1／350 日本海軍航空巡洋艦 最上 製作記錄 (五)

As of this time, the body is mostly done. Assembled and painted. From here on, I'll be working on the mast, bridge, cannons, and high angle guns.

The main cannon is made up with these four pieces. Glue each piece in the right place.

Now, for the barrle modification. The original is the one piece barrle + sail part. The metal barrle below is the Pit-Road brand barrle. The metal barrel is good for adding details. It has a hole in the front which the plastic barrel doesn't have.

Cut away the barrel. be sure to do this carefully so you won't hurt the sail.

Drill a small hole on the cutting face and super glue the metal barrel. It looks much better now.

Put the barrels in place. Paint in white primer for painting convinience later. Add hand rails and ladder on the body. Mogami had a total of three cannons, so....go make two more....

Now for the smoke stack. Two large pieces. Put together.

Fill the gap with a bit of super glue. Wait until dry and sand over to eliminate the gap between two pieces.

Look close here. The smoke stack rails are mold-on as well. Sand them off then use the YMW's smoke stack rail detail.

Sand the mold-on rails with sandpaper. Be sure to use fine sandpaper to sand again afterward to have a smooth surface.

Add the rails on the side and the cage on top. Note the two silver pieces between the two smoke Pipes are orginally issue PE parts. Although YMW has the same parts, their's just won't fit..... disappointed....

1／350 日本海軍航空巡洋艦 最上 製作記錄 (四)

This is the torpedo compartment. There are four openings for the torpedo launchers (grey tubes). the launchers can be place at either this position or the position shown below...

For displaying purpose, I'm not going to place the launchers at this position, but I definetly will if I'm doing a diorama.

These are the anchor and chains. They were little pieces, but after putting together, they look incredible!

Put the anchors in place on both sides.

Now, paint the whole ship in Hull red. Then cover the hull with masking tape, and paint the uncovered parts in IJN Sasebo Arsenal Grey. The reason for painting the grey part red is to show the shade. When a thin coat of grey is airbrushed on, some places, especially at angles will slightly show the red color. It will make the grey look more like it has a little rust.
I apologize for not being able to show pictures of painting the body here. I lost those pictures for some reason....

This is the front deck. It is not wooden deck, it's Linoleum Deck (亞麻油布甲板). the gold beam on the deck are the settlers (亞麻油布壓條). Add the gold beam on every linoleum deck. There are mold-on's on the deck. There's no need to sand them off. Simple place the beam over them.

By the way, there are no PE parts for the beam. You'll have to make them. For me, I use the bottom of the hand rails in the YMW PE set. I figured that I should use the Chinese Brand, Lionroar's hand rails for detailing, so it's ok to destroy the YMW hand rails.

After all the beams are in place. Airbrush the XF-79 Linoleum Deck Brown over the decks.

Cover the deck with this masking sticker which was introduced to you in my previous post.

Paint the IJN grey over. Wait until dry, then peel the sticker off. I really like the result. it's clean and easy, but above all, it's saves time.

Since the beams are metal parts, the paint doesn't hold onto the surface. Simply use an extra fine sandpaper to sand away the paint. The settlers are suppose to be in gold, so sand the PE to reveal the natural gold color.

1／350 日本海軍航空巡洋艦 最上 製作記錄 (三)

I've had a change of plan. I was gonna use the originally issued plastic base for my Mogami; however, decided to use a wooden base instead.

Here's the wood base which I'm gonna use for this model. I couldn't find a rectangular one in my local art store, and I really don't have time to look around. I'm just gonna suck it up and bear with this one...

The picture shows the board after stain and clear coat have been put on.

First, find the center and place the plastic base on the wood. Then drill the holes according to the plastic base. The plastic base already has holes on it, so just "trace" it.

Drill through the board from bottom and use two screws that are long enough to go though the board and the beads.
(I apologize for these bead. They are a bit simple and ugly, but as mentioned earlier, I didn't have time for scouting the materials.)

Finally, place the already assembled hull onto the base and tighten with bolt.

Next is to put on the decks. Starting from this lower deck of the rear of the ship. This deck is directly below the flight deck. As you can see, Tamiya's new design is to screw on the decks rather than old glue-on idea. This new design clearly makes decking a lot easier.

Then it's time for the detail. This here is the Degaussing Cable (消磁電路). There's a huge "magnet" inside the hull so the ship won't roll over because it is attracted by the earth's magnetic field; However, the magnet also attracts torpedos. the degaussing cable's job is to disturb the meagnetic force and minimize the chance of attrating the torpedoes.

Use the super glue to attach the cable to the side of the hull. Use the diagram provided with the kit as reference.

Next, put on the hand rail along the side of the lower deck, and add the Type 96 triple 25mm AA gun platforms on both side as shown above. I'm not gonna add details to this deck because after the flight deck is put on, 80% of the area cannot be seen anyway.

This is the PE set which I have long been waiting for. This set is an American brand, Yankee's Model Work. They have a 1/350 mogami, too, and this PE set is for that particular model. YMW claims that 99 percent of the parts will fit the Tamiya 1/350 Mogami. Let's find out!

Time for the flight deck modification. The rails on the flight deck are mold-on.

Use the combination of masking tape and design knife, sand paper, and crafting grinder to chip away the rails.

Here's the YMW flight deck rail. Frankly, I was disappointed. It's just not detail enough.... Unlike the Asian made PEs, the American model industry just don't really care for the realness that much. Since YMW is the only brand that carries PE parts for the Mogami so far, I had no choice, but having such low class quality PE parts is just a pain in the a*s.....

well, actually it's not that bad after the details have been put on. I'm still not satisfied with the quality, though, but at least it looks better than the mold-on rails.

Grinding and detailing took me 4 hrs to accomplish. When it's done, put the flight deck over the lower deck and secure with three tiny screws.

1／350 日本海軍航空巡洋艦 最上 製作記錄 (二)

Today, I have just received the items which I've been waiting for. The two Tamiya Color, XF-77 Sasebo Arsenal (佐世保海軍工廠) and XF-79 Linoleum Deck (亞麻油布甲板) Brown; however, I cannot start working yet. Because....I accidently broke my airbrush when I was setting up the airbrush system. I don't want to go over the details because it was very stupid. I've purchased another identical airbrush, so I should get it and get things going in just a few days.

Tamiya Color XF-77 Sasebo Arsenal (佐世保海軍工廠) and XF-79 Linoleum Deck (亞麻油布甲板) Brown.

Along with the color, I've also received this. The deck masking sticker. There are many tiny things to avoid being painted with the brown deck color. Back in the day, It was extremely difficult to paint the deck, but these days, we have this kind of tool which makes deck painting so much easier. I will show you how this works when I'm doing the deck. be patient. :)

Due to my broken airbrush, I cannot spray paint the ship; however, I started a few things that require PAINT bruch. For example, the airplanes and the AA guns.

This is a photo of AICHI E13A (零式三座水上偵查機). American code word for this aircraf model is "Jake".

In the kit, there are 8 Aichi E31As. each of them have to be put together like other parts.

Here's a look of the Aichi E13A with wings. The legs (I don't know what they are called.....) have not yet been installed.

I kinda forgot to take pictures when I add the legs and when I painted the plane, but this is what it looks like when it's completely done. The propeller is from the PE parts provided in the kit. There is another aircraft model onboard the Mogami, the Mitsubishi F1M (零式水上觀測機). I am not yet on the page of building that aircraft, but I will post it in the near future.

There are 10 AA guns (對空機槍) on Mogami, and they are type 96 triple 25mm (九六式三管.25釐米對空機槍). Above is a photo of a type 96.

This is the type 96 PE detail parts made by Lionroar. It is the left over of the IJN Yamato (戰艦大和). It can be of some use after all. The parts are in gold. That's the neutral color. I have to paint them into the appropriate color before I cut them down form the sheet. Gun barrels = Gun metal black. Gun mount and base = Sasebo Arsenal gray.

First, start with the single barrel. I've already painted it in gun betal black, as you can see. This barrel will be placed between the other two barrels. The piece on the left is unfold. simply fold it at the folding line and it will look like the piece on the right.

Here is the process of making the two barrels, from left to right.

Add the single barrel in the center and you will get something like above.

This is the gun mount. Starting on the left as a flat piece. Fold the two sides and the front & rear 90 degree up.

Turn the gun sight side way and add the triple barrels onto the mount.

Here is the base of the AA gun. Notice the seats are painted brown. Fold the two sides first, then center.

Fold the seats, wheel, and paddles.

This is what it should look like if it's done properly.

Add the gun mount onto the base, and the type 96 triple 25mm is complete. start working on the next one until there are 10 of them....

Finally, after a long work, the 6 Aichi E13As and 10 type 96 triple 25mms are done. It took me 3 hr. to get the planes done, and 5 hr. to get the AAs done......

Aichi E13A and type 96 triple 25mm

The planes have been painted in IJN green on top, and IJN light gray on the bottom. metal propeller and decals have been applied.

Type 96 triple 25mm. Look better than the originally issued plastic parts. The PE detail parts make tiny parts such as the gun sight clearly visible!

Now you wonder why they took my so much time to make them.... they are very very very very very very small.....especially the AA guns.

Look at the size of my hand. I have a hand size bigger than average people, which makes it extremely difficult to build tiny parts like these.

8 hrs straight, no eating, no drinking. I've only finished one model of planes and all the required AAs. Have I done much today? you tell me. lol

More to come! Check my site regularly!

ps. My next entry will more likely to be after June 11. I have to deal with school finals....