1/350 Mikasa Build by a newby

[Thom216]

Man, she is looking just great!

[argh1962]

Hello there.

Nice work on the Mikasa.

As to uploading pictures, I have been using Win 10 for a while now and have had no troubles with Photo Bucket. Keep trying. Make sure your browser is up to date.

[foxy]

Nice work Guy mate.

Cracking job on her.

Coming together nicely.

foxy

[Martian]

I think the wheelhouse looks really effective!

Martin

[Rob 1]

That is looking excellent, the deck and detailing really suits such classic looking old vessel.

[rollsroyce]

Absolute BRILLIANCE in this update, Guy!!!

Great stuff with the 'gizmology' in the wheelhouse. Just busy enuff.....

1 small suggestion? where the railings meet a corner & there's no upright to carry it? Maybe just trim some surplus railing upright & place it there. may not be strictly accurate, but it looks more logical, If you get my meaning?

Oh, & the barrels are easy, IF you have a decent set of magnifiers & a needle/pin. Just cut off the old barrel where the instruction dictate, sand the area flat (This is important!), with the magnifiers mark the centre of the remaining part then just drill the hole starting small & working up. Test fit the new barrel so you don't get 'drill-happy'. I used a new blade in my Swann-Morton for marking the hole, but that's just me....

Hi Prowler

Thanks for looking and comments appreciate it. Also thank you the suggestion about the railings and looking now I see exactly what you mean. Wouldn't want to lean on those when at sea and they look odd. I'll give it a go next weekend. Also thanks for the tip on the barrels. Again I'll use that one this weekend.

Cheers

Guy

[rollsroyce]

One word Cracking !

Kev

Man, she is looking just great!

Nice work Guy mate.

Cracking job on her.

Coming together nicely.

foxy

I think the wheelhouse looks really effective!

Martin

That is looking excellent, the deck and detailing really suits such classic looking old vessel.

Hi All

Thanks for looking in and the kind comments. This adds to the enjoyment build and receiving praise from the masters of this art.

All the comments are much appreciated.

Cheers Guy

[rollsroyce]

Hello there.

Nice work on the Mikasa.

As to uploading pictures, I have been using Win 10 for a while now and have had no troubles with Photo Bucket. Keep trying. Make sure your browser is up to date.

Hi Argh

Thanks for the suggestion. I'l give that a go when it comes to posting pictures. I'll get my son to show me how......

Cheers

Guy

[PZRGREN]

Love your work, the ball bearing trick was genius!

[Billydick]

I'm impressed. She really is a beautiful vessel and you're doing a sterling job !

BillyD

[rollsroyce]

Love your work, the ball bearing trick was genius!

I'm impressed. She really is a beautiful vessel and you're doing a sterling job !

BillyD

Hi Both. Thanks for looking in and glad you like the ball bearing tip. It was nice to give a bit back as taken soooo much from the forum..

Cheers Guy

[rollsroyce]

Hi all thanks for looking in and welcome back.

This week I don’t have a huge amount for you to look at as the things done took a long time to do.

But hope you all enjoy looking at this weeks progress.

So on with the process and pictures. Before I started though I took the advice of Prowler and added some extra railing posts on the corners where they were missing and did look odd. I don’t actually have any spare railing and only the Eduard kit for Mikasa so I made them out of stretched sprue cut into small length. This took quite a long time and stuck them on using plastic extra thin cement…. The ones you can see are just a fraction made as the posts kept sticking to the applicator brush and there are several inside the hull that fell off or got dropped or just flicked off never to be seen again LOL….

Before

After

The main guns and thanks to Prowler on the tip on drilling out the holes in preparation for the gun. I got a bit carried away and forgot to take pictures of all the process. I did take a picture of them once together though. They look really nice is the brass and a vast improvement on the kit barrels. They are hollowed out as well and when painted look good and you don’t have to paint the barrel hole or try and drill it out.

painted them and couldn’t resist putting them on the ship to see how they looked.

I then have made a start on the ships boats as I will need to fit the PE boat stands to them. This meant all the moulded on boats stands need to be removed…..

This took an absolute age again and got a bit boring… Not done this before and have now have even more respect for all of you who do this… Its quiet tricky to just cut off the plastic holders and get it looking neat……

It looks like a couple of sailors are lousy helmsmen and have run the boats into the Jetty or onto a stone beach.

Wouldn't it be great if the boat holders were separate parts and then added. It would get the parts count up as well for the manufacturers.

After a bit of sanding and this is what they look like with a bit of paint on! At least this will be underneath and the brass PE will be an improvement to the plastic. I havn’t made the brass stands yet as to be perfectly honest could face them after all that carving. I’ll make them and glue the brass on when they are fitted to the ship so they are all on the right places on the decks and branches.

I then painted the inide of the boats wood brown and then the benches white.

Hunter does provide wood decks for between the benches on five of the boats. I have currently decided not to use these as they will look odd with some one colour and other dark brown.

This said there are a couple of the steam launches that have a wood deck and I did decide to use the wood deck on these.

Started by drilling the windows out and then painted the canvas covers at the back of the boat. Some a bit wonky close up.

Then it was on with the small wooden deck and the PE railings. There is also a smaller boat that the boiler steam engine is visible, which also has a wooden deck. After a bit of a paint touch up they take a long time but well worth it.

I then managed to get a few of the deck fittings on the bow done. I have drilled out the anchor Hawes pipes and then threaded the small chain suppled with the kit through to stop her drifting away.

So as per each update it was dry fit it all together to see what we have so far.

You may have spotted that there are a couple of barrels missing from the hull. They are being knocked off when moving stuff around faster than I’m building it. I’m just leaving them off for now and will fit back on near the end…..

The close up photos show all the errors and all the areas that need touching up.

Hope you like it and next week I will be doing some more of the smaller guns and fittings around the hull. Things are slow at the mo due to the amount of details.

Thanks again for looking in and any comments always welcome.

Cheers Guy

Edited August 21, 2016 by rollsroyce

[prowler0000]

1st off:

Next:

I'm just standing on the shoulders of giants here! just glad to be of help.....

If you loved those boats, try the Italian Battleship Roma! think there's upwards of 17 ships boats on her! Granted, not all of em are in the 'as sunk' fit, but still.....

Also, where the deck looks like it's not fully 'down', i use a cotton bud to encourage it into place. Mainly around the anchor chain runs.

I do like the lil' boats tho, VERY good!!!!

[longshanks]

Impressive model / aftermarket/ skills on display here

Kev

[Martian]

Impressive model / aftermarket/ skills on display here

Kev

Agreed, this build is really blossoming.

Martin

[rollsroyce]

1st off:

Next:

I'm just standing on the shoulders of giants here! just glad to be of help.....

If you loved those boats, try the Italian Battleship Roma! think there's upwards of 17 ships boats on her! Granted, not all of em are in the 'as sunk' fit, but still.....

Also, where the deck looks like it's not fully 'down', i use a cotton bud to encourage it into place. Mainly around the anchor chain runs.

I do like the lil' boats tho, VERY good!!!!

Thanks Prowler.

The deck looks in the photos it needs a bit of pushing down in some areas. Will give it a bash this coming weekend.

Thanks for the comments as well. Much appreciated

Cheers

Guy

[rollsroyce]

Impressive model / aftermarket/ skills on display here

Kev

HI Kev

Thanks for the comments.. Loving the MGB658 build by the way and picking up a lot of tips along the way. Thanks

Cheers

Guy

[foxy]

Well those little boats look Impressive and your build is going very well.

Nice work.

The brass guns do make her , 'so nice touch'.

Keep up the good work Guy.

foxy

[rollsroyce]

Agreed, this build is really blossoming.

Martin

Thanks for looking in and the kind comment Martin..

I think I will get a blue sheet to take pictures on as the white box seems to be sending the camera a bit wonky and everything blurred or darker than actually is

Cheers

Guy.

[rollsroyce]

Well those little boats look Impressive and your build is going very well.

Nice work.

The brass guns do make her , 'so nice touch'.

Keep up the good work Guy.

foxy

Hi Foxy

Cheers for that and appreciated. Good to see your progress back and racing ahead. Might be tapping your builds If I decide to do any rigging !!!!.

Cheers

Guy

[robgizlu]

Guy - Just read this Blog from the finish - Fabulous progress - that deck is a thing of beauty and the PE work is very impressive - I too am indebted for the Ball bearing tip.

Keep it coming - Fab looking vessel

Rob

[rollsroyce]

Guy - Just read this Blog from the finish - Fabulous progress - that deck is a thing of beauty and the PE work is very impressive - I too am indebted for the Ball bearing tip.

Keep it coming - Fab looking vessel

Rob

Hi Rob.

Sorry for a slow reply and thanks for the comment. Like the tip from you about the etch bending using the drill bit. Like the carrier build.

Cheers Guy

[rollsroyce]

HI All

Thanks for looking in again and thanks for all the comments and support. They make it all worth while..

Last week saw a busy end with work and a few odds and sods and haven’t checked into the forum for a few days…. BOoooo. Anyway this has been a busy weekend and the bank holiday allowed some more time in the shed.

I have also “Requisitioned” a dark towel from the house to take photos on. Having looked back through the thread the white background was sending the camera a bit funny. It is only a simple point and click and struggles even on the macro setting. They should look a lot better this week.

Last week I finished off with the ships boats. This week started with them again. After doing a bit of research I could only find that the interior of the boats were all wood coloured and brown. I had painted the seats white so went over them with a bit of deck tan. I think they look much better now.

It was then onto making all the boat holders / cradles There is a cradle and then a flat piece that has to be folded around it to make an edge. I did this by sticking the flat piece on a bit of tape then sloting the cradle into this. Then folding the edge around.

All done

It was then time to permanently fix the funnel structures on as I needed to fit three small bridges across the centre of the ship. These fixed the bridges were then glued into place. These had the “lugs” cut off to take the brass boat cradles.

It was then onto the smaller deck fittings and anchor holders at the bow. There is a lovely small anchor chain in the kit. I drilled out the hawse pipes and threaded a small thred from an electrical cable through these to pull the chain through. I also attached the chains after measuring to the anchors and painted the anchors.

When it came to putting the anchor on it looked just placed there. This looked a bit odd. I have seen a trick on the forum of making a cable to hold them in place. Simply two strands of copper wire twisted together using the small drill then painted with gunmetal colour paint. I can't find the tip again so apologies I can't give the credit where due. Thanks whoever you are.

Then threaded this into some small holes drilled into the deck area around the anchor. I also made the small cranes to load the anchors. These have a small etch chain in the Eduard kit that brings these to life. Bit fiddly but worth it.

I have only done one side so far and will leave the other side until nearing the end of the build as the chain is flapping around a bit and quite likely this will get pulled off.

It was then down to the stern for the stern walk. You get a choice of two. One with a roof and one without. I was going to use the one without the roof. I put the deck piece on and then bent the railing around. The first piece was a little to short and I ruined it trying to bend it. I then used Jame’s and Rob’s tips of bending on kitchen roll using a drill bits. This worked well and fitted quite well. The railing is a little small though and there is a lip on the seaward side of the railing !!!!

To cap it all off the name plate while trying to bend to match pinged off …. Never to be seen again.

This section has taken a long time. Taken a lot of patience and trying again and learning but my skills have improved as a result. They still as you can see have a long way to go and thank goodness the kit had a choice

I then decided to make the masts up. These are really tall. There is also an etch deck supplied for the platform. I used the kit part in the end as I struggled to much to get this to fit properly as it comes in 4 pieces. I did used the etch brackets and railing though and they look plenty good enough for me.

I then decided it was time to start mounting the rest of the railings on the upper deck. I then started adding the ships boats. This is where I found a few issues.

When mounting the centre boat the railing around the funnel base was to high and the boat rested on this instead of the cradle. I then cut out the centre of this railing and put the cradle near the gap. It then fitted.

The 2 large steam launches went on ok and just cleared the railings. The four smaller boats were going to be a real problem as they sat on the railings and also squashed up against the ventilator shafts.

There is going to be another 2 boats each side on the boat deck so I am only going to put two of the boats on these bridges. These two will fit between the ventilators and on the bridges well so I will just have to imagine the other two are off training or visiting the local tavern in the port…..

I also attached one of the torpedo net holders on one side. The other still need fitting. There are lots of other small bits and bobs that have been fitted. I then as per each update dry fitted everything so far and too a couple of pictures.

This is approaching the final stages now and lots of small bits to do and the finishing off of various parts. So while a lot gets done the progress looks like it is slowing down

Now I have seen this weeks posts I may get a different coloured towel as this is now making the decks to bright....

Thanks for looking in and hope you all enjoy looking at this weeks progress.

As always any comments or feedback welcome

Cheers for now

Guy

Edited August 29, 2016 by rollsroyce

[longshanks]

Just love it !

Kev

[Martian]

Great work! The boat cradles look very impressive, though I suspect they must have nearly driven you mad doing them.

Martin