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

[madtatt]

Many thanks, Roel. 😊

 

Next, I tackled the crane boom and the wind vents.

I’m actually installing the crane boom very early on, for two reasons.

First, this allows me to finish the work on the amidships deck, and second, I want to put the upper part of the masts in place as late as possible. On the Mikasa, they are much taller and more delicate than on the Bismarck, making the model quite unwieldy.

And so I got started.

First, I created a mounting for the pulley on the boat deck. This consisted of two deck eyes and a base plate. The nice thing about this was that it gave me a little more leeway when aligning the crane boom. The hook could be moved up and down a bit in the bracket, which simplified things.

 

 

Then I assembled the missing wind vents.

 

 

And without further ado, let’s get all that stuff onto the model.

 

 

The crane boom is placed on a support.

 

 

And the pulley system can be conveniently parked on the deck.

 

 

It’s a damn tight fit, but it works.

 

 

 

[madtatt]

Okay, a quick update for the weekend.

And here’s the material you’ll need.

 

 

Curtain up:

 

 

The crew folds up the excess tarpaulins for storage. An officer supervises the work from above.

 

 

Finally, my compass, into which I had put so much work, could also be placed on the model.

 

 

There’s not much to see of his brother in the wheelhouse.

 

 

And the first 12-pound naval guns were also allowed to take their places.

 

 

The front bridge is now complete, except for the searchlights.

 

[madtatt]

Hello everyone.

Just a few pictures of the aft bridge today. It's now been fitted with crew and interior details. The searchlights are still missing, as I'm waiting for the 3D print from New Zealand. Also, a signal flag needs to be hoisted, but for that I need the complete mast. 😁

 

 

It still annoys me a little that I didn’t show how to attach the tarpaulin here. But crying won’t help, so this is what I’ve done.

 

 

The crew is being trained on the 12 pound cannons.

 

 

Under the strict supervision of the officers.

 

 

That means I’ve now finished everything amidships. As always, following my crafting maxim, I’m working from the inside out.

 

 

And so I can now turn my attention to the bow and the stern.

 

[Jeff59]

Been a good few weeks since looking at your progress Jolle, loved your solution for securing jib to boat deck, excellent, your model is looking superb as ever. Small point for a quick double check for you, on the 1902 Mikasa the 12 pounder’s were on the Bridge deck, the bridge wings had no guns fitted, l think when she was modernised and the hotchkiss guns mounted on the mast were removed from here two went down onto bridge wing, l could be wrong but better to check. l know how fussy you are. when it comes to the aft davits at the stern, these should be even more delicate than those on boat deck, l missed this on my built, worth checking out when you get to that 🤛  Hope lm not being a pain here, not my intention 👍 This is going to look awesome when finished, not two faraway now.

[madtatt]

Good morning, Jeff.

First off, let me say that you're not annoying at all. Quite the opposite, in fact; you saved me from a terrible mistake.

I made a huge, careless error. I got so caught up in depicting a beautiful scene that I didn't even notice I'd swapped the cannons.

 

So, Jeff, thank you so much! 🙏

 

And that brings me to the QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss conspiracy.

It seems the bad guys switched weapons. Inspector Jeff, however, was on their trail and could catch the culprits. So the shipyard workers only had to remove the faulty 12-pounders without causing too much damage. It worked out quite well.

 

 

The component on the starboard side has put up the most resistance. A bit more of the veneer is damaged there.

 

 

It's better at the stern. However, it was much more difficult to get the cannons off there because of the figures.

 

 

But it worked. Even though it was really nerve-wracking.

 

 

And here you see the culprits and the solution. Two figures have come loose, but that shouldn't be a problem to glue them back on.

For the damaged wood veneer, I found these four flanges on an old circuit board, which should cover the damage quite well.

 

 

I'll keep you updated.

 

[Jeff59]

11 hours ago, madtatt said:

Good morning, Jeff.

First off, let me say that you're not annoying at all. Quite the opposite, in fact; you saved me from a terrible mistake.

I made a huge, careless error. I got so caught up in depicting a beautiful scene that I didn't even notice I'd swapped the cannons.

 

So, Jeff, thank you so much! 🙏

 

And that brings me to the QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss conspiracy.

It seems the bad guys switched weapons. Inspector Jeff, however, was on their trail and could catch the culprits. So the shipyard workers only had to remove the faulty 12-pounders without causing too much damage. It worked out quite well.

 

 

The component on the starboard side has put up the most resistance. A bit more of the veneer is damaged there.

 

 

It's better at the stern. However, it was much more difficult to get the cannons off there because of the figures.

 

 

But it worked. Even though it was really nerve-wracking.

 

 

And here you see the culprits and the solution. Two figures have come loose, but that shouldn't be a problem to glue them back on.

For the damaged wood veneer, I found these four flanges on an old circuit board, which should cover the damage quite well.

 

 

I'll keep you updated. There’s an old saying in the building trade, the person that never made a mistake never made anything 😂 There’s a truth to that 🤛 l don’t feel so awkward now that you’re clad for input 👍 know you would have noticed it and would have cursed me for not saying anything, so feel absolutely free to point me in the right direction with my build 🙏🏻

 

 

 

11 hours ago, madtatt said:

 

 

[Jeff59]

Sorry Jolle, ended up with my comment in wrong place, guessing my programming skills aren’t improving 🫣 Jaqueline bought me a new phone, you aught to see me trying to work this 😂

[madtatt]

Let's see if I can get my revenge on your Bismarck, Jeff. 🤭😉

 

I managed to correct my mistake. The incorrect guns were replaced, and ultimately no damage was done to the model. The smaller Hotchkiss guns have taken the place of their larger counterparts, and you can no longer see any trace of the damaged veneer.

But see for yourselves.

 

 

The whole thing looks much more harmonious now. The 12-pounders were obviously far too big for the delicate deck.

 

 

The team was also able to resume their training.

 

 

The whole thing was incredibly stressful.