1/250 Soya - Japanese Antarctic expedition ship

[calistan]

I still have a bit of rigging left to do on the Nagato I've been making for ages, but I couldn't resist making a start on this one. It's a Pontos / Lighthouse Models kit. The packaging is amazing, more like an Apple product than a typical model kit. I've slapped together the hull and tried to make sense of the huge instruction book, which assumes a lot of knowledge and is most definitely not aimed at novices. This will be my fifth model, I think I might just about be able to handle it, but it doesn't follow the usual ship conventions of having separate sub-structures that you can later stick onto the deck. It looks like a lot of it needs to be built directly onto the hull.

 

^ The hull fits together pretty much seamlessly. The upper flight deck will have lots of detail below it, probably very hard to see once it's stuck in place. The box in the middle is a framework for constructing the bridge around. That helicopter I've started on can be posed with the tail on straight or broken for storage, blades out or folded back, nose bay closed or swung open to show some sort of instruments. The side door can be open or closed (if open, it has PE seats inside).

 

^ After putting together the hull, this is the entirety of the remaining plastic parts. Some of it is even redundant stuff - there are two spare helicopters, a spare snow vehicle and a type of plane that doesn't fit on this particular version of the ship. Soya went through various refits, I guess they must be planning to release models for those too (Hasegawa already did that in 1/350 scale).

 

^ It's largely a photo etch model. The sides of the hull above water, the helicopter deck, almost all of the structures on deck... There are 800-odd PE pieces plus 220-something bits of turned brass. I'll need to make sure the paint gets a really good grip on here, otherwise it's going to be peeling off all over the place when I mask various parts.

 

^ Somebody has mistyped "Antaractica" all over the box, in the instructions and, sadly, on the nice steel nameplate too. Oh well.

 

^ Some pictures of the real thing. Soya is a museum ship now, and it has an excellent website (in Japanese) for colour references and so on. The kit has a very detailed bridge which is made up as a separate box and slotted into the main structure, and tiny versions of most of these instruments are included.

 

^ The braces on the ceiling and all of this stuff on the back wall of the bridge are modelled in numerous pieces of PE. Sadly it's going to be impossible to see. I saw a build of this on the web a while ago where they'd put lighting in the bridge, but that's a step too far for me I think.

 

^ The kit doesn't have that small door in the side of the funnel, so I'm going to stick a spare Nagato door on there.

 

^ This is the space underneath the helicopter deck, which is filled with PE equipment. Good to know what colour to paint the ceiling, since the instructions don't seem to mention that. I don't know if the screws would have been painted that red and white scheme when it was an actual oceangoing vessel, but they do look rather nice that way.

 

Edited May 10, 2023 by calistan
Relnked old pictures from Village Photos to Postimg

[Silenoz]

Nice, I'm in for sure...  This one is on my wishlist, but due to the pricetag I think it will stay there...

[Courageous]

This looks rather interesting but I don't envy you with all that PE, might just push you over the edge.

 

Stuart

[Bandsaw Steve]

Wow! That looks like a task and a half. Good luck.

[bootneck]

On 14/02/2020 at 14:26, calistan said:

The kit doesn't have that small door in the side of the funnel, so I'm going to stick a spare Nagato door on there.

Hi Calistan,

unlike warships, that door is a flush fit with the funnel and I would recommend something like a decal to represent it rather than adding something that will sit proud of the surface.  You could then just add the hinges and latch handles.

I have this kit in 1:350 scale and I am looking forward to seeing (and learning from) your progress.

cheers,

 

Mike

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Particularly nice of the museum curators to include that sign saying “funnel” [in case we weren’t sure?].  My Japanese is completely non-existent, but either that fine language takes 5 whole lines of text to say “funnel”... or the English-speaking visitors are a little short-changed by the signage.

 

Lovely looking kit.  Got my attention!

[Terry1954]

Unusual but excellent subject. So much brass, I'm sure it will be fun!

 

Will follow with much interest.

 

Terry

[calistan]

On 2/17/2020 at 12:50 PM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Particularly nice of the museum curators to include that sign saying “funnel” [in case we weren’t sure?].  My Japanese is completely non-existent, but either that fine language takes 5 whole lines of text to say “funnel”... or the English-speaking visitors are a little short-changed by the signage.

I did nightschool Japanese ages ago to help me play videogames, which didn't get me far enough to read the complex kanji but I know there are a lot of "loan words" in there (foreign words transcribed into Japanese phonetics using a distinctive character set). Engine, funnel, boiler, blue, compass. I think it really is a 'say what you see' sort of sign.

 

This is the funnel, smoke from the engine or boiler comes out, it has a blue stripe and the mark of a compass.

On 2/14/2020 at 2:57 PM, Silenoz said:

Nice, I'm in for sure...  This one is on my wishlist, but due to the pricetag I think it will stay there...

Compared to a normal 'premium' model + a big photoetch set, it didn't seem so bad. Also I have about three times as much plastic left over from my completed Nagato as the Soya kit contains in total, so I'm helping save the planet 😇

[calistan]

I've got a tiny way into this build now. The complexity is off the scale but the quality of the kit is extraordinary. Being very precisely measured PE, everything fits together to a fraction of a millimetre.

 

The downside to it being so precise is that it's utterly unforgiving. There are some large pieces of PE that must be applied to curved parts of the hull, and if you get the angle ever so slightly off, you'll find that it doesn't conform to the plastic properly or doesn't quite match up with the next segment and has to be carefully unstuck and reapplied.

 

Even the thickness of the glue makes a difference. I've got it as tight as I can get it for the moment, I'll see if there are any gaps to be filled after the primer goes on. Filling such intricately detailed metal might spoil the look a bit. Hope it doesn't need too much.

 

^ There's a lot of double thicknesses of PE to glue together for structural support, which is hard to do if you make any mistakes in curving the first piece. The barrier around the edge of the deck is a double layer, plus loads of struts that make it very rigid, then three pieces on top to cover it. I had to file down the tops of some of the struts because the thickness of the glue made them stick up too  high.

 

^ I'm trying to build the superstructure as a removable piece so it can be painted away from the rest of the ship. It's not possible to do the entire thing that way, though. The bridge slots into the big hole at the front, and will be (barely) visible through the open doors.

 

^ A little piece that slots into the top of the funnel. I'm tempted to do the fiddly little things like this and the various aircraft and boats first, because for once they might actually be the easiest parts.

 

 

Edited May 10, 2023 by calistan
Relinked broken Village Photos images for the benefit of Chrome users (Firefox is fine with Village Photos but nobody but me likes it)

[calistan]

First update in a while. I haven't had much modelling time or inspiration in the last couple of months, but I'm back on it now. Some of these pics were the last ones I took before the world went crazy. I'm trying to remember what I was meant to do next.

 

^ This is one of the cranes. I found that CA glue didn't give enough structural support while working on other bits, so I soldered it instead - which naturally caused all the small CA parts to drop off. The left side is black because it pinged off the tweezers and into a pot of thick CA while I was trying to stick it, so I had to burn the glue off. Other parts I did in the wrong order, and had to unstick them by freezing them for a while (very effective).

 

^ This is as it is now, which is as it was two months ago. Pretty much finished. I tested it plenty of times to make sure my improvised jig / piece of plastic matched up with the holes in the deck.

 

^ I thought making the small fiddly bits first would be a good way to get back into things, so I started on the helicopter. It's super detailed, there's even photo etch on the bottom.

 

^ The finished helicopter. The window frames are a bit rough but I'm happy enough at this scale, it looks fine with the naked eye. The colour is from Mr Paint, which is a brand I hadn't used before. Very nice to use, incredibly thin (but impossible to use a brush for touching up details) and nicer in real life than in this picture. I'm using the same colour for the ship hull.

 

^ Onto the plane next, and this is the first negative point I have about this kit. It doesn't fit at all! There's something very wrong here.

 

^ The body and wings in the instructions are different - in the kit there's a bit that stick out at the front centre of the wings, a pip at the top of the windows, and a very thick pillar between the front windows.

 

^ Here's another view. It's not right at all, there's some major surgery required to get it to fit. Not what I was expecting. I can't see similar problems on the few other examples of this I've found on the internet, so I don't know if maybe I'm reading the instructions wrong or I've just got a duff one.

Edited May 10, 2023 by calistan
Village Photos begone

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

It looks pretty straightforward to fix to me. I'd trim back the top of the fuselage a bit. You wing part looks a bit narrow for the fuselage and the instructions show the wing piece extending back to the front of the dorsal fin fillet. On the kit part the fuselage halves have extra length there. The roof carries too far forward ahead of the fin. Removing that should let the wing sit in the right place and the roof part of the wing piece will be the right width for the fuselage.

 

I agree it looks like Kim done goofed here a wee bitty though

[calistan]

Thanks Jamie, good call on trimming from the back of the fuselage. I wasn't looking there, I was mainly thinking of somehow carving out the top of the windscreen to accommodate the rounded protrusion.

Cutting from the back does indeed make the panel lines match up, and after that I needed to remove the rounded part (it's surely a mistake), take off the lug from the fuselage, and trim just a bit from the middle of the wing so it sits flat. A bit of filler and I think it's good to go.

I've also been chipping away at the central windscreen pillar, as for some reason it was wider than the glass panes either side.

Edited May 10, 2023 by calistan
Late night Villlage Photos relinking spree

[calistan]

A few more pics, six months on. Slow is better than no progress at all...

 

^ Watchtower and radar that goes on the top. Keeping them separate for now because the radar will be a different colour.

 

^ These parts are for the level beneath the helicopter deck, so they will only be visible behind railings, through a slot about 1cm tall.

 

^ The bridge, painted. It also has a detailed ceiling, not shown, so it's completely enclosed. Once it's formed into a box it slots into the top of the ship, and two long pieces of PE wrap around the opening. The inner piece has window frames, which are meant to be done in dark brown or black, and the outer piece should have the white paint, leaving the frames showing through cleanly. How to prevent paint going through the windows and ruining the bridge interior - on many an evening that's a problem that has led me to put this back on the shelf and do something else.

 

^ I think I've figured it out. This is the bridge in place. Before I sealed it up I ran some thin strips of tape around the inside, covering the window openings. I left the ends dangling out of the side doors, and the idea is that it will all stay in place until the ship is fully painted. Then I'll pull on the ends to drag the tape out of there, hopefully without tearing off the bridge instruments while I'm doing it.

The piece of PE that's on there now will be painted dark for the window frames. The outer piece, which is resting on top, will have to be painted separately and glued on afterwards.

 

^ Bonus pic. I found this ship in Microsoft Flight Simulator! Mine will not have trees growing out of it.

 

Edited May 10, 2023 by calistan
One web browser so dominates the market that it's able to dictate standards and break images links as it sees fit

[Jfgred1]

Excellence in modelling. Very, but very good work going on here. 

 

For a long time had been considering buying this model and after seeing what you are doing here, I think I am more than tempted to definitively hit the buy button. 

 

Please keep it coming.

[calistan]

I'm gradually filling little boxes of semi-completed parts that will have to be added to the model at the last minute, and trying to improve my painting technique. I've only done big grey warships before, never anything as colourful as this.

 

^ The funnel assembly. When I've tried to apply Tamiya acrylics with a brush, it looks like I've put it on with a trowel. Humbrol enamels, though - smooth as silk. Who knew? Everyone but me, probably. It's only the red bit inside the vent pipes anyway, the rest is Tamiya / Gunze airbrushed.

 

^ A bit of a flaw in the model here. There's a slot for the square part of the funnel but nothing for the protruding pegs from the other bits. This is definitely how it's meant to be made, so I assume they just forgot to consider how it might go together. I just drilled some suitable holes for it.

 

^ More deck parts. These are mostly for the front. I'm going to mask around the barrels of the rollers on those winches, so they can keep a shiny metal look. Wrong kind of metal, I know, but it might look better than if I tried to paint them.

 

^ The beginnings of the second type of helicopter. Oddly, there are moulded seats inside the cockpit but the canopy is opaque. The canopy is probably going to look very un-glasslike and more than a bit rubbish when it's painted, so I think I'm going to model it covered up with some sort of protective canvas. Maybe a bit of thin foil would work.

 

I can't see how the tail rotor assembly is meant to go on. It's supposed to slot together, but the end of the tail girder part is much too tall to fit. There are a couple of spares in the kit, and I tried one of them with exactly the same result. I might just have to cut it to get it to fit.

Edited May 10, 2023 by calistan
I love to edit, edit. I love to edit, edit...

[Silenoz]

Very nice work. Tempted to buy the kit, but then it will be 1 kit for that year...

 

That opaque canopy, isn't that a form? You can try heating some clear sheet and pull it over the form. Then cut out the necessary form...

[calistan]

On 12/18/2020 at 7:31 PM, Silenoz said:

Very nice work. Tempted to buy the kit, but then it will be 1 kit for that year...

 

That opaque canopy, isn't that a form? You can try heating some clear sheet and pull it over the form. Then cut out the necessary form...

Good idea, I think I might give that a try. I don't think it's meant to be done like that, since the dome fits flush to the seat part, so any clear plastic moulded over it wouldn't join neatly. Worth a go though, thanks. The other examples of this that I've seen online all have the canopy painted solid grey or blue, which doesn't look very convincing.

[calistan]

Finally started painting the hull, and it went better than I expected. There are four colours on this part and a lot of photo etch detail already in place, plus most of the surfaces to be masked are large, flat areas of metal, and hence likely to peel.

 

^ The only major part where some paint got under the masking tape (I haven't unmasked the submerged part of the hull yet). This orange paint is incredibly thin, like water.

 

^ The only part where it peeled. Tamiya acrylic over Mig acrylic primer over Gunze metal primer. I'm lucky it was only this small spot but it's still annoying, since I'm now going to have to mask the orange to fix this, and I'd deliberately left that until last because I thought it would be the most likely to come unstuck.

 

^ The wooden deck can finally come out for some air after many months under cover.

 

^ I masked the rollers on these winches and then dirtied them up with Tamiya gun metal powder so they weren't quite so shiny and brassy. These will both be sandwiched under the helicopter deck and pretty hard to see, but there are five similar things on the top deck which I think I'll paint the same way.

 

 

 

Edited May 10, 2023 by calistan
I love to edit, edit. I love to... EDIT!

[robgizlu]

All looking hugely impressive

Rob

[Iceman 29]

On 22/05/2020 at 23:31, calistan said:

Thanks Jamie, good call on trimming from the back of the fuselage. I wasn't looking there, I was mainly thinking of somehow carving out the top of the windscreen to accommodate the rounded protrusion.

Cutting from the back does indeed make the panel lines match up, and after that I needed to remove the rounded part (it's surely a mistake), take off the lug from the fuselage, and trim just a bit from the middle of the wing so it sits flat. A bit of filler and I think it's good to go.

I've also been chipping away at the central windscreen pillar, as for some reason it was wider than the glass panes either side.

 

Nice job! 

 

For the record, the Beaver will end badly on February 17, 1961, it will make a forced landing at sea off Kamaishi, the 2 occupants will be recovered alive, the aircraft will sink, and will be declared a total loss.

 

http://www.dhc-2.com/id983.htm

 

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/63357

 

[calistan]

Minor update: unmasked the hull, repaired some spot damage, added a clearcoat for decals and weathering, and managed to knock off a couple of bits of PE (later located in the carpet).

 

^ The lower rear deck is now populated. I had to remove the base for the column in the bottom centre because I couldn't get it to fit. All of this is only visible in silhouette once the upper deck is attached, so this is the last time it will be seen. The six columns originally had little nipples on top that were meant to match up with holes in the upper deck, but that would have meant that if the alignment was off even slightly (which it is on some of them) then the upper deck wouldn't fit.

 

^ The kit comes with really good decals by Cartograf. Looks like there's still a bit of an edge visible on the depth markings, so I'll try softening it up some more before sealing it. I've used some 'fouling green' to dirty up the hard line between the orange and the hull red.

Edited May 10, 2023 by calistan
All Village Photos links now changed to Postimg

[Iceman 29]

Nice weathering and decals! 

[dnl42]

Wow, the detail is amazing, and you're doing an outstanding job on bringing it all together! 

 

The wheelhouse, deck machinery, and hull are superb!

 

On 2/17/2020 at 4:50 AM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Particularly nice of the museum curators to include that sign saying “funnel” [in case we weren’t sure?].  My Japanese is completely non-existent, but either that fine language takes 5 whole lines of text to say “funnel”... or the English-speaking visitors are a little short-changed by the signage.

My phone tells me the text advises against sticking your head in said funnel.

[Courageous]

Back end looking nice and weathered. Decals look nice too.

 

Stuart

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday, it seems a shame that those winches will hardly be seen, they look exquisite. Regards, Jeff.