JSC Shimakaze in 1/400

**CMDRTED** · #1 10-13-2015, 06:03 PM

Starting off the 2015/16 modeling year is a returning of size to the JSC Shimakaze. Years ago I enlarged her to 1/250 scale because of lack of detail of the basic 1/400 scale ships. The ever decreasing space available had me return to smaller scales. 1/33 aircraft are now being built in 1/50. tanks are staying at 1/72 or 1/76 depending... Anyhows after much admiring our friend Marco's work, it was time to get off the sidelines and return to modeling. The Basic JSC kit is one of the newer ones by that company and appears to be CAD. even so I had to mess with it, add some details and recolor some things. The Shimakaze was a one off experiment. She had most of the major improvements of the newer IJN destroyers and some sort of "turbo drive" engine that propelled this thing past 40 knots. The war saw some improvements basically to equipment , radar and more aa armament. This version is a later war version...

**CMDRTED** · #2 10-13-2015, 06:28 PM

Next on the build were the teeth of the ship. she had 6 5" main guns in 3 turrets, 15 torpedo tubes in 3 turrets and 6 25mm twin aa guns. she had a depth charge rack with a dual thrower and 6 roll off sites aft. I repainted everything and detailed the bits. the main guns are from gpm especially built for JSC kits. the 25mm guns are 1/350 scale model master barrels. The torpedoes are pieces of plastic rod sanded to a rounded warhead shape. the outside grab rails are a experimental technique. I didn't drill out holes and make bends etc. they are just flat pieces of wire with a small dot of glue for the attachment points. there is enough of a 3d effect to pull it off with a huge decrease in work effort!

**CMDRTED** · #3 10-13-2015, 07:28 PM

This is where the JSC kits start to cut corners. the small details such as the anchor chains and covers are just printed on the deck, as are the small vents and hoses. these were scratch built up and placed on the pre printed areas...

**marco1971** · #4 10-14-2015, 04:21 AM

finally, the Ted that I know! Great job of restyling, you are always the best!

Marco

**Don Boose** · #5 10-14-2015, 08:05 AM

It is great to see that you have another model under construction, Ted!

Thank you for donating your original 1/250 model of Shimakaze (and other models) for the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center showing of the film Tora! Tora! Tora!

The model sustained some very slight damage to the rigging and deck furniture during transport, so last month, DrLaser came up to visit and to make some repairs. These images show him at work in our sunroom, doing repairs and fabricating a protective case.

Shimakaze and the other models will be on display on 15 December of this year during the next showing of the film.

Don

**CMDRTED** · #6 10-14-2015, 08:23 AM

He actually mitered the ends of the protective case? that is some craftsman.
next up is the fwd smoke stack. Japanese vessels are usually festooned with grab rail and steam vents. I tried to capture most of the essence of these fittings without being exact to plans. (actually no detailed plans seem to be available to westerners). Rivet counters beware, a lot of approximation is being done, particularly in this scale. The last pic is shown with her larger 1/250 scale sister. I actually started this kit earlier and lost interest and revived the build.

**CMDRTED** · #7 10-14-2015, 08:28 AM

while messing around the stern little things were added. The depth charge roll off racks and various vents were scratch built. the main rack was left as a solid, I tried to cut the openings to allow a more "photo-etched" effect but couldn't get it looking to scale. I repainted the solid to give more of the illusion that it is opened up.

**Robert Woolley** · #8 10-14-2015, 01:56 PM

She looks great. And a good little tutorial to go with it.

Robert

**CMDRTED** · #9 10-19-2015, 10:07 AM

finishing fwd to aft, the main bridge/superstructure went well. the basic kit is fairly well detailed as is but.... the hatches were scanned and placed on the printed parts, the portholes drilled out and backed with a greenish colored paper. I tried bluish, looked to cartoony, white was just wrong so green it was. the small grab rails were just placed as on the turrets, little glue dots to give it the stands apart look then a straight piece. I think the wires are speaker wires with paint to give more diameter to them. then the stack was ringed with thin lead wires, picked up on line from a fly tying source. the acc steam vents etc were wire and some plastic bent to shape, onwards....

**Michael Mash** · #10 10-19-2015, 12:42 PM

Nice images Ted.
I like those pictures Don provided giving us an accurate look at one of your 1:400 scale works.
(even though it is apparently not you doing the repairs)
Mike