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1/350 IJN Maya with Flyhawk


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It's time to start work on my second ship build! My first venture into maritime modeling was Academy's rather lovely Warspite which I built with Pontos' wooden deck and minimal PE (railings and what Pontos included with the deck).

Boldened by what I consider a success I might have gone a bit mad, ordering Aoshima's IJN Maya and topping it off with Flyhawk's PE set.

I have to admit the amount of brass is very intimidating... :speechless: So dear shipnerds, any advice on that front, can I make do with CA or should I look into soldering? 

 

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Box and contents.

 

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The scary box! :frantic:

 

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Packaging looks impressive, I'm liking it!

 

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Painting instructions seem clear enough, will probably need to get some more references for the rigging.

 

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The kit came with some PE too, Aoshima's catapult deck (top) compared to Flyhawk's (bottom). Flyhawk will be used.

 

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Even more etch.. :mental:

 

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Some clear parts for what looks to be the bridge. Not sure if these are usable with the Flyhawk set, or would even look good...

 

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Weird rubber degaussing cable, looks like a pain to be honest. I might have to look for PE to replace these I think...

 

And that's it for now ladies and gentlemen! Expect :snail: pace on the build as I need to learn on the job.

Edited by Overpin
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Some work on the hull has started, I joined the halves, drilled the portholes and glued on the torpedo bulges.

 

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Propshafts revealed some weird stuff going on with the kit, there seems to be quite a bit of stuff in the box that doesn't belong there! :hmmm:

 

Insteuctions state to use D19/D20 & I3/I4 for shafts:

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However there seems to be a lot more shafts! 2 sprues titled Myoko with a total of 8 more shafts! There are in total 4 Myoko sprues and 3 "Kongo weapons" sprues in the kit! :blink: The sprues with the right shafts are titled Takao, but I suspect that's just Aoshima using the Takao tooling.

 

Mysterious Myoko propshafts:

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interesting, i have the same Aoshima Maya kit (stashed for now), and had been thinking for a long time if the Flyhawk Maya upgrade kit would fit, since this Maya kit is an updated version that came out later after the Flyhawk upgrade set was made. i didnt find much change in the update kit, so i bought a Flyhawk upgrade set, and i just received it today.

will come back and check out your build from time to time :)

 

i dont remember those Myouko sprue parts in my kit, but i will check if it has them.

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I think the only upgrade was adding the PE, and I think I've solved the mystery of the sprues. It seems Aoshima just didn't bother/think it was necessary to make custom sprues for the Maya, instead they used mostly Takao sprues and just threw in whatever they needed from other IJN kits. Since the Maya was the only upgraded Takao class cruiser, there are some exclusive sprues to the Maya, but mostly it's sort of a kitbash. :lol: Progress is being made and more pics soon!

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The hull is soon ready for primer. Degaussing cable and anchors are on, and all the pesky gaps have been filled. Some PE hatches and such are still going onto the deck before paint. I actually messed up a bit by gluing some of the fwd deck vents etc. It will probably be a pain to mask... :fraidnot:

My current philosophy is not to go crazy with PE, but to use the kit's parts wherever the etch doesn't add to the looks. However so far I've found Flyhawk's PE to be excellent and surprisingly easy to work with. Here's how she looks at the moment:

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7 hours ago, Overpin said:

I think the only upgrade was adding the PE, and I think I've solved the mystery of the sprues. It seems Aoshima just didn't bother/think it was necessary to make custom sprues for the Maya, instead they used mostly Takao sprues and just threw in whatever they needed from other IJN kits. Since the Maya was the only upgraded Takao class cruiser, there are some exclusive sprues to the Maya, but mostly it's sort of a kitbash. :lol: Progress is being made and more pics soon!

no, besides adding the PE, there was also some changes to the kit. the picture below shows them, and i read somewhere that also some deck details was made separate pieces from the deck this time.

 

https://hlj.com/product/AOS00943

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about the Myouko parts, maybe they are identical, then there would be no reason to make new parts :) the hulls of Takao and Myouko class is similar after all.

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It would seem adding the PE requires some figuring out anyway, as Flyhawk's instructions are pretty terrible.. But like I said, I'm not hellbent on using ALL the PE, just most of it. :lol: I never realized Myoko and Takao share a hull, is it identical for the two classes?

 

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i guess so, also i dont expect to use 100% all of the PE myself either, but i will do what i can do. i cant see the changes be so big that the Flyhawk set wouldnt fit anymore, but i will only know when i build it or from watching your build :)

 

i dont know if the hulls of Takao class and Myouko class was the same, but they look similar, and is about same length.

picture for comparing shape.

 

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The gaps amidships are now gone, and the most of the putty work doesn't look too shabby. I sprayed a couple coats of primer to look for any imperfections, and I think it checks out. Painting the linoleum deck and hull red is next, then I'll mask the deck & waterline and lay down the IJN gray. I've seen people gluing on the brass strips, but I think the kit's detail isn't too bad so I'll attempt to paint the raised detail that's already there. AK's true metal, a small brush and some masking should do the trick.

 

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First time in a week I feel like I've actually made some progress. Hull red is actually Vallejo's cavalry brown, and shaded very lightly with a slightly darker shade.

 

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The lineoleum deck posed some problems as I use Vallejo. A guy at a local hobby store looked up Tamiya's lineoleum deck color and picked out the supposedly matchin Vallejo color from a chart. As you can see, that didn't turn out too well... :fraidnot:

 

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I ended up going with Vallejo mahogny brown, which I think works pretty well (continue scrolling for pictures).

 

Masking the deck felt a bit like a nightmare, but once I got going, I found it weirdly satisfying in a masochistic way. :whip: Despite a few spots needing a touch up, the time spent on masking really paid off!

 

 

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6 minutes ago, Alex SZ1996 said:

looks good with color :)

those smaller parts on the deck werent separate? it would be much easier to paint, with less masking needed.

Ah yes, the vents and bollards on the fwd were indeed separate. I just started gluing them in without thinking of painting, realized it in time not to be repeated on the aft deck. :lol:

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Progress and mistakes have been made! Let us start with the mistake... And an easy mistake to avoid too, if I had just read the instructions. Seems like the Maya had some gaps filled in during her refit. Not a bigggie, but annoying since I already painted the hull... :doh:

 

The torpedo deck is pretty much done, not sure in what position the launchers will end up in, but I still got some time to think as I'll drybrush the rails and maybe add some weathering on the deck.

 

Lastly I got started on the catapult deck. Still getting used to fiddling around with PE. Not all the rails join up perfectly, but I think it will look pretty good with paint. Trying to gather some courage to start doing the stairs on monday.

 

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  • 1 month later...

great looking build. 

 

off the top of my head, I think the fancy funnel work undertaken by the IJN (similar reasons for the RN with Queen Elizabeth class) is to combine funnels so as to make range finding by the enemy harder (optical range finders look for "known" dimensions such as mast heights, distance between funnels to allow calibration). Again, I am guessing, that as these ships underwent refits at different times and in different yards, then the variation between sister ships (as you have pointed out) is likely. 

Thank you for the tips on the deck colour - I am slowly (in background) trying a card 1/200 IJN TONE and all was going well until the funnel shape and the deck colour!!!

 

 

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Hello Fights On.

I find your comments about the use of the rangefinders really interesting. Please correct me if I am wrong on this, but I always thought (without any research, I admit) that the rangefinders used the principle of "parallax" to determine the distance to the target, so that the actual space between things such as funnels did not play a part in this. I ask about this because the known distance between, for example, funnels could be so much off the mark at times..... 

Any elaboration would be very appreciated on this.

Thanks.

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  • 1 month later...

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