Wall

Alex
Hi James, thanks for the detailed explanations, it helps a lot!!

Rui S
Beautiful model, indeed 👍

James Ward Author
A comment on the nature of the 'mashup' here!

The core of the build is 90% Tamiya's waterline Yamato, with the full Flyhawk Photoetch and detail set, which includes a timber deck, resin replacements for the 5" AA guns, and anchor chains. All of this was used.

I wanted a full hull model. There are, realistically, only four options for the Yamato at this scale. There is the Tamiya Yamato which is waterline only, the Fujimi Next kit, the Pit-road kit, and the Pontos kit.

Of these, only Tamiya and Pontos get the shape of Yamato's stern correct. Yamato had a transom which is presented as round in both the Pit-road and Fujimi renditions. This, combined with some general questions around over-scaling of things like hull panels and superstructure/deck details had me leaning toward the Tamiya option.

I do have the Pontos kit in the stash... My general comment here is that while it is a truly spectacular kit, it feels a little beyond me at this moment in time. I will probably build it one day, but I want to do it justice - and for how expensive it is, and how OCD I can be, this wasn't that day.

I did initially look at Pit-road with the notion of correcting the stern plate, but found there was an almost uncorrectable bend in the keel piece which is moulded in fairly thick plastic. Bending it back into place was miserable, and in fact it snapped in half after warping under heat.

I picked up a Fujimi kit on the cheap, and found that its hull bottom matched the Tamiya waterline model quite closely. I had to crop down the stern and use putty and judicious sanding to make the rear end work, but in the end it married up pretty well. The Fujimi kit has otherwise gone unused.

Certain pieces from the Pit-road kit were retained. I replaced the Tamiya turrets with the Pit-road ones as their turret pins were happily compatible with the Tamiya barbettes. I also used the Pit-road rudder, and some of the kit's provided PE to furnish some additional details including the float planes.

The smokestack was entirely replaced with Bunker Studio's 3D printed option. It is a beautiful piece, with cat walks and all AA tub options provided depending on the year of fit you wish to build. The only other replacement was the covered Type 96 triple-barrel AA guns, which were again replaced with Bunker's 3D options.

The foretop main battery director is the original Tamiya piece, with Flyhawk's photo etch. The support spars on the AA and secondary gun tubs are from the Pit-road kit. The flag staves were discarded for being too thick, and were replaced with scratch-built options made from stretched sprue.

The last features are the sandbags around the forward 25mm mounts. They were sculpted from putty, as they are not present in the Tamiya kit, and the Pit-road options lacked side detail.

Hope that answers some things!

Matti Thomaes
It's a Frankenbuild, but I like it

Neuling
Well deserved gold medal! 👍

Rui S
Beautiful model 👍

Neuling
Impressive work! Well deserved gold medal!

gorby
Fantastic work!

Matti Thomaes
superb detailing, looks very realistic

gorby
WOW, amazing build!

James Ward Author
Hi Sy!
The crew figures are an aftermarket set from SSModel. They're a small garage workshop based out of Hong Kong with shopfronts on Ebay and Aliexpress. I've had good experiences with them on a number of occasions.