Well Doug , at least you making a progress.Mine is stalled now due to commission work (this isn't one ).

Hope all that sanding turns out it worth the effort , otherwise i will start feeling compunctions for it.

Hi Kostas, I think it will turn out fine. The plating should blend right in once the base coat goes on, and the rivets can still be removed, but per my test view with the deck attached, the effect looked nice, at least to me. Will have to spend a little time now cleaning up all the glue marks and sanding the scratch marks on the hull. I also noticed my locator holes for the capped portholes don't exactly match the lines of the plating, so I will fill those in and draw a horizontal line along them to make sure they're centered. Once I get all this plus the portholes and degaussing cable done, I will probably take a break too while I wait for those resin parts to be available in March.

BTW, are you living in Greece or England these days? I assume you've had the chance to meet the German Gamblers (Guido, Frank, Christian, Dirk, Torben & Frank Ilse), who are all friends and acquaintances of mine, thanks to a meeting at Guido's house a few years ago....



PS - I'm the non-Germanic-looking one.

Cheers, Doug

I live in Greece since 2009.

''PS - I'm the non-Germanic-looking one.''


Right, i ll take a guess based on my Germanic type visual stereotype i have developed over the years living in England then ,and say , back row, far right.

Hows that?

Sorry Kostas, but no cigar. However, it was interesting to be spoken to on a number of occasions in German, which is the first time I felt close (I'm of 100% Polish ancestry) to my European roots. From left to right we are: Christian Bruer, Guido Hopp, Dirk Meninge, myself, Frank Spahr, and Torben Keitel. Frank Ilse was missing from the meeting.

It might strike you Doug , but you actually seemed to me the more Germanic than anyone else on that pic.
It seems i need to spend another 15 years back in England .

Well, this one great looking project thus far.

I hope I will be able to talk you into doing a Feature on your build afterward.

Thanks Jim, this has actually been quite an intellectually stimulating experience, been enjoying it immensely, regardless of how the kit turns out. Now the build is going to drag on for over a year, I'm sure, so probably we'll see Kosta's version first - he seems to crank out high quality work at an unbelievable rate. Kostas - I guess all those North Europeans look alike, in any event my wife can't tell us apart....

Doug. Keep up the good work. I just bought a 1/350 Tamiya and laid down the cash for the LionRoar set so I will be watching you and Kostas very closely. Time isnt a problem. Im about 20% done on my 1/200 Yamato. I might use the metal plate you used on the hull as rivets as the vertical detail on the main gun and secondary gun barbettes. So thank you for that.

Ken

Hi Ken, I actually bought two sheets of the stuff, so still have plenty left. I plan to use it in a few other areas as well. There is a rivet band just below the armored command post (below the bridge) that is way too soft on the Tamiya kit, so it will be useful there. The copper sheeting still hasn't arrived, but I decided that to do the entire hull in it would just look too busy in 1/350, and to do just horizontal plates would give me the same effect if I just sanded down what I have. I may still have a use for it in the build, however, depending on how easy it is to cut.

Doug I was thinking the same thing regarding the rivet strip on the bridge tower. Regarding cutting the tape its a piece of cake. Just be careful not to cut yourself when you put them on...like a paper cut. I used a rotarty trimmer to cut mine. Also used it to cut the planking for my deck. Talk about a pain in the arse.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Carl-RT-200-12-inch-Professional-Rotary-Trimmer-/390260685087?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5add59791f

In reagards to other uses for the foil tape..I used it on the 5" and 25mm shielded guns to add rivets. Not sure if this is possible in 1/350 but who knows.

Oh..are you familar with Archer Fine Transfers? Resin rivets on a transfer sheet. Im going to try this on my 1/200 Yamato's bridge and superstructure.

http://www.archertransfers.com/

Hi Ken, I was aware of the Archer transfers and actually have a sample set, but when I multiplied them by the number of locations needed, the cost of using them would be enormous and very labor intensive, so I nixed the idea. The copper foil arrived today and although I haven't had a chance to play around with it yet, there looks like there may be some possibilities, so thanks for letting me know. The problem, I would imagine, is that the stuff is very sensitive to nicks and bruises, but that's just a hypothesis. Your cutting board is also a good lead, so once again, feedback from the blog has been most useful, if continually setting my wallet back.

Last night I spent a little time working on one of the 127 mm open mounts as an experiment to see whether its worth purchasing the resin replacements when they're available. Not finished yet (which is an indicator by itself), but I may alter my opinion and buy them. Full report once I complete it.

Completely off topic - recently got the US release of the new British TV series
Sherlock, which updates Sherlock Holmes to modern day London. Fantastically good stuff - very ingenious, humorous and witty - I highly recommend.

Cheers , Doug

Hello folks, not a whole lot of work over the last week. I have been cleaning up the hull and filling in locator marks for the capped portholes, but progress has been desultory. Just about ready to start adding detail and doing a test spray on a section to see how well everything works.

Came across this book while surfing Amazon.JP, which appears to be a more serious reference book compared to the many CGI paperbacks that come out regularly in Japan:



If any of you are familiar with it and can recommend purchase (its runs about $50), let me know.

In another off-topic subject, came across a new comedy series on IFC called "Portlandia" featuring Saturday Night Live alumni Fred Armisen. For those of you not familiar with Portland and the PNW, yes, Portland really is like that...

http://www.ifc.com/videos/portlandia-portland-dream-of-the-90s.php

Cheers, Doug

Greetings folks, After a more or less two weeks break I am back in the basement working on the kit again. No pictures today, but I should have something for you shortly. Sanding and cleanup on the hull is now done, and I started adding open and closed portholes, with the help of the Flyhawk PE set:



As mentioned, adding the hull strips and the rivet plates required some adjustments to the porthole locations to get them to line up neatly, but this did not require any major changes in locations. I did notice that both Skulski and a guide provided on the Woody Joe web site differ in locations of portholes compared to the Tamiya kit. I am not going to lose too much sleep following along with any one source, however. Here's a guide for porthole locations (both open and closed) provided on that site that you can print off and use during your build:

http://www.geocities.jp/yamato_model_guide/drawing/drawing.htm

It's two of the PDF files towards the bottom of the page. Also, I noticed that the location of the anchor chain ports are a little too far down the hull side on the Tamiya kit. However, my inclination is to leave them be, as moving them higher will interfere with placement of the degaussing cable. Currently I am waiting for the replacement pieces for the lips around these ports, that are included in the resin replacement parts to be available in March.

Cheers, Doug

Another high-end reference book available only in Japan



In this case, retailing for 21,000 Yen, i.e., around $220.

Doug-
I have the "Cruisers" compendium of that series. The picture quality is outstanding. I paid like 75 Euro so 50$ seems like a good deal even if it doesn't help you a modeller. This is the type of quality book that will cost like 350$ within the next 2 decades. (See the battleships series of Ravenand Robert). Buy it and if you do't like it I'll take it from you!
Cheers,
Guido

PS.: I can't subscribe to this thread. I tried 5 or 6 times now.

Hi Guido, thanks for the recommendation. I have also been unable to subscribe to my own log so there may be a glitch in the setup for this one. No modeling done over the last week so will need to push myself to get back downstairs this weekend. The weather is finally breaking the 50 degrees mark around here, and clouds are back, which means it doesn't get ice cold at night. So, no excuses. However, I did have a minor cat-tastrophy with my APA model (nothing that can't be glued back on), so will need to spend a little time finishing it off before the little monsters hone in on it again.

Hey Doug and Kostas. I've been watching the Japanese maker of those aftermarket parts and there are a couple of Items Id like to get. Any chance one of you could maybe put in a bulk order for the rest of us that have interest? Even better tell that guy to get on US Ebay...he will sell his parts much faster.

Found this while I was trolling the internet. Looked promising. Im thinking of how a crew maning an open 25mm gun would look....

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10076055

Hi Ken, contact me privately about the resin parts and I'm sure we can work something out. I have noticed those figures before and may buy a set. The problem for me is I plan to portray Yamato at anchor on one of the days prior to the sortie, so unless I have a token AA mount "practicing" a loading sequence, the figures will have to be modified. May work for crewmen in small boats approaching the ship. Back to work on the kit this weekend for sure, we have had none of the horrible weather in the east or Midwest, but its been clear and chilly at night, hard to get the basement warm. Cheers, Doug

There are two different sets by Fujimi Doug, one with action poses and and a second set with figures walking, saluting, standing at attention and all those sorts of Navy "fun poses"
Cheers,
Julian

Hi Julian, yes, I was familiar with the other set and also plan to purchase. Guido has also suggested the Goffy set of sailors, which possesses many more poses. Between all the sets and some strategic repositioning of arms, I may be able to get enough poses to look realistic. For me, this is a long way down the road since I don't anticipate being at that phase until next year. Well, I got down to the basement yesterday only to find that my space heater had burned out, although it still was able to tell me that the temp in the room was a whole 49 degrees F (9C). So, another short delay. On the other hand, saw our first signs of Spring here yesterday - plum blossoms are beginning to come out. Our Spring comes early but lasts all the way through June. BTW, are you familiar with the Jenni Baynton radio ship in Harlingen? I'm thinking about doing it as a scratch build project if I can get a hold of another South Goodwin kit. Cheers, Doug

It appears the Otoko-tachi Yamato movie has finally been released in England (DVD Region II) under the title "Pacific Battleship Yamato":



Note the use of USS Missouri on the DVD cover. Outside of presumably better subtitles than the versions many of you probably have, this should be the exact same movie as originally released in 2005, so save your money if you think you're getting something new. Available via Amazon.UK.

All right, finally some progress to report, namely that I have completed the capped and open portholes on the port side of the hull:



This has turned out to be a very tedious process, but after a little experimentation, I've settled into a pattern - using a couple of large glasses filled with water as weights, I turned the hull on its side and positioned it between the glasses so it stays in one place, and slid the portholes off the contact sheet (they don't require crimping) and carefully dropped them onto the hull adjacent to the position where they are going to be glued. I then used the end of one of those twisty pieces of metal used to hold Christmas decorations to dip into a pool of super glue, spotted the glue on the location, and then used the tip of an Exacto blade to slide the porthole on top of the glue. You can "adjacent" 4-5 portholes at a time using this method without worrying about them falling off the hull. I also used an Exacto blade to lift them off of the contact sheet and onto the hull, which requires a little dexterity and an ability not to breath heavily. There seems to be a little bit of adhesion between the blade and the brass if you don't waste too much time maneuvering between the two.

There are several places where portholes are not quite lined up, but it will not be too much effort to scrape them off and try again. I bought a second set of capped portholes in addition to what the Lionroar set has, so no problem with losing any in the process (which has already happened several times.

I was also pleased to note that the height of my hull plates is roughly the same as the height of the portholes themselves, so it looks like my efforts to sand down the strips to get a better scale effect has paid off. The degaussing cable will go on top of the middle hull plate and fill in that empty-looking area. Also, the double filled-in spots on the hull are where the supports for the davits go. Since the Lionroar pieces require folding at both the top and bottom, I will wait to add those until everything else on the hull is built, to avoid damaging any of them while handling.

I also added the truncated bow section of the deck just before starting to add the portholes in an effort to give the hull piece a little more rigidity during that process:



You'll recall the deck behind this area was removed in order to be replaced by grooved sheeting with a little better plank effect. Before doing this, I sanded off the molded anchor chain and drilled out the deck ports for the chain, and removed the base for the capstan, as this rests on a trapezoidal plate which is missing on the Tamiya kit. I left the small platform at the rear of the piece on for the moment, but plan to remove it when I get the replacement resin part from Japan.

Here's another reference book by Janusz Skulski that's apparently been out for a little while, but which has yet (as far as I know) to be available outside of Poland:



500 pages, including colorized photos, CGI, drawings and diagrams. If anyone knows how to obtain this, or there is a Polish modeler dropping by here sometime who would like to say hello, please let me know. For that matter, Guido or Frank, please keep an eye out for it when you visit Poland this summer.