That is magic Dade ! Glad you are posting progress pic's again.
Cheers,
Julian

Your attention to eye-catching detail has always amazed me! Please keep sharing, it is a joy to see your work.

Thanks guys!

I finished putting the rivets on the sides a couple hours ago. There were over 600... I have to put the bottom rivets on now, and finish the weld beads I've been doing. After all this is done and I get a coat of primer on the hull, I'll make an update (it's hard to make out the rivets right now with all the markings, etc.).

Whew, after almost a week of finishing off the rivets, priming, fixing stuff, priming again, and then painting, here we go!


First off, when I did one last dry-fit, I noticed that there wasn't enough room under the funnel area to clear the AA gun turret. Some grinding and shaping of the underside, and now things are great!




When all was said and done, the rivet count clocked in at about 750... I also used the CA glue to make bands for the rivets and weld beads. This whole thing was especially terrifying because the CA (Zap-A-Gap) dries clear, so I wasn't really sure what exactly it would look like after paint. It really could have gone either way, but luckily it turned out fine. In fact, I can honestly say that it turned out better than I hoped!

And so, instead of a plain, perfectly smooth hull... we now have much more visual interest. To me, this adds much more "weight" to the piece and makes the model seem even bigger. There will have to be some tweaks here and there where the paint ran under the masking, Chrysanthemum needs to be painted, etc..




When I think that I considered the 1/200 Yamato at one point, I'm so happy I stuck with the 1/250 Musashi. This big thing is a hassle to wrestle around already-- doing this work to the 1/200 Yamato would have driven me crazy!

Speaking of wrestling this model around, I want to take a moment to talk about paint. Anyone who has followed my work knows that I prefer Gunze Sangyo acrylics. However, when Gunze decided to leave the water-based acrylics market, I found myself in a lurch. There's good old trusty Tamiya, but Tamiya's paints are generally prone to scratching and are very delicate. I would have to use paint that would stand up the abuse of man-handling a 40" hull around...

I had been using Testors Model Master's "Acryl" dull coat for the past few projects I've done, and I recently used their flesh on a figure. The paint flows on smooth and is very tough. So, I decided to try it out for this project.

After priming with White Primer #4622, I settled on Dark Gray (F-15) #4754 as a pretty good IJN Gray; and Insignia Red #4714 for under the water line. The Yamato class had a pretty bright hull red (as opposed to the brownish hull reds of ships like the Kongo), so the Insignia Red worked well.

A word of caution regarding this paint: Due to it being so tough, it will generally laugh off 70% Isopropyl Alcohol, unlike Tamiya and Gunze. If you try to clean up with it, it will generally gum up, or just plain not work. I recommend the dedicated Acrylic cleaner that Testors released for this line-- it'll free up the sludge and take care of any dried paint.

Also, while it is possible to thin this paint with alcohol for airbrush (as I have done with the Acryl flesh colors and black), the paint seems to work even better with the dedicated acrylic thinner. This isn't a requisite (and some people have done really well with 90% Isopropyl), but for me personally, using the thinner with the red and gray worked like a dream. I'm very happy with the finish and can't praise the paint quality enough. Give it a shot sometime and see what you think!


I'm going to let the hull sit for another day or so and let the paint really settle in. In the meantime, I will begin to strip the plating off the propellers to prepare them for painting. Then it will be time to start weathering the hull before it gets mounted to the stand permanently.

That is absolutely magnificent Dade ! Fantastic work.
Cheers,
Julian

I am really looking forward to see the finished model. It is going to be really awesome!

Thanks once again for the very kind words, guys. It'll be a few days (perhaps a week or so) before the next update, as I'll be weathering the hull before mounting it to the stand. Doing this process on such a large piece is gonna be a real time killer!

Well, as expected, weathering the hull and deck took a long time! But here we go...


First up was post shading the lines and rivets...




Then it was time to do some weathering. The underside received the heaviest weathering as this is the area that would see the most fouling. Washes of Vallejo mud colors, dark rust, and black were followed up with powders from Bragdon.



A note about the rust. I used a very dark rust color for areas under the water line, essentially a red-brown. Brighter rust is reserved for above the waterline, where it would be able to oxidize better in the air. This isn't the Titanic where the rust would have almost 100 years of sitting still to oxidize into massive columns, etc..

The screws were painted and attached, and the hull was then permanently attached to the oak stand.


Finally, there's the deck. After the usual sealing with Valspar (see my build log on the Kongo for more on this), it was sprayed with 3M spray adhesive and mounted. After the adhesive dried, The Detailer (brown) was applied and then wiped off the raised portions to show the planking detail (compare to the earlier photo where the planking is almost invisible).

Some creative license was taken here: in order to better show the great planking detail on the deck, I made the lines a little darker than would be accurate (after all, these decks were holy stoned to gleam as brightly as possible). Maybe the deck is dirty because this is the Musashi as she sailed in her last days at the Sibuyan Sea?




Wow, working on the hull of this build is probably one of the single most intense modeling projects I've ever undertaken. With the exception of the little bits (rails, anchors, etc.), it's finally done. I'll do more weathering after the rest of the ship is together to consolidate the overall appearance. But until then, I'm going to use this as a good stopping point for another break so I can get some other projects done that have been piling up (including a late father's day present for my father... ahem ).

Have no fear, this break will not be like the last one (two years)! I'll be back in a month or two to finish this monster once and for all!

Beautiful work Dade!

I am stunned as usual by your skills. All the fabrication and modifications you do is just awe inspiring. I am so glad you do all this because of you my skiills have improved just trying to copy what you do. I've still got another 350 Yamato in the stach, so i may drag it out and "upgrade it .

Hi Kenny and Steve, thanks a lot for the nice words!

Steve, wow! You're gonna give me a swelled head with compliments like that! I'm glad that what I'm doing here can be helpful to others.

Dade-
Great build reports! I just got my 1/250 Musashi today, and also just ordered the Gold Medal PE detail kit as well. I was wondering what you plan to do with the sides of the island superstructure base, where there is absoutley no detail of doors, windows, piping, etc.

I don't think the Gold Medal PE kit helps with that.

Thanks, Rusty

Stunning work!! I have been following this for awhile ,I recently went out and purchased the 1/200 yamato and converting it to musashi. I am using your hull configuration, and must say im quite pleased so far. I look foward to further updates on your musashi.

We are all looking forward to further updates on this build
please?
cheers,
Julian

Hi guys,

Thanks for the kind words and responses. I've been involved in a bunch of commission builds that I wasn't expecting, so haven't been able to get back to this build as soon as I originally thought. But when I'm done with the commissions, this project is the first thing on my list!

Thanks again!

Hey guys,

I was made aware that due to some server changes, the pictures from the early part of this article were broken links. They've been fixed. So while it may take a little while to clear my work load to get back to this, at least the pics posted so far will work now.

Hey Dade. Pics aren't showing up. Would like to see they pics of the weathered hull. Any chance you can post?

Ah, yeah, I've changed servers for my website, which is where the pics are stored. It's a lot of material to move, so it's taking a little while to get re-uploaded to my new server space. Check back in a couple weeks and they should be back up.

Someday I'll finish this thing. My neighbor down the street actually knew about this build before meeting me in person, and asks about completion occasionally. lol Just swamped with so much other stuff!

Thanks Dade. I'm almost on year 3 of starts and stops on my 1/200 Yamato. Many of the things I did were idea's I've gotten here. So thank you. No rush.

FWIW, this thing was my 35th birthday present... and I'll be 40 in March! But anyway, as I slowly get the pics moved around, I can at least post a fairly recent pic. We moved from Florida to Maryland, so I had to get the Musashi in a semi-state of readiness. So after some marathon sessions, I got her to a point where the hull is finished, but everything above the deck still needs to be weathered/ detailed. Full AA armament, chains, rigging, catapults, crane, planes, flags, all still need to be added.

About 85% done...

Good god, the man is alive Looks great Dade.
Julian

Thanks! Yeah, I'm still around, just a ton of stuff happened (including that move) and is still happening. With the Musashi so close to completion, it's calling me. But I have to get other stuff done first.

Okay, all pics have been re-linked.

I love what you have Dade. Fantastic work so far. Waiting to see some more.....Cheers mark

Hello!

I am a model kit builder from Hungary.
We just moved to our new home and guess what i have found during moving. Among old things i have found the very same box you proudly show on the picture in your first post.
A brand new ARII IJN Musashi 1/250.

Everything is untouched unopened except one thing.
The assembly guide is missing...

Dad kept this giant model kit untouched for 20 years because he didnt want to build it without the skills to do it.
But over the years he often opened the box and looked at the instruction sheet, wondering how would it look like assembled and now the sheet is lost.

I have been hunting for the sheet on the internet for a while now, without success.
Would you be so kind and send yours if you still have it? I would be very grateful as it would be really sad to leave the whole kit as it is just because i dont know how to assemble it.

Congratulations to your Musashi, it looks very impressive. Not sure if i will be able to build it as beautiful as you did. But i am sure i definitely want to try it.
Thank you!
Greetings from Hungary!

Gabor