Hey all,

A short little update.

I finally finished applying the brass strip. Most of the Kagero brass didn't work so I used the North Star brass strip PE that I had left over from the IJN Maya build.



I'm pretty happy with the results.

I also completed the last two torpedo mounts. They are primed and painted.

Here she is with everything dry fitted



I am going to build the main guns last, so now I am moving on to touch ups, fiddly parts and the water base.

More updates to come soon.

thanks for stopping in

Dave

Masterful work Dave!

those brass strips are a real tricky part of the build and they look great!

Russell, thanks - thankfully I have a good set of calipers that allows me to make accurate measurements. It is a tedious task but after I got the process down it went pretty quick.

I am trying to move as fast as I can. The bridge has been equipped and the crew has started to man their stations.





Still working out how to apply the cloth material around the railings. Will sort that out soon enough.

Working on the remaining parts and pieces for the bridge and should have something soon.

Dave

Excellent detail work!!

Keep it up!

Thanks Charlie!!

nice work on the bridge Dave.

You sure are moving a lot faster than I

The Bridge looks great Dave,

Very nicely done.

Cheers

Si

David,

The bridge looks great, nice detail but I believe I see a problem with the Binnacle. I am not sure what they are called but the red and green colors on the balls next to the compass are on the wrong ball. Green is for starboard, red for port. I believe they should be reversed. Could the Binnacle be installed backward?

Mark

Russell - Thanks, I am trying to get this complete for a club competition in December. Hoping to have it done.

Si, thanks The kit come with most of the parts - the white sheet in the center is actually a photo copy of a nautical chart depicting the area around Savo Island.

Mark - crap!! I wasn't aware of which side the colors went on, now that you lay it out it makes sense, especially since the lights are that arrangement. I am going to try and turn it around without destroying the part. I glued it on with superglue so I might be able to do it.

Thanks Mark for letting me know, really appreciate it.

More updates will come this weekend.

Dave

Hey all,

Just realized that I made mention of the chart in the bridge but didn't upload the pictures.

Here is the bridge fully manned and equipped.





The white sheet in the middle is the nautical chart for the Savo Island area. Thought it was a nice touch.

Anyway, the figures are a combination of FUJIMI and North Star. In both cases I had to cut them off at the knee to fit into the bridge. Good thing that fact will be shielded once the roof is on.

Dave

Dave,

Adding the map was a wonderful idea.

Mark

Hi Dave,

Fully fitted bridge looks great, it is good when you get a lot of the gear in the box.

Cheers

Si

Now that's a tiny map! Nice touch Dave!

Kudos for the map! It is gratifying to see that I'm not the only modeler who likes to add cool details no one will ever see on the completed model. Well done!

Mark - Thanks

Si - Thanks, your right. I wish more of the makers would add bridging equipment. I know its not going to be seen but it enhances the experience of the build, at least for me.

Russell - thanks

Tim - Thanks - I agree, its the parts and details you don't see that enhances the build. I like to try and get as accurate as I can.


I really appreciate the comments gents, really gives me a boost of confidence.


Even though it is Turkey day here in the states I did get some bench time before the family woke up this morning. It was quite productive.

So the IJN Destroyer Ayanami did not receive any AA upgrades prior to he being sunk during the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. That being said she was armed with 13mm AA guns instead of the standard 25mm twin / triple that we are all used to seeing.

The kit 13mm's were lacking so I ordered a set of the Infini Models 13mm AA guns.


They come packed in the standard Infini Models plastic box.





Comes with two bags of turned brass, the barrels and the pintles, and one sheet of PE.



As always, nicely packaged.

So here is when the adventure began

I started with the gun main bodies. Pretty simple bends





The next step was adding the barrels





Here they are with both complete



The next step was the gunners position and machine gun sights



Here they are built up



I didn't add the gunners seat or the gun magazines until after I finished each gun.

The next step was the pintle mount



All the sub components built and ready for assembly



Now for the reveal.

Here is the Infini set compared to the kit parts







A definite improvement over the kit. Now to prime them and paint them.

Well that's it for now. Ill have some more updates soon.

thanks for stopping by and as always, comments, suggestions and criticism are always welcome and encouraged.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!

Dave

Happy thanksgiving Dave and to all our American friends!

Brilliant work on the 13mm guns mate. A vast improvement over the kit parts!

Russell - thanks - I quite agree that they are a huge improvement. I have to admit that I am a big fan of Infini, their upgrade kits are pretty amazing.

Dave

David,

Nice work with 13mm gun, a lot of assembly but the end results have to be worth it. They will look really nice when you get them mounted on the decks.

Mark

Mark, Thanks Going to get them primed and painted today, hope to mount them tomorrow.

Knocking out all the remaining fiddly parts today The end is in site!!

Dave

Those 13mm look a bit tasty Dave,

The kit parts aren't at all bad, but the replacements outshine them, they don't look to bad to put together either.

Cheers

Si

Si,

Thanks - as you said, they are not that difficult to put together other than they are pretty small. Infini did a good job laying out the design.

Interested to see if I can get one of the FUJIMI figures into the seat

Dave

Really impressed with what you have done so far....Cheers mark

Dave,

very nice progress - I really like your fully equipped bride and the sea chart on the table, that's a very nice touch!!
And fantastic work on the twin 13mm - I have to say the molded plastic part really does not look bad at all, but the improvement you get with the Infini PE is huge!!

Cheers,
Jan

Jan, thanks for the kind comments. I have to admit, I was pretty happy with this kit. Overall it was a fun build that I am pretty proud of.

Dave

Hi everyone,

I apologize for the long delay in posting anything from this build. The time started to get away from me and in order to meet the deadline of 20 December for our Club Contest I had to dig in deep and move fast. I did take plenty of pictures, just didn't have the time to post.

So here I am closing the loop with a long post and the final pictures.

After the 13mm AA Guns it was time to start building the 12.7cm Main Guns. The funny thing about the Fubuki Special Type Destroyers was that the center main gun has a different housing than the Fore and aft main guns. More to that later.

Here are the kit parts before I started adding PE. The kit comes with four main guns so I was able to build one as a comparison to the finalized upgraded guns.



Here you can see the blast bags that didn't make it. I bought some carbide drill bits that worked amazingly well but my accuracy and steady hand failed me quite a bit.



Anyway, moving on to upgrading the main guns. As with the rest of the kit I used the Infini Upgrade set to detail the guns. Here I was required to make a significant amount of adjustment. The Main Guns on the Kagero are wider than the ones on the Ayanami.

The other frustrating part was finding good pictures of the Main Guns so that I could add the PE railing where it needed to go.

The first part was drilling out the Gun Trainer Window and adding a cover door.



The following pictures show my progression with the main guns




OK, maybe not so much progression as a beginning and a finish!!!







Ready to be primed and painted



Painted



Dry fitted on the Ayanami





Test fitted on the water







The flat blue areas you see on the water are a result of using a medium acrylic gel that didn't not completely dry transparent. I painted over so that I did not have any issues.

Finally to the point I could start permanently mounting the sub assemblies.







One of the steps I was dreading was the addition of the white canvas around the AA deck, light deck, and the rear of the bridge. I couldn't figure out what to use. I settled on using tissue paper. Not the kind that you blow your nose with but the kind that you or your wife use for presents.

I soaked the cut out pieces in white glue thinned with water. I had to move fast because the longer I left it soak the more fragile it became. I think it worked well. After it dried I painted it with white paint.



Close up of the ships torpedo control deck. Also you can see that I opened up the viewing ports for the main gun director. I used one of the targeting devices from Veteran Models so that the ports were not just open slots.



Oh, I also added voice pipes. Its a little tight on the torpedo control deck.

Another little added detail was putting a sailor in the main gun housings. I could not find any detail drawings that indicated the Gun Trainer had optics to look through so I just put the sailor in the opening.



Each of the main guns has a different pose. You cant see them with the naked eye but I know they are there.

More test fitting on the water





Now it was time to start adding medium acrylic gel to the water base.



Weathering done and the torpedo leaving the tube. Took a bit of time to figure out ow to represent the cloud of smoke from the expelling charge. I settled on some cotton secured in place with white glue.









Rigging complete and ready to enter the water.













I do wish I could figure out a way to remove those stray strands of cotton...

Now the final steps of mounting on the base and completing the water effects.

















Well that is it for now. I will add a few more photos soon. The water base has had some time to completely dry. I finished everything the day of the contest.

I did win 1st Place!!

Im pretty proud of this build to be honest. I learned a lot about modifying PE and using cotton for the water base.

I still have a long way to go to make my water look more realistic but I think I am on the right path.

Now that I am done, I am back to working on the Shokaku. Time to change the channel!!

I want to thank everyone for all the support and the comments during this build I really appreciate it.

Dave