During WW2 Japan had 8 different types of light cruiser, I have managed to build one in the scale of 1-700 from each of those 8 classes, now photographed together, I believe this is a first, and fingers crossed a world record.
Kashima
Natori
Oyodo
Naka
Tama
Yahagi
Yubari
Tenryu
Not built straight out of the box, painted, weathered and rigged, I'm quite proud of it actually.


Just an odd close up of a few of these light cruisers.










I dare say there will be the odd double, but rest assure there are 8 different IJN light cruisers, one from each of those classes. Enjoy.

That is a rather impressive collection.

Thanks for sharing those.

Hello Jim - did you not get my email I sent you the other day. The problem is, my computer is constantly playing up, and although I send things off, they don't always get there, or for some strange reason depending on the time of day, an email I send with no problems at all (most of the time) will rebound back with failed demond code whatever that might be, it is a pain at time believe me.
If you never got that email, please let me know, and I'll attempt at sending you another one.
Thanks.
Alec.

I like what I see. you have done a very nice Job on them.....Cheers Mark

That is a rather impressive collection Al and some nice work also.Cheers

Nice collection you have built there Alec, very nice !
Cheers,
Julian

Very nice work Alec.

Thank you all for those ind words. In the next few days I hope to have some day light photographs which should be a slightly different shade/colour to those above.

Which grey colours did you use Alec? On my Haruna I used Tamiya " Kure
Arsenal grey" and recieved many e-mails asking me why I had used blue paint.
Cheers,
julian

After rather a lot of research, and colour matching, I quickly realised that Revell do 15 shades of grey, so imagine how many gray's there are. After spending some time with Jim Baumann, I then took the decision to use several shades, these act as shadow and weathering. The paint pen set is by Faber-Castell, and I'll use between 2 and 3 different pens, the basic or primary colour is Humbrol matt 27.
The photographs were all taken indoors, some time next week, weather pending, I shall try taking some outdoor, you should see the difference as a lot of the yellowish light should go, the weathering via multi shades of grey should also been seen. These 8 cruisers were built between last year and this year, a few will have fly fishing line, others stretched melted plastic, while the over-scale plastic mast is still there, there is also my new tried wire mast that doesn't look that bad.
The most important thing for me, I believe this is a first in the world, a single light cruiser one from each of the 8 classes photorgaphed together, well, I've never seen this before.

They are all most convincingly grey Alec, I'll bear that in mind on my next Japonese build.
cheers,
Julian

Building quite a collection there Alec, and great to see you try new things.

I'm a 4 stacker fan, too. Unfortunately kits in 1/700 on 4 stacker front has been a bit on the elderly side, with Akubama being the only exception but I don't quite like that particular 4 stacker as much.

I heard (tried only once but result inconclusive) mix grey with 30% yellow results in a warmer grey. Blue tinge probably due to lighting and grey being a bit too cold.

Most important at times to get the correct colour, especially for surface shipping, then when photographed you'll discover the camera does tell lies, while rust and other weathering methoids are often used, I have turned to the shading with grey pen paints, a little wallet holding 5 shades of grey by a company called Faber-Castell, these are great when applied to underneath structure and even bleeding down from overhanging objects. As we know, a lot of the time the colours carefully painted on our ships look better one on one, and I find it such a shame when you see your model looking rather drab knowing it looks a whole lot better in real life.
Fingers crossed, 2/3 days and I hope to have those day light photo's ready.

HI Alec,

A fine collection of ships. I look forward to the daylight photos.

How do you make water for the bases?

The base for the IJN Tama is MDF, I'll paint the surface blue/green, then with acrylic gel medium mixed with another colour paint apply to the dried surface, from here, I'll use more gel pulling up small amounts for the waves, at times a clear gel is added just to give it some reflection, the wave tops is simply gel with white paint added.
Small amount are required as the more you use the longer it will take to go off
.

Maybe not the best stuff in the world, it is unforgiving and in the same breath it works for me.

Finally the daylight photographs, still finding it hard to capture all 8 cruiser together while showing a clear shot.

Nice colection, great builds, Alec.

So far, IJN is hardly represented in my ships; not even those in my stash but looking at your builds and after finally getting some taste for the smaller scales, I'm thinking to have some of these beautiful cruisers in my shipyard soon!
Cheers!,


Jorge Augusto