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IJN Akagi-1/350 Hasegawa


NMBROOK

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Work is progressing rather slowly on the starboard hull side,not least because any more than a couple of hours concentration sends my eyes into meltdown.I am sort of working from the stern forward.Portholes have Eduard surrounds added.All the moulded reinforcement ribs have been removed and replaced with something more convincing scratchbuilt out of 0.3mm styrene.Also holes have been drilled for the ladder rungs and I have made a start on the jackstays.There is still many more ribs and jackstays to add in this area alone.You will notice I dropped a clanger.The first lot of ladder holes were out of position,I didn't allow enough space for the watertight door between the casemate guns.These were filled and redrilled.

 

Kind Regards

 

Nigel

 

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Thankyou,the downside is I had to fit the signal lights to fit the bracings.The long one has now broken off for the third time!!I will repair it much later on to avoid it happening again.

I was in the mood for a bit of a photo etch frenzy this weekend.Firstly the rest of the jackstays were fitted below the AA platform.All but one of the doors have been fitted,these have been depicted open,cutting out and thinning the hull where necessary.The last of my 0.18mm drills snapped whilst drilling some more ladder rung holes hence the drilling jig taped in position until replacements arrive.

I have found a 103 page build of this kit on a German forum.The majority of this covers the etchwork on the underside of the flight deck.The builder goes into great detail of the trials and tribulations of getting everything to line up.He did end up with a 0.5mm gap between the middle and front section of the flight deck despite all the pins on the bulkheads lining up.

This will result in me taking a different approach so not to'box myself into a corner'.The first change from the instructions is the framework above the funnel.Building this on the deck and getting it all to slot in place does not inspire me with confidence.I made up the complete assembly on the bench as a separate unit,filing down the location tabs that line up with holes in the deck.The unit was then glued into position in the hull section.The other hull half placed in position to ensure the top is true and flush using a straightedge.

Apologies for the poor pics and the fact the model is covered in plastic dust,a fact I didn't notice until I took the pics.

 

Kind Regards

 

Nigel

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thank you very much!

I decided to pause for a second and take a few pics before I got too carried away.After reading further on the German forum of possible alignment issues with the under deck brass work,my gameplan changed considerably from the instructions.I have built the front section complete with the flight deck attached.This has been trial assembled with the hull several times ( hull halves only taped together at this point) to ensure everything lines up including the middle section of deck.An additional plasticard brace has been added to hold the ends in the correct position.

  Of interest is the fact that aside from filling the moulded ridges and ejector marks on the underneath of the deck,I ended up filling the location holes for the brasswork.Thelocation  tabs on the photoetch were also removed.I managed to get everything to line up perfectly but the location holes were the best part of 1mm out !

   Work on this section will now continue inverted working from flight deck upwards.The 'ceiling' of the raised superstructure has been lifted to allow for proper perforated beams and also so that I could drill all the holes out in the lower edge of this piece.

Happy New year

Nigel

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Thank you very much indeed,it means a lot as I was a complete photoetch novice when I started this build.Perhaps  I am in at the deep end and should of started with an easier subject but had a massive desire to build this particular kit.

 

Kind Regards

 

Nigel

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As part of this subassembly I have also been working on the foredeck.It is my intention to paint the deck and superstructure section separately then glue them together as a unit for fitting later in the build.

The deck has been extended for where there are two open doors in the superstructure.Bollards have been replaced with Alliance items and the linoleum strips have been scraped off as I have some Flyhawk brass strips to replace these after painting 

 

Kind Regards

 

Nigel

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Thank you,the chains were supplied in the kit,rough guesstimation around 25 links per inch.This would give a link around 400mm long in reality which I thought would be about right for a vessel of this size

 

Nigel

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