IJN Akagi, Battlecruiser (proposed)

[Thom216]

So I started this one for the Salty Sea Dog GB. I've been thinking about doing the Akagi in all three 'variants,' from the proposed battlecruiser, its conversion to an aircraft carrier and then its last refit to the full deck.

But as happens a lot, my drive dropped off and my attention wandered. (It wandered to the Three-Decker, but that's another thread!) As of now, the GB is not over, but I know it will not reach the finish line there. But nor do I want this to languish at half status - along with so many other kits! So, hopefully, this will keep me working on this so I can get it into the DUN Column.

 

And just to be up front, I'm no expert on ships and such, so I hope you'll forgive some gaffs.😉

 

So, to start the 'base' of the project is Fujimi's 1/700 Amagi kit. I know now that they also have a battlecruiser Akagi kit, but the only difference between the two is pretty much just the name of the ship on the box, so all is good there!

 

Except that it is a waterline kit and I like to see the full hull. Bum, bum, buuuummmmm!

 

No worries though, I had bought more kits! I think five in total, the one battlecruiser and a Fujimi full hull full-decker and two Hasegawa versions, the three-deck and another full decker with a full hull. Between them I had enough bottom hull pieces for all three ships, although I had to mix-match in order to get a good fit for the battlecruiser.

 

The bottom from one of the full deck Hasegawa's was a  'good enough' match, with that kit having then been sold off as a waterline kit.

Compared to the Fujimi lower hull from the full deck kit, this one is more flat-bottomed though and lacking in some 'shape' near the stern.

 

Here's a pic of all the parts, starting with what came in the Fujimi kit.

 

And the rest,

 

And the wood deck.

 

The first thing to do was to check the fit of the hull pieces. I had chosen the best fit for the Fujimi upper hull but there were still some discrepancies. From the side, the bow looked really good.

 

Though there was a bit of an 'under bite' at the stern.

 

None too bad, as that can be dealt with, especially as going down the sides, the parts lined up pretty well with only a little bit of sanding needed.

 

First though, was the shape of the bottom, Again, the Fujimi hull (top) has some better looking curves to it compared to Hasegawa's more flat-bottomed version.

It also has more of a 'keel line' going forward, which I mimicked by gluing on a thin strip of styrene.

 

This also helped during sanding, as it kept me from sanding across the center line.

After a little bit of sanding I got this.

 

A shot of primer and it looks pretty good.

 

I snipped the strengthening cross members in order to allow for flex and movement while gluing them together.

 

Which left me with a canoe!

 

For the seams, I tried Perfect Plastic Putty first, but that made a cake of it, and I ended up using CA to further bind the sections as well as act as a filler.

 

And sometimes you (I) just sand a little too much... I ended up with a shallowness to fill on the starboard side.

 

To fix that I pulled out some stryene strip and glued one to either side to keep symmetry. Those were then sanded in which fixed it up.

 

With that self-inflicted wound fixed, I moved onto mounting. For that I got some bolts and lamp parts from the local hardware store.

 

And then drilled some holes. (Yeah, one was out of place...)

 

Those were glued in with CA.

 

With that I moved to the upper decks. For the PE I sanded off some unneeded details.

 

And drilled through some holes for the chains.

 

 

I sanded the under bite off of the stern, and though there is some PE for the 'Captain's Walk' I left the plastic in place as it looked well enough.

 

I started doing some PE after that, which was a little miss...

 

And a little hit...

 

I've since taken off the smaller T-shaped piece and used parts of it on the kit part. Then it was onto the gun barrels. The Fujimi barrels looked pretty good with open muzzles, but I already had the brass ones, two sets in order to account for all of the turrets, so the plastic ones were lopped off and replaced.

 

And some super structure PE started.

 

The next part going on top of that though looked a little off...

 

I sanded the front posts now to level it out.

 

And that's where I'm at now.

As usual, I got side-tracked, this time by the Three-Deck version for the Transports Loaders and Carriers GB, which won't be finished for that one either!😄 But I'm getting the hull on that one to a 'good place' and I'm now awaiting some more PE to show up for it, so I'll be coming back to do more work on this one soon.

 

Keep on modelling!

 

Thom

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by Thom216

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Thom, I've been wondering how they've both been proceeding. Looking forward to seeing more progress. Regards, Jeff.

[Tegethoff]

Looking good so far. I struggle at 1/350 so at 1/700 you have my respect/condolences/admiration - delete as applicable. 

[Thom216]

On 5/1/2023 at 11:31 PM, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday Thom, I've been wondering how they've both been proceeding. Looking forward to seeing more progress. Regards, Jeff.

Proceeding none too quickly!!😉

 

On 5/2/2023 at 12:07 PM, Tegethoff said:

Looking good so far. I struggle at 1/350 so at 1/700 you have my respect/condolences/admiration - delete as applicable. 

Well, respect if I finish and condolences if (when) I don't!😆

As to detail, a lot depends on the kit as some offer some great detail OOB, such as Fly Hawk. I have a big urge to get their Hood kit. 

And as to size, they are certainly more economical (for the most part.) That's not to say that I don't have eight or nine /350s in the Stash, but when completed I could display two or three 700s in the space of one 350.

 

 

[Courageous]

A promising start...

 

Stuart