1/350 IJN Kongo - Battleship/Battlecruiser Fujimi

[Tegethoff]

Following on from the Fujimi Fuso c.1944, I present the Fujimi Kongo - also at 1/350th size also of 1944. I'm nearing the end of another ship and starting to look at what is next. I haven't seen a build log of the Kongo here - if anyone has recommendations to read please let me know! It will likely be a bit of time before I get my teeth into this. Planning will be important.

 

The kit will be a hopefully straight forward out of two box build:

Fujimi 60049 sometimes 600499? nominally October 1944 - 38 part build sequence with 22 sprues no photo etch apart from a chain. 
Pontos detail set 35020f1 with 10 A3 pages of instruction, 309 pieces of brass, 134 pieces of resin and 7 sheets of brass plus a wooden deck. 

 

But looking through the details I see some steps are marked x28 (!?!?) so my sanity may extend far enough and it is possible aftermarket guns may be acquired. 

 

Anyway here is the kit: stand and 1:1 paint scheme taken out. It looks not dissimilar to the Fuso which is good - i.e. very well engineered compared to Trumpeter or Tamiya from what I have seen. The paint scheme suggested is the same as for Fuso i.e. H17 Hull and H83 structure. Which would mean two models with the same paint jobs which I'm not super keen on. 

 

Kongo is the last of the foreign built Japanese capital ships built in Barrow in Furness in the UK. Roughly analogous to the battlecruiser HMS Tiger, the class had slightly larger (14inch vs 13.5 inch) guns, and by WW2 was almost unrecognisable compared to her 1912 launch. The debate about are they battlecruisers or fast battleships appears ongoing.   

More history will come but this is kept here for my memory. 

http://www.combinedfleet.com/kongo.htm

 

 

 

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

9 hours ago, Tegethoff said:

I haven't seen a build log of the Kongo here

Gidday, I think there's a build thread of the Aoshima IJN Kongo on page 28 (at present). Regards, Jeff.

[Tegethoff]

On 26/02/2024 at 03:59, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday, I think there's a build thread of the Aoshima IJN Kongo on page 28 (at present). Regards, Jeff.

Thank you Jeff! Link is : 

 for those wanting to read it as well. 

 

I've broadly broken it down in my head into five major parts to do:
 

1) Main super structure
2) Funnel and rear structures:
3) Hull and decks
4) Guns and flight deck 
5) AA and aircraft. 

 

Of which the Hull will be by far the easiest, so I will save for a slow day. My plan is to go 2, 1, 3, 4, 5 ,

 

Paint scheme still being looked at but probably Kure Grey on the . 

 

Looking a little more closely at the hull, the tabs connecting the hull to the sprue aren't in non visible positions as it was on the Fuso, but on the top of the hull/deck contact point which is a shame.

Seven sheets of photo etch, the rather plain wood deck, many bags of resin, many bags of brass, a Kongo Hull and a 1/350 Hood for scale. Its going to be long - but also as the deck shows quite thin compared to Fuso.  

 

 Example of the kit deck sprues (can compare with the Aoshima in the link above).  Very little flash obvious so far, but a lot of detail to be replaced with resin/PE 

Pontos instructions here for those interested: http://www.hobbydecal.com/detail.cgi?number=35020f1

 

[Jagdtiger1]

"Following on from the Fujimi Fuso" What!? Let's see a Ready for inspection photo set!

 

That aside, a Pontos set? Someone's daring! A lot of detail will be going into this then. It'll be interesting to see how you compare Fujimi PE to Pontos'.

 

According to "IJN Greys" by John Snyder; Kongo was painted Sasebo Grey in May of 1942, then painted Kure Grey in August of 1942, then went back to Sasebo in March of 1943, then it says it was repainted Sasebo grey in February of 1944, then once again to Kure in July 1944. Those dates do check out with the combined fleet website, but they're a bit weird when compared to how dates are laid out for other ships in the book....

 

Will be nice to see it go together for the one I have in my stash.

 

James.

[S-boat 55]

Hood was a big 'ol girl wasn't she,

 

I'm very much looking forward to this taking shape, 

[bissyboat]

I´m watching with interest. ⚓👍

[ArnoldAmbrose]

1 hour ago, S-boat 55 said:

Hood was a big 'ol girl wasn't she,

She was only two feet shorter than Yamato, 860/862 feet oa. Regards, Jeff.

[Tegethoff]

1 hour ago, Jagdtiger1 said:

"Following on from the Fujimi Fuso" What!? Let's see a Ready for inspection photo set!

 

That aside, a Pontos set? Someone's daring! A lot of detail will be going into this then. It'll be interesting to see how you compare Fujimi PE to Pontos'.

 

According to "IJN Greys" by John Snyder; Kongo was painted Sasebo Grey in May of 1942, then painted Kure Grey in August of 1942, then went back to Sasebo in March of 1943, then it says it was repainted Sasebo grey in February of 1944, then once again to Kure in July 1944. Those dates do check out with the combined fleet website, but they're a bit weird when compared to how dates are laid out for other ships in the book....

 

Will be nice to see it go together for the one I have in my stash.

 

James.

The first thing to notice is there is about 5x as much in the PE sheets, plus all the resin pieces and finally a lot of brass parts (replacing masts etc which should make rigging slightly easier).  

I think Kure grey will be the way to go but not 100%. I think the model is as of October 44. I can't work out if H83 is Kure or Sasebo equivalent or if I should go for Tamiya which has Kure out of the bottle. Given the number of parts I've probably got six months to deliberate before I do any painting... I guess also the darker hull red rather than the brighter one. But I do already have one model in dark red... 
 

 

1 hour ago, S-boat 55 said:

Hood was a big 'ol girl wasn't she,

 

I'm very much looking forward to this taking shape, 

Thanks - the speed and growth of dreadnoughts/battlecruisers between 1906 and 1916 is just crazy any way you look at it. Sure Kongo was extended a little in the 1930's but this is a 1911 hull vs a 1916 hull in Hood.

 

21 minutes ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

She was only two feet shorter than Yamato, 860/862 feet oa. Regards, Jeff.

If only the armament matched. 'm imagining some world where Hood ends up with the single 18inch gun that was taken off HMS Furious... 

 

46 minutes ago, bissyboat said:

I´m watching with interest. ⚓👍

Thank you! 

[Andreas.R]

These Pontos PE sets for the Japanese pagoda battleships have always a fearsome amount of parts.

Good luck with the challenging assembly!

[Zoran Srb]

16 hours ago, Jagdtiger1 said:

According to "IJN Greys" by John Snyder; Kongo was painted Sasebo Grey in May of 1942, then painted Kure Grey in August of 1942, then went back to Sasebo in March of 1943, then it says it was repainted Sasebo grey in February of 1944, then once again to Kure in July 1944. Those dates do check out with the combined fleet website, but they're a bit weird when compared to how dates are laid out for other ships in the book....

Regarding paints and scheme.... According to some sources last dry-dock overhaul (and painting  ie http://www.combinedfleet.com/kongo.htm) of Kongo was in Sasebo, whilst the last overhaul of Fuso was in Kure. According to Model master and Tamiya (less so), there is a difference between these two grays  (Kure shades are on the right).

 

 

So beside paint difference, you also have a possibility of aging/ weathering them differently to avoid monotony... But generally, yes, making several IJN warships not to look monotonous, since they (in 95% of cases) are painted the same, do present a challenge....

Edited March 6 by Zoran Srb

[Tegethoff]

Post didn't show and was still in editor.,

Edited March 11 by Tegethoff
Post didn't show and was still in editor.,

[Tegethoff]

On 06/03/2024 at 12:07, Andreas.R said:

These Pontos PE sets for the Japanese pagoda battleships have always a fearsome amount of parts.

Good luck with the challenging assembly!

There are 900+ numbers on the 7 PE sprues but many of them have multiple parts for each number... I'm going to be here a while!
 

On 06/03/2024 at 12:56, Zoran Srb said:

 

 

So beside paint difference, you also have a possibility of aging/ weathering them differently to avoid monotony... But generally, yes, making several IJN warships not to look monotonous, since they (in 95% of cases) are painted the same, do present a challenge....

I guess I should be thankful that Japanese battleships were not given Dazzle paint schemes (Haruna's guns aside) or the masking and painting would probably take this build more time than it took to build the original Kongo...

The funnels and rear super structure will be built off this base:

 

Work so far has seen the underside of the raised deck converted from plastic to photo etch:

 

The replacement of the plastic box with photo etch:

 

Construction of a stepped raised platforms:

 

The most recent step being placing for testing the stepped platform with 2 difficult points of contact, and the replacement of the launch mounts with photoetch

 

 

 

Glueing, funnels and the rear super structure next. Doesn't look much but it takes time to organise and plan! 

 

 

[Tegethoff]

More from the world of photo etch. 
 

 

 

 

this was very well engineered it is 3 pieces of PE with two "floors" added on the wings. the base has cut outs to fit into the circles of the edge photo etch shown above.

 

 

then when mounted it meets - perfectly the door of the box. also note the stairs between the levels above (and two stairs down from the plastic to the brass)

 

 

 

and finally the stairs from the walkway down to the upper deck (and a side on look at the intra-deck stairs). These are shown but not labelled in the Pontos instruction sheet but are - I hope - part 241 x2. they fit anyway...

 

 

 

Funnels will be next 

 

 

 

 

[Thom216]

Look at all that metal!

[S-boat 55]

Superb etch skills mate, looking really good, 

[Courageous]

Bling, bling and more bling. Lovely detail.

 

Stuart

[Tegethoff]

Built the Hull. It fitted like a dream. I used super glue just to "close" the last .1mm gap while I applied hand pressure. One frustrating thing is compared to the Fuso, the tabs connecting the hull halfs to the sprue aren't hidden. So quite a bit of sanding to a slight angle to make the deck flush -it isn't a 90 degree join - is needed. 

 

Here the assembled hull is vs Hood

 

For once thinking ahead, I'm not particularly keen on the very pale wood of the Pontos deck so have been trying some stains:
Left  Tamiya black panel liner (orange from an Abteilung 502 mix of rust and ocher in lacquer thinner) centre is normal Pontos deck and right is actually three stains: middle Abteilung 502 ocher, bottom ocher and rust, top ocher and more rust. it looked horrid when applied but seems to have dried and doesn't look as terrible as I thought. I think I'm likely to just do the whole deck with one mix (panels always look too large on 1/350), but may play around more. 

 

 

Currently working on how to put all the PE on the funnels half way through one funnel and my patience ran out. Will try again tomorrow:

 

 

 

[nearsightedjohn]

Enjoying your WIP on this one so far, thank you for your efforts in these postings.

 

Your PE workmanship is very nice/ clean. I am a few months into a build of Fujimi’s 1/350 Zuikaku carrier kit and agree that Fujimi’s engineering/ plastic part fit is quite nice so far. I am using Fujimi’s PE (A, B, C, D, E) sets and, while it look’s nice and seems to fit okay in most areas, it is quite fragile and easily breaks if you miss-bend anything (reminds me of Flyhawk PE). I’ve never used Pontos PE, how forgiving (ductile) is it for multiple bends? My favored ship PE is WEM/ Tom’s.

[mick]

great work on PE

[Archelaos]

Awesome work with that pesky metal stuff!

[Tegethoff]

14 hours ago, nearsightedjohn said:

Enjoying your WIP on this one so far, thank you for your efforts in these postings.

 

Your PE workmanship is very nice/ clean. I am a few months into a build of Fujimi’s 1/350 Zuikaku carrier kit and agree that Fujimi’s engineering/ plastic part fit is quite nice so far. I am using Fujimi’s PE (A, B, C, D, E) sets and, while it look’s nice and seems to fit okay in most areas, it is quite fragile and easily breaks if you miss-bend anything (reminds me of Flyhawk PE). I’ve never used Pontos PE, how forgiving (ductile) is it for multiple bends? My favored ship PE is WEM/ Tom’s.

Thanks - I'm finding problems with the CA glue being a bit "blotchy" usually I use loctite CA but this seems too thick at the moment. I usually use a pin in a wine cork but I think I need a new needle as that is also blunter after much exposure to fire and CA. 

Compared with the Fuso build which had "Fujimi (but actually Mk1)" PE I think Pontos is more malleable. I've found doing curves a lot easier and the scribing(?) of the sheets means the bends are cleaner. I've also found using a long nose pair of pliers for bigger bits has made life easier (photo from google): 

 

[Thom216]

I hear heating the metal (annealing) first makes bending easier as well.

And in that comparative pic, you can really see Hood's battlecruiser lines.

[S-boat 55]

On 29/03/2024 at 16:34, Tegethoff said:

Thanks - I'm finding problems with the CA glue being a bit "blotchy" usually I use loctite CA but this seems too thick at the moment. I usually use a pin in a wine cork but I think I need a new needle as that is also blunter after much exposure to fire and CA. 

Compared with the Fuso build which had "Fujimi (but actually Mk1)" PE I think Pontos is more malleable. I've found doing curves a lot easier and the scribing(?) of the sheets means the bends are cleaner. I've also found using a long nose pair of pliers for bigger bits has made life easier (photo from google): 

 

I now use an old airbrush needle for applying CA, found it works really well as it's finer than the needle I have in a cork, 

[Zoran Srb]

5 hours ago, S-boat 55 said:

I now use an old airbrush needle for applying CA, found it works really well as it's finer than the needle I have in a cork, 

If I may... If you use (any kind of) needle, CA tends to slide off, so you have to make a bigger droplet, which by itself might not be suitable. Toothpicks on the other hand soak CA.

By trial, I found that stretched sprue works the best. CA doesn't slide, and by stretching sprue in various diameters, you can have different sizes of droplets, as needed. As soon as the sprue gets messed up, cut off that bit, and continue...

Edited March 31 by Zoran Srb

[Zoran Srb]

5 hours ago, Thom216 said:

I hear heating the metal (annealing) first makes bending easier as well.

And in that comparative pic, you can really see Hood's battlecruiser lines.

Thats correct for white metal ones (steel). For brass, there is no need. If you are trying to make a curve, find something (tool handle, etc) with slightly smaller diameter then curve needed, bend around, and part will straitghen a bit, so it will fit....