The Ship Model Forum

Hello everybody,


I have been terribly busy lately so I wasn't able to do much documentation or a build log it but since the build is going slow paced, I've decided to try my hand and show you the way to the finish line from this point on.

I have been building on the ship for a month or 2 - 3 now I think, and it is going rather well. A lot of the superstructure stands, together with some etchwork, railings, aa guns and masts. The pictures are shared below

I have done a fair bit of work, hull, most of superstructure, masts, aa guns, platforms, funnel are made.

what is yet to come is this, (and maybe more)

- Repairs on one of the main masts where the support girders of the PE set got lost
- denting out some railings
- finishing superstructures
- making the gun turrets
- putting small brass strips over the deck
- paintjob
- rigging

got a few doubts too about the paintwork, whether I'll mount the superstructure on deck and then start the paintwork, or whether I'll paint the subassemblies first and then the deck/hull before mounting everything together. Maybe anyone got some tips on this. Also I do not yet know how much I'll weather the ship, I like old rusty looks but I won't do it as heavy as on the Hiei I think.

For the model I use the following materials

- IJN Mikuma Light cruiser 1/350 Tamiya

- Infini 13mm and 25mm twin aa guns
- veteran IJN deck equipment
- Eduard Mikuma PE sets
- Uschi rigging
- Tamiya XF paints and AK wheathering.
- Aber main gun barrels

I'll include more pictures when I finish next steps to provide some extra detail.

kind regards and stay safe

p.s. pictures in full res can be found at https://imgur.com/gallery/XvUCVXV

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Under construction: KMS Bismarck 1/350

Here is a small update,

I work slower than before partly to have more fun but mostly cause I have too much to do in too little time. Still I try do at least one page of the instruction manual each week.

What have I done this week,

Been busy with small stuff,

- added a few doors and ladders to the base of the bridge
- created the flying bridge structure between the bridge and funnel islands
- started on 2 platforms with searchlights, due to tensions on the railing I decided to leave those 2 alone for at least a day before going on to prevent railings getting loose again. Hence the unfinished state
- added 2 pieces of PE to the mast
- started work on the turrets. Brass barrels not yet fully calibrated to be neatly lined up

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Under construction: KMS Bismarck 1/350

Great to see your build here, IJNFan!

I've always liked this class with triple turrets I'm sure more guys will join the chorus later but i learned it was best to paint parts separately. Your biggest task will be its deck and this will involve a great deal of masking.




Jose

Following with interest.

It has been a long long while since I posted any update, university, thesis and all that came in the way. Apologies for the long time I didn't update. Now I am back in a position to do some small stuff with it. So here is a tiny update. In hindsight I should have painted the deck parts separate, thats a lesson noted for next time. Also I found some parts damaged or not the way i'd want to work rn so I took of some parts, hence the glue rests.

I made the Secondary guns, not much pe there but anything counts.



I made a first lifeboat



I made turrets





Hopefully the next update doesnt take me 4 months but 1 week or something.

Thanks and stay safe

IJNfan

edit: I forgot to make the images thumbnails so edited that down.

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Under construction: KMS Bismarck 1/350

Beautiful. My favorite IJN cruisers both the light and heavy versions. I've always wanted to build the 6" gun version and a pre-war Brooklyn class for display together.

Very nice!

And good luck with the thesis!

Excellent, detailed work!

Marco

Very nice work.

great work

It has been a bit, it is still busy and I have not yet had the time to make pictures of everything but here is another small update. As always ME PE frets have a ton of unused stuff so I have been trying to figure out what has to go where. That process is slowly progressing. At the same time I have decided she will be depicted with the guns trained as if she were on the sea trials, this also means the paintwork is not gonna be too spoiled with weathering and some stairs along the sides will not be mounted. I will also place the lifeboats on te suppots on the deck and not mount them to the davits.

I have made the wo catapults, worked on the planes, worked on the lifeboats, adding bits and pieces of pe, and reworking the one from my last post to remove redundant plastic, I added pe to the hull, added the davits to the hull, pre-bend a few stairs and made a plan for the paintwork. More pictures will follow tomorrow or friday.







im also on the lookout for a next model, I have 2 pontos models, bismarck and nagato, but ain't sure if I am already up to the job of doing that. originally I wanted to build Hiryu, but I can't find a wooden decksticker#sadness. i might as well decide to redo the paintjob on my Hamakaze

IJNfan

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Under construction: KMS Bismarck 1/350

Good to see progress here. Great catapult.

For Hiryu, I would recommend painting and washing the deck (example below) as being more satisfying then a wood sticker. But, if you insist on the sticker, then the Shipyard set would work for you:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R ... =0&_sop=15

Thanks Dan, issue is that the EBAY one would take some time while I'd need it supposedly in July. I use Tamiya + taiya lines plus oils from AK. Ive onl once done a nonwood deck however i didnt like it cause more trule with painwork + it lacks a bit of texture or looks so sterile, got any painttips in case I would do it?

(example of my nonwood)

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Under construction: KMS Bismarck 1/350

A wash is incredibly easy to apply. I use Tamiya paints as well.

The deck gets sprayed with your choice of "wood" colored paint. Tamiya Wooden Deck Tan XF-78 is a good choice.

Once dry, seal it with a spray coat of clear acrylic gloss. I use Future, or whatever they call it these days, thinned with about 25% alcohol, and sprayed on.

You'll need to purchase a tin or tube of an oil based wash, preferably burnt umber in color. But, you could experiment with different colors. Some examples: https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... r+oil+wash

I take a small piece of paper towel, dip it into some turpentine, then dab it with the burnt umber from the tin/tube. Rub it over the deck, covering all the spaces and try to fill the plank seams. I don't try to put it on too heavily, but it almost doesn't matter.

I use to continue spreading the burnt umber around with the paper towel, before the turpentine dried, in order to thin the paint layer and control it's appearance. Sometimes, that meant taking a new, clean piece of paper towel, also wetted with turpentine, to continue the process. Essentially you are finger painting with the paper towel, though I would use the entire tip of my finger up to the first joint, to spread the wash.

Through experimentation on my cage mast BB decks, I discovered that it was almost better to let the thickly applied burnt umber fully dry, then come back the next day with a clean, turpentine wetted paper towel to take down the wash.

You can experiment on the deck, or on some V groove Evergreen sheet. There will be variations in the application of the wash. It won't be a monotone coat. An IJN flight deck needs a moderate amount of wash, IMHO. Definitely not light.

I hope my explanation is reasonably clear. I really don't understand why more folks don't do this.

I suppose it's also possibly to apply the paint and the gloss coat with a brush, but I think the spray will work much better.

Thanks for the explanation of the methodology I’ll keep it in mind. Huge thanks!

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Under construction: KMS Bismarck 1/350

You bet. The other thing I should mention is that if you're unhappy with an attempt, you can wipe off most of the wash with a piece of paper towel wetted with turpentine, and start again.

And here I am with another update. I work on this every month but take it a bit slow to keep it fun. Also, my airbrush broke down last month. I couldn’t do a thing. I got my new I finty from H&S last week. The red and deck have been done with the old clone. The grey will be done with the HS. I was thinking Tamiya Kure grey but found that the Mikuma was build in mitsubishi shipyards. Which color from the Tamiya series would be most appropriate?

Here are the pictures, hull painted and deck painted+masked.

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Under construction: KMS Bismarck 1/350

Once someone (Dan K probably) tells you what specific time period the kit depicts her, you can go check out her tabular record of movement on Combined Fleet to see which shipyard she last visited for that time frame, and that's the grey you would use: http://www.combinedfleet.com/tone_t.htm

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De quoi s'agit-il?

Timmy has accidentally posted the wrong link. Mikuma's is here: http://www.combinedfleet.com/mikuma_t.htm

Mikuma entered a yard for upkeep many times after her commissioning, so what's relevant is the period over the last few months of her service life. As it happens, she saw yard time at Kure both immediately prior to the start of hostilities, and again in May, 1942. So, Kure Gray it is.