Building The Fujimi 1/350 IJN Kongo, Part 2

Part 14: 5" And 6" Guns…

The barrels of the twin 5" guns were removed and replaced with brass pieces by the always dependable Fukuya Works. The top picture shows a comparison between plastic and brass. The bottom are all six guns.

This picture depicts replacing the short, solid, 6" guns with the Fukuya barrels for a huge improvement. The first picture shows the gun base/ blast bag with the mounting hole drilled in, then a comparison shot of replacement with original, and finally, the whole arsenal before paint.

Part 15: Final Assembly…

First up, we have the port side installation of 5" AA, launch and whaler. The rear aspect of the bridge superstructure with yard arms is now attached also. The boat crane is now installed.

Moving back, we can see a couple of the boats, the airplane carts, catapult, and planes. The turrets are now also permanently installed.

The spare rudder wood was painted and washed in Vallejo paints.

Here is a closer shot of the Pete and catapult. The catapult's cable has been rigged as on the real thing.

Going over to the starboard side, we see two more boats. That hole next to the triple 25 will get a scratch built vent put in. An empty plane cart can be seen here.

Moving forward, we see the starboard 5" guns, launch and whaler.

The basic washes are done. The 6" guns have been attached, as have the side hanging boats. The crane for the planes is attached. The sealing dull coat for the washes has been applied. This was followed by Kristal Klear to create the windows. Searchlight lenses installed. The DF antenna was attached, then the main top and finally the radar.

The starboard accommodation stairs on the sides came apart after bending the steps up to be horizontal an then bending the stair sides. This shot was taken after positioning the steps back into shape before gluing the side on...

Because of the fragile nature of those pieces, I left the steps alone on the port side and didn't bend them into position. Being that they're vertical instead of horizontal, they don't look perfect, but at least they didn't come apart. In so many cases, Fujimi's PE is often too thin, comes apart easily during/ after bending, and doesn't have solid bend points.

Canvas covers go around the accommodation stairs gantry sides and tops. I made these out of receipt paper because that paper is thin, but strong, and works better than tissue paper. It was glued on with white glue. The actual stairs are lowered by cable attached to a davit. Because Fujimi doesn't give you these specific davits in plastic or PE, I improvised by using PE part B-17 on each side for the stairs davits, and had used the plastic parts where the other PE davits would normally go. This was then rigged with cable just as the real one would.

This picture shows the finished accommodation stairs and aft plank attached. The canvas will receive weathering as part of the final step with the clean canvas dirtied-up some.