Moving on, I worked on a few things simultaneously: funnels, a framework for a canopy sunshade that was erected over the main engine room skylight array, and a steam, hydraulic or oil line that was fitted to travel over the top of the boat deck.
The kit funnels look very nice but, they are erroneous in three ways: 1) They’re not tall enough. Working from plans and photos, I estimated them to be approximately 20% taller; 2) The actual funnels did not utilize grills over the top of the funnel in the manner of the IJN’s warships. These ships were diesel engined (save for Kurushio Maru, a later sister), and utilized simple exhaust holes. So, in the manner of most diesel engine ships, the funnel top is plated over except for apertures for the exhaust. Patterns differed between ships; 3) The kit funnels are incorrectly shaped in horizontal cross-section. If you were to slice the kit’s funnel horizontally, the perimeter shape would resemble an elongated egg, with the widest portion of the oval forward. The actual funnels were squat, symmetrical ovals, at their widest in the middle.
In order to raise their height, I assembled the original funnels, then sanded off the grillwork of the kit supplied original cap, then reduced its diameter in all directions in order to use it as a guide to wrap a styrene strip around the top of the funnel. I then sanded the sides smooth to erase the seam.
Achieving a symmetrical cross-section of the funnel is not really an option with the kit supplied parts. It’s probably easier to fashion one from scratch. But, I didn’t feel like scratch-building a funnel, either. So, I settled for a compromise. I sanded down the widest section of the funnel wall, while reshaping the overall oval. Now, it falls somewhere in between the kit version and the desired version.
For the tops, I took more styrene strip and shaped it to fit into the top of the funnel, recessed slightly. Using various styrene rod tube widths, I sliced thin cross-sections to match the raised lip shapes atop each funnel, then drilled them out to mark where the diesel exhausts vent. I also fitted a small platform facing forward , on the funnel sides, with ladder access. A small auxiliary pipe was added to the rear (though it’s not visible in this set of photos. Siting the funnel on top of the superstructure called for widening some of the placement holes while also ensuring that the base of the funnel was evenly flat.
A small pipeline was run across the top of the superstructure, while a canopy frame made from brass mesh was placed above the main engine room skylight for Kenyo Maru. It will be glued in place after this area has been painted and detailed. It’s not (yet) clear to me if Kyokuto Maru carried a similar frame. Most sisters did (look carefully at both the Kokuyo Maru photo below & the Itsukushima Maru aft photo prior to the last post), so I can always add it later on. Kyokuto Maru funnel photo courtesy of Motoyuki-san.
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Kokuyo Maru aft superstructure close-up June, 1944, alt crop small.jpg [ 146.85 KiB | Viewed 7599 times ]
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DSCN6278sm.jpg [ 130.34 KiB | Viewed 7599 times ]
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) I prefer to work in styrene, so I chose to go with the Fujimi kit.
