bianfuxia Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 My build attempt for this GB is technically a destroyer, but in reality an aircraft carrier. The JMSDF has two of these and two similar smaller ones of a different class. It's 248 meters long, which for comparison is 38 meters longer than the last Ark Royal and a shade longer than the Ark Royal that flew Phantoms. It can operate up to 28 helicopters, or 14 large ones, with five on deck simultaneously. I'm going to use the 1/700 Hasegawa kit for this. It comes with some Seahawks, EH101s and V-22s as well as deck vehicles. A pretty cool kit. I'll post up some pics a bit later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bianfuxia Posted March 19, 2018 Author Share Posted March 19, 2018 Sorry for the crappy cellphone shots; best I can do these days time-wise. I'm looking forward to this one. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandboof Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 Looks like some fun Martin H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 welcome aboard and wow this is a nice looking model!! There's some nice detail there, she'll look great when done. I'd love to build something like this but I have a really bad track record with ships!!! Good luck with the build and I look forward to following your progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bianfuxia Posted May 13, 2018 Author Share Posted May 13, 2018 I started this one tonight. This is at the end of step one on the instructions: And then I dry-fitted the flight deck and built some of the aircraft. Two Seahawks, two Merlins, and a V-22. There is one more V-22 in the box. There is no hangar deck detail on this kit so it's pretty quick so far. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 Nice start, I'd like to see this one in 1/350. I see Hasegawa released the Hyuga 'helicopter destroyer' kit in 1/450 (what were they thinking?). Not sure if the Hyuga and Izumo are the same class. I might have to put up with the 1/450 kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bianfuxia Posted May 14, 2018 Author Share Posted May 14, 2018 It's certainly an odd scale. I guess you can pair it with some Heller ships of the 1960s French Navy in 1/400? Hyuga was one of the predecessor class to this one. A bit smaller but with a Mk 41 VLS with ESSM which this one doesn't have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bianfuxia Posted June 7, 2018 Author Share Posted June 7, 2018 (edited) I've made some progress on this in the last 24 hours. Sprayed the hull and built up the main superstructure. I hope to paint the flight deck today or tonight and finish the main assembly. First pic shows the lovely lifeboat, but once installed you only see the side of it. Such a shame. The other pics show the other work so far. Edited June 7, 2018 by bianfuxia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted June 7, 2018 Share Posted June 7, 2018 gee the detail in the moulding is lovely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bianfuxia Posted June 18, 2018 Author Share Posted June 18, 2018 Not sure if this is out of the ordinary but while building this carrier, which is presently waiting for a coat of paint on the flight deck, I have also been progressing an escort for it. While I wait to move the main build along, here's where that escort is at now. It's getting close to the final stages. This is the Marusame. I don't think it's as blue in real life as it seems in these quickie phone shots. Next post I hope to have the carrier almost completed with just all the tricky details to add. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bianfuxia Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 I hated the colour I put on the flight deck so I cut my losses while it was still wet and wiped it off. Good excuse to hit the shops soon and find a spray can with a better colour. Meanwhile, I put the first paint on the Izumo's airgroup (bar one still unpainted which I located after I'd washed up). It will have two Seahawks, two 101s and two Ospreys (of course, Japan doesn't fly them, but I think they've flown off this thing and certainly might in the future). One of the helos is in folded up state so I guess it can park off to the side later. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 you had me worried for a second as I was sure your build had a flight deck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bianfuxia Posted June 20, 2018 Author Share Posted June 20, 2018 Haha, yes, back on the "straight and narrow" now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bianfuxia Posted July 13, 2018 Author Share Posted July 13, 2018 In the race between my Bogue, Nimitz and Izumo I think this one will come second....but it has the fewest aircraft so might jump ahead. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted July 14, 2018 Share Posted July 14, 2018 she does look good with some aircraft on her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bianfuxia Posted July 14, 2018 Author Share Posted July 14, 2018 Had a little trouble today. You can see in the earlier images there were two smudges on my otherwise nicely sprayed (in Gunship Grey) flight deck. These were glue fingerprints, amateur mistake! I decided to clean it up with a respray, but the first effort left it like this: You can see the demarcation line from where I tried to protect the island structure. So then I did it again and ended up with this: Another amateur mistake. So I snapped those off, luckily they came off very cleanly, and carefully masked up the whole hull again and resprayed the deck. This time it worked ok with no overspray. Then I have finished up the helicopters to the best of my ability. Remember these things are very small and obviously the camera has better vision than my 45 year old eyes... I've never been a fan of blue canopies on these tiny aircraft, I don't think it looks that realistic. For these ones I have used gun metal, because I think the darker shade with a slight reflective finish is closer to what canopies look like from a distance. Some of those smaller side windows obviously need a touch up under a magnifying glass but they are so small that they are only about the same size as the tip of my smallest brush. All that remains on this now is the decking that goes around the flight deck, and to re-instal the island and then add the seemingly hundreds of radomes and antenna. I have also painted a bunch of deck vehicles yellow, they'll be in the next round of photos. After all that, the decals, and it's off to sea - of the GB gallery - for this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bianfuxia Posted July 14, 2018 Author Share Posted July 14, 2018 Well, it turns out the decal sheet helpfully includes windows so I repainted the aircraft to put those on later. And I added all the radomes, which still have to be painted. The decals are 2/3 finished. Not totally sure I can get this finished by tomorrow night as I am going hiking tomorrow but we'll see, it's pretty close. This is where it is at now, with the Mr Mark Softer still drying. Hopefully that silvering will die down a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bianfuxia Posted July 15, 2018 Author Share Posted July 15, 2018 Well, this is about 99 per cent finished, just a few antenna to put on it and some tiny decals on a couple of the helicopters. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 she looks great, you've produced a fine looking model, well done and for managing to finish her on time. Gosh those windows would have been tiny and I can understand the difficultly in painting them, I have to wear magnifiers most of the time now just for normal work (won't admit my age ), I think I ruined my eyes working on aircraft instruments! Thanks for joining us here for this GB, it was great to have you along and to follow you're build/s, I do hope you enjoyed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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