Pre dreadnought battleship Mikasa of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) - 1:200 - Merit International

[madtatt]

Ahoy, friends of the adhesive guild.
Back to my roots, building model ships.
It was a nice excursion into the Star Wars universe and I had a lot of fun.
But now I’m looking forward to a real ship that I’ve had in the pipeline for a long time.
The pre dreadnought battleship Mikasa of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN).

I know, nothing new for most. There are so many construction reports about this boat and yet it remains a must for me. And that for two reasons.
First there is the shape of the hull. Really archaic. Reminds me of a Greek trireme because of the suggested ram. I like it incredibly much. And on deck everything on this ship is so different than on my Bismarck, for example.
Secondly, I don’t just have a Pontos Detail Up Set for this model. No, as a bonus there is also the MK1 Deluxe package from KA Models. There are a few details that are missing from Pontos. Probably not researched thoroughly enough, or what?!. But more on that later.
Well, it’s going to be an etching orgy in the very first cabin. What fun.

Then I would like to introduce you to the available material for this project.
First of all, the model.
This is available from a number of manufacturers such as I Love Kit, Wave Corporation or HobbyBoss. But everything is definitely Trumpeter, which you can see immediately when you open the box.

After all, my Mikasa comes from Merit International. It’s amazing how many names this model is sold under.
The picture shows the box from the company I Love Kit, as I no longer have mine.

 

 

Of course there is also my favorite etched part set from Pontos.

 

 

And now I’m exaggerating, I know, but this model also comes with the MK1 Deluxe package from Ka Models. I’ll explain what motivated me to do this later in my construction report.

 

 

Unfortunately there isn’t much from Veteran Models for this model, but at least this:

 

 

This time the figures come from the company ION, which I appropriately won as a prize for my Bismarck.

 

 

It is still incomprehensible to me that the manufacturers, regardless of whether it is the model or the expensive aftermarket products, that anchor chains have double bar links. So they became worried.

 

 

Let’s move on to another exquisite accessory. Discovered in one of the many construction reports about the Mikasa. These fantastic dinghies from Micro Master from New Zealand.

 

 

A little dream.

 

 

So, this is the first list of ingredients for my new project. Although I can’t or don’t want to rule out the possibility that one or two particles could come along.
On to the next two years of fun.

Edited February 10, 2024 by madtatt
Typo

[psdavidson]

🤤

[madtatt]

Hello and lets start.

First the basics, with glue the fuselage together.

 

 

Next, drilled holes for the stand nuts.

 

 

Neatly glued in with two components resin. Just like the internal structures to stiffen the torso.

 

 

This time I treated myself to the elegant stands from Pontos. Look really great.

 

 

Then the first lower deck comes into the hull. Now it is really very stable.

 

 

Next, the holes for the crampons. Nice straight through the drilling templates from Pontos.

 

 

And the usual drilling out of the portholes.

 

 

After researching the few images available, I noticed that the porthole that sits on the model below the anchor hawse did not exist.
This was then closed with a round styrene profile.

 

 

Filled and sanded.

 

 

Another mistake that needs to be corrected. Merit made recesses in the fuselage to accommodate the etched piece gunports from the model in the correct location.
Since I’m using the pontos set here and the hinges of the gunport on the original ship were riveted onto the hull from the outside, I close them with styrene.

 

 

I’ll be busy with that for a while.

 

 

 

 

 

[Iceman 29]

I'll be following your assembly closely, as mine is waiting in its box, with its Pontos PE kit.  
No time to devote to it at the moment...

[Andy H]

Great start! 😎👍

[theskits62]

Great start ! I'll be following this with interest. Haven't bought one yet but would love to at some point.

[Jeff.M]

Hi. 
 

I will be  following your build, as it may be the next one for me since I’ve caught the bug for plastic ship modeling. 
 

I have walked Mikasa’s decks. I was stationed with the USN in Yokosuka twice on ships homeported there, and she is situated not very far from where both of our homes were when we lived off base. 

 

i am currently building a Flower Class corvette, but during preps for a possible Mikasa build, I made contact with another who has an incredible collection of pics as Mikasa  now exists. I asked and obtained permission to post this link  A modeler could not ask for more. That said, bear in mind that Mikasa fell on hard times and was a dancehall and even a public aquarium prior to her restoration. Much of what you see is either a guess or a compromise on what is possible in reproducing her original appearance. But you probably could not ask for more, lacking a Time Machine. Here you go: 

 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14-NVL088bNz5WP_hR-5FcLRf9Yg0mFOX

All the best,

 

Jeff 

Edited February 15, 2024 by Jeff.M
Typos

[theskits62]

2 hours ago, Jeff.M said:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14-NVL088bNz5WP_hR-5FcLRf9Yg0mFOX

 

Thats a really useful set of pictures i'm going to save the link for that rainy day.... Thanks for sharing

[madtatt]

That's great, Jeff.
Thank you for the many great pictures.
I envy them that they saw and boarded the ship.

Apparently this ship isn't just great for me. I expect a lot more construction reports of the Mikasa from you.

 

Continue working on the hull, which will probably take quite some time.
Because after I filled the recesses with styrene profiles, I noticed significant sinkholes that unfortunately had to be thickly filled.
On the right side, I think you can still clearly see the small dent of the sink under the filler.

 

 

Since I had to do a lot of filing and sanding here, I could no longer take the surface structure of the hull into account and removed it. Which isn’t a big deal since I’ll be making them again with styrene.

 

 

After the first sanding process, the worked areas were primed as a check and I am quite happy with the result.

 

 

To the next round…

[madtatt]

So, I have created the removed surface structure with my styrene profiles.
It's a little bit wider than the original line, but if it's painted afterwards it should fit.

 

[madtatt]

And so I continued on the port side and completed the areas around the casemates.
Consequently, all structures of this type on the fuselage are now being replaced by styrene profiles. As can be seen above.
Otherwise it would no longer look consistent.

 

 

But that’s over for now, I still have to fill and sand the holes first.

[madtatt]

Ok, let’s fill the holes that I don’t need due to the etched parts sets.

 

 

 

Then check with a white primer to make sure everything is sanded smoothly.

 

 

Of course the fuselage seams were also checked.

 

 

 

Then we come to my beloved Styren profiles.

 

 

I use this to imitate the seams of the armor plates. At that time, riveting was still taking place, not welding. However, you can hardly see the rivets under the paint on the original. So that’s enough for me.

 

 

The storage areas for the anchors were sanded smooth, as Pontos also fills everything here with brass.

 

 

Now for a special feast for the eyes. The dinghies from New Zealand have arrived.

 

 

Absolute detail madness. I’m blown away. 🤩

 

 

 

[madtatt]

Continue with the seams for the armor plates.
This time on the underwater ship.
It takes a bit of effort and nerves. They have to be attached very precisely and parallel.
But it seems to work:

 

 

However, I have to move the torpedo tube opening a little at the stern, so I first closed it with styrene.

 

 

[Courageous]

Nice hull detail going on there Jölle. What plastic strip are you using?

 

Stuart

[madtatt]

Thank you Stuart.

I use the Evergreen profiles with the dimensions .011x .022 (0.28x 0.56mm). I think these are the thinnest you can get.

 

Continue with the profiles. It’s slowly going faster now.

 

 

But there are still a lot.

 

 

Now, however, I also have to take add-on parts into account, such as roll keels and propulsion.
They will only be attached to the fuselage after all the profiles have been done so that I can sand them properly beforehand.

 

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

8 hours ago, madtatt said:

I use the Evergreen profiles with the dimensions .011x .022 (0.28x 0.56mm). I think these are the thinnest you can get.

Gidday, here in Western Australia I can get (and have) Evergreen StripStyrene 100. The dimensions are .010 x .020" (0.25 x 0.5mm), marginally thinner although it probably makes no difference. I think it's very brave you adding them to the hull like you have. Any inaccuracies would be very obvious but you seem to have got them spot-on. Well done. Regards, Jeff.

[Iceman 29]

I don't see all these lines so pronounced on the hull...

 

 

[madtatt]

That's right, Iceman 29.

Of course I have these two pictures too.
The reason why you don't see it that way is simple. There should actually be narrow gaps visible on the riveted plates. But this is very difficult to display cleanly without producing crooked columns.
That's why I tried to imitate the columns with the profiles in the other direction.
Of course, the profiles were sanded down a lot. In order to check the overall picture, I primed part of the fuselage to check the whole thing.

 

Take a look at this here.

 

 

161200×900 346 KB

The casemates were also checked again.
Can stay like that.

 

 

 

[madtatt]

Done with the profiles.

 

 

At first I wasn’t sure if I liked it because it’s actually shown the wrong way around.

 

 

Because the plates would have to create a gap and not an elevation.

 

 

I also sanded down the profiles on the underwater hull a lot.

 

 

Of course also in the places that you can hardly see afterwards.

 

 

And so I think it’s going to look really good at the end.

[Iceman 29]

You can see that this part goes almost all the way to the bow. You wonder why Hobby boss didn't do it this way?

 

Otherwise, it's really very clean. Well done. 

 

[Zoran Srb]

Wow, new one!!! Great start, I'll be following this one.... Incidentally a few days ago, after a long break (been building  Acs, and AFVs), I started Atlanta. As soon as I get a bit done, I'll be posting WIP.

All the best, cheers

[madtatt]

Thank you both.

Nice that you will follow Zoran.

 

Good point Iceman 29.
But, the picture in the dock shows the Mikasa still in the black and white peace paintwork.
I have a picture from a dock where the Mikasa is already gray. The way I paint them. And the profile at the waterline is quite a bit shorter.

Some things were probably changed before the war started.

 

[Iceman 29]

Good point, probably, nice pictures! 😜

 

https://yaromirr-livejournal-com.translate.goog/815.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=fr&_x_tr_pto=wapp

[madtatt]

Cool link.
Then the photos were only taken after the war, so be it. Thanks for the info.

 

Let’s continue with the basics.
A privacy screen must be created so that you cannot see the portholes from one side and the other side.
That’s why styrene plates were placed in the middle.

At the bow.

 

 

And at the rear.
The whole thing is flexible so I can move the plate back and forth a little. This is how I get the front 3 inch cannons to fit into their openings.

 

 

After that I need a little individual privacy protection.

 

 

One for the muzzle openings of the torpedo launchers, yellow arrows. And for four small portholes that are located under the first deck near the green arrows. It’s hard for me to get the plates right here, hence the angles.

 

 

Good thing I put the Pontos wooden deck on. (Which wasn’t lasered properly and I had to help with my scalpel.)
Doesn’t fit at all. 😱 I’ll have to work a little with the milling head.
But it was actually about creating tubes for the anchor hawse.

 

 

Now that I knew that, I created half tubes. But they are larger in diameter.

 

 

Which should be completely sufficient. It’s just a matter of ensuring that no light shines through on the chain.

 

 

Nice and dark. That’s the way it has to be. 🕳️

 

 

 

[madtatt]

Let’s get to the inner values of the ship.
I’m going about this a little differently than usual.
For me, the cannon barrels are attached to the model much later and the deck has to be closed early.
There are two reasons for this.
The special feature of the Mikasa is its casemates with the protruding gun barrels. They get in the way and you quickly get stuck with them as you continue building.
In general, I always attach large pieces very late.
I will also raise the hull to the next level earlier than usual. It’s about the upper row of casemates.
If you glue this fuselage part later, which is actually logical and intended, you can get to the internal structures much better.
But you also end up with a very unsightly slot that can no longer be removed.
More on that in a moment.

First I soldered the shields of the cannons on the bow and stern.

 

 

Then, since you can’t see anything behind the shields anyway, I simply replaced the cannon body with a small piece of styrene pipe.

 

 

This was then glued in…

 

 

…and I’ll simply put the barrel of the cannon through the hole later.

 

 

The same with the middle casemates, only here it is much less complicated.

 

 

Now that all the cannons in the hull are installed, I can prepare the deck.
First say goodbye to unnecessary details. I got a small electric chisel, it simplifies things a lot.

 

 

After the grinding orgy, the deck was glued to the bow.

 

 

And the other two parts.

 

 

Great, deck ready.

 

 

Let’s come to the slot mentioned at the beginning.
Here you see the culprit. I might still put up with the gap at the yellow arrows. But the one with the green arrow, no, doesn’t work at all.

 

 

And that’s exactly the problem.
What I would then have to mask off on the wooden deck, superstructure and other details if I wanted to fill and paint the gap late was almost impossible.
That’s why I’m going to say it in advance.

 

 

Anyone can do it.