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Hasegawa 1/350 Nagato. First time shipbuilder with questions.

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  • Member since
    November 2009
Posted by am73grand on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 8:00 AM

Ok I did some major bodywork on the hull and I still have a ways to go. While waiting for putty/water to dry I'm working on the rear bridge. This is a rather small sub assembly but it has quite a number of parts. I would like to say that if you are planning a build of this ship with the photo etch you REALLY need to study ALL of the instructions as it is VERY easy to miss a photoetch part. This is probably going to be my most challenging build to date. Pictures coming tomorrow.

  • Member since
    March 2007
  • From: NJ
Posted by JMart on Tuesday, February 2, 2010 3:09 PM

The Mutsu, unfortunately, has the same "CAD" lines (I know they are not really "CAD", but its a short enough version of the actual problem :)

As Prof Tilley mentioned, plenty of variations of "fill/sand./repeat" exist to "fix"" the error. I have seen a couple builds without the fix; they still look fantastic. All in the eye of the beholder.

 

 

 

  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: Thailand
Posted by Model Maniac on Monday, February 1, 2010 7:48 AM

I got its sister ship, i.e., the Matsu, with all the bells and whistles (3 upgrade sets). It's so far the most expensive plastic model kit I've ever bought. It's now in the 11th month of building by "Niphon". He has only Sunday each week to work on it. Anyway, I hope he'll finish it in a few months from now.

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Pan Flute Music (300 songs) (Most Popular, over 100K views):

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUNb2zPxGTZO7alagEPsEMzgBkWt4-vKV

El Condor Pasa (Top 50) (World's most famous and my most favorite song):

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  • Member since
    November 2009
Posted by am73grand on Monday, February 1, 2010 7:16 AM

Ok, so I went back over my hull tonight and I looked at the pictures of the ship that come with the model. I have no way of knowing which lines to keep and which lines to remove. I don't want to sand the hull completely smooth as I know that will look even worse. I think what I'll do is be VERY heavy with my painting so that the lines appear a little less obvious. And most people who see this in my home are not going to have any idea that it is incorrect. To be honest when I opened the box and got started on it I had no idea there was a problem, so to a guy like me who doesn't know to much about ships it looked fine.

Thank you for pointing out the problem though. That's why these forums are so great! Everybody willing to pitch in and help each other out. I'll keep posting pictures as I get further along!

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Sunday, January 31, 2010 10:30 PM

Whether the problem is serious enough to be worth fixing is up to the individual.  I saw an article about this kit in FSM a month or two back; I frankly thought the finished model looked pretty good.  I think I probably would have noticed the inaccuracy of the surface detail if it hadn't been discussed in the forum, but I'm not sure it would have jumped out at me.

In trying to explain it I need to repeat one big caveat:  I don't have the kit.  (It's our of my price range - at least for this sort of model.)  I'm writing on the basis of photos, and of what other forum participants who have bought it have said.

The basic problem apparently is that Hasegawa covered the surface of the hull with a rectangular grid of countersunk lines, some of which are in the right places but most of which aren't.  The impression is that the hull is made up of hundreds of plates with grooves between them.  The real thing isn't.  (I don't know how many plates actually made up the hull of a Nagato-class battleship, but I suspect it was in the scores - not the hundreds.)  Most of the countersunk lines don't accurately represent the edges of plates, but rather ink lines on the plans that were drawn to establish the cross-sections of the hull.  A twentieth-century warship simply doesn't have an enormous rectangular grid of regularly-spaced vertical and horizontal lines etched into the surface of its hull.

In a real warship of that period there would indeed be both vertical and horizontal seams between plates, but they wouldn't have grooves between them.  They'd be riveted or, more likely, welded together; in the latter case there would be a barely-visible raised line at the joint.  In most cases (not all) the plates would in fact overlap slightly at the edges.  (Ship enthusiasts talk about "inners" and "outers" - plates that overlap or are overlapped by their neighbors.)  In some photos the difference is pretty conspicuous; in others it's unnoticeable.  (The big difference usually is the angle of the light.) 

So, to boil it down to the simplest terms, there are far too many lines and they shouldn't be countersunk.

I'm reminded of a 1/72-scale DC-3 / C-47 kit that one company (it was either Italeri or Esci; I don't remember which) issued back in the 1970s.  The designers apparently had worked from a set of plans that showed all the frames and stringers of the fuselage - and assumed all those lines were the edges of panels.  So the kit had a complex grid of countersunk lines all over its fuselage.  Only a few of those lines actually indicated the edges of panels; the others should have been lines of rivets.

Again, I'm not suggesting that this "has" to be fixed.  I'm just suggesting that anybody shelling out the huge amount of money that this kit costs is entitled to know about the problem and make his own decision about it.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    November 2009
Posted by am73grand on Sunday, January 31, 2010 4:43 PM

So I went over to the other thread and read it. I don't understand what the problem with the hull is. The photos I have of it the actual ship show seams in the hull. Is the problem that there shouldn't be vertical seams? Is it that they are too deep. I could use a little help clarifying exactly what I need to fix.

Thanks!!!!

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Sunday, January 31, 2010 9:21 AM

I haven't bought the kit; it's beyond my price range.  I do remember, though, that it took a great deal of flak when it was released because of the surface detail on its hull.  Somebody goofed; a lot of vertical and horizontal lines that in fact represented cross-sections on the plans got represented as countersunk lines on the kit parts.  The "patchwork" effect that resulted just doesn't match reality.  The plates that make up the hull of a real battleship are, generally speaking, a lot bigger than the kit would have one believe - and with rare exceptions they don't have grooves between them.

Here's a forum thread in which the problem  is discussed - and various solutions are offered:  /forums/p/100300/984471.aspx#984471 .  This particular thread starts off with the assumption that everybody knows what the problem is; a few posts down it gets explained pretty clearly.  (Personally I don't care for the description of the lines in question as "CAD lines"; they'd be on the plans whether said plans were drawn by CAD or hand-drawn.  The bottom line, though, is that Hasegawa made a mistake.)

It is, of course, up to the individual modeler to decide how important this defect is.  But I do think anybody tackling such a big, expensive kit is entitled to go into the project with eyes open.

 

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    June 2006
  • From: Netherlands
Posted by Grem56 on Sunday, January 31, 2010 8:58 AM

Yes, thats more like it. Rather hefty piece of Japanese real estate, nice start. There is a nice build at Model Shipwrights as well:

http://modelshipwrights.kitmaker.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=111737&page=1

I' ll be following your build so keep the photo's coming please Smile

Julian

 

illegal immigrants have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian.....................

Italeri S-100: http://cs.finescale.com/FSMCS/forums/t/112607.aspx?PageIndex=1

Isu-152: http://cs.finescale.com/FSMCS/forums/t/116521.aspx?PageIndex=1

 

  • Member since
    November 2009
Hasegawa 1/350 Nagato. First time shipbuilder in progress photos
Posted by am73grand on Sunday, January 31, 2010 6:37 AM

So I'm underway with this project. I've got the main hull assembled and I've started on the "bodywork" (forgive me I'm normally a car modeler). I'll be cleaning up the main seam and the seams where the rudders fit and where the prow of the bow is.I'm drilling out all of the portholes on this so that I can back fill them with Testors window maker. Some of them will be left so that they look open. Thanks for looking.

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: Mansfield, TX
Posted by EdGrune on Friday, January 29, 2010 6:32 AM

am73grand

So I'm underway with this project. The hull is mostly assembled and I will begin the cleanup for paint tomorrow. I am trying to get my ducks in a row. I've read alot about using stretched sprue for rigging but I have no luck with this technique. Would very fine guitar string be too out of scale for this project? I don't want to use real thread.

Running rigging, such as flag halyards is generally less than 1/2 inch.    Standing rigging,  stays and antennas are pretty much less than 3/4 inch (on your subject).  Guitar strings,  even the finest, are too large.   Thread can suffer the fuzzies unless well waxed - and then it may not hang naturally.

Use the fore-mentioned Bauman or Grifith methods.   Either provide excellent results.

Another option along the line of fly-fishing tippet material is 'Invisible Thread'.  This is a fine monofiliment sewing thread.    Pull a length across a black permenent marker before use to impart some color to it.

  • Member since
    June 2006
  • From: Netherlands
Posted by Grem56 on Friday, January 29, 2010 12:46 AM

How about some photos so we can admire the build so far?

Julian Smile

 

illegal immigrants have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian.....................

Italeri S-100: http://cs.finescale.com/FSMCS/forums/t/112607.aspx?PageIndex=1

Isu-152: http://cs.finescale.com/FSMCS/forums/t/116521.aspx?PageIndex=1

 

  • Member since
    December 2002
Posted by Dreadnought52 on Thursday, January 28, 2010 10:24 PM

Stretched sprue can indeed work very well for rigging in 1/350.  If you want to get a course in doing so go to Modelwarships.com and look for Jim Baumann's how to article on rigging with stretched sprue.   Many modelers choose to use tippet, a very fine fishing line used to tie flies.  A truly excellent treatment of rigging methods will be found in David Griffith's book Ship Models from Kits published by Seaforth Publishing and found at Amazon.com.  No matter what you skill level there is something to be learned from this book.   Still another material used by some, including this ham-handed modeler, is EZ Line, a model railroad material used for stringing telephone lines.  It comes in different colors and dimensions and is extremely forgiving of all thumbs modelers.   The downside being that it is a bit overscale.   WS

  • Member since
    November 2009
Hasegawa 1/350 Nagato. First time shipbuilder with question.
Posted by am73grand on Thursday, January 28, 2010 6:17 PM

So I'm underway with this project. The hull is mostly assembled and I will begin the cleanup for paint tomorrow. I am trying to get my ducks in a row. I've read alot about using stretched sprue for rigging but I have no luck with this technique. Would very fine guitar string be too out of scale for this project? I don't want to use real thread.

  • Member since
    November 2009
Posted by am73grand on Tuesday, January 26, 2010 10:24 AM

Thanks for the help!!! I've started on the kit today. Mostly hull cleanup and drilling out the portholes. I'll check that site out and see what they have.

 

Thanks again!

  • Member since
    December 2002
Posted by Dreadnought52 on Tuesday, January 26, 2010 7:41 AM

Go to Pacific Front Hobbies, then to their catalog section for detail parts and check under the various manufacturers listed.  There are a number of gun barrels listed that will fit your needs.   As for paint, you can order the White Ensign Models exact color match for Nagato directly from them or Snyder and Short.   WS

  • Member since
    November 2009
Hasegawa 1/350 Nagato. First time shipbuilder with questions.
Posted by am73grand on Tuesday, January 26, 2010 6:16 AM

I just picked this kit up and all it's respective Hasegawa "Detail Up" parts. This is my very first forray into the ship building arena. I'm building it for a client.

I would like to buy gun barrels for the smaller side mounted guns. Does anyone know if these are available or do I need to use tubing?

I also would be interested in a more detailed rigging plan as the one in the kit really stinks.

Last but not least. Hasegawa references some funky colors in their instructions. Anyone know the Model Master or Tamiya paint colors I could use for this thing?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Ron

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