IJN Battleship "Mutsu" 1:350 full option

Great build, and I know what you mean about time to build.  I've been working on the same ship for 6 months now.  As far as the hull goes, most of the best builds I have seen have lessened the "excel spreadsheet" look with putty.  But that is not to say the plates did not stand out.  And the rigging on this, is one of the most daunting I have ever seen for a battleship.

Take a look at this site for a close up view of the Nagato.  The plates on many of the IJN ships were more pronounced than some of the others navies.

http://www.tt-fleet.com/smf/index.php?page=42#Nagato

Nice Job, now I can't wait to start on my Nagato!

gap at base of forward superstructure near the back. those engraved lines on the hull are not hull plates but a screwup when converting to cnc machining. ships like houses are not built like that as there is no cohension\strength which is why they are always staggered. 

Truly a piece of art,beautiful build,thanks for posting.

Thanks so much for all kind responses and suggestions! I really appreciate them!

Wojszwillo, 

1) Agree. I think "Niphon" is not familiar with the fine fishing line. I don't know whether it's available locally.

2) You should look closely. It was not only painted but also weathered!

plastickjunkie, one reason the threads look fuzzy is the time it took to build this one and this one alone - from 1 Apr 2009 to 31 Oct 2010. That's a year and seven months straight. Dust had so much time building up on them. Between the .003 or .004 nylon and finest copper wire (I don't know its diameter but it's very fine), what do you think is a better choice?

A wooden base may be better, but it costs some bucks and the provided base will not be used. And that's a waste! I see no gap in the 4th picture.

potchip, I'll have to look for the meaning of 'ensigns' to know what part you mean.

warshipguy, I see nothing wrong with those lines. They represent seams between iron plates, don't they? Tamiya's Yamato 1:350 doesn't come with these lines, I remember my other modeler scribed them up which is above and beyond the call of duty.

Overall, nice job.  However, I have used Testor's putty to fill the CAD lines that Hasegawa left on the hull.  Testor's has a relatively fine tip on  the tube, making it a neater job to fill those lines.  I remember someone once mentioned using whiteout with good effect in an earlier thread.

Bill Morrison

Great effort. The PE application is very tidy. Other than those already mentioned by the previous posts, the ensigns are not quite correct. It's either at the bow, or the stern (and probably not that particular one at stern), or at the mast.

Looks like a very good clean build. I would have used a nylon smoke thread in .003 or .004 intead of the fuzzy one used for the rigging. The nylon thread looks like steel cable in that scale. Also a nice wood base will add even more to the build. Don't know if its the angle or even if it's supposed to be there, but it looks like a large gap where the superstructure meets the deck on the 4th picture.

Not bad, i.e. good :-).

But 2 things:

1) rigging with rugged thread is not best possibility (you can use e.g. black or dark grey colored fine fishing line;

2) it seems, that grey colored plastic is'nt painted at all - and it looks like plastic.

But anyway, looks good.