Ahoy Shipmates!!!

MSW Crewmember Alec Cap [bigal07] shares a fine dio featuring the Nippon Maru as she eases into port in the Model On Display Feature.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

An excellent dio Alec An unusual subject too. I seem to remember a try out of this dio incorporating a pink fluffy towel Could of course be my memory playing tricks on me
Cheers,
Julian

I particularly enjoy harbor scenes and showing a ship approaching a pier is especially interesting. I am impressed as well with how effectively a wood plank was rendered into a blended background.

--Karl

Thank you for those words of encouragement, the money is in the post lol.

Nice model in a well arranged DIO, Alec.
Are those little sailors from Fujimi or L'arsenal?

Happy modeling!

Joreg A

Fujimi figures, there now two different sets out there to buy, and strangely enough a little like gold dust to find.

Talking about dioramas, the Maru is in 1-350, its a shame that unless you're going to scratch build some factories, buildings etc etc there's not a great deal out there, this is why I mostly model in 1-700 as seen below. This my second IJN light cruiser Yubari, as with the Nippon Maru I've built this before and at the time thought ''that's a nice model'' but I am sure I could do better, in reflection to the scale of diorama, buildings are lacking in 1-350 and figures 3-D types are completely missing from the 1-700 range, even by bending and applying a blob of PVA they still still look rather flat.

I agree with you, my friend regarding those PE figures. I've tried to give them a bit of 3D by several means - thick paint, PVA but I've never been satisfied with the results.
Building dioramas is on the core of my ship building these days. First, with dioramas I save space; a concern with my already large collection. Second, 'cause I like to present my ships in action human life should be all around.
Modeling is for me much more that assembling parts and covering them in paint, and I have the patience enough to attempt any scratch building that's is within my present-days skills. So no problema with the lack of aftermarket accessories.
Backdrops, bases and model-water making as well as some additional special effects takes 30% of more of my time when building a diorama; there are unlimited room for imagination and creativity while making these elements and I find them much, much more amusing that cleaning flashes, filling seams and ejection marks.............
This Yubari DIO looks nice too and the fact that you think now you can make it better is because your skills have improved as well as you "see" more now that then... In my humble opinion, Alec, you have improved a LOT since the very fist time I saw your models posted on the Web and that deserves to be honored!

Happy modeling,

very well done Alec! thanks for sharing.... this one is my favorite from all of your work! cheers mate

I honestly don't know what to say. Thank you for those kind words. Thank you a lot.

Alec, I really like your subjects and the themes. The picture you posted in your reply is my favorite however. The lighting in it makes it look like sunset, the water looks peaceful and inviting. Lots of mood to it.

Anyway, it is exciting to see your new stuff when it comes out and the lively commentary that goes with it.

Another Nippon Maru:

While playing a PTO campaign in Silent Hunter IV I came across another Nippon Maru. This was not a 4-mast barque but a 500-foot, 9600- ton large Oiler sunk -as well as her sister ship Tatekawa Maru- in 1944 by American submarines
Anyone knows if there's a kit of this oiler?

I could be wrong but I do believe this is one of the same WW2 ship.
In 1941, NIPPON MARU was requisitioned by the IJN and ordered converted to an auxiliary oiler. NIPPON MARU's sister was TATEKAWA MARU. NIPPON and TATEKAWA MARUs were torpedoed and sunk by American submarines in January and May 1944 respectively.
The 4 mast were removed and the whole ship as many of the Japinese naval shipping was required for the war effort underwent a huge up-grade.

From what I read here:

http://www.combinedfleet.com/Nippon_t.htm

She was originally built as a merchant tanker , completed in June 1936. Requisitioned by the IJN in Sept '41 was converted to a merchant transport (what's the difference?) by the 15th of October 1941. So the conversion took only about a month....

The barque seems to have been a much smaller vessel , 307-foot, 2385-ton launched in 1930 http://sailing-ships.oktett.net/165.html

It sounds weird two different ships of the same period with the same name....

Can anyone more knowledgeable on this subject come to the rescue?

Funny in a sad way that information is short coming, the last time I asked such a question, it was answered that several ships had the name of Nippon Maru, the name Maur has some significance to do with the sea, and Nippon obviously is number 1, its only when you do a basic research you realise not only during WW2 there were 2 ships called Nippon Maru but they were also different sizes, there's also a 21st century Nippon Maru as well.

The oiler keep on showing up in my WWII PTO scenarios from time to time.
It is always fun to send her to the bottom of the sea with 2-3 well-placed fishes and to enjoy the eye-candy views of their sinkings and explosions..