Ahoy Laddies .... yharrrrrrrr

Yesterday I received Model Art Issue 690 with a special on the Mikasa. I bought it, because I plan to built the Mikasa kit I got for my 30th birthday, in the Pre-Dreadnought Campaign.

Well, as I looked through the Magazine, I realised that I just LOVE the 1902 configuration with the black'n'white paintscheme .....

Well there's a itchy bitsy teeny wheey tiny problem .... My Mikasa kit is the "Battle of Tsushima" edition .... ergo1905 configuration .....

So no I'm wondering .. should I put my Mikasa kit back on the shelve, and try to obtain the "Yellow Sea" edition .... or should I try and convert my kit into the 1902 configuration?!!!! .. hmmmm desicions to make and take .

Help me out guys

To my newbie eye, the major differences on the two configurations are:

1. The 2 fighting tops
2. The ventilators
3. The funnel tops ????


Am I missing anything?

Do you think it would be doable to make the convertion, or should I try to obtain the other kit?

Thanks in advance!

Hmmm, add another ship kit to the stash or kit bash the current one, quite the dilemma.

The more the merrier I always say.

Evening lads.

Well, I dug out the kit this evening and looked through it ... the reason was, that I hoped for the reusing of sprues in the 2 kits, meaning, that some of the parts intented for the 1902 configuration, would also be in my 1905 kit.

And horray ..... my assumption was correct .. this means that propably half or more of the parts I need, are already in the kit. This is awesome. It'll really help me realise this project, as I really want it!


What would really help me now, would be scans of the "Yellow Sea" instructions. I hope some of you guys will help me out it.... I promise it'll be an interesting project to follow

Frank, in your review of the "Yellow Sea" kit, you've scanned a couple of pages from the instructions. Any chance you've scanned all of them?
EDIT: Sorry Frank .. just discovered that it was the "Sea of Japan" kit you reviewed.... No need to bother you then ... Guess I was a bit confused and tired yesterday

I'd really appreciate any help I can get.

Next step will be purchasing some PE for the kit .. I'll start of with the LionRoar kit .. and then take it from there, to see if I need to purchase more PE ... I'm not sure who else makes PE for it .. but I'll check Eduard, GMM, Toms Modelworks plus Hasegawas own sets!

You could try her sister ship, the Sukasa ...

VICTORY

I found scans of the "Yellow Sea" instructions at Hobby Search ... the only pages missing are the sprue index (I'll do fine without it) and the rigging page (I propably won't do without it )

But this gives me a very good start .... I know have the two sets of instructions ... and I'll make a comparison of them number by number .. to mark all the differences, to give me a clear view of what needs to be altered on my kit, to make the 1902 conf. ..... what parts I have for the conversion .. and what parts I need to scratch!

Hey Guys

I've been doing some "handy-work". The parts circled in blue are the parts that differs between the "Japan Sea" and "Yellow Sea" kit, and are not present in the "Japan Sea" kit.

The parts circled in pink, are the parts that differs, but are present (as left over parts) in the "Japan Sea" kit.
























Scans: Courtesy of Hobby Search


To my knowledge, the shielded guns can me maded of the unshielded guns in the "Japan Sea" kit, plus PE shields from the Eduard PE set. The Eduard kit also features the parts for the fightingtops. And I'm pretty sure that either the Eduard or Lionroar PE kit will feature the triangulare boards needed for the bridges.

So as I see it, the "only" parts I miss are the ventilators and the lower booms (is that the correct term??) on the masts.

I have scaled drawings of the booms in the Model Art Mikasa Special I mentioned earlier ..... so they'll be easy to scratch ... Which leaves me with the ventilators.

I see to possibilities:

1. I'll take the time to scratch the extra ventilators.
2. I'll see if I can obtain spare J and N sprues from either Hasegawa or Rainbow10.

As I see it, they won't be that hard to scratch, because I already have some to take measurements from .... the tricky part is getting the proper height on the different sizes of ventilators ..... but I think it's doable!

Well, back the the planning (and my Yamato kit ) .. and I'll better get those PE sets bought!

Hi Neils,

You could always break out some modeling clay and impress the ventilators that you do have in it then cast some new ones out of putty or even take a bit of the appropriate sized styrene tube and apply a little heat to bend them then open one end up a bit near the bend with a hobby knife blade. Just some suggestions.

Good luck with your conversion, looks like you have it pretty well handled from here.