Hey Steve,

I'll have to look and see if I have another piece for a base or if I can squeeze some more room out of this one. I'm definately doing flight ops so resupply is out. I'll look at it when I get home.

Gunny, the Gator is at your command mate. Anytime you're ready.

later...Gator

Ok, I've pushed the Santa Fe and the Hornet as far apart as I can. I need to leave a lip for the acrylic top and a place for the name plate. I know that they should be farther apart but I'm gonna stick with what I got. Thanks for the heads up Steve. I didn't want them too close and I think I've got something I can be happy with.



later...Gator

Hi Kenny,

Looking good. On your last layout I'd be inclined to have the ships coming slightly more towards the front of the dio, heading for you as opposed to passing by if you know what I mean.

Just a thought, I liked you first layout even if they were a little too close.

I don't really venture in here very often but there are going to be some great builds from what I've read and seen so far.

Good luck to all.

Cheers

Al

Thanks Alan. I'll try it the other way, too.

later...Gator

Hey guys, anyone who wants to join the Leyte Gulf campaign but doesn't have a subject yet, I have great news.
Mike Durr ("Blade48mrd") has generously donated these kits to whoever wishes to join the campaign and needs a kit. Please feel free to take him up on his offer. I did for the Dreadnaughts campaign.

Battleships:
Aoshima Yamashiro
Aoshima Fuso
Aoshima USS Washington
Fujimi USS South Dakota
Fujimi Haruna
Fujimi Kongo
Fujimi Musashi

Heavy Cruisers:
Fujimi Chikuma
Fujimi Takao
Fujimi Tone

Lt Cruisers:
Tamiya Kiso
Tamiya Kuma
Tamiya Isuzu
Tamiya Tama

later...Gator

Gidday Kenny

FYI

After some discussions with Mike Durr (Blade48mrd) truly a great guy indeed I have signed up and my entry will be the IJN Lt Cruiser Tamiya Kiso 1/700.

Looking forward to participating.

Regards


Sean

Hey Sean!

Looking forward to seeing the Kiso! I want to let everyone know that the Nihon Kaigun website and browse through the cruiser page. The guys there have put together a daily movement of all the IJN cruisers. Check out the Kiso page because it will give you great info on what was happening on board.

For instance, anyone building the Yamato or Musashi will be interested to know that they both had their decks blackened for camouflage purposes.
18 October 1944:
Black deck camouflage, intended for the night breakthrough in the San Bernardino Strait, is hastily applied to both YAMATO and MUSASHI. The main component is soot from YAMATO's stack.

later...Gator

Well I ad a great week of model building. Got much further along than I anticipated. Of course this weekend will be shot with an Eagle Scout pproject which will tie me up tommorrw and then all the ollege and Pro football to watch


As to making the Yamato deck black... That just may be asking too much, at least on the semiscratch built one. I may do it for the late 43 / 44 version to add a bit of contrast.

Where do I sign in????

Right here Tomaz.

Leyte Gulf Campaign

So, how is everybody doing today? SitRep please. No progress for me today. I was working on a project for my son yesterday and the ole' back locked up. Spent yesterday afternoon and last night on the couch. I'm able to move around today. I may get the edging for my base glued together after Ian lays down for his nap. Watching the Saints right now.

Gator

Roger! signing in! THX!

I have just sign in! Little late.

Kenny sorry to hear about your back, hope your on your feet again soon.

Build up date, main armament and quad pom poms have arrived twin 40mm are on back order couple of armour projects to get finished for the big show at Telford where I will pick up the paint for the Ariadne.

Ciao for now
Luciano

hi guys,
still confused about the 40mm and 20mm modifications on the Fletchers during Leyte Gulf, really need help from the DD experts out there.

BUT, foreseeing that there aren't enough 20mm and 40mm guns in the kit box to outfit what I have in mind, I have acquired a set each 20mm and 40mm double mounted guns from L'Arsenal at my LHS. So is this considered progress?


EDIT: My Hunch is this:

10X40mm in 5 mounts (2 forward of bridge, 2 midships at aft stack, and 1 between gun 53 and 54)
7 X 20mm single mounts (2 at port waist, 2 at starboard waist, 3 at fantail just aft of gun 55)

correct me if i'm wrong

Normally I don't do this, but I kind of promised Kenny I would make an effort. Here are a couple of "inprocess" photo's of my conversion. As most of you know, I had to cut the superstructure base out of the 2nd deck piece of the kit. Here are a couple of progress pictures as to what I've done. The first shows the replacement deck. I used Evergreen "N-scale sideing" to replace the deck. The scibing matched up exactly with the scribing on the kit. Of course measure and cut a little large was utilized and then I gently shaved and sanded to get it to fit. The second photo shows the almost completed superstructure and the drawing I used as a reference. You can see I also added my PE and at the bottom the strips of plain white styrene I used to fill in what was lost in the cutting. There were several modications used in doing the superstructure, mainly types of guns , but there was ample in the kit so it was no problem. I've also completed the main guns utilizing the Lionroar kit which gave me brass barreles and other PE for railings and the like (no photo). I still have not gotten my extra 6 inch gun batteries to put on the sides of the ship, hopefully I'll get those in a couple of weeks. As I haven't gotten around to painting anything this hasn't caused a hinderance yet.

Sorry I haven't posted much, but those mean guys running the med school think I need to take tests or something... really cramps my building time, but anyhow...

I've got the frames cut out, and I hope to get the hull glued together over the rest of this week, and on the weekend. She's a big girl, about 4'11" long overall. I have 4 Sweet Aviation Models A6M2s coming to experiment with converting, but I really want to get the hull glued and 'glassed so I can post brag shots

Does anyone have any close-up shots of Japanese BB aircraft catapults? My plans which are excellent otherwise, don't show any of the internal bracing on them Not looking to rivet-count, but I'd like a representative sample of how the Japanese built their cats so I can put some bracing inside to make it look better.

Very nice Steve. And, thanks for the in progress photos, your cookie is in the mail.

Clark...hmmm, let me check some of my sources. The bad thing about photo of Japanese warships is hardly any of the survived the war.

Hang tight. I'll check when I get home from work and then post any links I find.

later...Gator

Hey Clark,

Here you go. It's the only thing I can find.

Link

later...Gator

hi guys, so far no objections to DD 577 secondary armament configurations, so will stick with that.

spent a bit of time on gator's paint mask site, and the most important navy camouflage link, and found out Sproston was wearing either measure 21 or measure 32/13d in 1944. (thanks kenny for your great website) i'm thinking measure 32...

ok, so the research is done on my part, I have to start building soon!

Your more than welcome Lim. Looking forward to seeing the DD. I've got Tamiya's Fletcher on the back burner right now. My wife's grandfather help build the USS Aulick, which was at Leyte Gulf, at Consolidated Shipyards in Orange , Tx. I want to add that one to my display in his honor.

Gator

Aoshima’s IJN MAYA completed. Painted with Model Master Acryl. GMM IJN Cruiser/Destroyer Photoetch set used. Rigged with Dai-Riki fishing leader. Rich

NICE cruiser! What scale it is???
I must buy IJN cruiser... 1/350 if possible!

Very nice Rich! Excellent job!



later...Gator

The crusier is 700 scale. It is a sister ship of the Takeo which was number 1 on the wish list for 350 scale ships. It has been in the rumor mill for the past year and a half that a kit will come out, so lets see what happens



took a hiatus from ship building this week other than a bit of fiddling with the brass replacement crane...I think it is in 20 parts 3/4 of those require a magnifying glass to see. Spent the week on making a 35th scale flatcar for my upcoing BR52 project. Hopefully Keith will show up at club meeting and bring my cast gun sets for the Yamato conversion. I think with the cold dry weather we are currently having I will take the opportunity to spray the wood area of the deck. Going to use MM enamel radardome tan

hi guys,

I was a bit worried about my choice of USS Sproston DD 577, I have been following the orders of battle on Gator's fantastic thread, and did a bit of research myself. I cannot find Sproston on any order of battle for any of the Leyte Gulf battles. I guess my initial acceptance of the list of ships on the Leyte-Gulf website was perhaps taken in innocence

Anyway, cross-indexing the list of high-bridge fletchers against the orders of battle as resulted in this: Battle of Surigao Strait. Main Battleline: DD 508 Cony, DD 569 Aulick, DD 571 Claxton. Left Flank: DD 480 Halford, DD 481 Leutze. Right Flank: DD 470 Bache, DD 471 Beale, DD 476 Hutchins and DD 593 Killen

All of these can be built from the Tamiya kit. Hope this info is useful. DD 480 Halford will need more work for the seaplane catapult modification behind the aft funnel.

OK, now I really must start.

Nice work Rich.

Kenny I will update you guys as soon as I get my hands on the kitset.

There is no rush to get it from my perspective because in the meantime I am busily working away at clearing the modelling desk/workshop.

I have to many uncompleted projects all requiring minimal finishing its truly embarrassing.

Regards

Sean