Finally I stopped vacillating and picked my next build.

Hasegawa'a IJN Akagi was released several years ago now and was accompanied by numerous sets of PE, a wooden deck set and barrels for its guns.

The kit has a total of 43 sprues and if you use all the PE in the appropriate Hasegawa sets there are 1758 parts in total. Lots and lots of parts but only a few colours needed for the ship itself, grey and brick red. I will be using Tamiya XF-9 Hull Red and XF-77 Sasebo Arsenal Grey. An interesting bit of trivia I have found, Tamiya paints last a very long time. I have been using the same bottle of XF-9 for over 15 years now and it is still good. Don't think I haven't used other bottles of the same colour but this bottle, the old large style bottle, I found hiding away in a box with some other paints I bought around 1995 while I was on posting to Tindal in the NT. There was only one place within 350 km that stocked Tamiya paints and that was the general store in Katherine.

But I am getting side tracked. On with the introduction.


This is one big ship! And it has many many many port holes, all of which need to be drilled out with a 0.88mm drill.. Can you define tedium?

Then we get to the rest of the elements of the build, except the Master barrel set I forgot to take a picture of.. I think they were just pop-guns anyway way too low to be of much danger to anyone but the crews manning them due to the risk of water ingress in rough seas..


Here are the Instruction booklet and reference book that came with the model. Many black and white photos but I am not sure of their usefulness..


Then we have the deck marking decals.


The aircraft marking decals.


And then for some reason you get the deck markings in the wooden deck set as well..


The we start with the Advanced PE set.. all those trusses look like they will be fun,, gulp..


And finally basic sets A, B and C.

So that's it for the moment.. All I have done so far is detach the hull halves from their huge sprue and try and mark all the areas in the instructions where I will be installing PE. I gave up after I got 3/4 of the way through the ladders etc.. May as well put PE in every step! :-)

Thank you for reading this and good night
Warren

You got me hooked with this one Warren, it's one I've wanted to get myself but it's very hard to find over here. I've managed to track one down on Amazon of all places but at £185 without all the pe my wallet said NO. To import one I think would cost an arm and a leg due to its size and weight, Aoshima and Fujimi ship kits are also hard to find here in Blighty I think the importer doesn't bother.

Great looking build Warren, good luck with it. Will be following with interest.

Si

WOW Warren you have got to be kidding All those trusses look fun I just got a cold shiver just looking at all that PE good luck with this one mate will have my note book at the ready

Keith

Warren good luck with this massive project. I will be following with keen interest. Happy New Year!!!!

Dave

Good luck,I will definitely be following along on this one.Got mine when it 1st came out and have been sitting on for awhile.Looking forward to yours.

PS,I will not even think about doing those PE girders,have fun.

Hi there Everyone.

Luciano, I don't buy many of my kits here, although one place has seen the light and has dropped their prices. I got this one when it first came out but can't remember where. It is a big box but if you get stuff sent via surface mail it tends to be a lot cheaper. I have bought all my Fujimi stuff from China and Japan where they are much cheaper.

Glad to have you along for the ride Simon. If this turns out half as good as your builds I will be happy.

Keith, I am sure you would have no trouble with the trusses etc. The instructions are pretty clear but we will see how good I am with PE..

David, Happy New Year to you as well my friend. Sitbacj, relax and watch me stuff something up..

Anthony, you may change your mind about the framework and trusses after seeing how easy/hard I find them.

Cheers all
Warren

A monster of a kit, Warren

Will be following along

Russ

Great pick Warren. The Imperial Navy slowly taking over I see

Russell and Naseby,
Nice to see you along for the ride.
Drilled about 45 million port holes yesterday and assembled four search lights.. A huge start!!
Cheers
Warren

PS Yes Naseby, they are fascinating ships.

There I was cutting, trimming and cleaning up plastic bits, then cutting off and folding up PE thinking everything was going great, then on Step 5 of the instructions I thought to myself, 'Self, didn't you see that plastic part replaced bu PE in the Eduard instruction sheet you saw a few minutes ago?" I like going to the Eduard site and downloading instructions for their PE sets as they are always informative. And I was right.. Quite a few items in Step 5 are replaced by PE in the Eduard set but not in the Hasegawa set..

Turns out the Hasegawa PE set is not quite as comprehensive as I thought.


Just in this step Q15 has four of its items replaced with Eduard PE, no Hasegawa PE, L21 and the two other moulded in items are replaced by Eduard PE, no Hasegawa PE, and the list goes on..

In the light of this, and not knowing if I have enough life left to build another Akagi with the extra PE, I have put the Akagi aside for the moment and will order the PE set very soon.

Remember patience is a virtue and I will be back sooner than later. In the meantime keep an eye out in the Battleship Group Build for my entry which I have just 5 months to finish..

Cheers
Warren

We'll be waiting mate

I too, often find myself purchasing 2-3 different brands of PE as they don't always seem to cover every little detail-ah why do we do this to ourselves???

Russ