IJN Zuikaku 1:200 - GPM

[treadhead1952]

Hi Jim,

As big as this beastie is going to be, I can understand some serious consideration time to figure out the best way to tackle things. Slicing and dicing as much card stock to come up with the framework as it would require makes my hands hurt and you are doing the model!

I agree with the thought of cutting it all up just to join things back together doesn't make much sense either. Looking forward to watching how you deal with it.

[dansls1]

Can't wait to see this one built! Of course I'm looking forward to the tiny planes as much as the ship. If you get too bored with the hull frames, you could always try a test build as a distraction

[redhorse]

I'm definitely at the ooooh aaaaah stage. This thing really is huge, I'm thinking 6 to 8 months may be optimistic. I may have to build it on the table in the other room.

I'm really looking forward to the little planes too. I've only built one card model plane, so I think a few test builds will be in order

[eibwarrior]

Jim, I think you could safely say about 700-800 hours for this beast. I don't know if I would include the air wing in that estimate either... The details in this kit are particularly intricate.

I don't know what pace you work at, but I'm about a 10-14 hour per week guy when I'm really rolling.... You can do the math from there.

Yes, I would highly recommend a test build on those craft. My experience has been anything below 1/72 with wings gets fidgety.

[OldTroll]

Strangely enough, Mr. I Hate Fiddly Bits (that would be yours truly) has assembled several 1:200 aircraft without incident or even much cussing. I will say that the sixth or seventh Val does get a little boring though.

[redhorse]

Eib, 700 - 800 hours sounds probably about right. Rough calculations brought me to 300 hours with Isuzu and this kit seems both more complicated and from what I'm seeing, probably won't fit as well either. I'm going to photocopy a plane or two and test them out. I'm thinking they will end up being quite similar in tediousness to building tank track links after a while.

I did finally get the frames laminated. I got some 1mm illustration board from Michaels and the 2 mm parts went on 1/16th balsa. One note, 3M 77 warps balsa. I don't think it will be too bad once everything is fitted together, it should be somewhat self correcting (I'm hoping).

[GreMir]

Jim,
Answer used to have few planes in 1:200 scale you could download, but their page is MIA...
Kami-Mokei Ž†–ÍŒ^.comƒIƒŠƒWƒiƒ‹ has very nice set of 1:200 Zeros, Tenzans and Suiseis.

[CharlieC]

Originally Posted by GreMir

Jim,
Answer used to have few planes in 1:200 scale you could download, but their page is MIA...

Answer-wydawnictwo i us³ugi poligraficzne is archived on the wayback machine (www.archive.org) but with zero knowledge of Polish I can't figure out where the downloads are.

Regards,

Charlie

[redhorse]

Thanks Michael & Charlie. Actually, answer.pl is back up, but the card model page has an under construction sign with only a Ki-43 I Kai shown - I found out at work yesterday paper-hobby.com is back as well but angraf seems to be down. I have some of the Angraf ones - the Bf109 and Stuka for the Graf Zeppelin. I hadn't seen the Kami-Mokei ones and they look nice, but I can't figure out how to buy them. Looks like they are for GPM's Zuikaku or Shokaku - can't tell which one.

Oh well, back to cutting out frames...

[Don Boose]

Those Kami-Mokei aircraft look terrific. And, although I haven't dug into this to be sure, it seems possible that Zuikaku had those aircraft on board toward the end of its career and before its death off Cape Engaño in OCtober 1944.

Have you tried buying the password and downloading them, Mike?

Don

Added later: I have started working my way through the Kami-Mokei page and now see that the aircraft are, in fact, ingended to represent the Zuikaku air group. The caption above the layout of aircraft reads (roughly -- maybe Yu-san can make corrections): "1/200 GPM Zuikaku carrier-based aircraft. Zero Fighter [Reisen] Model 52: 12 aircraft; Comet [Ryusei] Model 12, 8 aircraft; Tenzan Model 12, 8 aircraft."