it turned black.

 

 

Today, the entire machinery arrived in the barge.
Placed on the deck in its cradle for testing.

 

 

The space is very limited and it is damn tight.

 

 

Since the davits are still missing, the barge isn’t secured yet. The chain hoists for lashing it down aren’t attached either.

 

 

The next cutters are again 3D prints.

 

 

The shape of the Mikasa is slowly taking shape.

 

[Jeff59]

On 9/4/2025 at 5:47 PM, madtatt said:

Okay, so it turned black.

 

 

Today, the entire machinery arrived in the barge.
Placed on the deck in its cradle for testing.

 

 

The space is very limited and it is damn tight.

 

 

Since the davits are still missing, the barge isn’t secured yet. The chain hoists for lashing it down aren’t attached either.

 

 

The next cutters are again 3D prints.

 

 

The shape of the Mikasa is slowly taking shape.

 

 

On 9/4/2025 at 5:47 PM, madtatt said:

Okay, so it turned black.

 

 

Today, the entire machinery arrived in the barge.
Placed on the deck in its cradle for testing.

 

 

The space is very limited and it is damn tight.

 

 

Since the davits are still missing, the barge isn’t secured yet. The chain hoists for lashing it down aren’t attached either.

 

 

The next cutters are again 3D prints.

 

 

The shape of the Mikasa is slowly taking shape.

 

Excellent job on the open steam launch Jolle, it took me about three weeks to to achieve this, Micromaster really through down the gauntlet for me on this 😂 certainly makes you realise how poor the kit boats are., hey that’s what makes the aftermarket details thrive supplying us lunatics 👍 she’s coming on a treat Jolle , she just keeps delivering doesn’t she.

[madtatt]

Hey Jeff, and thank you for your praise, it makes me proud. 😊
You speak from my heart. I really spend a lot of money on the high-quality additional details. But they catapult a model to the next level.
And if they're not there, two crazy people like us spend days tinkering with the inferior original kit.
But that makes us model builders, right?! 💪

 

I pushed the next cutters back for now, as the davits are missing and I can’t determine the optimal position. The steamboat isn’t glued down yet either.

So I started on the rear bridge. I was a bit apprehensive about this construction phase. You might remember that I removed some of the profiles on the bridge houses because I wasn’t sure everything would fit in the end.

But first things first.
First, I laid the wooden deck while I could still exert pressure on the plastic part.

 

 

This will stop once the underside has received its large brass component with the gusset plates.

 

 

After everything had thoroughly dried, I wanted to attach the posts that support the bridge on the bridge house. They were originally made of plastic, but I immediately rejected that idea. I cut some out of brass to give them more stability.
Attaching them, however, turned out to be a real test of patience.

 

 

After testing the bridge, I realized, no, not like that. It’s completely unstable.
So I’m starting from the back. I drilled holes for the posts so I could push them through from above later.

 

 

Next, the outer support structure was attached. What a delicate construction phase. But it looks so good, doesn't it Jeff?!

 

 

After I had completed that satisfactorily, I had to carefully tape everything off to avoid dirtying the wooden deck with the primer.

 

 

The base coat is applied, and then the moment of truth. Does everything fit?!

 

 

And you see, yes… everything fits together perfectly. So I wouldn’t have had to remove the profiles at all. It would have been close, but it would have worked anyway.
Still, she’s confident.

 

 

I’ve already soldered the little bridge house and placed it on the deck for fun.
Very nice.

 

 

 

[madtatt]

Good morning, model builders.
Before I go on vacation, I wanted to post a quick update.
The front wheelhouse has been soldered and assembled.

 

 

And the deck, too. I added a small styrene profile in the middle. This ensures the deck rests firmly on the armored control station and gives the whole thing stability. You can’t see any of it.

 

 

Once you hang up, you’ll see that it would have been really tight with my profiles.

 

 

And that’s how the Mikasa got its two upper levels. stern…

 

 

and towards the bow.

 

 

That’s it in a nutshell before I set off on my journey tomorrow.

And here are a few more impressions of my model in its current construction state.

 

 

 

 

[Jeff59]

Definitely at another delicate stage Jolle, l also thought this, those supports at end off bridge wings are a sod to assemble and all extremely delicate, best part is you would have to hang model from ceiling like you do with planes too even get a chance of noticing all this work, hey that’s modelling for you 😂 have to say this model at this level is not for the faint hearted, am sure you will agree 👀  your talking about davits for these boats, l found from closely studying photos that there are different sizes, l only did two  differences in weight, but three would have been better, the heaviest and tallest is the davits for the open steam pinnace for obvious reasons, has to be lifted slightly higher for it too clear the hand rails, you can clearly see difference in height and heavier steel used for this in photos, the large open boat are lifted with slightly lighter and smaller davits and lastly which l missed is the ones on stern deck could be lighter again since they are handling the smallest boats. The kit davits are all to heavily rendered and didn’t quite like the flat etch approach by Pontos so l made the most of situation by using suitable brass tubing and cutting the details from the Pontos etch. I think the finer you go with this the more realistic it looks, as they say less is more 👍 hey after all, the boats now attract a lot of interest in the finished model, so all of this extra work pays off in the end. Hope you agree when you look into this, it certainly helped the appearance for my model 👍  great progress Jolle, your model is going to look so realistic. Enjoy. 🤛

[madtatt]

Haha Jeff, maybe I'll do that and hang it under the ceiling. 😁

That's true, you can leave your nerves at the cloakroom, as we say here in Germany.
Good point about the davits, I'll come back to that when the time comes.
But I can say that I agree with you on that. 👍

[madtatt]

Ahoy, dear forum community.
I’m back from my vacation.
I hadn’t quite unpacked my suitcases yet, but I was already magically drawn back to my ship model.
But since I didn’t feel like dealing with small stuff and wanted to make something big and simple, my eyes immediately fell on the large towers.
First, I cut out everything and collected it.

 

 

The interior was already prepared and only needed to be glued to the hood. Then the brass ring was attached to the base. A nice, easy start after the vacation.

 

 

Things got a bit more difficult with the large brass component that goes on the turret lid. But that wasn’t a problem with MIG’s acrylic glue. Of course, unlike with superglue, you have to hold the whole thing in place while it dries.
But that’s no problem.

 

 

Then I primed it, checked for cracks, and closed them.
So far, so good.

 

 

And then came the unexpected setback.
Getting the brass gun barrels into their mounts proved surprisingly difficult. The turret openings were very narrow and in some cases, the primer was peeling off the barrels. Furthermore, the barrels didn’t fit particularly well in their brass mounts and were relatively unstable. I then filled them with a lot of glue.
Thankfully, you won’t notice any of that later.

 

 

Standing upright like this, I’ll let the towers dry thoroughly before I continue working on them.

 

[madtatt]

So, the gun barrels are now rigidly mounted, glued together, and stable.
This doesn't bother me, since I always build the main turrets in the moving position anyway.

 

 

The green arrow shows the defective primer.

 

 

After painting, you shouldn't notice any of it anymore. Now I can continue working on them next week.

[LoydB]

This is coming together so well. Doing a super-detailed plastic kit like this is on my bucket list, thanks for the inspiration.

 

Also, while there are many things I dislike about this timeline, the fact that I can tell my browser to translate everything, and it works well, makes me happy.