1/700 scale IJN Ships make over

[rtfoe]

Hi,
I haven't been building lately busy with chores around the house and remaking my daughters room while she's away in Sydney. With that nearly completed I thought of continuing my Kure harbour dio with finishing the etched raillings to the remainder of the ships and adding detail and weathering. My Uhu will need to take a backseat for a while. This dio has been around for as long as I can remember. The nearing Penang show has sparked some life into completing this build to support one of our themes for our display tables.

This is where it's at...I have posted it here as I will concentrate on the individual ships before tackling the dio in a separate posting. The ships are tacked down with white glue and can easily be removed with a soaking of water to soften the glue...




The ships are the battleship Haruna, Light cruiser Kuma, mine sweeper W-7 Class, Escort Ukura class and destroyer Shiratsuyu in the last picture which I will start first. There is a little PE done near the bridge and upper structures. What it needs now is the full raillings and I'm toying with the idea of adding the bed rolls that's often seen on the upper rails foe shrapnel protection but not sure if whilst in harbour.
The Shiratsuyu is a bit of an odd one out from the rest of the ships. The others were involved around Malaya. I might swap her with the Hatsuyuki which was Fubuki class destroyer escorting the Malaya invasion force cruisers. The hull shape should be the same. The Kuma will be next for refitting. :smiling2:

I've got extra raillings, just need to sort them out from the US and British versions. Watch out for my next post.

Cheers,
Richard

[Steven000]

I remember this one, such a lovely diorama :thumb2: . Nice water and effects, very nice work!
Steven

[boatman]

Same as what Steven said a very realistic dio with plenty happening an how big is the dio overall ? as I shall be lookin in again when you post next very nicely done
chris

[papa 695]

Very nice work indeed Richard, coming along very nicely.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

I havent seen this one before. The water is very realistic Richard. Very nice looking diorama.

[Guest]

Great to see this again Richard. Looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

[Jim R]

Hi Richard
I look forward to seeing the final work on this. It is superb already.

....... remaking my daughters room while she's away in Sydney

A friend of mine decided to give her son's room a good clean and decorate when he went to university. She found a partly dismantled motor cycle engine under the bed. She didn't know it was there and he didn't have a motor bike anyway! :rolling:
Jim

[JR]

The return ! lovely dio Richard, full of movement.

[minitnkr]

Just excellent. PaulE

[scottie3158]

Richard,
That is a great looking scene.

[rtfoe]

Oh boy what a response...thank you guys.:smiling:

Steven, Christopher, Ian, Steve, Peter, Jim, John, Paul and Paul... yes it's a left over from the other site and it measures 15" by 12". Water is crunched up foil spread out and stuck down with white glue then spray canned it with a few shades of green and finally clear. Lucky for me my daughter is a neat freak so no skeletons anywhere...she likes Bio.

Now searching for the boxes I found the PE meant for the remaining ships and had actually painted part of it in grey. I found enamel paint being the best for ship PE as they don't flake or peal easily.



I got the Tom's Modelworks PE before Tom passed years ago and I think the business is now run by his wife and friends. Also used to order fom White Ensign as well. I also found the Fubuki class destroyer in my stash, the Hatsuyuki. The fingers are itching to swap it with the Shiratsuyu. Will probably start on Saturday.

Thanks again for looking in fellas.

Cheers,
Richard

[Steve Jones]

Great to see you have brought this one back out Richard. I forgot how far you had actually got with the build. Good luck with all that bling.

[rtfoe]

Hi Steve, apologies for the late reply...good to have you here. I have since done some more to the dio and have started on filling the sink mark and sanding the Hatsuyuki hull. But before that just a bit on the Hatsuyuki...



The Hatsuyuki is a Fubuki class destroyer which covered operations in the Malaya campaign. This ship revolutionized the way navies viewed the destroyer. When Fubuki appeared in 1928, she was the first destroyer in the world to feature power-worked, weatherproof dual 5" mounts, and torpedo reloads. At that time, she was hands-down the most powerful warship of her size anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, the design was also structurally suspect (a common flaw in Japanese warships of this era) as a result of trying to cram too much weaponry into too small a displacement. Subsequent rebuilds remedied this problem, but at the cost of slightly reduced speed and torpedo reload capability. Ayanami is interesting because she carried the modified Model 'B' 5" gun turret, which had superior elevation: 75 degrees, compared to 50 degrees for the Model A turret. (Info from The Imperial Japanese Navy Page)



The box shows mud stains from the flood.



Basic molding of the time with a sink mark on the bridge cover and side bow. Still Tamiya does quite distinctive features of each destroyer variant.



The hull is slightly longer than the Shiratsuyu below.



Now onto the dio...
I managed to remove the Kuma and Shiratsuyu with a drop of water... only one or two small paint peeled.



This is actually the Matsu/Matsu class escort and not the Ukura class...it's been so long I kinda forgot. :smiling2:



The harbour extention starts off with laminating two thick plastic cards and scribing the wood planking. This goes between the Kuma and the dock.



Then slicing thick rod for the supports...



More detailing to come later...

Cheers,
Richard

[Steve Jones]

That was a fascinating read Richard. Thanks for sharing the info. The comparison shots' were great. Nice to see detailing work also

[rtfoe]

You're welcome Steve, somehow this has started my mojo for building again.

Here's two shots from a photographer friend of mine...



Quite a big difference.

Cheers,
Richard