Let’s get to the inner values of the ship.
I’m going about this a little differently than usual.
For me, the cannon barrels are attached to the model much later and the deck has to be closed early.
There are two reasons for this.
The special feature of the Mikasa is its casemates with the protruding gun barrels. They get in the way and you quickly get stuck with them as you continue building.
In general, I always attach large pieces very late.
I will also raise the hull to the next level earlier than usual. It’s about the upper row of casemates.
If you glue this fuselage part later, which is actually logical and intended, you can get to the internal structures much better.
But you also end up with a very unsightly slot that can no longer be removed.
More on that later.
First I soldered the shields of the cannons on the bow and stern.
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Then, since you can’t see anything behind the shields anyway, I simply replaced the cannon body with a small piece of styrene pipe.
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This was then glued in…
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…and I’ll simply put the barrel of the cannon through the hole later.
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Now that all the cannons in the hull are installed, I can prepare the deck.
First say goodbye to unnecessary details. I got a small electric chisel, it simplifies things a lot.
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Great, deck ready.
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Let's start by painting the lower hull. First the preshading.
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And then tape it off. I’m doing this relatively precisely, even though I’m only in the basic color.
Of course I could spray the red without masking it off, but then too many layers would overlap afterwards and the whole thing would be too thick for me.
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And now the antifouling paint is on the underwater hull.
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The waterline is running great. Profiles attached at the correct height. I really like the structure I made from the styrene profiles, and the preshading also comes into its own.
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