Tamiya 1:350 Japanese Battleship Musashi Build Thread

[Guest]

ok, kit and pe detail set came today. wont be starting it till next week probably as my room is a mess and it will only get worse if i start another model!!!, il get some pics up soon!!!

if anyone wants the privious thread on this where i got background info on the kits and decided which one to do it is here...

http://www.scale-models.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2671

here is some background info on her...

Musashi (Battleship, 1942-1944)

Musashi, "sister" of the 65,000-ton battleship Yamato, was built at Nagasaki, Japan. Commissioned in August 1942, she was stationed at Truk from January 1943 into 1944 as part of a heavy force covering the Central Pacific against the threat of an American offensive. When the latter materialized, with the invasion of the Marshalls and raids by aircraft carrier planes against Japanese positions further west, Musashi's base was moved to the Palaus. She was torpedoed by the submarine USS Tunny (SS-282) on 29 March 1944, necessitating repairs in Japan, during which her anti-aircraft firepower was enhanced.

In June 1944, with the torpedo damage repaired, Musashi took part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Her next, and last, major operation was the Battle of Leyte Gulf, in which the Japanese surface navy made a final major effort to repulse the U.S. drive into the Western Pacific. On 24 October 1944, while en route to the prospective battle area off the Leyte landing beaches, Musashi and her consorts were attacked by hundreds of U.S. Navy carrier aircraft. In this Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, she was hit by some nineteen torpedoes and seventeen bombs. Though her heavy protection withstood this massive damage to a degree probably unsurpassed by any other contemporary warship, Musashi capsized and sank about four hours after she received her last hit.

and her are some pictures of her...notice the last one her bow is starting to go down!

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[Guest]

ok guys i have already come across a HUGE problem with this kit as soon as i opened the box (even though i have opened the box and seen it in shops before!!!)

MY SPRAY BOOTH IS TOO SMALL FOR EVEN THE HULL!!!!!

NOO

lol, think im going to just have to use lots of newspaper, i will do the most important part of the model later today and post some pics up!!!

[Guest]

ok to clarify this about p/e i have to heat it up untill almost red hot, then let it cool down agan. then i can use it and it will be more flexible?

will 2000w hot air gun be hot enough to do this?

[Guest]

Put it in a candle flame

[Guest]

so hot air gun not hot enough?

is it ok to just heat the whole sheet up at once??

also in the instructions it recomends getting tamiya "random japanese battleship extras" does anyone thing there would be any point in getting this set seeing as i have the p/e set?

[Guest]

Only heat up the bits you need .What is the point of the whole sheet getting heated if you only need 1 part doing.

[Guest]

What are you heating up anyway?

[Guest]

lol, you did not follow my tamiya 1:350 ships thread did you,

the brass p.e. ultimate detail set for the musashi.

i remember nigel saying to heat it up, then let it cool. doing that makes it easier to bend, so if i need every bit to be more bendy why cant i just heat it all up?

although to be honest it is very flimsy anyway, cant see it being a problem how it is now!!!!, just taken some pics...cant find my card reader now!!

[Guest]

after looking at the deck in the kit, there is no way they guy who made this one (see attachment) used any kind of wash...etc. the detail of the planks on the deck are tiny compaired to the ones on his model. any kind of idea how he has done it?

as you can see in the 2nd picture, this is the size of the planks on the kit (yes i know it is a yamato kit but its more or less the same...being sister ships)

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[Guest]

Iknow those two kits im just off to din dins il talk later

[Guest]

The kit by andy yu is i think a better representation of the decking. He made the decking as i described earlier the other by lim is an etched brass deck and it has been washed and weathered then drybrushedthen to give it its look a light mist coat of light cream is applied then the whole thing is gently rubbed down with scotchbrite to give the effect

[Guest]

i did not understant you decking technique nigel, i did ask you to dumb it down a bit for me but i guess you missed that post.

anyway, here are some pics of first, the photo etched "ultimate" details kit by White Ensign, and the other is off the kit itself layed out on my floor....

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[Guest]

and here is a pic of the most important part of the model!!!

(un-painted)

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[Guest]

Ships wooden decks suprisingly enough are actually very even in thier colour. They are nearly always teak, no matter what the vessel and the colour tone from one plank to the next is very close.

The model by Andy Yu actually shows distinctly different colours in the deck which is actually quite unrealistic and in my 30 years at sea is something I have not come across.

The other model with the more even tones but the detail picked out by carefull dry brushing is a fair more closer to the real effect.

If it would be of any use to you let me know and I will take some photo's of our decks for you to compare, which are typical of the cargo ships and warships I have been on in the past.

Usually caulking on most vessels particularly warships, cruise ships and cargo ships is black but sometimes on smaller yachts you may find white caulking.

If you look at the pictures of my Ben Ain coaster in the boats section I have used the same light coloured lime wood as planking and relied on the slight differrences in grain and tone to differrentiate between the planks. This is pretty much how decks are created in reality. Obviously at 1/350th scale this has to relate to a relatively even tone across the deck with some wash to create some subtle differrences and dry brush to pick out the caulking.

Ideally you could remove the raised detail and scribe the caulking which could be then picked out by a dark wash but I would be very carefull with the heavy use of colour as in the first model.

Let me know if you want some pictures.

[Guest]

yes please richard that would be great!!