IJN Hiei 1:300 - Maly

[Yu Gyokubun]

Thank you Jay, Jim, Lex, Mike, Papercut, eib

Thank you Michael for the info about really nice deck. I have downloaded it.

Fred-san, I never forget about airplane build

Don - -

aye-aye ganbarimasu

I was going to place the skin for underwater section, which is provided in the kit, first then glue strip of paper onto it in the direction of fore to aft but when I was about to start skinning it came to me that the procedure ended up lumpy hull in some places when I built Fuso as shown in the first picture.

After contemplation I came up with the idea to have horizontal formers in between vertical frames as shown in the second picture so that I can avoid lumpy hull around seams, perhaps, I hope so…..

Quickly assembled the horizontal formers around port side bow section as a trial and glued 5mm wide strip of papers.

Having glued some of strip of papers, I knew I have to redo sanding thoroughly to have smooth formers which must be prerequisite for success.

[redhorse]

Thanks for sharing your techniques here, Yu. I'm very interested as to how this method of hull construction works out.

[Don Boose]

That is an excellent hull structure, Yu. I think you have come up with a fine idea to deal with potential irregularities in the hull . . . although the "lumpy hull" of Fuso actually looks outstandingly smooth to my eye!

Don

[Michael Mash]

I can always use this kind of good detailed description of hull work. I like your idea. It looks like some extra work to put in all those horizontal formers, but the result should make it worth it. Also, it will add a lot of strength. Everything looks very smooth in that last image.
Mike

[treadhead1952]

Hi Yu,

I have been wondering about that since I built my hull up for the Akizuki and it looks like you may be on to a good idea there. I had considered using some sort of filler material but your solution looks a lot easier and quicker if not a little labor intensive.

Jay Massey
treadhead1952
Las Vegas, NV

[eibwarrior]

That's a lot of extra effort Yu, but I'm sure the results will be magnificent. It looks like you're well on your way to yet another great build.

I'm with Don on this one, I couldn't detect the slightest bulge in Fuso. It's currently the desktop image on my computer. Well done!

[Yu Gyokubun]

Thanks guys for encouraging comments
Labor intensive isn't a matter because I take it for granted:D

As I didn’t like unsightly seams between adjacent plating in previous attempt, I changed the method. First, glue 7mm wide paper side by side then glue 3.5mm wide paper over the seams as shown in the first picture. This method not only hides the unsightly seams but depict the overlapped plating of IJN ships which were built by means of riveting.
Second picture shows frames and plating which are printed on quality paper but as is shown in third picture paper is too thick so I dismissed it despite the advantage of high printing quality.
Finally, I used regular copy paper for 3.5mm wide plating as shown in fourth picture and I made up my mind to go for it with this method

[treadhead1952]

Hi Yu,

It looks like experimentation is the key. That last picture shows a nice finished result. I have seen other plastic modelers using masking tape to achieve the same look over a molded plastic hull.

Jay Massey
treadhead1952
Las Vegas, NV

[Michael Mash]

I admire your determination to get the result you want YuG. I thought the result from your Feb 19 update looked real good. However, now you have done even better. I can see this thread is going to have a lot of good hull building information, including details on trial & error.
Mike

[Lex]

I wonder if the actual hull did look like this one...? I always thought of it as flat and featureless, could anyone provide photos or related articles?