03-05N, 100-40E

Build log

1. Hasegawa Myoko full Hull in 1/700 with (in box review coming any soon)
   
2. FlyHawk Myoko 1/700 (in box review coming any soon)
   
3. Veteran Models 12,7 cm AA und
   
4. Fujimi -Nano Dread- 25mm MG (Single, Double und Tripel)
   
5. WEM IJN Colorcoats
   

Before starting this project I familiarized myself lokking through and reading the following books which I sure will need to consult again while in the building process:

1. Author: Eric Lacroix, Lintoln Wells II
   Titel: Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War
   Publisher: Naval Institute Press
   ISBN: 0-87021-311-3
   Referred to as: Lacroix/Wells, Page xx
   
2. Author: Kojinsha
   Titel: Photo File Nr. 08; Myoko, Ashigara
   Name of periodical: Warships Of The Imperial Japanese Navy
   Publisher: Kojinsha
   Referred to as: Photo File, Page xx
   
3. Author: Tamiya
   Titel: Random Japanese Warship Details Vol. 01
   Name of periodical: Tamiya News Supplement
   Publisher: Tamiya
   Referred to as: Tamiya Vol1, Page xx
   
4. Author: Tamiya
   Titel: Random Japanese Warship Details Vol. 02
   Name of periodical: Tamiya News Supplement
   Publisher: Tamiya
   Referred to as: Tamiya Vol2, Page xx
   
5. Autor: John Snyder
   Titel: Imperial Japanese Navy Greys - A ship by ship compilation
   Publisher: White Ensign Models
   Referred to as: Snyder, Page xx
   

The literature announced with No. 1 + 2 should suffice as a profound basis to accomplish this kit. Only Lacroix/Wells comes in english language. All other are written in japanese language.
No. 4 + 5 are comprehensive drawings regarding various typical IJN details for various ship classes.
No. 5 helps determining the correct colorcoat needed for a specific ship at a given time.



I do not posess the next mentioned books but didn´t want to fail pointing to them:

• Warship Pictorials 17 by Steve Wiper is probably one of the best photo literature but hard to come by.
  
• Gakken No. 17is reported to deal exclusively with the Myoko (ISBN 4-05-602067-1).
  
• There is this publication in polish language "Okret Swiata / Warships of the World Nr. 14". You can look at the comprehensive review by Click: Steelnavy Review
  
• Last but not least there is a book in german language
  Author: Hans Lengerer & Michael Wünschmann
  Titel: Die MYOKO Klasse, Japans Erste Vertragskreuzer, Planung, Bau und Einsatze, Band 1
  Publisher: Christian Schmidt Verlag
  

There may be an argue about how much research for a 1/700 model should be done. Also, one may think about how much research may be ever needed no matter the scale. Looking at japanese model builder videos on Youtube one rather could guess all you need is the kit itself and the painting on the package.
However, I do not really want to try an answer and for this, I leave it to each and every person to decide for himself.
__________

Prefix

While going through this build, I will roughly follow the main kit instructions. Whenever the Flyhawk set gives additional parts, I will include them.
If there should be too much to work on at a given step, I will subdivide the building process to maintain clarity.
Regarding the AA armament noone has to fear massive or complicated procedures as they should fit right out of the box.

If you start reading you may wonder why I took photos of the tools and stuff I use. I sure do not want to bore you with pictures.

The idea is to introduce the tools etc. as they get used in the process - but only once. The advanced modeler may disregard these hints but for the novice it may be of further help.

Sometimes I tend to write long and extensively. Not everything may be just facts and sometimes an odd mood may shine through. Well, if you can´t stand my writing feel free to just go with the photos.

Getting the pictures, writing the text (I do write a parallel build log in my german mother language here: Click: Marinewerft.de Myoko) takes its time and will slow down the building process. It would have been faster and easier to build the kit and only present the result.

I decided different though and will try to give the audience a clean and fairly fast build including problems and their solutions.

My digital camera often enough does not qualify for close up pictures.
Whatever picture I provide, please take into account I may have already tried to get the best picture possible.

I am always happy to receive help, critics (no matter good or bad). All I ask for would be to maintain a fair and leveled language. Thank you.

The Myoko is to be build some time before the 13th December 1944. For this, a time period before USS Bergall appeared.

__________

Step 1

Off we go for the main turrets as the Hasegawa Instructions deal with them at first palce.

Instructions Hasegawa

Hasegawa asks the model builder to drill a hole onto the turrets top so the rangefinder may be glued on. Hasegawa however does not tell you where exactly you have to drill the hole. Also, they do not tell you what size and how deep the hole should be.
This is sad since it would have taken a simple piece of paper and an in scale drawing to give the model builder a guide. Adding to that, Hasegawa would have been advised to give some diomension for the hole. Tamiya sometimes includes a screwdriver so why not include a correct drill?
Well, this is no big problem for someone with the appropriate tools or someone good at improvising. OTOH there may be some people that are given a hard time with this task.



Material Hasegawa





Instructions FlyHawk

FlyHawk does not clarify about the molded on turret top structure (heat shield) has to be removed or not. I will do a dry fitting to figure that.



Material FlyHawk





Turret 1

Well, I am aware the TAKAO-class had issues with her No.1 turret rangefinder since the bow was quiet wet while sea going. I am also aware the Myoko and Takao shared quiet close hulls resulting in similar problems.
For this I looked up about the No. 1 Turret and found the following: The No.1 turret rangefinder was removed between 1939-1941 modernisation and palced on the command bridge.

See Lacroix/Wells, Page 264 and drawing page 343 und photo page 361;Also: Photo File, Page 62.

Most important is the fact, that the shape of the No.1 turret never changed but only the rangefinder technical parts were removed.
This involved the side brackets including the lenses left and right of the turret. The almost square main structure on the turrets top remained.
You may want to have a look at Click: IJN Myoko WP Front Cover
Hasegawa and FlyHawk both show the Myoko in her post 1941 configuration.
However, none of them clarifies the version provided.

Alright, Here we go with the kit part taken from the sprue by utilising the side cutter. You can see the gate mark still attached to the part. This is due to the fact that one can hardly achieve a clean cut with the side cutter removing the gate mark entierly. For this, one better does not even try but use the side cutter only to get the kit part off the sprue.



Now it is time to get lost of that gate mark by using a sharp knife - No. 11 blade should be about right. Even with that you won´t be able to always achieve a clean cut. I found it less dangerous to leave a small portion of the gate mark attached at the kit part and to sand it down.
Talking about sanding let me show you my general tool for this:



The shown sanding sticks are actually nail files with different grains. The pink one is the roughest and the No. 3-1 go from coarse to fine. I obtained those cheap at a discounter but they serve really well in model building.
If you are done sanding down the left overs of the mark gate you should have a clean and workable kit part.

There is only one small probelm with it, it is too light weight and tiny to work wiith.
For this, I got myself something the US audience may know as Blue Tac.
The product shown is similar and easy to work with. It has low adhesion and does not even harm paint. I found it indespensible for positioning parts so they won´t move while attaching something else to it.



Just take a small portion and fix it on a plain ground. I like to take a piece of wood since I can move that arround easily and reach every single corner of a kit part.



Well, according to the Hasegawa instructions we are ready to proceed. Next would be to attach the rangefinder body on top the turret.

Oh well, now where to drill the hole?

One option would be to leave this step out and to remove the pin inside the rangefinder.
I opted for a different procedure and first off took a pencil and drew a line dividing the turret into two equal parts.
Then I attached some BlueTac to the pin of the rangefinder and positioned it on the turret. After I felt it found the right place I pressed the rangefinder firmly into the BlueTac and then removed the part cautiously. The result was the BlueTac adhering to the turret with a hole right where I pressed the pin into it.
The pin has a diameter of 0,78mm. For this, I grabbed my 0,8mm drill and made a hole into the turrets roof.

Going further I detached the FlyHawk PE part off the sprue by utilizing a No.11 blade on a glass plate. If cutting PE parts one is well advised to have a hard ground to work on. A soft ground, like a cutting mate, will deform the part even before you have a chance to detach it off the sprue.

After I bent the edges of that FlyHawk heatshield with a plier I dry fitted it onto the kit part.



This is another angel showing the tiny side holes.



The small portion of the heat shield going at the back of the turrets top - behind the rangefinder body - really gives some headache.

... to be continued ...

Time to get this english written WIP to the german build log status. Once at the same status it should be easier for me to maintain the development process at the same level.

As palnned, I opted to open the small hatches positioned front of the turret left right and middle position of the barrels.
Unfortunately Hasegawa gave an obstacle in accomplishing that. This is, because of all things the front section received massive injected plastic inside the turret:



The drill you can see within the picture has a diameter of 0,3mm and was supposed to help drilling a proper hole. Due to the thickness of the material I pushed this subjected aside for now.

I then tried to figure how to resemble the plating structure of the heat shield located at the side of the turret body.
My thought was to glue a 0,04mm filament. This would be 28mm in reality. Not true to scale but good enough in my book.



Well, I disregarded super glue since I was afraid to cause a bad mess on the turret structure.
For this, I tried wood glue which dries out transparent.
However, the result was kind of disappointing. The glue dried out transparent and the filament was kept in place, so far so good. The moment I tested the sturdiness of the bond I had something like a transparent skin with an enclosed filament between the tweezer arms.



Well, having gained in experience I am currently thinking about engraving the needed lines instead. After all; I just need a sharp edge to work with.

Input would be highly appreciated.

... to be continued ...

Alright, change of mind due to new information status.

The problem regarding the hatches on the front section of the turret could not be resolved last time due to the fact that the smallest drill I thought I had was a 2.5mm round mill head.



Investigating my tools stack I found another copped mill head which solved the problem.



Here is my mini drill tool with the workable mill head attached:



I fixed the kit part on a piece of wood by using "Blue Tac".



It didn´t take too long and the hindering plastic section inside the turret was removed.



Now the 0,3mm drill utilized through a hand brace and a 0.2mm micro file had ideal requierments to start working.
The 0.2mm micro file is in fact a file a dentist would use when fixing teeth.





With a strong magnifier in place I drilled the hole into the appropriate hatch section. Right after I used the micro file and widened the hole so it roughly came into the square form desired.
I dry fitted the hatch FlyHawk provides and found it was of no disadvantage the square hatch form was not perfectly cut out. Most of the error will be covered by the PE frame of the hatch. I will fix whatever may disturb the visual appearence after I final fitted the PE part.

As for now, here is a picture so you can compare the original kit part (right) with the enhanced version (left)



Alright, now I have hands free to figure the heat shielt sectional problem Hasegawa and FlyHawk missed to resemble.

FYI, the first turret is a study object to me to figure the feasability of ideas. If the first turret gets done right the others will cost less time finishing.
Looks like very small steps I am going through but otoh I didn´t say I will have finished it right away.

I hope someone likes the effort and I am always ear to any critics, no matter good or bad.

... to be continued ...

A small update on the progress

We are lucky enough to find turret 3 and 5 to have a less complex structure as well as a better coverage by Flyhawk.
It is a little disapointing Flyhawk only provides the heat shild structure on top of turret 1, 2 and 4.
In fact, latter ones could have been a superb section to waste with PE parts.

Just for clarification:
The Myoko had this turret

20cm 3 Nendo Shiki 1Go Twin D

Click: Flixio Myoko Turret Front
Click: Direct link photo Myoko Turret 1 und 2
Photo: Navalhistory.flixio.info

This is a quiet complex structure.

I made a rough scetch of No.1 turret and feel a solution is quiet close.



A very close sister of this type of turret is still in existence at a museum located in Thailand ...

Click: HTMS Songkra Site

... where you can see this:



One can clearly see the gab between the turrets top heat shield and the heat shield located to the turrets sides. the supporting structure for the turrets top heat shield is not located at the edge but most likely more inwards, almost disappearing out of view. The edge of the turret heat shield seems to be bent downwards towards the edge.

... to be continued ...

I can see this is going to be a very good build. Thank you for posting it with us as well DT!

A great build and a great WIP; thanks for taking the time to document so many detailed steps! instant bookmark for sure..cheers

Thanks Jim and James for the nice words. Highly appreciated.

... continueing ...

I got myself some headache about finding a proper solution for the turrets top plating.
I thought about aluminium foil (the one you use in your household) since it is soft and thin. I found this to be at the same time the major drawback and I gave up all efforts trying with that.

Instead, I found a solution "along" with FlyHawk.

This is the turrets top:



I edited the picture so you can see the area in question:



Alright, after starring at the FlyHawk PE fret for a while and calming myself an idea came to me.
Why not utilize the material FlyHawk provided? What I am referring to is the unused fret framing out of brass. Utilizing the Tamiya PE scissor and a CD marker I first drew the rough shape of the part onto the edge of the brass sheet and then cut it out.

This is the first rough result right after cutting:



Admitted, this procedure needs some fine tuning like more cautious cutting and dry fitting. However, I feel I solved that problem good enough to call it a major step.
I will post pictures when I am done fitting the parts.

... to be continued ...

... proceeding ...

... with a micro update.

I found it too cumbersome to customize the roughly cut out part from previous step.
For this, I drew a template which can be printed out on paper and then glued to the PE frets outer edge (I included a 1mm line as reference):



This way a more precise cutting should be possible giving less work when fitting to the kit part.

... more to come ...

... proceeding ...

Alright, I received highly appreciated input within my german build log by Ricci posting at marinewerft.de forums.
According to his hint, I could also use beverage can metal sheet to cut out the missing heat shild.

The advantages are: Thinner material while accurate to shape, cheap while easy to obtain

Let me add that the beverage can meterial has a thickness of 0.2mm which translates into 140mm in reality

Here is how everyone can make his/her own stock of material:

1. First off, I obtained a beverage can and disposed the content
   
   
   
   
2. Right after I took a No. 11 blade and cut off the top and bottom of that can. BEWARE, THE BLADE IS SHARP AS WELL AS THE EDGE OF THE METAL SHEET
   Time to accomplish: 2 Min.
   
   
   
   
3. After I finished cutting the result looked like this
   
   
   
   
4. Next step included using a houshold scissor and cutting the beverage cans body open
   Time to accomplish: 15 Sec.
   The result was a rolled metal sheet. Now, how to get the metal sheet plane?
   I took a hot air gun
   
   
   
   I obtained this model for almost no money at a local hobby store.
   
   
5. I rolled the curved metal sheet over and heated it up while giving it some minor pressure. Make sure the ground you are working on can manage heat up to 600 Celsius or whatever temperature your heat gun achieves
   Time to accomplish: 2 Min.
   
   
   
   
6. The edges of the metal sheet are uneven due to cutting. It took me a plate made out of glass and a round and heavy stone to fix the edges. Attention: The edges of the metal sheet are sharp. Watch your fingers!
   Time to accomplish: 1 Min.
   
   
   
   If you are taking a walk look out for a medium sized stone with a round/flat shape and you got all it takes.
   
   
7. Now we are through with all steps to be rewarded with a thin metal sheet to work with.
   
   
   
   Total time to accomplish: 5Min. 15 Sec.
   

I will need the material to cut out the missing heat shield for the Myoko

Other than that, you can always use it to resemble the plating structure of a ships hull or whatever you can think of.

The matrial is true to shape and easy to paint.

Cutting can be managed by a simple household scissor or a No.11 blade.

You can even use a small tool to include structural elements like splicing or welding seams.

... to be continued ...

... proceeding ...

The basic material in use is now metal sheet as described from beverage can + the templates I printed on paper.

1. The paper template is cut out and glued to the metal sheet.
   I used white wood glue since
   a. I needed the paper template to stick that much that it won´t slide while I cut the metal sheet and
   b. I needed a bond with which I could remove the paper template without extra effort.
   
   
2. After having attached the template to the metal sheet I cut out one piece. Some minor fitting will be needed the time the part gets finally glued to the kit part.
   
   
   
   

... to be continued ...

Hi everyone,

To make a long story short:
1. I have got the flu and was confined to bed for a couple days.
2. Some privat matters needed urgent attention
3. I am at the same time remodeling a room as my next workplace.
A lot of kits, stuff, paint etc. are lying all over places and I need to sort things before I can proceed.

Am really sorry for the delay on the Myoko and I know some people are waiting for the next steps but I can´t run myself over the edge.

I´ll be building and showing results any soon.
However, Flyhawk could have done better on the turrets to reduce workload.

Thanks for all the active supporters and all other silent readers.
Won´t be too long and the Myoko will receive proper treatment.