IJN Kagero

Project started!! 

 

Tiny parts. Getting the hang of them and they will look much better painted. 

Thor "helping" 

Assistant Penny 

 

 

The dividers for the linoleum on deck 

 

 

Couple of photos from the last couple of days. The top one is of two small vices I picked up. I have always looked for something that is small and solid and these fit the bill extremely well. Really solidly built and very precise. They also lay on various sides really well so you can work at different angles. You can find them on Amazon if you are interested. They are from a company called DSPIAE. The bottom photo is my first attempt at very detailed main guns. PE set by Infini which has two huge sheets of PE. It fits great and looks quite nice. The gun on the left was a first attempt which, as usual is covered with extra superglue, the second got a lot better. It is amazing how quickly you can pick up on this stuff. The set is also nice enough to give you one extra setup for most every set, in case you lose a part. The kits aren't cheap but they are highly recommended. 

 

Finally feel like progress is being made. Doing PE on the guns and torpedoes (not torpedo bats) Takes about 2 hours each. Ugh. The good news is that I got better with each one and did a cleaner job. The bad news is it took a week to finish. Also got the lower hull painted. Going to mask and spray some primer on that and the remaining gun they spray the linoleum on the deck. Also found a couple of good tools for apply glue which has been something of an issue and received the ship stand from ebay. It is very simple but a very handy little thing to keep stuff out of the way and safe. 

 

Have been grinding on Photoetch. Learning a little bit more with each thing I do. The biggest thing I have learned is how many imperfections are covered up by a nice coat of Mr Surfacer! Wanted some photos in raw form for a before/after. The little circles on the hull are two parts, one is the circle themselves and the second is a post that they go on. The post is then put into a tiny hole that was drilled earlier. I think they might be 2mm. You can also see the brass separators for the linoleum that is on deck. Those run pretty much the length of the deck. Then there are some photos of the bridge. Learned about the advantages of Gel superglue. There are basically two ways I am successful with attaching railings and the like, first is using a medium thick glue, getting the gluing started and then hitting it with accelerator. This creates a very solid bond and allows you to bend railing and other parts in place as you move down the part. The gel allows things to stick pretty well and is really only successful if you have already bent the part or I guess let it harden overnight. The bridge is complete. Hoping tomorrow I will have some time to put some primer on and paint the linoleum color on the deck.

I have despised photoetch over my entire modeling life. It is a lot of screwing around and on aircraft it doesn't seem like there is enough to ever get good at it. Doing a couple of ships has made me actually like it a lot. Ships are a bit more straight forward with it and there is a ton of it in many of the better aftermarket kits. Figuring out the instructions is probably the toughest part of the whole thing. The extra level of coolness that comes out of the time really feels worthwhile. On aircraft you always buried that stuff in a cockpit that no one would ever see.  

 

 

 

Primer is on the first batch of pieces. You can see the guns and torpedo launchers with their photoetch. Interesting how much difference a little paint makes. Bridge is complete. Learned several things about slowing down and even stopping and going backwards to get things right. Some tiny depth charges which will now get attached. Then the hull has been fully primed and is ready for actual paint. Finally we have the PE instructions. Lots of pieces and work going on there. It may be time to work on a tank again for a while! 

 

 

 

 

 

Got the linoleum color on. Now need to mask and start spraying Maizuru IJN Gray. Also need to figure out how to mask the stack with all the photoetch on it. Lesson learned as the project manager didn't think through putting on the PE before painting. I have since fired him and hired Penny going forward. Tried to do the full on photoetch twin type 96 and they ended up being a big blob of glue. I think is a real lesson learned with things I am able to actually do and what I am not.