Ahoy mates!

MSW Senior Editor Rui Matos (skipper) gives us a closer look at Hasegawa's "Akagi Wooden Deck" in this "inbox review"!

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!
~Gunny

Excellent, thanks for the review, Rui! I've been wondering about Hasegawa's wood product and this sounds good. How soon until we get a build review? I'm really curious about how the self adhesive works in execution, as well as the dry transfers...

People are going to think we are all Akagi crazy over here.

Looks like a great AM product for the ship. That small transition section might casue problems with the wood, just depends how strong the adhesive is.

Nice review thanks Rui!

Sealant???? Is anyone sealing the wood or just gluing / adhering it and leaving it at that? I was thinking on stopping by Lowe's or Home Depot on my way home from wrk and seeing if they have a light spray can of sealant or can give me a demo on the pieces I have for my Kongo....can't see buying a gallon of the stuff LOL

Hi Steve

Here, I think that the way to seal it, would be varnish (first gloss, dry transfers, weathering, flat varnish).
For your particular case, perhaps 3M Spray Mount (you can find it at the art department) would do the trick.
With this set, since it has already the glue in it, I am clear

We can ask Dade when he reaches the phase of planking his Kongo (I guess he is a guinea pig on this)

Thanks guys!!
And Dade, I bought this after our Shinsengumi talk over your own Kongo set. Just went to HLJ and see what they had, and there it was: this set on pre-order! I still have to see some Shinsengumi sets (wooden, not decal) for IJN Yamato/Musashi.. but only after the Akagi built!


Rui

Yes, I'm definitely sealing my deck as it's one of the recommendations. I'll probably be going the spray route as we talked about in the Kongo build log, but we'll see...

I'm curious if the Hasegawa deck needs to be sealed or not. But if the instructions don't say so, maybe it's pre-treated? Rui, how does it seem?

Shinsengumi produced a wooden deck for the Yamato in 1/700, but since their products are limited, it sold out pretty fast. HLJ has it on back order, so it's always possible another may come.

http://www.hlj.com/product/SSGMCP007

HWJapan may also have it too.

By the way, as a side note, Mr. Nedachi, president of Shinsengumi, has told me that a wood deck for the Musashi in 1/250 will be released within a year. I was overjoyed to hear this as that is the one upgrade my Musashi build was missing, but no longer! Since I had to put the Musashi on hold for a few months anyway, I can wait a little longer for a beautiful wood deck.

The first of many aftermarket sets for this great kit!! Thanks for the review Rui.

Frank

Hi Dade

The wooden deck sheets, as it can be seen here



it looks "raw".
I guess that the treatment I described above would work, mainly because the wood like this would get naturally weathered and would also collect dust (mainly in expo and contests, since here at home, my built models are in a glass door cabinet).
Also, when attaching the planes to he wooden deck, glue would stain the wooden area affected by it

The instruction sheet don't mention any sealing phase (at least in english).


Thanks for your input
Thanks Frank - this is one of many (AM sets) for sure!
Rui

The guy at Lowe's told me it was pretty much not necessary. It would put a shine on the wood. I'm using Gator Glue to glue mine down, and later on will spray entire built kit with enamel flat. So that oughta take care of sealant as I don't ever plan to leave mine outside in the rain. Probably wil never ever leave the house unless I move or house is on fire.

I'm still going to seal mine. I don't know about Fujimi's product and Hasegawa, but Shinsengumi should always be sealed. It's not that the model is going outside (I don't expect someone working at Lowes to understand this since they're dealing with much different wood processes). It's that without proper sealing, glue can play havoc with thin wood. The glue can soak into the wood and during the expanding/ contracting process that all wood goes through, can cause thin wood to crack or break. The other thing is that thin wood can very much be affected by the environment- humidity levels in the air and such. And this is where it gets very key: over the years, without sealing, the wood can become discolored and distorted just from indoor humidity and temperature.

Here's the second part to the whole thing: I plan on putting a light wash over my deck to bring out the details between the planking. Without sealing, the wash will just soak into the wood.

I've built paper models and without fail, sealing is always recommended. Since Shinsengumi's decks are paper thin and are basically the same material (paper in fact is actually more weather resistant than thin wood), I would much rather play it safe with my almost $100 dollar investment.

So for me, it's the same as in the Kongo log: sealing, wash, dull coat. Speaking of dull coat, without sealing, there's a chance the dull coat may not lay down properly due to all the microscopic pits in the wood that sealing would eliminate...