¹⁄700

Build Up of the Tamiya 1:700 IJN Yamato

Shielded 12cm Guns: I decided to create some internal detail by not using the kit’s barrel pieces. Instead I carefully added Tom’s Modelworks ladders to each side of the opening and filled the middle with stretched sprue. Once this was dry the top was lightly sanded to blend into the body of the gun. Barrels were made using .015mm steel wire and inserted into the ladders. A paper vent and Gold Medal Models railing finished the guns. These were cut out and glued in place when the superstructure had been completed to the point of needing railings. Once painted Kure grey, paint all vents Steel and side notches Euro I grey.




Unshielded 12cm Guns: These guns required a bit of work to get them looking better than what is offered straight from the kit. First a block was removed from under the left side area using a Dremel and cutting disc. This was then cleaned up using a hobby knife. A few had too much of the block removed this was easily corrected with styrene. A styrene triangle with a hole drilled for extra detail was then added in its place. Very thin stretched sprue was added at a diagonal on the large side and a straight piece was placed on the opposite side. Paper hatches on the front and back were added and a small section of Gold Medal Model ladder was placed on the back. The barrel piece will be left off until both it and the base are painted separately. Since I decided to paint the floor of each of circular area IJN Linoleum, these guns will not be glued to the model until after that is done.




Shielded AA Turrets: There are three variations in the kit. The standard ones will go on the superstructure, the ten side-mounted ones attach to the ship’s side after they are painted, and four attach to the aft fight deck. The aft flight deck ones were the only ones needing modification. They had too thick of a molded on base and each was sanded to about half what it originally was. You can elect to not use the barrel pieces and have an open barrel area similar to the Shielded 12cm guns. You can just bend a piece of four bar railing from a US navy photoetch set and place it in the opening and create barrels with thin stretched sprue. I did not have such a set available and choose to use the barrels with the kit. Each gun had the barrel piece glued in place. Then two sides of a section of railing were cut out and glued on both sides of the barrels. The top section of four pieces of Tom’s Modelworks railing was cut off, bent and glued to the top-rear portion of the gun for a handrail. It is slightly over scale but looks quite impressive. A paper hatch on the back of the turret completed the modifications.

AA Platforms: As mentioned earlier, after painting the main guns I decided I was not happy with the look of the AA platforms on them. The sides should be both deeper and thinner than the included molded kit parts. I used the scrapbooker’s hole punch to punch 1/4 inch diameter circles out of styrene. I did just a size smaller for the tread plate in the center of each of these platforms. I then glued a styrene cylinder to the center of the styrene circle and cut strips of 2mm high by 14mm long paper out with a ruler and hobby knife. This length left a notch in the back of each platform just as the real Yamato had when the paper was glued. I gently curled the paper around a brush handle then glued it to the outside edge of the styrene disc. The tread plate was glued to the inside base. I then soaked the outside edge paper with superglue to provide some strength. The piece was then cut off with a set of nippers leaving some styrene cylinder on the underside of the platform to inset in the holes drilled into the deck. Two of the platforms will need the styrene cylinder glued to the back under the notch. These two will be placed by the vent just after turret No.1.




Unshielded Triple AA Guns: The guns on the W sprues are done really well but the ones provided on the C sprues are exceptionally good. I just made sure the bottoms were clear of any flange and that the barrels had none in between them either. The base was then painted a Modelmaster Steel and the barrels and rear were painted Gunmetal. They will be touched up once removed from the sprue.




Other Guns: There are just two types of guns left to make and paint for the Yamato. The twin guns were made from part W41. The sides, back and top were cut off to make it smaller. The base was then painted ModelMaster Steel and the barrels Gunmetal. You will only need two of these, one each mounts on either side of the bridge on platform B10. The 25mm single guns from Gold Medal Models were more durable so they were used over the Tom’s Modelworks ones. However Tom’s comes with bases for these. Lightly etch an “X” across each base before painting. After all guns and bases are painted add them to the model. If you are going for accuracy, there were few 25mm guns on the Yamato in 1945. 1944’s version had the most. Use the book for a placement guide. I decided to add a few extra just because they looked good, even though it is not historically accurate.