1/350 Carriers Taiho and Graf Zeppelin

[bismarck builder]

Hi Sam

that square is the emergency rudder

great builds

cheers

gary r

[S-boat 55]

3 hours ago, bismarck builder said:

Hi Sam

that square is the emergency rudder

great builds

cheers

gary r

Thanks, id nevernod guessed that, males it easier as it can be painted grey as with the rest of her then, 

Thanks,

Sam

[S-boat 55]

Hi All, 

 

Bit of an update, more etch going on, 

 

Funnel grill finished and painted;

 

Radar parts forming up

 

This is the underside on the platform at eh base of the mast - didn't stop to think that when fitted you cant see the bottom so why do the etch - the kit has a few bits like this - there's extensive etch to go under the two aircraft lifts which again you would never be able to see, the upper platform for the mast has more complicated etch under it but i forgot to photo before i put it in place and now you can barely see it..........

 

 

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by S-boat 55

[Faraway]

38 minutes ago, S-boat 55 said:

there's extensive etch to go under the two aircraft lifts which again you would never be able to see,

It’s what we do.

Although at times I do wonder, why we spend hours assembling tiny bits of brass, only to hides them away in the bowls of a kit.

Never to see the light of day again.

The funnel does look very good.

Jon

[S-boat 55]

So the site kicked me off - update cont.

 

Wind baffle for the bridge - one vein is crooked which is frustrating but nowt i cna do about it now, 

 

Here's how its starting to form up, the pipes adjacent to the funnel are a nice feature I think, 

 

 

Also a very nice man from China sent me a present, well less a present as i paid for it but still it looks great,

 

I certainly didn't pay the £100 that was being asked for it though, spent many long hours trawling the internet and checking and rechecking sites and it popped up at a much more reasonable price on aliexpress, delivered in 10 days as well which was very quick. It looks fantastic in person imho so rather than try and stain it to show how the deck was blackened I'm going to go with it as is.  Getting it has certainly spurred me on I'm chomping at the bit to finish Taiho now sp trying to get to the bench as much as possible. Did give in and go see Don't worry darling and The Woman King last night though - both enjoyable - the Woman King was fantastic actually, 

 

Still so much to do but also feels like I'm really getting there now. 

 

 

I've decided to try and go with this picture of her as the guide when i paint her uppers. There are only a few photos of The Great Phoenix (Taiho), and this is the clearest of her whilst she was anchored off Tawitawi, Borneo in May 1944 with a Shokaku class carrier and I think Nagato sitting in the background. Masking off the light band (which I'll do very pale grey) on the funnel is going to be tricky but I'll try. She was an impressive looking ship and fast to at 33.5 knots, but had deep flaws in her design partially created in numerous compromised made throughout her conception and delivery. The Japanese understood that in part and ironed some of them out with the next class of carriers but it led to them never really knowing how to use her, was she a class A carrier destined for the front line or a B type that would sit in fleet support.

 

She spent most of her time sitting at anchor and was lost after only a few months in service. Commissioned on the 7th of March 44, she then sank on 19th June the victim to a single torpedo from the USS Albercore a Gato class sub.  Due to the amount of armour she carried Taiho was unusual for a carrier in that her lower hangar was below the water line, the torpedo strike caused flooding that filled the bottom of her forward hangar well as well as rupturing fuel lines. The mixing sea water and aviation fuel  caused dangerously volatile fumes to start to build up internally and unlike American carriers her hangars were sealed with only mechanically operated ventilation. This wasn't helped by her crew being order to plank up the opening for the forward well as the lift had distorted and was jammed in a lowered position. This allowed flight operations to carry one for several hours but exacerbated the lack of ventilation. After hours of trying to resolve the situation her chief of damage control ordered her ventilation systems to be turned on to full in an effort to get rid of aviation and oil fuel vapours that were now building up in both her upper and lower her hangar. This had the opposite affect, saturating the rest of the ship with a mixture of oil and aviation vapours mixing with air and turning the ship into a powder keg.  Six and a half hours after the torpedo hit she was racked by a massive explosion from stem to stern that witnesses reported caused the flight deck to heave up and blow the sides of the ship out. At 16:28 she sank by the stern taking 1650 of her crew down with her. 

 

 

 

 

 

[S-boat 55]

16 minutes ago, Faraway said:

It’s what we do.

Although at times I do wonder, why we spend hours assembling tiny bits of brass, only to hides them away in the bowls of a kit.

Never to see the light of day again.

The funnel does look very good.

Jon

Thanks Jon,

 

Yeah its bonkers really, but its the process i guess, I've just added another update above as the system logged me out for some reason 

[Rich75]

Glad to see your wooden deck came with some PE, I was thinking you needed some extra detail!  cracking job so far, 

[S-boat 55]

3 hours ago, Rich75 said:

Glad to see your wooden deck came with some PE, I was thinking you needed some extra detail!  cracking job so far, 

You're not wrong- it was about time I did some 😉

[S-boat 55]

Hi All, 

 

So small update again, pretty happy with how the radars have turned out,

 

The island is busying up, I do find the rails around the funnel a real pain, i was tempted to leave them off as they were a faff on Graf Zeppelin - they were worse on Taiho but they're on, one is crooked but I'm calling it artistic licence,!

This is where its now at;

 

 

There's a bit of railing to go on and some stairs/ladders, the awkward part is the gussets to go under that small fore platform - I may simplify them, 

 

The goal this week is to get the island finished ready to paint. It'll need doing in two parts so the upper most part still comes off. Then its back to the hull, I really want to get some Kure grey on her but there's no point doing just part of her as she's al the same colour, I may as well just have a  mammoth airbrush session at some point. 

 

Maybe see some of you at Telford, 

 

thanks

 

Sam

 

 

 

 

Edited November 7, 2022 by S-boat 55

[Courageous]

That 'bedstead' radar must've been a nightmare, looks great.

 

Stuart

[S-boat 55]

I swear this project is never going to end! Top part of the Island is done aside adding on the last bits to rig her post painting,

 

Thinking about paint soon, I tried out the Kure grey from Colourcoats a while back on the lifts, its a little darker than this when you see it in person. I'm going to lighten it by 10-12% I think, 

 

Somewhat disappointingly I'm going to be left with quite the seam on the island junction, i cant see a way around it though, if i join it first the deck colour internally will be lost when it should likely be linoleum rather than deck grey, 

 

The other disappointment i have found is that the deck from Veryfire doesn't fit! The centre section is too long, All i can do is cut it incredibly carefully when it comes to putting it on, any one any experience in adjusting/cutting these, its only  1mm but its enough to cause real issues, 

 

Aside that I decided i couldnt hide away from the triple AA mounts any longer, they take forever and i hope will be worth it in the end, some of the parts are tiny, 

 

To get the 17 of them to this point has taken just shy of 7 hours, I don't know if that's good bad or indifferent, there's still 9 bits to add though and i feel my sanity slipping, 

 

Thanks for stopping in, 

 

Sam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Faraway]

Stunning work.

Those guns..................

Jon

[Rich75]

Great work, I don't think the time taken matters, who's going to say it's taken you too long! (Except maybe yourself) all that matters ist the guns look fantastic so they are definitely worth it, like the rest of the build actually, top class

[S-boat 55]

3 hours ago, Faraway said:

Stunning work.

Those guns..................

Jon

 

2 hours ago, Rich75 said:

Great work, I don't think the time taken matters, who's going to say it's taken you too long! (Except maybe yourself) all that matters ist the guns look fantastic so they are definitely worth it, like the rest of the build actually, top class

Thank you both, it's always encouraging to hear feedback, I shall be persevering with them, 

 

 

[Courageous]

9 hours ago, S-boat 55 said:

I swear this project is never going to end!

You are building three, so we'll let you off .

As others have said, fantastic work and as for those AA guns...must've tested the eyeballs. Good work.

 

Stuart

[Tegethoff]

This is a mind blowing series of builds. I'm in awe.

[S-boat 55]

24 minutes ago, Tegethoff said:

This is a mind blowing series of builds. I'm in awe.

Thanks, I'll confess I'd not realised quite how much I'd bitten off by taking on two carriers at the same time but they're getting there, 

[S-boat 55]

Hi all, 

 

Apologies for the lack of updates but her indoors and I decided that this was a good time of year to move house......I can't recommend it, we're now in and I'm  getting stuff set up to recommence the builds so update soon. Wanted to take the opportunity though to wish you all a Happy Christmas and New year,

 

Happy modelling, Sam

Edited December 24, 2022 by S-boat 55

[S-boat 55]

Happy New Year all,

 

We decided to move on Dec 20th - that was fun! Its at times like this that actually noy having much finisshed is beneficial,...less thats delicate. The three i'd finished plus Taiho and Zeppelin were duely packed carefully and i'd hoped would made it largely unscathed on the 3/4 mile journey! However this wasnt to be and Dunkerque's crown, top aerial and sea plane  got damaged along with Dreadnoughts masts. So my first modelling on 2023 was to start repairs, 

 

Sorted and into her new home, which is one of the benefits of the move, a dedicated cabinet with plenty of room to fill as i build things,

  

 

Taiho has been on my mind so thought id get back underway on her....then i got distracted and ordered Hobbyboss's 1/350 USS Gato. Shes going to be displayed with Taiho as it was the Gato class submarine USS Albacore that sank her. So if you'll forgive the slight digression here are shots of an hours work tonight. To be fair to myself im not p for detail work tonight so a quick sub build is in order;

Oddly the hull has generic plate lines but the superstructure is very sparce, may need to do a little research and get different decals to do her as Albercore. 

 

Thanks for stopping in, more actual aircraft carriers next i guess

 

Sam

Edited January 3 by S-boat 55

[Andreas.R]

On 11/30/2022 at 12:41 PM, S-boat 55 said:

I swear this project is never going to end! Top part of the Island is done aside adding on the last bits to rig her post painting,

 

Thinking about paint soon, I tried out the Kure grey from Colourcoats a while back on the lifts, its a little darker than this when you see it in person. I'm going to lighten it by 10-12% I think, 

 

Somewhat disappointingly I'm going to be left with quite the seam on the island junction, i cant see a way around it though, if i join it first the deck colour internally will be lost when it should likely be linoleum rather than deck grey, 

 

The other disappointment i have found is that the deck from Veryfire doesn't fit! The centre section is too long, All i can do is cut it incredibly carefully when it comes to putting it on, any one any experience in adjusting/cutting these, its only  1mm but its enough to cause real issues, 

 

Aside that I decided i couldnt hide away from the triple AA mounts any longer, they take forever and i hope will be worth it in the end, some of the parts are tiny, 

 

To get the 17 of them to this point has taken just shy of 7 hours, I don't know if that's good bad or indifferent, there's still 9 bits to add though and i feel my sanity slipping, 

 

Thanks for stopping in, 

 

Sam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello.

A suggestion for cutting the flight deck: Pull off the film below about 5mm, fold it and then stick it on. Using a steel ruler, mark the excess length with a pencil. If it fits, cut off the 1 mm with a sharp blade using the guide of the ruler. Carefully remove the stuck strip. You could possibly sand off a little of the non-glued 2nd deck. Then carefully lift the partly glued (shortened) deck and peel off the foil completely!

I did it with a genuine wood deck- it worked well.

[bissyboat]

Two massive carriers and a Gato Class submarine. What a treat! ⚓🍿

[S-boat 55]

Slowly getting into the swing of things again and making progress on Taiho at the moment, 

 

The internals on the bow are done, the paint work looks sketchy in places but given you can barely see it and even then only side on I think it'll be okay the cable reels were oddly tricky i found, 

 

Nearly forgot to add the etch detail back before the next step, so here it is, never to properly be seen again, 

 

Last shot of her internals before closing the lid, 

 

Lastly a shot of the two together showing a bit of Kure grey on Taiho,  their new home is a little tight! but if I said to Mrs S-boat that I should have got something bigger I'll be politely ushered to the garage and its cold out there so I shall keep schtum, 

 

Need to re do her anti fouling as the bottoms got scratched so that'll be tonight, then its myriads of little steps etc to go on the platforms and flight deck edge before further painting, 

 

Thanks for baring with the build, 

 

 

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

1 hour ago, S-boat 55 said:

their new home is a little tight!

How would they fit at a bit of an angle? They both look great but yeah, squeezed in. And it's a pity that all that bow detail can't be seen. Regards, Jeff.

[Faraway]

Looking really very good. It's always a shame that SO much detail disappears. But we know it's there. 

Jon

[S-boat 55]

2 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

How would they fit at a bit of an angle? They both look great but yeah, squeezed in. And it's a pity that all that bow detail can't be seen. Regards, Jeff.

I think they might of I had one per shelf with smaller things either side, it's my own fault really I read 800mm wide and thought that'll work but forgot that's the outside measurement 

 

14 minutes ago, Faraway said:

Looking really very good. It's always a shame that SO much detail disappears. But we know it's there. 

Jon

Thanks Jon, I should have lit it really, wondered again the other day but I've reached the point of just wanting these finished now 

Edited January 17 by S-boat 55