KIRISHIMA 1:200 by papermodel.jp

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Greetings all,

Heres my latest build, it's a free model designed by Masahiro Kushima and its available to download here: https://papermodel.jp/kirishima-index.html

There are 23 A4 sheets to be printed (I did mine on 160gm) with the parts. There are 2 accompanying sheets, one showing what types of folds (valley fold, mountain fold etc) the other showing how to actually assemble it.

I thought the instructions were superb. Also the general sequence of construction is very well thought out, you will score, fold and cut all the parts from one sheet before moving to the next.

Stages 1 to 4 are the cutting of the bulkheads and also a form of keel which assembles like a tray. Here they are all laid out.

Stage 5 is the beginning of the hull. Each of these comes in the form of a 'U' shape as you can see below. NB - the red line is a printer error.

The first hull part is the bow as you can see. The tricky part here is right at the tip of the bow, where the deck will sit, it has a fairly sudden pronounced flare. You'll only really notice one you put it together, but the short thin tabs are an indication. The bow section is slightly different than the others, the submerged hull is in 3 pieces which I assembled first, before gluing the port and stbd hull sides, then joining at the bow. Later on there will be the sonar dome to fit.

Already I can see the distinct shape of the Arleigh Burke class - the US vessels which the Kurishima and her sisters are modelled on.

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Stages 6-10 we continue the hull.
As each 'U' shaped piece of hull is made it must be rolled to shape, I used a piece of foam rubber (bit softer than a mouse mat) and a kebab skewer. Increased pressure whilst rolling the skewer gives a tighter radius.
The frames are cut out with a 'mirror image' attached, this is folded over to give a double thickness and the tabs valley folded. It is then carefully mounted into the hull taking care to align the frame half into the hull, half overhanging, ready for the next hull section.

In theory you should have a smooth, flush hull. At this stage I was a bit unhappy with it. The tabs on each frame could be larger, but possibly I used slightly too much Kittifix (white glue). However, considering there isn't much strengthening elsewhere gives you this slightly 'buckled' result at this stage.

At the tip of the bow, if you look carefully, you will see the several thin tabs apparently in a 'dip'. This will be flattened out when the deck is attached, but I found it tricky.

Stage 7 - The sonardome is a bit clunky since its polygon representation of section of hull which in fact is a series of tight radius compound curves, I imagine this is the most difficult in paper modelling? Its made from 4 pieces, one of which is the 'bow cap', 2 are 'fingered', and one is the trailing edge of that compartment tapering into the hull.

As you can see the sonardome needs paint, if I was doing it again, I might print on 80gsm paper - that way the edge of the 'tapering' section on the railing edge would be less obtrusive.

As we all know, 'a bad workman blames his tools' so I had 3 issues with the photocopier:
1) It prints a red line at the foot of the page
I countered this by drawing in a permanent black felt tip, which is an improvement over red on a ray and brown hull. Not ideal, and I will bring some acrylic paints with me this time and try improve it
2) The 'ink' tends to flake off the paper where you bend it. When I discovered this was happening, I always tried scoring on the back which helped slightly.
Not sure what else to do about this. I think I used the 'high definition' option on the print dialogue. Maybe selecting 'normal' would have been better.
3) It prints too dark. Didn't really realise till I was well into the hull build and amn't too sure how to improve that.
If you can get it printing as bright as it is on the pdf, cool, you're on a winner there.

The hull fittings are:
2 X bilge keels
2 X stabilizer fins (please correct me if I am wrong, they look like it!)
2 X rudders
these are simply folded and glued and 2 tabs slide through the hull and glued inside. The rudders as you can imagine are fairly 'floppy'. Doing it again, I could have improved it by profiling them into that 'wing' or 'foil' like shape, just by using scrap paper and fitting a metal rod into the leading edge both for strength going into the hull, but also for the profiling. Same with the stabilisers, though being smaller they tend not to move much at all.
1 X skeg
2 X hull penetrations for the shafts
2 X shafts
4 X 'A' frame supports for the shaft/prop combo
These again are simply popped through the hull and glued inside. The 'A' frames have an inboard and outboard direction and an insert so they have the hull colour inside as well.

At this point you can fit the 'keel'. It takes the form of a 'tray' see earlier pic. It is placed into the hull upside down, over the upper 1cm or so of the frames. It doesn't really give much resistance in torsion.

There are also the 4 'bridges' giving strength under the foredeck, they just simply glue under their tabs.

OK - so far so good! And I'm thoroughly enjoying the build!

[JohnMGD]

I know this model, and I am looking forward to the build of this ship !! Also planning to build this model but will mainly use the paper model as a template, because I think the hull is designed a bit strange !

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Originally Posted by JohnMGD

I know this model, and I am looking forward to the build of this ship !! Also planning to build this model but will mainly use the paper model as a template, because I think the hull is designed a bit strange !

Hi John,
Thanks - I'll update as I can. I've only built a sum total of 7 to date! 3 in progress. It does differ in method but I can say the hull shape at the end of the day turns out very well. In more experienced hands and better initial printing it has loads more potential. I'm still not really finished. Looking at adding suitable handrails and ladders @1:200 if I can find them, probably not too difficult.
If I can find decent pics of the rigging I'll certainly add that too.
Overall, its superb. We have to keep in mind Masahiro gives us this out of kindness, I donated, cause I also built the Soryu, Osprey and downloaded the other smaller designs which are cool too.
Regards,
Alan

[JohnMGD]

Hi Alan, look here for more photographs of the KIRISHIMA:

JDS Kirishima DDG-174 Kongou class Guided Missile Destroyer JMSDF

I have hundreds of photographs of the KONGO class, somewhere hidden on one of my external HD's. if interested I could look them up for you and send them to you !!

[Lex]

Thanks for sharing the build, I will be following this with great interest. It is looking great so far.

This Kirishima model at 1:200 falls short of bringing out the full complexity (and thus sense of scale) of the ship. I think you can find many more things to add apart from ladders and handrails, it would be well worth the effort.

[JohnMGD]

Here more photographs of KIRISHIMA !!!

https://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid...blog/43525794/

海上自衛隊 JMSDF rie :: 「 DDG-174 」 を検索 :: page 1

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Cheers John!

I’ll post the next stages soon. Then I’ll be attempting to conceal issues with acrylic paint. After that should get onto the rigging.
Thanks for the link, much appreciated!
Regards,
Alan

[herky]

cant wait to see the gerald ford they are starting work on designing

[JohnMGD]

Found a Frame plan of an Arleigh Burke class destroyer and changed the Frame plan to that of the DDG-173 Kongo Class. For me the frames of the model were to unconventional, with this plan building a nice smooth hull is possible !