IJN ZUIHO - Angraf 1/200

**PAPER FAN** · #1 05-22-2016, 05:05 PM

I decided to go ahead and build Angraf's 1/200 Zuiho despite warnings otherwise. I chose to take it slow as the warning about the frames did not go unheeded.

I don't have the laser cut frames so I laminated the keel and bulkheads on 1/16 balsa and the rest on 3/64 balsa (that's 3mm and 2mm respectively for my non American friends). I laminated paper on both sides of the balsa, it eliminates the grain issues and makes the part somewhat pliable for flattening after the fact relatively easy.

I fitted all pieces after cutting them out and it was clear there are several issues. None of them too serious in my opinion. The keel seems to be too short as seen in some of the pictures. I wasn't sure so I made the flight deck, 1/32 balsa with upper and lower coverings on each side. The deck confirmed the problem seems to be with the keel and not the horizontal water line frame. I flipped the frame over and it lined up with the flight deck, leaving with gaps in the keel.

Several of the lower hull pieces, specifically 8-9-10 are all narrow. I fixed this problem later by gluing strips of paper to bring edges out to the horizontal w/l deck. Some for the frames need to be slotted even though they are not marked accordingly, this obvious which ones during the dry fit.

I glued the upper hull first. For the 1st time ever I worked the bulkhead frames gluing them one at a time. I didn't glue the keel until after all the bulkheads were installed. To my amazement the frame ended up extremely flat and straight.

I installed the internal hanger before placing the upper deck base in place. I added the upper deck lower frames, the bow and stern decks. The hull held true and square.

With the ship held flat, I position and super glued in balsa blocks the tie up the keel frame. I cut the gaps in my keels wider than the bulkheads to prevent necessary bowing of the keel by squeezing the frames into narrow slots. I allowed the glue to set with the keel square to the assembly mat.

Next, I installed the lower keel and bulk heads in place, using the same procedure as above, not forcing parts to fit. After drying I added paper to bring the majority of the under sized parts up to the adjacent edges. Then sanded the frame with 150 grit paper.

Finally I installed the lower plates 10-14. I added gluing tabs to the frames ahead of each plate. Starting from the center and working back.

**PAPER FAN** · #2 05-22-2016, 05:06 PM

Additional pictures

**PAPER FAN** · #3 05-22-2016, 05:11 PM

More pictures. Once I am done with the lower hull I will paint it with 50/50 model master rust and red.

I think the model looks to be coming together well. The ultimate proof will be the hull sides, I did not measure them prior to the start, if there gaps they could be a challenge. In this camo scheme there is no way to paint a gap filler like I did with both Kongo and Ise.

**Don Boose** · #4 05-22-2016, 06:06 PM

A major project! Looks good so far. I look forward to following this build.

Don

**herky** · #5 05-22-2016, 11:29 PM

will be following this with interest

**Michael Mash** · #6 05-23-2016, 10:16 AM

Looking forward to your aircraft carrier.
That's an excellent looking frame.
Mike

**PAPER FAN** · #7 05-25-2016, 06:01 PM

Completed the lower hull plating. All of the white is the result of leaving material so each piece would match up with the next frame in line. Angraf left plenty of paper in between the parts to allow for this. I simply eyeballed the edge and cut with scissors (must be getting good at this stuff). I always paint my lower hulls so this is no issue. I do like the general hull form, not sure if Shoho and Zuiho started out as cruisers but the lines are unmistakable, except only 2 screws. However I'd swear these started out life as Mogami's.

**PAPER FAN** · #8 05-25-2016, 06:30 PM

Installation of the starboard upper hull.

Overall the results ended up better than expected after running into the following issues.

1 - I started near the stern since P29 needed to line up with the after deck structure. I had to cut 29 just under the port hole to be able to line up the narrow section with the hull and keep the upper portion inline with the main frame. I messed up with the marker but no too serious.

2 - 28P is too short to fit the frames. This forced me to add a gap filler. Angraf supplies a smaller amount of gap filler color than I would like. The result is OK and will be lost in the overall final product.

3 - No it gets interesting. P27 does no fit well. I compromised here. I decided better to line up the two ends and deal with the center. I added a piece to the hull frame to mask the balsa in the middle. Notice how the port holes in the upper region are low. For whatever reason Angraf has the deck under the bridge walled in colored paper even though the hull side covers up the area. Lucky in my opinion. I used a black marker to color the sheet so the port holes will look good.

4 - AOK from here on.

Surprisingly the results look good enough to keep going. My plan had this not worked would have been to paint the entire model in IJN grey and pretend she was modeled prior to the late war color scheme. However I think she will hold up.

**PAPER FAN** · #9 05-25-2016, 06:32 PM

additional pictures

**B-Manic** · #10 05-28-2016, 10:54 AM

Nice work on the hull.

Zuihō was originally laid down as the submarine support ship Takasaki and Shōhō was originally built as the submarine support ship Tsurugizaki.