Great work on all that PE! The doors, hatches, and ladder rungs will really make this vessel "pop"!

Tim

I agree, great work on all that etched brass, especially on the linoleum decks!

It has always struck me as strange that the IJN would bother to camouflage paint their ships but left all that shiny brass exposed on deck (those linoleum deck cap strips) to glisten in the sun for any would-be attackers from the air. I wonder if it was buffed up, painted over, or simply allowed to weather down to dull gold...

Mark - Thank you, there is a lot more PE to go down!!

Si - Amazingly enough Rainbow did a good job with the brass strip. I was worried that I would deform it but it held pretty well. The process of laying it down worked really well. I will use that method from now on. Now just I just need to lay a coat of glass on top and see if the excess CA disappears.

Thomas - Thank you!!

Russell - Thank you, not sure about soft hands but I have defiantely moved a lot slower than I normally do.

Timothy - Thank you. I am enjoying this build and learning a lot that I can use in the future.

Tim - Thanks. I have to admit that Rainbow did a great job. Wish they would do the same for some of the other Cruiser kits that are out there. The complete brass strip makes it a lot easier and more comprehensive that just brass strips from Flhawk or North Star.

I ave always wondered the same regarding the brass strip but have not been able to find any supporting documentation indicating that it was painted over or allowed to dull. It would seem counter productive to keep it gleaming.

Thanks everyone for stopping by and for your support. A large update is in the works.

Dave

Dave,

now that's really an impressive update, from mid-February. Great stuff, excellent PE work, the decks with brass stripes and the hatches look outstanding. And interesting to see what you are doing to the torpedo tubes!

Fine work, looking forward to more!

Cheers
Jan

Hey everyone,

As promised here is an update. Only one more deck to add the brass strip to but since that is the upped aft deck it will be a bit of time before I get to it.

For now I have moved on to adding more PE to the aft deck, primarily the sea mine rails. I have to admit that adding these rails have been some of the hardest PE work I ave done to date. They are long, flimsy and tightly packed into a small area.

Here is a photo of the rails



A total of 16.

Here they are mounted



No matter how much I tried I just could not get them to align correctly so there you ahve the wide gaps and different distances along the rails. I finally got to the pint that it is good enough.

I thought about cutting them in half but decided against it since I wasnt convinved I would cut them uniform and caus them to not align correctly.

Anyway, after that it was finally time to start attaching the deck permanently. Based on construction the frist deck was the forward torpedo deck.







What isnt shown is are the bulkhead supports. They are added now

The fit for the remaining decks was not so good. No matter how much I test fit I still had issue attaching the deck. Here are the clamps for the forward deck.





Forward deck without clamps





Next was the aft deck







I wanted to focus attention on the forward torpedo launchers so I decided that I would hang the curtains over the aft torpedo ports. I uses tissue paper painted with a lightened deck tan. I will weather them here shortly.



With that complete it was time for the mid deck.



The mid deck was a real pain in the cause it was molded at an angle so it took a bit of time to get it forced into the slots provided by the kit. It worked out in the end but the clamping was pretty time consuming.



While the dacks were drying I decided to move on to drilling out the second torpedo tubes. Instead of just one I drilled out both. Now to see what I do with that.



Here she is without the clamps



As I mentioned, the fit of the decks were not so great so I had to move on to Mr. Surfacer to fill in the gaps.



While that was curing I moved on to the funnels. I normally wait and do the funnels near the end but since these will have guide wires for support I wanted to get them mounted before adding to much to the deck.

Here are the kit parts for funnel #1.





Cleaned up and ready for the PE



Dry fitted to the deck



The PE for the funnels is somewhat a challenge. PE added - two more funnels to go.







Dry fitted to the deck



With the starboard forward torpedo launcher and catwalk added



Here is the PE catwalk and the kit molded catwalk - the PE catwalk looks much better



Since I was short on time I decided not to start working with paint to touch up and weather the hull, that will come next weekend. So I started on funnel #2. Here it is dry fitted to the deck.





One thing about the rainbow brass strip is the alignment. That rear platform does not sit well on the deck since it is a bit too wide to slip into the space provided. The brass strip gets in the way so I will need to thin the lower portion to get a good seat. If I had thought about it a head of time I would have left the rails down until after mounting it to the deck. I will do that for the second one which will go between funnel #1 and Funnel #2.

Next weekend will be focused on weathering the hull and touching up the bad paint areas. I am looking forward to using some of MIG products for weathering. The intoent is to weather the Tama as the famous photpo, lets see if I can do it!!

Anyway, thats it for now, thanks for stopping in and as always comments, suggestions and criticism are always welcome.

Jan,

Thank you! It has been a fun build and it has tested my skills at every turn. As far as the torpedoes, still trying to piece that together but for now I have three tubes drilled out. Now to see what I do!!

Dave

Dave, it already looks amazing; your etched funnel guide lines are great - you did a very clean work there. They remind me of my EMDEN funnels. You really have to take care when you handle them; mine fell off many times and I was on the edge of madness sometimes...

Thomas,

Thanks. I have had to reattach a couple of them, hopefully a layer of primer and base coat will help them stay put while I mask for the camo scheme. Fingers crossed!!

A massive update Dave, with major milestones achieved!

Those brass strips really are striking and the funnel looks brilliant!

Somewhat of a challenge he says so nonchalantly...

Those would and do terrify me and you knocked them out perfectly. Kudos to you sir!

Great update Dave,

Lots of real progress, the etch work is top class.

Cheers

Si

David,

Amazing PE work. I would love to see how you put those railings around the funnels. You must have the patience of a saint.

Mark

Dave that is some superb work and a great recovery job on the Hull also.....Cheers mark

Brilliant photo-etch work and overall great looking work.

Russell - Thanks for the kind comment.s Those rails were very trying but in the end I think they worked out well enough.

Rory - I was trying for nonchalant, glad it worked but in all honesty I was shaking like a leaf. I have since knocked them off and had to reapply most of them a second - third time.

Si - Thank you sir

Mark - If you have met my wife and daughter then you would know I do have a lot of patience, not to the level of a saint but pretty damn close!! dont tell my wife I said that!!

Mark - Thank you, I am looking forward to finding some time for further work on roughing up the hull.

Matin - Thank you!!

No pictorial update this week as I have not made much progress. I did have to reattach several of the funnel railings on funnel #1 but have finally put that one to rest. I started funnel #2 and have found an issue with the length of the starboard side railings. unfortunately they are too long and bow up when applied. I finally destroyed one after I applied to much flame trying to remove CA. I had to order another PE set.

Have no fear though, I still have plenty more to work with while waiting for that sets arrival. The only thing I am short of at the moement is time to work on the bench.

That being said, I hope everyone is being safe and remain healthy as we progress throug the current siuation.

Take care and thanks for stopping in

Dave

Hey everyone,

I hope this update finds everyone in good health. Since I work for the Texas Division of Emergency Management my bench time has been significantly reduced but I do try and get some time to sit down every once in a while.

I did get some time yesterday and instead of focusing on the funnels I decided I would begin working the structures that clutter the mid deck of the Tama.

Oh on a side note, the new Tama upgrade arrived so that I can continue the funnels soon. Now I have some redundancy so if I make another mistake I have aback up.

Anyway, on to the update.

So I started working on the structures that are mounted mid-ship. The little building was pretty easy in that the roof and the side wall had alignment slots.

Here are the initial folds with the side wall and lower roof sitting to the side.



Here it is complete



Here is the structure dry fitted. The two long boxes were folded last weekend.



The one draw back that I am finding on this upgrade set is that the measurements of structures and deck boxes are a little too big to fit within the brass strip outlines provided by the Rainbow Deck PE set.

It is a little mind boggling considering they are both made by Rainbow. In either case, when it comes to permanent mounting I will have to be careful trying to align everything.

Just some overhead shots with additional structures added





Another drawback, in my opinion, is the perforated edges that rainbow integrated into their structures and boxes. You can see this in the picture above. Instead of having a solid piece of brass at the bend points they are perforated. Yes it makes it easier to bend but now it causes gaps that need filling prior to painting. I used thin CA in the hopes that it will be enough. Guess we will see once I apply a layer of paint.

Here is an overhead shot with all the structures crammed into the middle



Now with the funnels





The next step was a structure located further aft of the funnels.





another wide angle shot

img src="https://gallery.kitmaker.net/data/31880/05F8ECA6-F3D2-45FD-9DCA-2A7FC36161FF.jpeg" />

Closer shot of the small building



Now that I see it I might replace it with the one from the new set. Not sure yet.

Well that's it for now, I hope to get some more time next weekend but we will have to see.

Anyway, stay safe and thank you for stopping by. As always all comments, suggestions and criticism are always welcome.

David

Hey David,

i´m watching your build since the very beginning as i´m building the same kit since a while by my own. You´re doing a fantastic job with it - It´s a pleasure to watch!
For details in this section (you´re building right now) i can highly recommend Gakken No.32 (Tama & Sendai) - There are many things missing in the kit there!

kind regards and best wishes from Germany

FYI:

instructions:


photo from Gakken No.32:


...and my model (still wip):


cheers... Daniel

Daniel,

Thank you for the kind words.

Wow your build is great, really like the weathering you have applied. I am leaning towards doing one with a bit heavier weathering but find myself hesitant to start.

I have the Gakken book and have been referring to it - did not notice all the missing equipment so that you for pointing that out. I will begin trying to fabricate those structures.

thanks again

David

Dave,

Your brass etch work is first rate, and the depth of detail on this build is turning it into something spectacular! I look forward to seeing what you finally do with those torpedo tubes.

David,

Very nice PE work.

Mark

looking good Dave

Seems a shame to hide all that brass under paint

Dave,

wow, I missed quite a lot!! That is some VERY impressive, particularly PE work you've done, and some really great progress!!

Fantastic work!

Cheers
Jan

Tim - Thank you, not sure what I am going to finally do with the torpedo tubes but I know I am not happy with the molded detail. Trying to figure out what I can remove without causing too much damage!!

Mark - Thank you for the kind comments

Russell - It sure does but it is what we do!! One of these days I might make a build and leave the PE alone just not sure when that will be.

Jan - Welcome back and thank you for the kind comments.

Hey everybody,

Well the time has come for another update. It is a bit short due to not having a lot of time on the bench.

More of the mid deck PE has been folded and placed for dry fitting. Here is the structure for the exess recon plan pylons.



Next is a shield of some type that sits behind the small outbuilding.



The insturctions have you folding it the wrong direction, took me some time to figure out the issue.



As you can see in this photo I need to do a better job of planning my builds and looking at the instructions. I keep missing the mounting points for plastic and not filling them in before laying paint. In the picture below you can see the divots for the molded shield which the PE shild does not fit into. Had the same issue with the pylon storage table

Eventually I will learn my lesson...



The second Rainbow PE set finally arrived so I was able to complete the second funnel.



and then the thrid funnel



Here are some overall shots with everything dry fitted







Daniel had pointed out that the Aoshima kit is missing some critical structures around the mid deck. I ahve scoued through my parts bin in the hopes I could fins something that would fit the need but I fell short.

So now I am trying to figure out what to do.

In the photos provided by Daniel and the photo below you can see three structures taht are missing.



Here is the layout provided by Aoshima



Aoshima provides nothing.

under the pylon table are some long storage boxes. I am sourcing these from the second Rainbow PE set. Still ahve not figures out how to replicate the buildings though.

The Profile Morskie plans show then which gives me some dimensions to follow. I may need to scrath build but my skills in that area are a little weak.

Daniel if I may ask how did you approach this problem?

Anyway, while contiplate that I started moving towards the bridge. Here are the molded pieces which will drastically change soon.





Well thats it for now. I am back to ahving two days off per week so my bench time will increase..woo hoo.

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

David