Hi Dade,

Fantastic work on the bridge. The PE looks clean and the window PE replacements make a huge difference! I decided to leave the clear plastic parts on my Nagato, and after painting and removing the masking, I quickly decided that I would paint the windows black and give them a coat of gloss, it's a slight improvement but lesson learned for my next build,... PE windows!

Regarding the dry fit issues, keep in mind the paint that still has to go on the parts, my Nagato pagoda bridge dry fit flawlessly but even with my thin coats of paint, the painted fit was far from flawless! Parts had to be sanded down to fit and others forced into place.

Keep up the great work!

Frank

Hi Barry,

I use the good old Etch Mate (the original metal version, not the 3-C) for larger items.

Link to a review of the Etch Mate

And Tamiya's PE bending pliers for most of the small stuff. I really like all of Tamiya's PE tools (scissors, diamond file, etc.) and use all of them on my PE tasks.

Link to Tamiya's PE tools...

I intend on getting the awesome Kalama Bug someday, but keep forgetting to...

The Bug...

Moving into the final stage of overall plastic construction. The past few days have been spent in construction and filing off a lot of molded on detail in preparation for photo etch. First we have this little item where some hollowing of the turrets has to be filled (strange to have to do this on a model released in 2008)...



Here is the midships area around the funnels. All of the sub assemblies are dry fit as there is still a lot of PE to put on.




Everything is starting to come together in these dry fit photos. Looking good!




With most of the main structural aspects taken care of and prepped, it's now time to add all of the PE to the components that make up the midships area. Lots of railings, funnel rings, caps, rails, and boat cradles (not to mention turret PE). Things are gonna get a lot more shiny in the installments to come...

Great looking build Dade, the PE to follow will indeed brighten up this model.

Lots of good points to keep in mind when I start mine.

thanks,

Frank

Excellent job Dade


Rui

I am beginning to hate seeing all these build photos. I am in the middle of a UHU half track right now and losing interest fast. My "goodies" have been on the way for close to a week now from Japan . I would hate to drop my plans for the rest of the year builds and jump right into this one. I was planning to the M1a1 AIM next followed by the 350 Hood.



My work schedule has finally stabilized and I have 3 days in a row off. Hopefully I can take a big bite out of the UHU before the PE and wood deck arrives.

Your work with the photo etch is incredible .What a difference it makes , great build Bob

Hi guys, thanks for the nice words about the last update. The midships PE construction begins... First, the PE instructions for the funnels have a lot of errors/ missing info. The items marked in red are my changes and additions.



To explain:

Fore Funnel:

PE B2-01 and B2-02 are switched to their proper respective funnels.

PE A92 is not two separate parts and must be cut into two to be as shown or put on as one piece after the cap is mounted.

The bottom ring is unlabeled, but it is PE A50


Aft Funnel:

The top ladder is unlabeled- it is PE A29 (again, one piece that either must be cut in two to be as shown or installed as one piece after mounting the cap).

The bottom ladder is PE A 28.

The bottom ring is only labeled as A65 for one segment and then the rest strangely becomes A66. Because of the pipe, the ring segments will not mount as in the picture and you'll have to do some fiddling...

The instructions also do not point out the fact that ladders go on BOTH sides of each funnel. Keep this in mind since after your scrape off the molded on ladders, you may forget this without a visual cue.


Here is the fore funnel with molded on detail scraped off and with PE attached. The cap and grill are dry fit.



Here is the aft funnel with molded on detail scraped off and with PE attached. Again, the cap and grill are dry fit.



Midship structure work- molded on aztek stairs removed and with PE stairs added.



This platform and all the PE took a while to assemble but looks really good when done, particularly the structure work. The platform by itself and dry fit to midships...



As always, more to come.

WOW!

(Thats all I can think to say!)

I second that "WOW!" and add a "most impressive" as well.

Can't wait for the next installment, full steam ahead.

Outstanding work, Dade!

Hi Dade,

Congrats! This building report is so beautifully performed and shows so much breath taking depth. Please keep up the good work.

With Compliments from Germany

Dr_Who2

As always, thanks for all the nice comments, guys. Sorry that it's been a little while since the last update. There has been a bunch of work that was very time consuming.

First and foremost was the midships area boat cradles. Out of all the annoying things about the PE instructions (or lack thereof), this is the most frustrating aspect of all because they don't say where to put any of the PE cradles! Luckily I saw this at the beginning of the build and measured the plastic pieces. The PE parts are very close in size so there was still some guesswork here. But this set up has worked out fairly well:




Next came the aft section of the midships. The instructions showed to place the A54 ring on the bottom. This is incorrect- its is second from the bottom.



Here is the structure with molded on detail removed and then PE added. Nice!




The mast gets topped with a great looking PE platform. The platform has PE underside supports. Because of this, the molded on plastic supports have to be removed:



The mast with PE attached looks really nice, especially with the added pulleys for the crane.



There is also a PE radar replacement. It hasn't been attached because it won't stay on dry fit. It's important to note that this item is only about a half inch long.




The main crane also can't be dry fit yet, but it looks nice.



Here's a closeup of the PE replacement pulleys and hook and the original over scale plastic item.




Some very delicate pulleys get mounted to the platform.




Finally, here's the whole midships dry fit together. Looking good!





Now it's time to work on the flight area...

Dade - I'd say that your comment "lookin' good" is the understatement of the year. Fantastic job on the PE. Its really coming together beautifully. Very nice indeed. Barry

Hi Dade,

I'd have to agree with Barry. Your "Swiss Watch" of a build is coming along great. With all that PE, this thing is going to weigh in at about twice what the kit was originally!

Hi Dade

This built is turning a GREAT REFERENCE for any modeler intended to built this Kongo (or the smaller scale version )
Your PE skills are top notch

Keep up the excellent work
I am enjoying it a LOT!


Rui

Rui:

That would be me. My stuff came in today from Japan. I figure to start mine in January. By then, Dade's will be done with all the problems and ajustments noted and logged. Man that is one gigantic PE set !!!!!!!!!!!

Dade, I think the difference in the wooden decks may be, you had a cut out area for the anchor chain "skid plates" ? I got a couple of brass pieces to overlay on top of the wood. Next goal is to bring the wood pieces into Lowe's or Home Depot for a demonstration on best water seal /protector. I've heard they have little packets for demo purposes (HEH--HEH)

EDIT: I can see you had a single wood piece for main deck, mine came in two pieces just lke the kit.

Hi Dade,

Your building speed is incredible.
Wished I had the skills and time to get close to 40% of what you provide.

I´d have one question since I did not open my kit yet:
How did you figure the correct position vor those B58 parts?
e.g.: Were there molded parts you cut away?

Not necessarily
I was thinking of myself when I decide to make the 700th scale version of the beast

Cheers and I am happy that the package arrived safely
Rui

Wow, thanks so much for all the nice compliments, guys! They really give me a boost!

I have finished the aircraft area PE and just have to take pictures, so an update will be coming tomorrow. After that, I just have to do some prep work and then the painting process will begin... Duhn duhn DUUUUHHHH!

Steve, that's really interesting how Fujimi did the deck with the skid plates. I'm surprised that the main deck is in two pieces as that was an annoying gap in plastic. I was thankful Shinsengumi's was in one piece to cover it. Still, it may be a lot easier to align your wood pieces as they won't be bound by the hull and should have more play. How about a review...?

D.T., yes, there were cradles molded on originally. When I saw that the instructions had nothing about mounting the PE replacements, I made sure to measure each plastic cradle and record the size. After I removed the plastic pieces and sanded them down, I could still see a slightly different colored line of plastic where each one used to be. I used those lines as guides to mount the PE parts.

Okay gang, more this weekend...

that is fantastic wor kDade, a bookmark for future reference for sure! cheers

Fantastic work Dade! Your photo-etch fabrication is flawless,... nice photographs too! This is one build I'll be referencing whenever I get around to starting my Kongo.

thanks,

Frank

Thanks James and Frank.

Well, Murphy's law- I say I'll have an update over the weekend and then find out that it's easier said than done. Particularly those silly little Petes. Took about six hours to build the little guys. But I've taken a total of 106 pics of all the new stuff, so after I get the pics that I want situated and stuff written up, expect something tomorrow.

Update will include turret rails, Petes, flight deck, catapault, crane, launch control house, base, airplane holds and carriages. Whew! Oh yeah, and yet another instructions fix...

Okay, I've sifted through all of the pictures and here we go!

First up are the turrets. The instructions seemed to be reversed in how the railings should mount.



Here are what each of the turret types look like with rails mounted.




As always, I asked my father to work his magic and make a base according to my specifications-- he didn't disappoint. This came in the mail the other day. I filled the tops of the brass tubes with Tamiya Epoxy Putty to better distribute the weight of the ship. The Kanji is the self adhesive brass that comes with the deluxe PE set. It makes the whole thing come together.



Here's the primered hull test fitted onto the base. Fits like a dream and looks great! When the hull is painted and ready, I will epoxy it to the base.




And now comes the most PE heavy aspect of the build: the flight deck. First up is the catapult. The instructions are incorrect again. Here are the changes-- if you build this kit, follow my lead here. Otherwise, there is the potential to glue no less than three items in the wrong spot/ position and really mess up your catapult. Particularly bad are the two platforms (B62) which, if glued according to the original instructions, will hinder you from being able to glue the top section into the bottom section which must fit AROUND the top.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the front pulley must be flipped and mounted upside down from the original picture (see my illustration). Otherwise, your Pete's cradle is going to slam into that pulley at the end and make a nosedive into oblivion. Boy howdy!



Here is the catapult assembled and looking really nice. Note that I haven't glued the top into the bottom yet (thus the slight gap). This is to make painting and rigging the cable easier.




Next comes the aircraft crane...




And the flight deck structures. BTW, on the control house (center structure), one of the folding cuts didn't exist , so it was time for some extra bending on the old Etchmate...




Here's everything dry fitted on the ship...




Here are closeups of the cradle mounted on the transport carriage...




And that same cradle with an F1M2 Pete sitting on it. I am one of the crowd who can't stand planes molded in clear plastic. It's a pain to figure out if you've got everything lined up because you can't see the panel lines! Interestingly, there is really no reason why the included Petes had to be molded like this. The canopy part is a separate piece, so the rest could have been molded in opaque plastic. You'll see some green in the cockpit area- that is interior green that I put in before closing up the sides. I'll mask off the canopies before painting.

The transparent plastic notwithstanding, the Petes are very nice little kits unto themselves (16 parts each). Building both of them took about 6 hours- I know that sounds crazy for a total of 32 parts, but the transparent nature made it harder to see! The Pete is my favorite float plane of all time and I have nearly every model made of this little guy. So I was very impressed with what Fujimi did in 1/350. I reserve the right to change that opinion if I see that none of the lines match up after priming.




Here is the flight deck area dry fit together separate from the ship... but including a Pete. The top wing isn't attached here as it became too much a juggling act in dry fit. The top wing will stay unattached until after painting to make it easier.

Also, PE transport rails will go into those open slots during final construction, as will turntables for the carriages.




I will begin the painting process over the next few days. There are still a lot of smaller items that need to be assembled, but they'll go on after all the big stuff is painted and put together. My Iwatas are gonna get one heck of a work out!

Absolutely outstanding, Mr. Bell...this has got to be on of (if not THE) the best WIP projects that I've seen...great modeling, great coverage and reporting, all tied in to make one great reference for future modeling!

I look forward to each and every installment, Dade, lovin' evry minute!

Cheers,
~Gunny