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IJN Mikuma - 1/350 - Tamiya


IJNfan

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Hello everybody,

 

I have been terribly busy lately so I wasn't able to do much documentation or a build log it but since the build is going slow paced, I've decided to try my hand and show you the way to the finish line from this point on.

I have been building on the ship for a month or 2 - 3 now I think, and it is going rather well. A lot of the superstructure stands, together with some etchwork, railings, aa guns and masts. The pictures are shared below

 

I have done a fair bit of work, hull, most of superstructure, masts, aa guns, platforms, funnel is made.

what is yet to come is this, (and maybe more)

- Repairs on one of the main masts where the support girders of the PE set got lost
- finishing superstructures
- making the gun turrets

- putting small brass strips over the deck
- paintjob

- rigging

got a few doubts too about the paintwork, whether I'll mount the superstructure on deck and then start the paintwork, or whether I'll paint the subassemblies first and then the deck/hull before mounting everything together. Maybe anyone got some tips on this. Also I do not yet know how much I'll weather the ship, I like old rusty looks but I won't do it as heavy as on the Hiei I think. 

For the model I use the following materials

- IJN Mikuma Light cruiser 1/350 Tamiya

- Infini 13mm and 25mm twin aa guns 
- veteran IJN deck equipment
- Eduard Mikuma PE sets

- Uschi rigging
- Tamiya XF paints and AK wheathering.

- Aber main gun barrels

 

I'll include more pictures when I finish next steps to provide some extra detail.

kind regards and stay safe

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Edited by IJNfan
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  • 2 weeks later...

re is a small update,

I work slower than before partly to have more fun but mostly cause I have too much to do in too little time. Still I try do at least one page of the instruction manual each week.

What have I done this week,

Been busy with small stuff,

- added a few doors and ladders to the base of the bridge
- created the flying bridge structure between the bridge and funnel islands. Note that I corrected the slanted supports of the right one after reviewing the pictures.
- started on 2 platforms with searchlights, due to tensions on the railing I decided to leave those 2 alone for at least a day before going on to prevent railings getting loose again. Hence the unfinished state
- added 2 pieces of PE to the mast
- started work on the turrets. Brass barrels not yet fully calibrated to be neatly lined up

 

stay healthy,

 

greetings IJNfan

 

p.s. The pictures:

 

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  • 4 months later...

It has been a long long while since I posted any update, university, thesis and all that came in the way. Apologies for the long time I didn't update. Now I am back in a position to do some small stuff with it. So here is a tiny update. In hindsight I should have painted the deck parts separate, thats a lesson noted for next time. Also I found some parts damaged or not the way i'd want to work rn so I took of some parts, hence the glue rests.

I made the Secondary guns, not much pe there but anything counts. 

 

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I made a first lifeboat

 

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I finished turrets

 

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Hopefully the next update doesnt take me 4 months but 1 week or something. 

Thanks and stay safe

IJNfan
 

Edited by IJNfan
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  • 3 weeks later...

It has been a bit, it is still busy and I have not yet had the time to make pictures of everything but here is another small update. As always ME PE frets have a ton of unused stuff so I have been trying to figure out what has to go where. That process is slowly progressing. At the same time I have decided she will be depicted with the guns trained as if she were on the sea trials, this also means the paintwork is not gonna be too spoiled with weathering and some stairs along the sides will not be mounted. I will also place the lifeboats on te suppots on the deck and not mount them to the davits.

I have made the wo catapults, worked on the planes, worked on the lifeboats, adding bits and pieces of pe, and reworking the one from my last post to remove redundant plastic, I added pe to the hull, added the davits to the hull, pre-bend a few stairs and made a plan for the paintwork. More pictures will follow tomorrow or friday. 

 

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im also on the lookout for a next model, I have 2 pontos models, bismarck and nagato, but ain't sure if I am already up to the job of doing that. originally I wanted to build Hiryu, but I can't find a wooden decksticker#sadness. i might as well decide to redo the paintjob on my Hamakaze o get another model befoe starting on the pontos boats

IJNfan

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Gidday IJNfan, I've just 'liked' a couple of your first posts on this build. Why I didn't earlier I have no idea, this is stunning work you're doing on this. Your PE work really enhances the model.

     My personal opinion of IJN vessels is that the ships of this class of cruiser in their original form with the triple turrets as here are the best looking ships of the Japanese Navy. I'd like to do one some day. Regards, Jeff.

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks Mr.@ArnoldAmbrose I can really recommend the fujimi models, they are quite nice and in 1/700 not to expensive while still decently detailed. IJN ships have unrivaled looks. I nearly mainly build IJN for that reason, though as of late ive been straying all over the place. I want to build a 1/200 fuso but there is no kit and as a university student I lack space. once I get my own house ill fill a dedicated room with display cabinets with lego, shipmodels and my book collection I think.

 

Anyways, here I am with another update. I work on this every month but take it a bit slow to keep it fun. Also, my airbrush broke down last month. I couldn’t do a thing. I got my new Infinitt from H&S last week. I was lucky to be able to visit the shop to try it out. And boy what a nice piece of engineering.

 

So onto the real stuff now, The red hull and deck have been done with the old clone brush. I mixed hull red and normal red for this build. I don’t have a set formula. Eyeballing it makes every ship a bit different which is maybe not realistic but nice for a display. 
 

As for the grey, this will be done with the HS. I was thinking Tamiya Kure grey but found out that the Mikuma was build in mitsubishi shipyards. Which color from the Tamiya series would be most appropriate?

Here are the pictures, hull painted and deck painted+masked.


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Edited by IJNfan
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9 hours ago, IJNfan said:

Eyeballing it makes every ship a bit different which is maybe not realistic but nice for a display. 

Gidday, I like to have a bit of variety in the display cabinet too. I've found that a single grey on a build can speed things up a bit, but dazzle camo on some ships can help break the monotony that can result otherwise.

     That looks a nice collection of ships you have there, under HMS Hood.  Regards, Jeff.

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  • 1 month later...

So I am back with a Huge update,

 

worked a ton on stuff to get it done.

 

so what did i do:

 

-paintjob

-railings

-anchorchains

 

I will never again build all stuff and then paint all stuff. Im going over to modular style building on the next boat.

 

onto mikuma. Its time to add the varnish and then go wild using rusts and filters.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

So I have a Major Update after about 2 months. 

 

Done in the meantime

1. Finished the basecoat and first clearcoat of semi gloss clear. 
2. Started applying shading with heavily diluted white paint, filters and weathering material

3. Finished rigging
4. Finished Assembly

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5. Repaired some broken gun barrels
6. Did 2 floatplanes

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7. Screwed up rust since apparently its enamel and not acrylic [completely mistook it since i used to use valejo and switched to AK, so my bad. Caused a big ouch though) so it produced a lovely smudge with the enamel filters from Tamiya

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8. Cleared up the smudge for about 80%
As visible it was bad. Got it partly cleaned up
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Next steps

1. Making the filter a bit more evenly spread, clearing of remaining smudge and stains
2. applying final Clear coat
3. Rust stains and rust powder
4. Decals
 

In the end she is shaping up nicely but I was kinda sad when the weathering went all south. I will spent probably one or two full sessions tying up the lasts stains and smudges before moving ahead as planned. 

Stay safe and happy modeling

IJNfan

 




 

Edited by IJNfan
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  • 1 month later...

So I have come here with a last update because the build is finished for me, which means it is time for the postbuild reflection and some final pictures.

reflection.

Tamiya kits have been recommended to me as being great fits, immaculate engineering and also very friendly builds. I generally did find this all to be true but after building fujimi and trumpeter kits I had become used to have some wiggle room. This kit didn't which means I had to adapt. The quality of the plastic was great, it was clean, not much waste from the molding itself on the plastic was present, if any and the parts were decently detailed. However Tamiya's style of detailing has struck me as a little cartoonish/simplified at times. I think in general i prefer Hasegawa, Fujimi or trumpeters style. It is executed with less finesse but the overal atmosphere/style of the model appeals a little more to me. Not to say the Mikuma isn't a great kit, it is just not fully how I would like to see it, Aoshima's Atago is an example of something I would prefer instead with hindsight.

The painting of this kit has been part new method, part old stuff. The base colors were Tamiya paint. For all their inaccuracies in color, their handling is unsurpassed for me and with some good old mixing I find i can get colors that appeal to me which in the is what i build for. The new part is the use of both washes and rust effects. This went wrong since I did not see that my new stuff was also enamel which smudged my whole weathering. This is something that I need to consider for my next build. Especially if I want to use the ColorCoats enamels I would need to use two clearcoats which in itself may give rise to other problems. All in all the end product isn't perfect. But sometimes I find it easier to except that flaws and make sure not to repeat them next time. I have applied post shading for the first time as which has given such a nice touch that with some more refinement this will definitely remain in work process. 
ven me enough lessons for my next build especially on the painting process but also the building process. Instead of using a build all and then paint all workflow I will adopt the modular way of working. Which may also help keep stuff a little bit more paced.

With IJN builds the last step is painting the Chrysanthemum on the bow, (special picture included). As for the final results here are the usual pictures, I have tried using a better camera + tripod and a healthy dose of light to capture the ship. Note that on one of the turrets I had a very sad reaction between some rust powder on enamel wash that I had applied an hour before, It just stained out overnight and I have polished off a little bit of the stuff but was afraid I would damage the PE on the turret so I let it be as is. Now when reviewing the pictures I see more paintwork stuff, but I will let it be too. In general when working in modules I can focus on smaller sized pieces which hopefully will allow me to work with more refined detail and less errors. 

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  • 1 year later...

Very, very, very good !!! I like how she came out. As far as small blemishes you mentioned go, who cares?? Overall she looks right, so, just keep them coming!!

P.S.I have sister ship  Mogami with Lion roar set , alas I just discovered that Pontos announced their set... https://www.facebook.com/100001619541702/posts/pfbid0hV9iB1cJGBHqQKpJFH8ArVe5tpK6vEzmAguXyFX1xiZLhCNhndLnsVMQCBzDRiqJl/?mibextid=l066kq

so I'm now kind in a pickle...  any takers for Lion roar?!? 😆😆😆

But seriously she will land on workbench soon....

Edited by Zoran Srb
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