1/350 Hasegawa Akagi Complete.

Thanks guys.

Over the weekend, I sprayed a gloss coat on the wood deck and stained. Here it is half stained.

I then added three coats of the gloss coat and added the decals. That was an ordeal as decals don’t like to adhere to wood, imagine that. 

Once that all “dried” I then sprayed a few more clear coats. The katakana letter ア “A” on the stern came apart, thank you Hase for your wonderful decals. So, I masked and spray the letter. After a few hours messing with that I was able to add the weathering I.E. oil spills, fuel leaks, tire marks and other sundry offences that happen to a wood carrier deck, using pastels and oils where I’m right at the point where I feel I’ve gone far enough. Not too much but not too little. Most of the stern will be covered with 27 or was it 28  aircraft and one hundred plus crew so the deck will be more of a background than the center point.

Oh yeah, the island it glued down now.

Next I need to finish the mast, a few ladders that I bought that were too long for what I had in my ladder stock, mast rigging, AA guns, deck safety netting, catch wires, aircraft catch system, side small boats, lowered antennas, landing light system.... You know, all those small nagging annoying items at add tons of interest to a build.

Really enjoying watching this build Steve.  Amazing work.

Thanks Marcus,

Here is the work I did on the island Yesterday. I put the bridge crew on the bridge and added some window clear for the bridge windows. You can't see the crew but it doesn't matter, you a see something. I also sprayed a clear gloss coat on the deck to prepare it for stain and touched up the stern deck stripes. Tonight I'll add the deck stripes. I don't think I'll spray them and use the supplied the decals instead. We'll see how they look.

Steve,

That bridge looks awesome and by the all of the detail a heck of lot of parts installed.  Those mattress rolls looks great and really set the time period.

Marcus

Yes I do Marcus.

I worked a few night on the island. Now that everything is added I'll paint tonight then add crew on the bridge and lookout platforms.

Steve,

Nice progress.  Any plans on making the flight deck look used? 

Marcus

Thanks Ben,

I agree with you, considering the colorized photos are close to corect. At least they're consistant. The first three are either stright up black, or a mix of sand and black. I think the mix for a base with the streight black here and there. Tire skids, oil drips and the such would have made a mess I would think

Lovin the work Steve and I always enjoy the updates. 

Which stain / wash are you leaning to of the ones shown? I am in favor with one of the first three on the left (the darker ones). I know it is hard to get a good baseline when looking at period color pictures. To me the the lighter colors look far to pristine and unblemished. Regardless of your choice, I'm sure it will be surperb.

I'm already looking forward to seeing those superdetailed aircraft and little people on the deck.

Ben

Thanks Steve, the size also makes it difficult to photograph well.

I installed the wood deck and painted the stripes on the stern. I need to touch them up.

I also experimented with some stain and weathering using oils. My goal is this, the only picture I found of the Akagi's deck, and it's colorized.

just a magnificent build steve , you are almost going to have to display this at eye level , so you can show off all the incredible work you have put into it .

TOO many.

I started on the top of the deck last night and assembled the PE wind fence, blast fence, or whatever it's called and will paint the areas not covered by the wood laminate before installing said laminate. After the wood deck is installed, I'll start on the island.

Steve,

The stern is looking great, lots of detail.  Wonder how many parts you have assembled by now?

Marcus

I spent a lot of time on the Akagi this weekend, mostly on the stern area. All of the bracing wire, plaforms, railing and most of the long ladders are attached. I cleaned up ather areas and repaired others. I have the casemate guns to attach then on to the deck I think. After the deck and island there is still much more to do to the hull such as the side boats, folding antennas and asundry other things that stick out as well as ropes and such draped here and there.

I ordered Infani's IJN ladder B set which have those long 20 meter ladders that stretch well over the water and assend to the tubs on the deck. Not me brother!

ikar01

I sit in front of a Master...because I can't kneel.

 

No master here, just a nut who can't seem to say no to himself.

I finshed the aft bracing wires, and started working on the other areas. These take a very long time but I'm in it now. I'll need to touch-up some paint afterward.

I sit in front of a Master...because I can't kneel.

ikar01

How much more until you're finished?

The rest of the stringers, AA guns, island, wood deck, repairing and damage cause by handling, side small boats, seascape, planes and crew. I'm sure there is more but that's just off the top of my head.

Thank you guys 

Really fantastic job and wish I couild see it in person.  It definately puts any ship I ever built to shame.  Well done.

How much more until you're finished?

OMG...the planes are just flat out insane.  I wouldn't attempt that in 1/35, let alone 1/350.

I mean this in awe, but you sir, are certifiable.

I received my .01 dia sprue the othet day and started attaching the cross bracing.

I had to remove the aft railing so I could manipulate the tweezers. Jeez my camera takes gawd awful pictures. Or maybe it's the lighting.

I need to complete one more stinger then there are inter wires between them. I'll have four more to do after that.

Keyserj

Just curious, how many planes do you have to build for this?

9 Zeros, 27 Kates (first wave) The Kates had varied ordnance from bombs to torpedeos.

I have several kits (5 I think) of Hase's IJN carrier aircraft and am going to add the PE and interiors for them. I figure each plane will take an evening. The bigest problem is all the kits have the same decals, I know, Duh. For 9 Zeeks I just have three diffrent markings x3 and for the Kates I have 6 diffrent markings x4. I wish someone made a decal sheet for the entire air wing.

I got one done. Needs a fuel tank though.

I am impressed by the amount of pe that you have used in this build. Just curious, how many planes do you have to build for this?

Steve this just keeps getting better! I can't wait to see it

You Know:

 That's what I was thinking. I did a bridge out of a Photo-Etched group of parts for a friend in ohio. The package weighed four pounds and cost him close to $700.00 bucks!

 When I finished that I swore I would NEVER get that serious with a regular model again. The only solid plastic parts were the strips looking like cast concrete that the rails fit between. It was a two track wide H.O.Scale bridge about a foot and a half long. I wish I had taken Photos but I really wasn't really into trains then so I didn't bother.

Thanks guys!

TB, not as much as what it weighed in the cash it cost me.

Marcus. I still have some exterior paint to apply, ease up on the tonal variations some. I was running out of Kure grey.

Steve,

She is coming together nicely, she will really pop when you finish adding all of that detail.

Marcus

I am sorry Steve!

         I have to ask. How many pounds did that P.E. detail set weigh? That's almost as bad as doing a Submarine Cut-Away the right way!

Hey!

 Now that's kool! She certainly looks like she's been at sea for a long while!

Here's an Update

All the decks are on , now comes the additional work of painting the red antifouling, reairing the damaged railing, adding the side boats with tie downs, AA guns, island, wood deck, stern girder bracing, splinter roaps, ETC. ETC. And of course, more paint. Lots and lots still to do in what?? 189 days to pack it up?. I figure I'll get completly done with it, seascape and all, before I add the planes and crew (except the crew in the island). They are additions to the finished build anyway.

Thanks Marcus,

I completed the work on the port side mid deck, and dry fix it to the hull. I had to do quite a bit of adjustment and modification, especially to the pillars in this section. The tolarences are so tight the it's almost impossible to align them. After some adjusting and slight modification (trimming), I believe I have it where the deck sits as it should. Now I need to go back as add some of the areas I removed to make it look uniform and clean and obligatory repair of surrounding delicate parts. Oddly enough, the items I scratch built fit perfectly. Also, as a whole, there's too much to look at to focus in an just one area, kinda like looking at the Grand Canyon