David,

Nice work with those rain guards as they can be quite a challenge ton install.

Mark

Beautiful work Dave!

Those ladder rungs are near perfect! Wow!

Yikes, such teeny details and you have them looking great. Kudos to you sir!

David, Welcome back!

Loving your blog. Inspirational.

Mark - Thanks, they were a little fickle especially trying to align them properly.

Russell - Thanks, I will admit they were a little fun to mount and I do love the look they give verse the molded ladders. Definitely worth the effort.

Rory - Thanks - they are a little fiddly but the tweezers I used helped keep them from flinging off into never never land.

Frederick - Thanks, really glad to be back.

Dave

Hi Dave,

as so many times, I'm once again just catching up here. Beautiful work! And quite some patience and endurance the same time to finish this myriad of portholes and individual ladder steps, but it will certainly be a great effect on the the finished model!

Cheers
Jan

Jan - Thanks for the kind comments. I hope I can bring it all together in the end.

Hey everyone, it has been some time since I provided an update so here it goes. Spoiler alert - It does not end on a positive note!!

So I continued to add the port holes to the port side which went relatively well. I also added all of the seperate stairs.









All in all I was pretty happy with the end results. Some of the ladders were a little wonky but that sort of faded with the naked eye. The next step was to finally put the hull together.

But before that I had to decide which anchor I was going to use. As we all know the kit anchors generally leave somethin to be desired so I aimed to use the North Star resin anchors that I have in the spares box. But they were a little soft and deformed with little pressure. SO I next went to the Rainbow PE anchor. I will admit I am impressed with the Rainbow PE anchors.

Here is the kit anchor, North Star Anchor and the Rainbow PE Anchor side by side.



I have decided on the Rainbow PE anchors!!!

OK, now back on track and ready to put the hull together.





Had a few gap issues that required additional attention but for the most part the fit was good. I do not mess with the lower hull since I always mount my ships on a water base. As a warning to other, if you do build this ship and do not intend to add it to a water base there are some gap issues with the lower hull and rudder attachment points.

Anyway, now that the hull was together it is time to revela another PE set that I found.

I found a kit by AKA Models that provide the PE names for IJN Heavy and Light Cruisers and some Destroyers. There is a seperate kit that provides the names for Battleships and Aircraft Carriers.

Here is the kit





Now I added the Tama's name to the stern.



Here you can see some of the gap issues I was referring to above

Next I primed her with Tamiya Fine White Rattle can primer.



And here is the beginning of the decline.

I intend to display the Tama as a heavily weathered ship. As a start I decided to start spraying bands of black, dark rust, and light rust. I uses Vallajo rust colored paints and Vallejo Black. So far so good I thought.



My next step was to use Vallejo Chipping Medium in strategic areas. Then I got carried away and started to splatter the Chipping Medium using a brush and a toothpick. I now lost control and ended up with chipping medium in a lot of places.

Still this error had not occured to me. If it had I would have removed it right then and there, but Noooooooo, I had to keep going.

My next step was to paint the hull with Scale Colors IJN Hull Red.



I liked the way it looked as far as the black strips but was having issue with the color of red, I thought it was too red so I went and sprayed the hull with Tamiya IJN Hull Red.



Now I was a little bit happier. I then took the step of masking the hull and moving on to spraying the upper hull with Scale Colors Yokuska Arsenal Grey.



I added a little white and gave it a light misting of the lighter color.

After taking a few days to problem solve the masking for the camoflauge I then moved forward and painted on the white with Tamiya Flat White.







Next I started to try and remove some of the paint over the chipping medium and rub away some of the white so that they underlying grey would show though.



That is where I pauused, took a good hard look at the paint job and decided that it looked like Crap!!. The chipping medium was bubbled up and when removed showed the underlying primer white. Of course that is because I lost control of the chipping medium and splattered it all over the ship.

I also took a good look at the white areas and reallized that because I had the airbrush too far way that the paint dired with a bumpy texture.

Strike Number 2!!

And the final strike was that when I rubbed the white paint away it did not revela the underlying grey but the underlying hull red and in some areas the underlying primer.

Crap - Strike 3!!!

So I spent the next couple fo days trying to figure out the best way to strip off all the acrylic paint without impacting the primer or the PE that I had added to the hull.

I decided on soaking the ship in Acrylic thinner and scrubbing - brushing off the paint. In the end it worked but I did loose about 20 portholes and a couple of sets of seperate ladders.

Back to the drawing board but here is how she looks right now.





I should have the portholes and seperate ladders reaaded by the end of the weekend.

So there you go, thanks for stopping in and as always comments, suggestions, and criticism are always welcome.

Hi Dave!

Well, I'm really sorry to hear of the troubles you've had with the paint on this kit!

I've no experience removing acrylic based paint but from what I understand it comes off easier than enamels?

Good luck on getting her sorted-given all the effort so far, it will definitely be worth sticking with it!

David,

That really sucks having to start over with a another paint job, that camo work looked really nice.

I wonder if putting a coat of Future or a clear varnish before adding the chipping solution would help protect the under-coats? I do that on armor builds when I plan on doing chipping or fading of the top coat.

Good luck on your next attempt.

Mark

Sorry to see the paint job go wrong,

Got everything crossed for the recovery mate.

Good luck, Si

Russell - Thanks - I was pretty disappointed but glad that I made the decision to strip the paint. I am sure if I had continued moving forward that I would have regretted it.

Mark - Not sure about applying Future before the paint. In the end it required some scrubbing but it worked out.

Si - Thanks for the support. The recovery went well and that update follows

Hey everyone,

So here is the recovery update. I recently moved from working days to working midnight shift and due to that I have had a few nights to spend at the bench. I have made my time fruitfull!!

So here we go. After getting the port holes and the seperate ladders replaced I moved on to repainting the hull. I skipped the chipping medium this time. I also decided that I was going to go against my normal pattern of painting the lower hull and then the upper hull. This time I painted the upper and followed with the lower hull. It worked out well and ensured that when it comes to removing some of the white paint to reflect wear and tear that the hull red would not show through.

So here are some pics of my recovery.

Portholes and seperate ladders replaced.





Rust color added to the majority of the hull



While that dried I had to add some more PE to the forward torpedo deck and prepare for paint. Here is a masking nightmare.





Here she is with some black added to the lower hull and the Yokasuka Grey applied.



The forward torpedo deck dry fitted after painting.



Now for the white camo



I forgot to take a picture of the port side but thats ok for this portion.

While that was curing I moved on to working the rear deck housing. The before picture is provided earlier in the build log. Here it is with the PE added.



Completed



here is the deck bulkhead that will be mounted on the forward torpedo deck.



The two large doors I assume are for the torpedo handling rooms but without better reference I am not sure. So with that I left them closed.

After working those two I applied the anti-fouling red to the hull.

Here she is in all her current glory.













A little bit of overspray but not too bad.

The next steps will be focused on weathering the hull. Once that is done I will move on to the remaining decks.

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

David

Brilliant recovery Dave! The change to working nightshift must have had a positive effect

A little bit of overspray with the white, but nothing a bit of touch up with the hairy stick won't fix

PS the Shokaku in the back ground is looking pretty good too

David,

Nice recovery, the PE work is looking awesome.

Mark

Fantastic recovery! She is looking great.

What Russ, Mark & Rory Said.

Looking really good Dave, the Camo has come out very well indeed.

Cheers

Si

Dave,

just catching up and reading about your mishap with the paint. Wow, that's bad, could have easily killed motivation! But it's great to see that you didn't loose it but recovered, and as everybody said, you did so very well. She looks awesome now, great work!!

Cheers
Jan

Russell - thanks, I an going to weather the Tama pretty heavily so the overspray should work its self out. The Shokaku is going to get some more love soon. Just need to take a break and figure out the next move.

Mark - Thanks, the Rainbow PE is pretty easy to work with. The only draw back are the gaps in the metal on the corners. Needs CA to fill them before painting. A lesson Learned.

Rory - Thanks!!

Si - Thanks - pretty happy with the camo as it stands, now to make it look weathered!!

Jan - Thanks - I was pretty disappointed but determined not to let it beat me.

Thanks everyone for looking in - a big update is to follow!!

Dave

Hey everyone,

I apologzie for the delayed update but all good things come to those that wait. So I forwarn you, this update is a little long.

Now that the hull paint issue has been resolved it the next step was moving towards the decks. The Tama is all linoleum decking which was secured with brass strips. Luckily Rainbow provides an excellant PE set for the decking.

oh, before that here is one of the aft aircraft handling facility walls with upgraded PE doors.



The frist deck step was the for deck. It needed new bollards so I used Alliance Modelworks Bollards for IJN Cruisers. I also added hawse pipe covers to complete the ensamble.





The forward deck came in two parts, unforatunately there was a significant gap so putty was added.



OK so now that those steps were complete it was time to paint.

NOTE - I should develop the process of completing all parts needing the same color paint before painting but I get to anxious!! Oh well.

Forward and linoleum decking painted and the brass strip ready to attach.



Brass strip secure



Closed hatch covers added and one open!!







The open hatch was a little fiddly as it is a little too long and too thing for the brass strip set. A lottle CA covered the gaps.

The remaining boxes added and ready for paint.



Now to some more walls and PE watertight doors.



Next was the stern deck and mid ship torpedo deck. Here both the kit and the Rainbow PE set fail. There is no detail what so ever so instead of trying to fiddle with that I plan on covering the torpedo openings with canvas.

the stern deck with the brass strip



Dry fitted and secure





There will be a lot of masking to get the brass painted grey - not looking forward to that but even before that I need to add the rails for the mine tracks.

Dry fitted the forward deck and the forward torpedo deck just for the look.



Now for some orogami - this will be the walkway and torpedo handling equipment that connect the foward deck with the mid deck.



Orogami complete



As I am known to do I strayed a little and took a look at the torpedo mounts for the forward torpedo deck. The IJN Tama was equipped with 4 twin 53cm torpedo tubes. I want to depict the crew working on one of the torpedoes - either loading it or conducting maintenance on the warhead.

In pursuit of that idea i decided to work on the torpedo tubes.

Here is the kit torpedo tube part





pretty bland.

The Rainbow set womes with some hand wheels but taking it a step further I decided to show one of the torpedo tubes open. So I removed the rear access hatch and drilled out the torpedo tube.





Need to thin out the aft end of the tube some more but you get the idea. This is just the start, I have two extra sets in case I make a mistake - the true reason I am adding canvass to the read torpedo hull openings!!!

OK, so now back on track and here is the mid deck painted and with the brass strip ready for mounting.



Now with the brass strip secure.



You might no be able to see it but unforatunately the brass strip PE does not align correctly with all the boat davit sopts. Not a big deal as that area will need to be painted grey so it gives me a chance to fix the problem without causing too much damage or need to repaint the linoleum decking. More to come on that challenge.

Well here is the last photo, all decks dry fitted and the Tama sitting along the supports for the Shokaku - gives perspective on the size of the Shokaku!!



Anyway, thats it for now, I am back on days so my bench time has been reduced back to Saturday and Sunday mornings so progress will slow. The next step is to work the stern and mid deck for painting. Hope to have that soon.

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

Dave

Great work so far, I admire how seemingly easily you attached the etched linoleum brass strips to the kit. I would have tried to glue it with superglue and a toothstick but until you applied the glue everywhere it is already dry again before you will have a chance to fix it onto the deck.

May I ask you how you did it?

Great idea and Job also with the torpedo tube

Thomas - Thank you

I cut thin strips of Tamiya masking tape and secured the brass strip to the deck. Once that was done I uses a sewing needle with the eye cut open as a ca applicator. I ran the applicator along all brass strip that did not have tape touching it.

Below are some pictures.





I followed a systematic approach to applying the CA. I started with outside frame of the brass strip Once that was done I moved to the brass strip that ran from port to starboard and finally to the brass strip that runs from bow to stern. That way I did not miss anything.

So far that has been enough and I have not needed to go back and touch any of the brass strip that was taped.

Dave

David,

Man that is a lot of PE you have put down, it all looks really great.

Mark

Great stuff Dave,

Those big sections of brass strip must have been real fun to handle, they look so easy to put out of shape.

Like your method getting them in place, rather ingenious.

Cheers

Si

I absolutely concur with Si

nice work Dave. That's some soft hands you've got there to handle the PE so nicely