S-boat 55

These riverboats have have such a charm to them which I think your recreating brilliantly

Very nice, like the addition of the crew having a bit of fun on the bow planes,

Been doing a little here and there on Taiho, started more of the planes, decided the seats should be a different colour, some types black, others tan, does that make me a little crazy This is how much you can see when they are fitted into the planes - not a lot, rather frustratingly I noticed there is a small blemish/raised dot on the front seat but not until id put a few in, Im not sure if it will notice or not when the canopy is in place, Aside that Ive been fitting various small ready use lockers etc to the platforms, think they are starting to busy up nicely, Anyone happen to know what these are supposed to be? The parts themselves have a major sink mark on one side so im hoping i can fit them in a way that doesn't show as it dont think its really fixable without loosing the detail, Thanks Sam

This thread has got me watching these kits on evil Bay, my wife may well divorce me if I give in, this really is coming together phenomenally well judging by your work so far the finished article will be exemplary

Great output from a tricky project you set yourself, hope you're proud of her,

Thay bowsprit is a thing of beauty, looks really impressive

Hi Jeff, I'm keeping it close to my chest for now until I make a firm start, it'll be a very long show burn thing running here and there so as to not get in the way of my other project at the moment, fully expecting it to take a couple of years or more, Sam

Another very interesting what if Jeff, you've rubbed off on me with an idea for something that'll be an in the background thing, once you finish off Minotaur what's on the list next?

Thanks for the compliment, I'm trying to get them finished for Telford in November in case I'm brave enough to enter one so I may have to pick one to focus on as I'm already at the 9 month mark we'll see, don't know that I want to pressure myself,

Thank you,

Not a massive update but wanted to share a pic or two, got the first coat of paint on the flight deck so did a dry fit of things, the deck plank detail is very fine, much thinner than trumpeters for example so I'll need to work out how to go about creating the variation across the deck as with Dunkerque I highlighted plank by plank in places. Thought this showed how bonkers her funnel was though, This is certainly the most interesting of the two side, not that either is 'plain', Still thinking of darkening the flight deck, supposedly it was stained black just prior to her loss, question is if the deck markings would likewise have been toned down or not? I've seen comment that likely they wouldn't have as the pilots by that point were newer recruits and inexperienced. thanks, Sam

Rigging the old ships isn't what you could call simple is it, coming up a treat though,

I'll not lie.....no, the one thing I'm finding with this build is there is so little about the ship it makes it less 'historically engaging' for want of putting it another way. I quite like reading about the subject as im building it but there is so little on Taiho there's not much to read aside a couple of Web pages

Finally - finally, finished the support structures for the port and starboard platforms - all 42 of them. Its taken a wee while (the largest ones took about 3hrs each as one had 49 parts) and as half of them are now covered in (what has become red primer) they stand out less that the other side. Curious - do other people do their etch like this - lay it all out and then have one session sticking it together? Did enjoy putting together this little cabin though, it hangs under one of the platforms, still need to add a ladder but not yet for it. It was my first attempt using photo etch scuttle details, It comes as one peice bar the door, scuttle and railing, including a section to fold under to detail the bottom of the floor, This didn't all go without a hitch, i mentioned red primer - well in the process of attaching the etch i managed to splatter super glue across parts of the hull, some of course then smudged, others dried as blobs, murphy's law dictated that the worst parts would be on/around fine raised detail like the degaussing cable and hull plate lines. I knew when i did it that it was foolish to do it before completing this section of the work but I was impatient. I'll look for the positive and use it as an opportunity to do some wider improvements that the paint shows are needed. The eagle eyed will notice also that there is one section where the gussets are missing in two places, this is as there are two number 62's and 63's on etch sheet J or whichever it was. Means I've used those elsewhere, so I'll need to sort that as well. Broadly though for the most part it doesn't let you use things i the wrong order, the insets are on opposite sides etc to push you in the right order. Didn't mean that i didn't have to heat up several pieces more than once to de-bond and redo them having realised i was doing it the wrong way round or mirrored to what it should be. Quite looking forward to seeing how she looks dry fitted together with them all in place. Any who that's all for now, not sure what bit to tackle next on her, likely her enclosed bow - did they have a specific design name? I've heard them rereferred to as a hurricane bow? Also any advice on painting her now there are all these etch areas, conscious that you can get funny effects caused by air buffeting around when airbrushing corners and there are now hundreds of them under the platforms, would it be better to use a 0.15 needle and get in close, or stick with a 0.4 and do wider coats? Cheers Sam

Coming together very nicely indeed,