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Help on Starting up a Tamiya Yamato 1/700
AisKits
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Florida, United States
Joined: October 04, 2009
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Posted: Saturday, October 03, 2009 - 05:16 PM UTC
Hello there im new to kitmaker as well as to modelkit making, i have always wanted to do so and now that i had some tool laying around and have the money to get the rest i tought i would. So i got a Tamiya Yamato 1/700 Full Hull and im preety los on all the basicas so if anyone could lead me the right way i would be gratefull. I bought some sets of paint but i dont know if i should use acrylic or enamels, also i dont know if i need a lacquer and wich one i should buy. Preety much all my quetions are about the painting, oh by the way i have an airbrush and a compressor too and some base colors.
blaster76
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Posted: Sunday, October 04, 2009 - 10:39 AM UTC
Paints. Acrylic or enamel is pretty much a matter of choice. As you have an airbrush use the type that works best with your system. Japanes battleships pretty much are mono colored. So for the Yamato you will want to paint the lower hull a dull reddish color (there are colors available called hull red which are perfect). The deck pretty much is wooden....a teak color which a light tan color will work. The Ship was panted in Kure Gray which is a very very dark gray. In enamels, I use Testors engine gray. I think Tamiya acryicls has a Kure Gray color As to painting the kit. Do the 2 colors on the hull, taping to get a nice strainght separation. Then protect the hull sides glue the deck on and paint it the deck color, taping off metal areas for the Kure gray. Build your gun turrets and superstruckure up and paint them separately prior to assembly and you should have just the small molded on detail to spot up on the deck.
potchip
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Australia
Joined: August 19, 2008
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Posted: Sunday, October 04, 2009 - 02:55 PM UTC
I'm assuming you will be airbrushing most of the model. How experienced are you with cutting and masking? Masking typically involves cutting thin stripes of tape and stick along the boundaries, then bigger pieces to fill up the rest. What type of paint doesn't matter much when airbrushing. I use acrylic simply because it is easier to clean. Enamels dry slower and may be fragile, but good for touch up brush work. And, always spray on a protective coat of clear when main colours are done so you can handle/weather the model safely.

A typical 1/700 ship model requires a fair bit of masking due to the scale and part divisions. I just did a Tamiya yamato and basically, it consists of 4 colours. I tend to go from 'lighter' to 'darker' colour in painting sequence in general to get better coverage. The main deck, the aircraft handling deck, the hull and the rest.

You should also map out the sequence you do painting, including whether to glue bits together to leave seperate so that you can paint all the parts of the same colour in one go. But sometimes it also depends on how difficult is it to mask off (eg lots of small bits sticking out. complex shap), I will first paint the colour on areas that are easier to mask.

For my build, the main deck, which the painting guide depicted as wooden (though depending on the time period you want to build, the final version should be black), was painted first before anything is glued on.

Then you may want to mask off the painted deck area and spray on the the medium grey for the aircraft handling deck (supposedly concrete overlayed).

Then mask off the handling deck as well and paint everything else. Here you may want to assemble all the 'superstructure' bits, the bridge, the funnel, the mast, the AA guns etc first then paint them in one go, it saves time painting individual bits. For small bits and pieces such as cranes, small gun tubs etc you can either paint on sprue and touch up later or cut them off, stick on a piece of blue-tac and spray away.

Finally mask off the hull above the waterline and paint spray the full hull.

Given it is mostly gray, you may want to apply some ink washes/highlights to bring out the details as the final step. It is up to your experience.

Other things: careful when cutting off the mast and antenna on top of the range finder on bridge, they are very fragile and break easily. I used an etched saw, just be careful when cutting.

Remember to drill holes for all the gun enplacements before you glue on the base plate.

My build which took about 8 nights:








blaster76
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Texas, United States
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Posted: Monday, October 05, 2009 - 04:52 AM UTC
Black deck ? I never heard that before. When was this done, just for Operation Ten-ichigo?

Would the deck have been done balck or a very dark grey like on your build?
AisKits
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Florida, United States
Joined: October 04, 2009
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Posted: Monday, October 05, 2009 - 06:17 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Paints. Acrylic or enamel is pretty much a matter of choice. As you have an airbrush use the type that works best with your system. Japanes battleships pretty much are mono colored. So for the Yamato you will want to paint the lower hull a dull reddish color (there are colors available called hull red which are perfect). The deck pretty much is wooden....a teak color which a light tan color will work. The Ship was panted in Kure Gray which is a very very dark gray. In enamels, I use Testors engine gray. I think Tamiya acryicls has a Kure Gray color As to painting the kit. Do the 2 colors on the hull, taping to get a nice strainght separation. Then protect the hull sides glue the deck on and paint it the deck color, taping off metal areas for the Kure gray. Build your gun turrets and superstruckure up and paint them separately prior to assembly and you should have just the small molded on detail to spot up on the deck.

Thanks for starting up on the topic. Yea right now all the color i have are basics and mainly enamels like black, red, blue, green, white, silver, gold, yellow and the finishing set from testors. Hm i gess i will be buying extra paints before i start up.
AisKits
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Florida, United States
Joined: October 04, 2009
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Posted: Monday, October 05, 2009 - 06:36 AM UTC
Ah that is a beautifull yamato you have built there. As i mentioned im a complete bgginner so i have no experience what so ever on any of the techniques i might need to do. Just now i am very amazed to the level of complexity it takes to build these kits so i apreciate all the help. For now i want to know what colors whou used and from what maker. Also i heard that to teeth the pain to the platic i need primer i asume is what you were saying to do before painting, i ordered 2 spray cans of tamiya surface primer ( one white and one light gray) to start off, for now i will start curring off the pieces out of the model racks.

So to make myself clear you said to put everything toghether, paint the deck, tape the deck after painted, and then paint the airplane platform, then tape aswell, (do you put the superstructures and the turrents and canona after or befor you paint the deck?), then paint the superstructures. Did you just used that dark gray only or you used something to make small lines?

Sorry for making so many questions haha but i cant wait till i can finish this beauty though it is my first one i want to make is as good as possible.
Sammuel
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California, United States
Joined: September 02, 2008
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Posted: Monday, October 05, 2009 - 09:24 AM UTC
I'm also new to modeling and have a few ships under my belt. I just started getting into 1/700 IJN ships. I would paint the deck first before adding anything to it. Don't take the parts off the frets untill you are ready to use them. They are small and can be missplaced.

I don't use a airbrush for such small ships and parts. I spray right out of the can with good results. You do have to do plenty of detail work with a few very fine paint brushes. I'm still learning and can pass on the good and the bad that I have learned.

This group is great for info and build logs. I would read a few of the build logs as I did on some of the 1/700 ships from this forum and pick up on some of the tips others have used. It has improved my ship modeling overnight.


Sam
potchip
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Australia
Joined: August 19, 2008
KitMaker: 85 posts
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Posted: Monday, October 05, 2009 - 11:26 AM UTC
Hi Aisbyl,

Planning is key. Study the colour profile and decide which parts should be assembled together and which should be left unassembed to paint then assemble later.

For example, the 20 odd 25mm triple AA guns, because they are metallic grey, a different colour to the tub (Grey), you'd probably want to paint the guns and tubs seperately then glue them together at the end. The superstructure parts are mostly grey, so you can glue them all together and paint in one go when you are painting the hull (same colour) etc. For parts that contain more than 2 colours, if area is small you may wish to use a brush but otherwise, mask. When masking, Try paint the lighter colour first then mask off and paint the darker colour to ensure better coverage.


Steven:
No conclusive answers from historical photos.

does show a slightly darker tone on the deck compared to the forecastle, but there are other pictures that shows the opposite. Also note the AA gun placements near the 2nd main gun and secondary armament that the Tamiya kit does not represent accurately.

The black non-flameable coat was described in an article in Model Art magazine a couple years ago. It is certainly more recent than the common english references, such as anatomy of the ship which had wrong AA placements anyway so I'd rank its accuracy accordingly.

There's also a discussion here but in broken english.
http://watakan.world.coocan.jp/eng/yamato/research/yamato_color.html

and here
http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3488
AisKits
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Florida, United States
Joined: October 04, 2009
KitMaker: 5 posts
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Posted: Monday, October 05, 2009 - 03:45 PM UTC
Woah i love this forum, everyone helps hopefully i will some day too haha. So yeah now i know something new. Though for the colors should i buy a jar of each color or i can make them by mixing other colors? Is the tamiya surface primer gray good to prime this model? i got white and gray in srpay cans. So i didnt want to put my hands on it yet but i couldnt stop myself haha so i started cutting the hull and deck to see how it would look like. Since its between week i dont think i will have much time but on the weekend i will try to get more done till i get the colors to finish this (ANY SUGESTION FOR COLORS WILL BE APRECIAED)






blaster76
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Joined: September 15, 2002
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Posted: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 - 07:29 AM UTC
I have never found it necessary to prime my models. Others do so i guess it is a matter of preference. Enamels are ptetty much made for plastic, so the heavy use of acrylics probably do need a primer. I would buy a pretty large selection of colors and blend once in a while. The problem with blending is getting it the right shade the second time. If you are using enamels, I would get 6 or so bottles of gray paint. The engine gray is a super dark gray and this seems to be the correct color for Japanese capital ships. Maybe get a schwartz and licht grau to cover german ships. Then a dark sea gray medium gray and a light gray to cover othr ships. With those you blend. For red, I use insignia red and mix in some burnt sienna (about 1 to 1 ratio) to get a hull color. Burtnt sienna in dry brushing also looks good for rust. I use radardome tan and tan to do decks. One is pretty light the other a bit darker. You may want to go with that dark gray deck scheme. There is always new stuff coming out that changes. I have also heard that they think the tops of the main gun turrets on the arizona may have been painted (I forgot if it was red or blue)
Angeleyes
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Drama, Greece / Ελλάδα
Joined: December 14, 2008
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Posted: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 - 10:43 AM UTC
I didnt know Tamiya is producing a 1/700 full hull of anything .It is prob the Fuzimi.
JMartine
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New Jersey, United States
Joined: October 18, 2007
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Posted: Sunday, October 11, 2009 - 09:54 AM UTC
Dont forget Mike Ashey's web site, full of great info and FREE copies (in PDF format) of his classic How-Tos books, as well as some new material.

http://mikeashey.com/BOOK-INDEX-PAGE%20.htm

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