Nice work Dave,

The etch improvements to the gun tub and walkways is very good indeed, very time consuming I know, but well worth the effort.

Cheers

Si

What Si, said, Dave!

very time consuming, but worth the effort!

Si / Russell,

Your 100% correct, it is extremely tedious and frustrating, especially when the center supports do not align the perforated gussets where they are supposed to go.

That being said, the improved accuracy is well worth the proverbial pain.

thanks for looking in.

Dave

Hi everyone,

WOW, I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted an update, my apologies. I knew I was bad but not this bad.

Anyway, on to the update. So things have been moving along at a snails pace, primarily due to the amount of PE that Fijimi provides in the kit. It is good but not perfect which requires some modification and adjustments.

The first issue I ran into was the gun tubs.



As you can see in the picture Fujimi shorted the perforated gusset a few mm. That and the molding is inaccurate according to theline drawings.



So I thought I would just leave off the PE ring, but that didn't work so well either.



So I decided to remove the molded detail.



I then tried to keep the PE ring intact but couldn't get the distance correct. So instead I cut the ring up and glued them in between the gussets. Not perfectly round but you wont see it from underneath. Its also not completely accurate but closer than what the molded detail represented.



I did this exact process for both gun tubs. After that I moved on to the smoke shielded 12.7mm AA guns, here is one with PE and another before destruction.



I then moved on and ran into some molding issues. Some dimples on another 12.7mm gun and one of the support structures.





nothing some putty could rectify.

Unfortunately the kit has a lot of pin marks, mostly underneath as seen in some other pictures so not a big deal but annoying just the same.

Anyway, the rest of the time was putting support PE under all the catwalks on the starboard side of the ship. Ill just leave some pictures here and save you reading time.



















Now for the topside view

















I had purchased some of the Hasegawa IJN planes but realized after the fact that the cockpit is molded onto the body of the aircraft. So I found a source for some Fujimi Aircraft kits.

I needed a little break from the PE on the Shokaku so I put together one of the D3A1 Vals. Along with the Fujimi aircraft I purchased the Tetra Models aircraft upgrades.

This kit comes with dynamic propellers and the cockpit for each aircraft which fit into my end goal.

Here it is with the cockpit installed.





Here it is with some color





panel lines and some decals.









I think the propeller hub is a little too big.

here it is on the Shokaku









And the final picture, the Shokaku and the Akigumo



I am almost complete with the starboard side, well with the exception of the paravanes, the lifeboat davits, the ladders, the...oh hell, not even close to being done.

anyway, I hope you enjoyed the update. As always comments, suggestions and criticism is always welcome.

Dave

Good to see some progress again Dave,

Great save on the gun tubs, surprising how often you get errors like that.

nice work on the Val too. Aircraft in this scale can make or break a carrier, that one is maker for sure.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers

Si

Si,

Thanks for the encouragement. I never had much issue with working a lot of PE but I will admit that this one is challenging my mental capacity.

The Val was a test and to be honest I am pretty happy with it. I do think the propeller hub is a little oversized and I am not sure about the antennae either.

Anyway, I have plenty more to build. I also have the Big Blue Boy 250kb bombs due in sometime soon to. Can wait to give those a try.

thanks again, means a lot.

Dave

You said cockpit !!!! Unbelievable,plane looks great

Hi Dave

great to see the Shokaku getting some bench time! It's not easy when you've got a few projects running simultaneously and real life to deal with as well

Nice work around on the gun tubs, that Val looks awesome, and is, like Si says, a 'maker'.

What out for those sink marks in the styrene!

Be great to see some paint go on!

Dave, I think you are right about the oversized propeller hub, but otherwise your Val looks fantastic! And it even has a cockpit... awesome. The canopy frames too go a long way to bring life to your little bird. Great work!

Gents,

Thanks again for all the kind comments and support. All in all I am happy with the Val. I know I have some work to do on the next 27 such as cleaning up the seams and such.

Russell - I would love to put some color to her but I am going to try and complete the port side PE before I do that. The sink marks are a pain.

thanks again gents, more to come soon.

Dave

couldn't agree more Dave: sink marks are so annoying! Especially in detailed areas...

Russell,

speaking of sink marks...

I took out everyone of the Fujimi D3A1 Vals that I have for this build and everyone of them has two sing marks. One under the canopy and one just after of the canopy.

Some are more pronounced than the other but all of them will be difficult to hide.

Why do we love this hobby again???

Oh the joy!!!

Dave

Hi Dave,

just catching up after some busy days - fantastic work!! the amount of PE supports you are adding there is astonishing... And just removing the molded parts from underneath the gun tubs that clean is great work!!

Cheers,
Jan

Impressive work so far, love the perfect brass work.
Also a great job with the tiny aircrafts, did the early Vals had a propeller spinner ?

Jan - thank you for the kind comments. I am enjoying the build and the challenges so far. It is definitely challenging my skills

Bernd - thank you for the kind comments. I am doing some research but I think you are right in that the early Vals did not have a propeller spinner. I also found out that the front of the propellers was painted silver so I need to fix that also.

I am taking a break this weekend to conduct a review and to build a Kate. The Kate wont end up on the Shokaku but I wanted to build one anyway.

thanks again everyone for the support.

Dave

haha, yep, I know what you mean Dave. Still trying to figure that one out

Hey All,

WOW, I did not realize how much of a gap in updates I had on this build.

I owe you guys a few photos of the main ship as she sits now.

OK, so I finally finished all the PE on the catwalks, painted the hull, and added the wooden deck and decals to the flight deck. I also completed all 5 A6M2b Zeros that launched on the first wave.

Ill get you some photos.

Now that the Ayanami is complete I am back to the Shokaku. I am stuck for the most part with the hull until I can finish the lifeboats. So that's where I am now.

here they are ready for prime and paint.



The Fujimi PE set for the Shokaku was seriously lacking PE for the 12m cutter, 8m cutter, and the lifeboats so I used some from Flyhawk and Hasegawa.

Painted



Tomorrow I will start throwing them together.

I also started working on the bridge some more.

I opened the doors so that I could have some figures running out to the flight deck.



Will add the PE doors once I am done man handling the bridge structure.

Here are the main parts for the Island. You can see that the bridge is bare of any detail so O am going to fix that.



Here is the island with some PE doors added. I also removed the molded gussets and replaced with PE. I need to order another sheet of triangle perforated gussets to complete the upgrade.



In the meantime I will upgrade the bridge and finish the lifeboats.

That's it for now. I will get some photos of the hull and flight deck soon.

thanks for stopping in and as always, comments, suggestion and criticism are always welcome.

Dave

Wow!! An update!!

Mine is still languishing in the stash. I have a DX version but don't know if I will ever get around to it anytime soon..

Excellent work by the way.

Warren,

LOL, yea it has been a while. Ive done some work just haven't been good at documenting it.

I am sure that the DX set has the PE set. Its good but there are some instruction missing from my set. A lot of PE has no indication as to where it is supposed to go. I hope the set you have is better.

Trying to get this done before February but I doubt I will.

Dave

No those instructions are pretty much what Fujimi stuff is like.

Haha, yes, quite a while Dave! 6 months I do believe!

And, yep, we need to see those photos

Good to see this one back on the bench mate!

My thoughts exactly...

Hey Everyone,

I promised some additional pictures of the Shokaku's current status. So here they are.

Here is a top view of the flight deck.



I marked off and painted the flight lines and the barber pole on the stern. I think I had to paint, strip, and paint over three times until I got it right. A little frustrating

Here some close ups of the deck.





Flight of A6M2b Zero's prior to weathering



The following photos show all the PE that was used to replace the molded triangulated gussets under all the catwalks and gun tubs.















Now I am working on the lifeboats. here I am adding the wooden decks to the 12m Motor Boats



Here are the 12m Motor Boat and the 11m Cutter dry fitted to the stern.



I will finish up all the lifeboats tomorrow and then move on the finishing the boat deck.

I see that I need to add some more color to the hull, too many spots that still show the primer.

anyway, a lot more work to go.

more to follow.

thanks for stopping in.

Dave

Beautiful job on her so far. The only Problem I had was fitting completed Ships Boats on her after Deck. With P/E on board. Some of them would not fit because of the limited Deck Clearance....Cheers Mark