Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted May 4, 2017 Share Posted May 4, 2017 I felt the need to open another box. Will Gill now building Akagi (that should rightfully be mine) I find it's nice spending quality time together at the dining table ignoring one another and concentrating on photo etched brass. Of course I could do that with Graf Spee, but am struggling with motivation because it's German and I have very marginal interest in German subjects in general. I bought the Tamiya 1/350 Mogami Aircraft Cruiser for full RRP a few years back in an attempt to support a local model shop. This was before I decided I should just have my own model shop. It was (and still is!) the largest sum of cash I've ever handed over for a model kit and it is typical of recent Tamiya kits; exquisitely engineered and manufactured. Since all the Japanese packs of AAA guns, cable reels and ladders etc are opened for Gill's Akagi (that should rightfully be mine) I thought "what the heck" and retrieved the lovely Mogami from the stash. I spent the first night drilling out the portholes in the hull. Several manufacturers are producing framed hulls. We will soon find out how good Hasegawa's is (and I expect Gill shall find it excellent too) but the Tamiya effort is worthy of commendation for clicking together like Lego. I'm not rightly sure why, but Tamiya included a fair bit of ironmongery in this kit. The little steel brackets screw on to the upper hull sides and in turn screw on to the hull framing. You even get a nice little screwdriver in the kit. Unsurprisingly, it pretty much falls together. I assembled it dry then painted the joins with Tamiya's extra thin cement. Whilst I like the stuff, I do find it prone to causing gluey finger prints when it weeps out the other side of a join whilst pressing it together. I've already had to rectify one such boo boo on this. I shall try to be more careful in future With the hull together, I felt now was the time to break out the White Ensign Models PE set for Mogami, and I cut out the degaussing cables And fitted them 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beefy66 Posted May 4, 2017 Share Posted May 4, 2017 Great start Jamie looking forward to seeing you complete this after seeing your Hood up close Beefy 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted May 4, 2017 Share Posted May 4, 2017 Ooh, is that the one with all the floatplanes on the back decking*? That should look really good when it's done Cheers, Stew * I probably mean aft or stern deck, I don't know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allyby Posted May 4, 2017 Share Posted May 4, 2017 This should be a great build and fun to watch, I'm in... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted May 4, 2017 Author Share Posted May 4, 2017 1 hour ago, beefy66 said: Great start Jamie looking forward to seeing you complete this after seeing your Hood up close Beefy Thanks Keith, I hope I don't make a hash of it now 54 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said: Ooh, is that the one with all the floatplanes on the back decking*? That should look really good when it's done Cheers, Stew * I probably mean aft or stern deck, I don't know It sure is - a flight deck full of Petes and Jakes! P.S. it's the "quarter deck" Worry not though - I don't! 23 minutes ago, allyby said: This should be a great build and fun to watch, I'm in... Thanks Ally! As above though - I hope I don't fumble it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beefy66 Posted May 4, 2017 Share Posted May 4, 2017 Quote 1 hour ago, Stew Dapple said: Ooh, is that the one with all the floatplanes on the back decking*? That should look really good when it's done Quote 40 minutes ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said: .S. it's the "quarter deck" Worry not though - I don't! You should worry Jamie he was trying to sell stuff from your stand At least he knew it was the back and not the front though Beefy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted May 4, 2017 Author Share Posted May 4, 2017 2 minutes ago, beefy66 said: You should worry Jamie he was trying to sell stuff from your stand At least he knew it was the back and not the front though Beefy @MrsSovereignHobbies I don't think Keith aimed that at you, but the cap sure does fit 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jockster Posted May 4, 2017 Share Posted May 4, 2017 Got one in the stash so I'm looking forward to seeing you bring this to life! P.s. If you suddenly start finding that small bits are disappearing then I may know a culprit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 4, 2017 Share Posted May 4, 2017 Thought you had a meccano set at first , will be watching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killingholme Posted May 4, 2017 Share Posted May 4, 2017 Crickey, those hull halves won't be coming apart will they!? Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob 1 Posted May 4, 2017 Share Posted May 4, 2017 I've seen these kits for sale but don't think I've seen one built as yet, so will be watching with interest. The kit looks mouth watering, certainly is an attractive and a real legendary cruiser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted May 4, 2017 Author Share Posted May 4, 2017 It is a nice kit so far. I find myself wondering why I left it so long! More nuts to be installed before assembly I removed the moulded on stairs and replaced the moulded deck hatches with WEM items. The plastic was fine and this isn't strictly necessary, but I figure I should do the best I can otherwise what's the point? Whilst nice, the kit has revealed a shortcoming. The posts under the extended flight deck don't meet the deck below. As the gaps are at the bottom and fairly visible, this was unacceptable ...so I cut them off and drilled out the stumps on the quarter deck. Plastic rod was inserted into the holes in the quarterdeck and touched with cement. One at a time, I fitted a rod and placed the flight deck on top to pushe the rod down to the correct height. Much better I remembered to fit PE ladders to replace the two I chopped off Can't quite photograph it but you get the idea I think I will start some painting on it soon whilst I still have good access in here. 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted May 5, 2017 Share Posted May 5, 2017 Nice bit of remedial work there mate; the degaussing cable is very neatly done as well 19 hours ago, beefy66 said: At least he knew it was the back and not the front though Propellers are at the back Keith, all I have to do is remember it's the opposite to aeroplanes Cheers, Stew 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsSovereignHobbies Posted May 5, 2017 Share Posted May 5, 2017 (edited) 23 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said: @MrsSovereignHobbies I don't think Keith aimed that at you, but the cap sure does fit edit: to be fair, you did describe it as the pointy end of the boat - they're both pointy!!! Edited May 5, 2017 by MrsSovereignHobbies 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aginvicta Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 A great start Jamie, looking forward to following this, Cheers Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted May 7, 2017 Author Share Posted May 7, 2017 A little more done this weekend. I've never really done dioramas but though I might have a go with this one. I like the idea of a model ship in water but am less enthusiastic about waterlining the model. I like a full hull. There's a young Korean man by the name of Lee Won-Hui (who westernises to Won-Hui Lee due to western social media displaying the family name last) who makes incredible dioramas using tinted epoxy for water. I would like to try that. Likewise, a long-term customer of mine by the name of Alan Bird makes rather nice warship models too and his recent 1/200 HMS Rodney was a full hull model on pedestals featuring ratings sat on boards hanging down painting the hull. I liked that idea too so have thought I'd try to combine the two. So to summarise - I'm well out of my comfort zone here. Still, if I want to get better I have to push myself a little! Now then, time for some paint. According to my reference - the WEM published book on IJN Greys, Mogami was painted in the Kure Naval Arsenal's shade of grey from 1935 until sunk at Leyte Gulf in 1944. IJN02 Kure Grey is the lightest of the 4 Colourcoats IJN greys. Granting myself a little artistic license though, I used some IJN04 Yokosuka Grey left over in the airbrush jar after teaching Gill how to build up a shaded, patchy coat with the airbrush in close for her Akagi build, and I painted the whole hull badly and very unevenly in the slightly different shade. I then tried the rusting technique I'd seen by wetting the model with the relevant thinners and touching on a rusty colour, letting it disperse into the thinner. I used Tamiya X-9 Brown with Xtracrylics thinners for this. Although a strong brown, the Tamiya paint gives a nice reddish rusty tone when used this way and doesn't hassle the enamel underneath. And cruel closeup To be honest I planned to go quite heavy on this for effect and may have overdone it, but I'm telling myself it'll work out fine in the end... IJN10 Linoleum was brush painted. I didn't feel like masking today. And the quarter deck received some dirty wash using whichever Tamiya paint is the tyre black colour. This is heavily shadowed so I deliberately went OTT here in the hope that something would be apparent in the shadows. That dried, and it was on to stage 3 of the master plan. This is why I didn't use IJN02 Kure Grey to paint the hull first time around - I masked with blutac squarish areas and sprayed in them with the Kure Grey without much patchy shading to represent freshly applied paint. To try to enhance the effect slightly, I sprayed a light satin clearcoat over the fresh Kure Grey. My cunning plan is that the painters will be positioned on boards hanging down looking like they're part way through repainting the ship. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 Looking good Jamie But... 1/350 sailors painting? Seriously? Someone makes those? Cheers, Stew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted May 7, 2017 Author Share Posted May 7, 2017 There are several sources for figures - I'll admit I haven't looked too hard for Japanese sailors at work (but Northstar makes Japanese sailors on parade, doing Ju Jitsu training and similar). I shall devise something that passes! I might need to ask for figure painting lessons from you though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted May 7, 2017 Author Share Posted May 7, 2017 Since you posed the question I had to go look! It seems Fujimi makes just the thing I need! https://www.google.co.uk/search?site=&source=hp&ei=tG0PWcLcI4zVwQL27JSACg&q=1%2F350+japanese+figures&oq=1%2F350+japanese+figures&gs_l=mobile-gws-hp.3...2133.39910.0.40387.42.38.4.2.2.0.211.4111.9j27j1.37.0....0...1c.1j4.64.mobile-gws-hp..1.38.3611.3..0j5j35i39k1j0i131k1j0i22i30k1j33i160k1j33i21k1.aYGvV70ShjM#imgdii=Ig15i_dY0YN8XM:&imgrc=sOa3WFDTRmUQCM: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beefy66 Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 looks like the cunning plan is progressing well Jamie like the weathering effect one for the little note book of model tips Cheers Beefy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob 1 Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 Good work so far, the weathered and part newly painted areas definitely looks very effective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted May 15, 2017 Author Share Posted May 15, 2017 I haven't been able to work on this much, but did manage to get an hour to start the underwater hull painting over the weekend 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeeKay Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 You don't hang about Jamie, that's a great start! Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted May 15, 2017 Author Share Posted May 15, 2017 Thanks Brian What about you? Have you opened the box yet? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 That's incredible, those little guys are 1/350? How big is a figure in that scale? I can't even picture it... Boat looks nice, by the way Cheers, Stew 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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