Beautifully compiled build log. Have been following since day #1. Will definitely try to apply all wood deck techniques to ships I have in planning stages. Have both the Shinsegumi and KA wood deck pieces for the Nagato, Bismarck, and Yamato kits. Only thing I didn't catch was: When sealing the decks with the Valspar, did you spray both sides?

Hi Don,

Thanks for following the build. Yes, both sides of the deck are sealed.


A new update coming on Sunday- rails and mast have been installed....

The railings have all been mounted, as have the remaining 25mm guns (singles and triples). She's really coming together now and looking complete. As I said before, the railings are a little finicky, but they look very nice when attached and add so much to the build. And all of those 25mm guns...

You'll notice that the aft platform for raising and lowering the flag isn't attached, nor are the side boarding stairs and boat cranes (or boats). These will go on toward the very end so I don't accidentally break them off while working.














I also got the main mast together. The white lines, I just used some decal lines from the spares box because I felt that would be easier than masking and painting. The final dull coat will remove the shiny decal aspect. The PE Ty[e 13 radar is also attached...




Now we go into that weird stage of finishing up a bunch of smaller sequences that will result in the final completion. This part is always so stressful!

Outstanding, Dade. The railings (along with everything else) are beautiful - I always seem to bend them somehow. The 'hero board' (don't know what to call them) outboard sections near the bow ahead of the anchors really caught my eye. Fantastic detailing throughout. Great work.

Barry

Thanks a bunch, Barry! Thankfully, I didn't have any crazy mishaps with these rails-- although taking three days to install the silly things was getting kind of interesting...

I've seen those boards called "anchor observation platforms" and other similar names, but your guess is good as mine if there's some kind of slang for them. "Hero Boards" sounds pretty good.

Just curious, did you go with the brass replacement piece for the "flight deck"? I don't really know why that is a replacememt piece. It didn't really look like an improement ovr the plastic kit piece, + it looks like you would have to cut off the structures at the top of the plastic part in order to mount the brass one.

So far on my build I've gotten the first level of the suprstructure / bridge done the middle pole in and am fitting the next couple of layers. I am surprized how many hours I have in just getting that far. Right now, I am hating all those ammo boxes that go around the triple AA guns

Howdy Steve,

Yep, I used the PE replacement. Here's what the plastic looked like after I finished prepping it:




The main improvements the PE piece provides are the attached railings, more detailed etching, transport rails, and better structure work, such as the control house. That said, the actual engineering of the PE replacement is lousy. It's very springy and wishy-washy due to it being on brass that is too thin. For a piece like this, the brass should have been at least twice as thick (as with Lion Roar's stuff-- even their 1/700 Hiryu deck was made of better, thicker brass than this thing).

After the catapult, carts, and planes (along with a lot of weathering), the Kongo PE flight deck piece will look pretty good... but it's a big hassle to use-- even keeping in mind the improvements.

Excellent! Excellent! Do you scratch off the paint to glue on the railings or do you use white glue then do touch ups?

looking great Dade! The rails definately add to the overall look. Do you always paint seperate items before gluing them to the hull?

I hope my upcoming Nagato build is half as good as this job you are doing on the Kongo. (My 3 PE sets arrived today so now I am just waiting on a couple of referance books)

Hi Dade,

I'm an oceanographer by training - 'Hero Board' is what we called similar platforms used for handling equipment over the side - usually the vessels were small, the freeboard was low, and the seas were high (and cold) and the 'hero' was the person who was volunteered to get soaked.

Barry

Hey guys, thanks for the comments!

Dave, I leave the paint on, rather than scratching it off. I use CA glue to do all of the attaching, which works out pretty well. Also, since I use Gunze paint, which is pretty tough stuff, it's incredibly rare to see an issue where the part comes up because the paint has torn off (also a good idea to use primer before painting). After everything is pretty well attached, I'll go back and use Crystal Clear (similar to white glue, but with higher surface tension) to fill in any small gaps. After that dries, I touch up all of the points with some paint to blend it all in.


Hi Anthony, I generally put together everything in subassemblies, and paint them separately, as with the bridge parts. That way, it's much easier to control the painting process. The drawback is that you have to make sure everything fits really well before painting (see earlier steps in the build), as you can't rely on putty to fill in the gaps as usual.

It also depends on which scale the build is. You'll see that in my 1/700 builds, I almost always apply the rails before painting (but only if they have that bottom gutter- if not, I wait as with 1/350). However, due to the size and generally unwieldy nature of 1/350, I wait until later in the process when I'm at a point in which I feel safe I won't break anything off during handling. With this build, I had to put the railings on after anyway-- otherwise putting on the wood decks would have been an exercise in pain.

Also, along with having better control of the painting process, you get better weathering control if the parts are kept in smaller, more manageable bits. BTW, I'm looking forward to your Nagato!


Barry, that explanation makes perfect sense for smaller vessels and brought a smile to my face.

Great work and update Dade… look forward to those last steps, just great craftsmanship all around.

Thanks a bunch, James! The twin 5" AA guns and the 6" guns are next...

Thanks Dade. Not scrapping the paint makes my life easier. I was starting to get a bit anxious about it.

Hi Dade,

Again, excellent photo process and top notch explanations.
I have a question about the fitting of the wood parts. Looking at picture 5 (Kongorails5.jpg) - that is the photo showing the side (second level tripple AA mount) of the pagoda structure:
It looks like the wood piece does not cover the whole platform but appears to be a little short to the left edges. Furter on I guestimated, there are some railings missing along with maybe a ladder coming from level 1 platform.

Could you please verify or deny the observation or give some input on how that could be resolved?

Thanks for taking the time.

Hi DT,

This has been a strange area of interest for me as well. The wood isn't supposed to cover the entire area and as you guessed, it's supposed to have either a railing or a ladder-- there are a couple spare ladders and railings on the fret. The problem is, the instructions are no help in determining which and don't show anything.

I think I'll probably just put a set of stairs there as I did with the other side, although the two sides are NOT the same (note the small ladder platform on the starboard side, when the port side does not need this because there is no door).

This is one of those areas where again, photo reference is very hard to come by. But it seems that placing a set of stairs there would only be logical considering the break in the rails and the point of making the lower area accessible (there is only ever one ladder leading up from the deck, as shown, and I do have pictures confirming this).

Truly awesome work Dade. Very nice indeed.

Kenny

Looking fantastic Dade!

You've raised the bar with the quality of this build and this being a visual medium, the depth of the documentation in this build blog.

Frank

Hey Kenny and Frank, thanks a ton guys!

The twin 5" AA guns are complete. The barrels 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.




I had originally planned on finishing this build this week and I've made a check list of what to do. However, I really need to finish the final 5% of my Cold War tin can (and the related water tutorial) and actually do some more work on my contest entry than I did last month- at least finish the rest of all those little PE guns. So instead of waiting till the last minute like I always do, I'm going to finish those items first and then finish the Kongo. After all the Kongo isn't on a deadline, so no problem if I don't get anything posted until the second of the month or something.

So a quick little break for the little builds and then it's time to finish this big girl!

Good news people!! Well 1/350 Yamato builders. HLJ just emailed me that my order was ready on the Shinsengumi wood for the Yamato I requested for. So they are now in stock! Get your hands on em now cause these things go away pretty fast and take a long time to be in stock again.

Great work as usual Dade.. really like the looks of the AA guns. And ditto on the WIP blog comments, this is just a great thread all around, cheers!

... they even look more menacing with brass barrels!

Frank

Thanks! I'm sorry I haven't update lately. Got the Hatsuyuki out the door (just before an extension was made anyway ) and I'm now working on brass weaponry for the Hiryu. But next week, it's back to game on for the Kongo and hopefully completion!

Hi Dade , are you doing any build logs on the other progects. I looked around but couldnt find anything. If there is culd you point me in the right direction. Would love to see that

Sure thing and thanks for your interest!

1/700 IJN Hiryu (likely to be updated tomorrow)...

1/250 IJN Musashi (on hold while waiting for some more aftermarket items to be released...)