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

[madtatt]

Ahoy dear model building friends.

 

On 5/15/2024 at 9:02 AM, Jeff59 said:

Fantastic job on this, it’s certainly a labour intensive model, great to see others solutions to this model. 🤛👍

 

Thank you Jeff.
With my approach to the model, painting it actually takes a lot of time. I'll save myself this time if I filter out lots of tips and solutions in your construction report. 😉

 

I don't have much time to build models at the moment, but progress is still going slowly.
I have finished aging the hull for now and turned a new ship into an old veteran.

 

 

I particularly aged the anchor hawse and the area below the anchor berths, as a lot of dirt is likely to accumulate here.

 

 

 

And port side.

 

 

The chipping is also strongest here, as the anchors are likely to leave clear marks.

 

 

 

Amidships I aged more subtly.

 

 

And a little more at the rear.

 

 

The painting of the fuselage only continues when the missing parts are attached to the outside, i.e. pretty much at the end.

 

 

The wooden deck was also glazed and applied.

 

 

Now I can start equipping the deck, which I’m looking forward to.

 

Edited May 23 by madtatt
Typo

[Landlubber Mike]

Wow, that's looking fantastic Jolle!  Another masterpiece in the making!

[ccoyle]

Hallo, Joelle.

 

Happily, I read German, but most of our members don't. Please post in English. I followed your Millennium Falcon build, so I know you can do it! 😉

 

Thanks!

[madtatt]

Sorry Chris and already done.
It probably happened to me because I post in German and English forums.

And thanks for the compliment, Mike.

Edited May 23 by madtatt

[ccoyle]

22 hours ago, madtatt said:

It probably happened to me because I post in German and English forums.

 

And I know from experience how difficult it can be to post in foreign language forums (I used to post regularly in one of the German card modeling forums), so I really appreciate the effort you make to share your work here.

[madtatt]

Ahoy dear model building friends.
There isn’t much new to report, but I wanted to get in touch again.

Some people know that my wife is very sick and is currently receiving chemotherapy. I very rarely have a free head to do crafts. I would probably ruin more than move forward.
But what I have done is prepare the final stand.

 

 

This is easier to adjust if there is nothing on deck yet.

 

 

I no longer liked the Pontos holder because it holds the ship very high.
I prefer it this flat.

 

 

 

In addition, the dry dock was expanded to include a slightly higher sheet pile wall.

 

 

The cannons that look out of the casemates above cannot get their barrels later because they are one with the cannon body.

 

 

And that’s why they have to be protected separately from my scatterbrainedness.

 

[ccoyle]

27 minutes ago, madtatt said:

Some people know that my wife is very sick and is currently receiving chemotherapy. I very rarely have a free head to do crafts. I would probably ruin more than move forward.

 

My thoughts are with your family, Joelle.

[madtatt]

Thank you for the comforting and encouraging words.

This is truly a difficult time for me and my wife.
But we look to the future with confidence because the therapy is having an effect and the prognosis is now very good.
It is true that model building can certainly be an outlet to relieve mental pressure and I could imagine using it again soon.
But that only works because the worst is probably already behind us.

I would like to thank my wife again for her kind wishes for her recovery. She says she could use any encouragement.

[mtaylor]

Model looks great and I'll keep your wife in my thoughts and prayers that all continues to go well.

[madtatt]

Ahoy dear model building community.

I hereby report back to the craft table.

My break had lasted a little longer than planned, but I had suffered a few personal blows this year. Three of my immediate family members have fallen ill with this terrible plague called cancer, including myself.
I think it blows up every statistic.

Three of them have now defeated it, only my mother unfortunately died from it three weeks ago.

Nevertheless, everyday life is returning to my life and that’s a good thing. Even though I’m still grieving for my mother, I’m going to start doing my hobby again. I think it will comfort and distract me a little.

And so my Mikasa appeared on my workbench again.

 

 

First start with something small to warm up again. The barbettes were still missing splinter protection.

 

 

Then I soldered the internal parts of the fans. In 1905, not all of the fan scoops were there anymore and that’s how you saw them. But I don’t know why they were removed.

 

 

I researched the orientation of these internal parts as they were attached differently on different models and finally found this picture online where they are parallel to the direction of travel.

 

 

And that’s how I installed them on the deck during the first superstructures.

 

 

So a small start has been made and I think that I will now regularly report to you about my construction progress.

So, read again…

 

[ccoyle]

Moin, moin, Jölle!

 

Glad to see you back at the bench -- praying for calmer seas ahead for you and your family.

[Ryland Craze]

So sorry to hear of the loss of your mother.  Wishing you good health in the future.  The Mikasa is coming along great.

[madtatt]

Thank you both for the kind words. 
Yes, I want to see that proper progress is being made on my craft table again. 

[madtatt]

Then we want to follow our words with actions and continue building.

Let’s get to the internal structures.
All relatively simple, geometric structures. Neatly sanded and primed.

 

 

Added a few doors and hatches to make the monotonous surface more interesting.
However, I am entering into an area of historically unprovable assumptions. Only the pictures of the museum ship show the inner deck of the Mikasa. But that certainly doesn’t have much to do with the original ship.
So I allow myself some artistic freedom here, such as the railing, which is only placed here for customization. It is not documented historically. But it made sense to me, as you could get to the platform at the chimney via the gallery.
And a ladder should also be attached to the component, otherwise how would you get up to the front gallery!?
And that’s how this came about.

 

 

We continue with the first 32-foot rescue cutter. A dream detail.
However, there is a small problem with the cradles. They are usually not in the places where they come onto the superstructure. That’s why you can see an unsightly gap between the cradle and the cutter, see arrow.

 

 

Nothing that couldn’t be corrected with thin Styrene strips.

 

 

Now the boat is lying neatly in its cradles again.

 

 

And so the inner deck is slowly taking shape.

 

[mtaylor]

I'm sorry to hear about your mother.  Seems like good news for the others including yourself.  I'm happy to see you back.

[madtatt]

Thank you Mark.
It's nice to write with all of you again about our beautiful hobby. That's comforting.

[madtatt]

Let’s move on to the internal structures and fans. The deck is slowly filling up.

 

 

One thing bothered me. Two box-shaped structures were squeezed between the two main houses.

 

 

Seems completely illogical to me and cannot be seen on many models, including those from museums. And that’s why I don’t use it, the corridor remains open.

 

 

Especially since a small platform can be seen on both deckhouses. Probably to get to the funnels.
That’s why I won’t install the boxes, but will attach a ladder and a railing here.

 

 

I further refined the superstructure that accommodates the rescue cutter.

 

 

The doors are from the MK1 set, the railings are from the model’s original etched parts set.

 

 

And the ladders come from the leftover box.

 

 

I’m starting to like it that way

 

[madtatt]

And off to the next etched part battle.
A lot of small boxes had to be bent and soldered. I also got a smaller bending aid, which makes such delicate things easier to handle.

 

 

The first error in Pontos’ sentence is also quickly identified. The component of the box that is supposed to be attached to the front superstructure is unfortunately faulty. It would result in a box whose dimensions would not fit into the recess in the wooden decks. I checked the Pontos set what felt like a hundred times but unfortunately without success.
That’s why the KA sentence saved my butt.

 

 

The slightly simpler lid was underlaid with cut-up etched part gratings and glued to the original component of the model
Then brought to its position for inspection.

 

 

Little by little, the internal structures and boxes are made and collected in my printed organizers to be aged afterwards.

 

 

I made a few improvements to the winches.
The large one did have a small cabinet included, I think a distribution box and the drive for the winch, but without any structure on the outside.

 

 

The little winch would even be complete without everything. 

However, I found out in another forum that it could well be the case that the small winch did not have an electric drive.

 

 

So I did a little handwork and gave the big winch hinges and a closer made of thin lead wire. The little one got an upright box that functions as a closet. I liked it better.

 

 

Still aging and with lead wire wrapped around the drum. I deliberately wrapped it layer by layer, not quite perfectly, to make it look more authentic.

 

 

Accomplished.

 

 

And so everything could get on deck.

 

 

 

Edited November 15 by madtatt

[Haliburton]

Nice job on those winches, they look great!

Scott

[Herby63]

On 11/15/2024 at 8:34 AM, madtatt said:

The component of the box that is supposed to be attached to the front superstructure is unfortunately faulty. It would result in a box whose dimensions would not fit into the recess in the wooden decks. I checked the Pontos set what felt like a hundred times but unfortunately without success.

Hi Jölle,

Pontos isued a #12 correction fret to rectify this, but my attempts to get one from them had no success.

Very nice work tho.👍

Edited November 16 by Herby63

[madtatt]

Thanks Scott and Herby.

 

That's some information, Herby. 
I didn't know that. My Bismarck build also had a correction sheet, but it was included in the set. Exactly, this is the box that would fit. I'm sorry for you that you didn't get it. But it calms me down a little because I would have been very annoyed if I hadn't gotten it.
Thank you Herby for solving this puzzle for me. 👏

Edited November 17 by madtatt
Typo

[Landlubber Mike]

Hi Joelle, glad to see you back.  So sorry to hear about your family's health troubles - my condolences for your mother.  

 

You're building this kit to a very high level as per your usual artistry!  I have this kit in 1/700 scale, and think it's one of the more beautiful subjects out there.  Your build will be a big inspiration for when I start mine!

[Jeff59]

Hi Joelle; good to see you back where you belong, in a better place I hope, sorry to hear of your recent upsets, and condolences on the passing of your mother, always an extremely difficult time this. Try to divert your attention a little bit with an alteration l noticed could be made that  never did myself. The six inch gun fixing points on main deck, four off, are set to far inboard by 2 to 3mm, easy fix at this stage, puts them in area where there is no plastic, not a massive problem for you. You’ll see what l mean if you try to point the gun parallel to the bridge structures whilst in stowed position, they don’t work, guns not in properly centred in casement, lm sure l mentioned a few points near the end off my build log saying things that l would correct if building it again. Hope this is of help to you 🤛  As l say good to see you back. 👍

[madtatt]

Thank you very much for your participation.

 

@  Landlubber Mike
Mike, I'm sorry that I'm only answering now, but my head was full of other things and model building is only slowly getting going again for me.
Thank you for the compliment. Since I know that your model building skills are in no way inferior to mine, I am very excited to see what you will conjure up with the 1:700 kit. I hope you let us be part of it here.

 

@ Jeff59

That's right Jeff, our nice hobby lets you clear your head from the worries of everyday life. Especially if you get helpful ideas from users to make your model even better.
When I was testing the cannons, I asked myself what was wrong.

 

 

And you give me the solution now, Jeff.

The axis must move further forward and into the middle of the casemate.

 

 

 

Just made a spacer out of styrene.

 

 

And then the cannons could take their place.

 

 

That looks better....

 

 

They are now sitting nicely in the middle.

 

 

And the height is also right thanks to the spacers.

 

Edited December 15 by madtatt

[Jeff59]

👍 great to see you sussed it out, one other thing that wasn’t quite right was the height of the 12 pounder guns on the main deck, they sit just a little bit high, the gun barrels don’t line up with the recesses for the barrels when stowed. Think the best solution is to rebate the deck slightly for the gun pedestal to sit lower, I reckon approx 1mm , I was to late to change this on my model, once those boat decks are down you’ve no chance, worth a look at. 🤛