Tamiya IJN Kagero

[Tim Reynaga]

With the exception of removing the molded strengthening strakes, the now smooth-sided aft gunhouses received the same treatment as the forward mount.

 

 

As previously, the rails fit well and were secured with dabs of liquid plastic cement applied with a fine brush. I’m not nuts about the weak bond, but the thin cement is quite a bit neater and easier to control than super glue. I just have to remember to use extreme care in handling these assemblies as I work with them.

 

 

Here are the portside top rails for the two gunhouses bent to shape and ready to install. They may not look like much here, but I found them fiendishly difficult to bend into the exact right shapes needed to match the complex roof lines!

 

 

 

Once correctly shaped though, Infini’s well-designed brass parts do fit perfectly on to the kit parts.

 

 

 

Attaching the rest of the roof rails and the barrels was straightforward. Except for painting, Kagero’s 12.7cm main guns are now done!

[Courageous]

Lovely brass work on those turrets.

 

Stuart

[Richard E]

Excellent work - the turrets are almost standalone kits on their own !

[Tim Reynaga]

Thank you gentlemen. I'm glad to be done assembling those torpedo mounts and gunhouses! They do look better with all that etch, but the weak liquid cement brass-to-plastic bonds mean I have to use a LOT of care handling them. They are temporarily mounted on a piece of wood scrap for now, but I'll be glad when they are finally painted and placed aboard so I don't have to worry about touching and damaging them. The IJN has really been trying my patience with all those rails!

 

 

It will be nice to move on to something else. 😁

[Tim Reynaga]

With the major weapons sorted out, it is time for the secondary 25mm antiaircraft batteries.

 

 

I’d previously prepped Tamiya’s kit 25mm AA platform which was adequate but, admittedly... unexciting. The molded-on 25mm AA ammunition boxes were particularly disappointing, but my thought was to cut them away and replace them with either the boxes from the Infini set or other aftermarket resin parts. 

 

 

Despite the mismatch of the Tamiya and Infini nonslip treads which initially led me to forgo the brass replacement platform, in the end I just couldn’t pass up Infini’s better detail. I glued the upper and lower halves of the brass deck together and evened up the edges with micro files and sandpaper. The rails had come already attached to the brass deck, but I separated them to ease forming them to the multiple bends of the platform.

 

 

 

After shaping the rail parts, I reattached them to the platform with super glue. The seemingly simple curves of the structure were surprisingly challenging to match smoothly, but the results are worth the effort. I like that Infini also incorporated the safety netting into the etched rails.

 

 

The underside was even better detailed with two turned brass support pillars and no fewer than 15 etched support girders. Nice!

 

 

Unfortunately, all that underside detail will be hard to see once the platform is fitted aboard... 

 

 

...but it will still be visible if you get down low!

[Courageous]

Nice bit of PE work, lovely platform.

 

Stuart

[Tim Reynaga]

20 hours ago, Courageous said:

Nice bit of PE work, lovely platform.

 

Stuart

 

Thanks Stuart!

 

Here's the aft funnel attached to the new AA platform.

 

 

Next up: more etched details for the funnels.

[mick]

excellent work with PE 

[Micha_Pol]

The pre-bent railings for the turrets look truly terrific!

[Tim Reynaga]

On 1/21/2024 at 11:30 AM, Micha_Pol said:

The pre-bent railings for the turrets look truly terrific!

 

Thanks Micha!

 

A particularly fiddly assembly on the funnel was the handgrab-type ladder which had to be fitted in small sections around the previously installed etched footrails.

 

 

 

The ladder sections came with the Infini upgrade set, but I screwed up so many of these miniscule things during construction that I had to restart with similar parts from 5-Star’s 1/350 WWII IJN Vertical Ladders (FS 351018). I went through a good number of these too, but fortunately there were enough extras in that set to get the job done.

 

 

The forward funnel also received these handgrabs.

[theskits62]

Great work, so fiddly gives me a headache just looking at it !

[Tim Reynaga]

On 1/23/2024 at 11:50 PM, theskits62 said:

Great work, so fiddly gives me a headache just looking at it !

 

Thanks! I really am trying to keep this build simple, but it just keeps drawing me in... 

 

 Looking at the pic of the forward funnel it occurred to me that any sailor accessing the funnel top would have had a heck of a time getting to that bottom rung to start the climb from the deck:

 

 

 

...so I extended the rungs further down the base trunking.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

21 minutes ago, Tim Reynaga said:

...so I extended the rungs further down the base trunking.

Spoil-sport! It would be a great practical joke by the older crew to spread a little lubricant over that part of the funnel casing and then order a new crewman up that ladder. 😁

But seriously, I see what you mean. And nice fix to the problem.       Regards, Jeff.

[Tim Reynaga]

14 minutes ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Spoil-sport! It would be a great practical joke by the older crew to spread a little lubricant over that part of the funnel casing and then order a new crewman up that ladder. 😁

But seriously, I see what you mean. And nice fix to the problem.       Regards, Jeff.

Well... a senior seaman can still send the recruit below to engineering for a bucket of steam...!

[ArnoldAmbrose]

1 minute ago, Tim Reynaga said:

Well... a senior seaman can still send the recruit below to engineering for a bucket of steam...!

Or green oil for the starboard lamp.

[Thom216]

2 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Spoil-sport! It would be a great practical joke by the older crew to spread a little lubricant over that part of the funnel casing and then order a new crewman up that ladder. 😁

But seriously, I see what you mean. And nice fix to the problem.       Regards, Jeff.

 

2 hours ago, Tim Reynaga said:

Well... a senior seaman can still send the recruit below to engineering for a bucket of steam...!

 

2 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Or green oil for the starboard lamp.

 

Or that ever elusive roll of boot topping.

 

 

 

Edited January 26, 2024 by Thom216

[Courageous]

4 hours ago, Tim Reynaga said:

..so I extended the rungs further down the base trunking.

A good bit of thinking.

 

Stuart

[Tim Reynaga]

On 1/26/2024 at 10:39 AM, Courageous said:

A good bit of thinking.

 

Stuart

 

Thanks Stuart. Much more to come, but for now, a small addition to the 1/350 fwd funnel:

 

 

The vent pipe requires only basic mold line cleanup, but I also hollowed out the top ends of the "H" and ventilators at the base.

 

 

Test fitted in place these small changes almost disappear, but they are there!

[Tim Reynaga]

Returning to the AA platform, it is time to sort out the 25mm guns and other equipment.

 

 

To start, the Infini upgrade set comes with four open mesh boxes to be mounted on the outside of the safety rails abaft the funnel. I’m not sure what these things were used for – perhaps to hold emergency floater nets like the USN? Anyway, my references confirm that they were there, so I folded the flat etched brass parts into shape and readied them to go aboard.

 

 

Although the Infini set also comes with nice brass fold-to-shape replacement ammo boxes, I found these 3D printed resin parts from Blue Fatty Models to be more convincing. The one-piece box castings are remarkably detailed not only with correct lid and hinge detail but with almost microscopic latches as well.

 

 

Here the baskets and 25mm ready ammunition lockers are test fitted.

 

 

 

Good as the Blue Fatty ammo boxes are, their type 96 25mm twin guns are truly astonishing! Cast in only two parts (guns/slide and mount) these little gems must be seen to be believed. The hard resin parts are perfectly scaled, and everything is there: open muzzles, detailed ammo clips, trainer & pointer seats/backrests, open handwheel controls and footrests, even flawless ring-and-bead sights... they are absolutely gorgeous!

 

 

Another big improvement over the Tamiya kit parts is this resin 90cm searchlight from Black Cat Models.

 

 

Here are the Infini brass pieces, Blue Fatty guns/ammo boxes, and the Black Cat searchlight all test fitted in place. They are a jumble of colors at the moment, but once given their uniform coat of IJN Maizuru Naval Arsenal Grey these diverse parts should integrate together nicely.

[Micha_Pol]

So good! The micro-AA guns are cute.

[Courageous]

4 hours ago, Tim Reynaga said:

their type 96 25mm twin guns are truly astonishing

Very nice. Good work.

 

Stuart

[ArnoldAmbrose]

11 hours ago, Tim Reynaga said:

four open mesh boxes to be mounted on the outside of the safety rails abaft the funnel. I’m not sure what these things were used for – perhaps to hold emergency floater nets like the USN?

       Gidday, did the Japanese collect expended brass shell casings? I believe that they suffered an acute shortage of brass late war. Just a thought and purely a wild guess on my part.

And yeah, those guns are OK I suppose. 😁 Alright, they're incredible. 👍 But the real skill I think is the modeler (you) bringing it all together.

Regards, Jeff.

[Andy H]

Amazing work. I don't know whether to be inspired or terrified. 😮

[Tim Reynaga]

Thanks guys, appreciate the comments.

 

 

3D printing is such an amazing technology to be able to reproduce such complex details in small scale. This change in our hobby is comparable to to the development of mass marketed injection molded plastic kits in the 1950s and the advent of photoetched metal and resin upgrade sets in the 1980s... The modeling world will never be the same!

[Tim Reynaga]

 

Another midships detail is the torpedo reload handling winch. One is included in the kit, but this resin version from Five Star Models is quite a bit better.

 

 

Also, the Kagero class destroyers actually carried two of these, but the kit provides only one – and it is undersized. It took substantial winches to shift those 6,000 pound torpedoes!

 

 

Here the starboard winch is test fitted in place. The slot at the deck edge will be the base of the torpedo handling overhead gantry crane, and the rectangular box above it is the reload torpedo stowage.