Models, the good kind

[KRonn]

Brain, fun stuff. I sometimes get the urge to take up making models again (used to as a kid) but so far haven't done so. I love looking at the occasional scale model catalogs that get delivered to the house; makes me want to get back into making some.   

[Neil]

I'm building a 1:350 HMS Hood right now.  First ship I've built in a decade.

[The Brain]

I'm building a 1:350 HMS Hood right now.  First ship I've built in a decade.

How gangsta.

How far along are you?

[mongers]

I'm building a 1:350 HMS Hood right now.  First ship I've built in a decade.

Excellent.

Welcome back Neil.   

[Neil]

I'm building a 1:350 HMS Hood right now.  First ship I've built in a decade.

How gangsta.

How far along are you?

I have the hull painted and I'm working on all the fine detail (hatches and vents and the like) on the deck.  Once I'm done with that, it'll be time to build up.

[The Brain]

I finished a bunch of little boats. Now I'm doing the 3 catapult-launched seaplanes. Doing biplanes in 1:350 gets a little fiddly.

[The Brain]

Btw, does anyone know if there's a 1:350 Yamato 1942 version available from any manufacturer? Seems that most models are the one-way 45 version.

[Neil]

Btw, does anyone know if there's a 1:350 Yamato 1942 version available from any manufacturer? Seems that most models are the one-way 45 version.

Tamiya does a Musashi that's in the 'as-built' configuration, but only in 1/700 waterline.  Their 1/350 Musashi is 1944, and every Yamato I've ever seen is done up for the Okinawa operation.  You'd have to do some modding to get the original look, pruning away all those AA guns and adding the triple 6.1" turrets from somewhere.

[The Brain]

Btw, does anyone know if there's a 1:350 Yamato 1942 version available from any manufacturer? Seems that most models are the one-way 45 version.

Tamiya does a Musashi that's in the 'as-built' configuration, but only in 1/700 waterline.  Their 1/350 Musashi is 1944, and every Yamato I've ever seen is done up for the Okinawa operation.  You'd have to do some modding to get the original look, pruning away all those AA guns and adding the triple 6.1" turrets from somewhere.

I was afraid of this.

Since I am more interested in the IJN of the 30s-early 40s my next ship may be the Akagi.

[grumbler]

Since I am more interested in the IJN of the 30s-early 40s my next ship may be the Akagi.

How about a Tone-class cruiser?  I always thought that they were a fascinating design, and their design philosophy (around the doctrine of keeping all the carrier aircraft for strike work, and building cruisers with big seaplane allotments to compensate) interesting.  I never quite understood what the Japanese thought would happen with that doctrine if the weather got bad.

[The Brain]

Since I am more interested in the IJN of the 30s-early 40s my next ship may be the Akagi.

How about a Tone-class cruiser?  I always thought that they were a fascinating design, and their design philosophy (around the doctrine of keeping all the carrier aircraft for strike work, and building cruisers with big seaplane allotments to compensate) interesting.  I never quite understood what the Japanese thought would happen with that doctrine if the weather got bad.

It's certainly a possibility, they are kind of interesting. I like to have a theme for the ships i build, and one possible theme is one for each major type of ship and a cruiser would obviously fit. Another theme I was looking into was ships of Yamamoto, but since an early Yamato isn't readily available this theme looks unlikely.

[grumbler]

One of the sad stories of WW2 is that the Tone-class Chikuma was sunk during the Battle off Samar (yeah!) but that 1400 of her crew were rescued by an IJN destroyer (yeah!) but then that destroyer got sunk in turn, and only one of the 1400 survivors of the first sinking lived (#Ihasasad).

[The Brain]

Finished the planes. I've also finished the funnel with its system of tubes. Slowly getting closer to building the main superstructure.

[The Brain]

Progress may have plateaued a bit the past months, but I feel some energy reappearing. My recent trip to Japan may have something to do with it. I've ordered some books on building model ships and on the Yamato (among others Janusz Skulski's Anatomy Of The Ship: The Battleship Yamato). I have a long-term plan to have the Nagato, the Mikasa and the Yamato. I ordered the Tamiya deluxe Yamato, and the Hasegawa Mikasa. I visited the Togo shrine in Tokyo so I feel we have a connection now.

[Josquius]

Did you visit the Mikasa when you were in Japan?