Post by popeye on Sept 15, 2011 13:27:50 GMT -6
I hop you guys dont mind me posting these ship photos? starting to feel a bit like a poser 
, this model was my pride and joy, i spent an awefull long time working on it and it's the one i wish i still had, even if it was far too big to display anywhere, i would guess i had it about 80% finished leaveing only the main 18" turrets, the aircraft catapults, a few odd's and sod's plus paint, much of the superstructure was finished, the main drive motors (4) fitted and working, rudders, fore and aft anchor winches, ballast tanks and pumps, smoke, bilge pumps, main electronics all fitted, i had a few electronic kits left to make like aldis lamps, gun sound etc, full steering was via a multi-channel Futaba radio, a screw/rudder computer and a speed controller, the comp allowed steering by combining rudder turn with screw slow down or into reverse depending on how much ya moved the stick,
i did intend to make the guns turn linked to the main range finders and also fire black powder charges in time with electronic "big gun" sound ( a big sub-woofer speakers was needed for this)
i wont have enough time tonight to load and describe all the pics (theres quite a few) so i'll add some more tomorrow night,
these first two show how i did the "subtle" plating on the double skin bottom of the hull, just strips of tape laid on then paint sprayed over, (several coats for depth), then tape removed and more paint added leaveing ridges simulating the overlapping plates, only the botton was overlapped and riveted, the reast was butt welded plates giveing a "smoother" look, i just detailed this by scoreing lines witha scalple prior to paint,
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these show it on it's first "cradle" this one didn't last long as the ship got heavier
adult image host
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It's first "test" launch after fitting the pumped ballast tanks which were made of perspex, this enabled me to lower the hull in the water so it floated about right according to the waterline, shafts and some weather deck cross braceing also fitted, btw this is the work pit in my garage before i tiled it
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these two are the weather deck fitted along with the main guns barbette's cut out, the deck planking glued on and several coats of flat varnish, the fore break-water slot seen just aft of the fore steel deck, (cheqer plate)
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hosting images
most of the fore deck "clutter fittedalthough some of the parts were bought ready made in resin form i did have to make a lot of stuff, gard rail stanctions were phot-etched on a sprue and the gard rail (chain on the real thing) was brass wire run through an homemade "splined mangle" type rollers which sort of crimped the wire so it resembled chain, (couldn't find any real chain that small), working forward anchor winch and anchors also fitted,
the main bollards were resin but i had to make the fairleads, cleats etc also the main hawser holes, and prow fairleads along with the "chrisathmum" (? spellings crap) emblem all japanese ships had this emblem on the bow
image hosting
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It was starting to get a bit haevy by this stage and the old support frame was buckling so i had to make this much sturdier arrangement, timber and thick ply with rollers made out of 28mm copper tube (i was plumbing back then so it was easy to obtain copper tube), the whole table support was moveable back and forward so i could get either side and the rollers allowed me to move the ship left and rights
image upload
This show the basic "Island" spuerstructure in place along with the fore secondary turret (6" guns) the islad needed a lot of work to detail,
adult image host
These three are of the aircraft handling crane, i made this from brass stock, angle, rod and flat plate, all from the model shop,and it's soldered together, it actually works and the plan was to have it turn via a geared motor and also pay out and rewin cable (cotton)and jib up and down, the smaller parts i made on a mini model lathe like the pulleys etc
a right fiddley thing to make
upload images
upload png
image upload
these are pics of the island superstructure i got this more or less finished apart from paint, loads of scratchbuilding needed for this lot, when you get the kit!! if you casn call it a kit, you get the basic structures in fiber-glass, no real detail is present, so it's lots of brass bits, styreen sheet and filler, "scalelink" do a good range of photo-etch brass stuff, like ladders, vent mesh etc, the main rangefinder/ radar array turn on a brass shaft which was to be geared to the forward main turrets, same for the smaller aft rangefinder, geared to the aft main guns,
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last lot of piccys thank god, this is the aircraft deck, planes were pushed out into this deck on rails and lifted up onto the catapults
the boat davits, like all gard rail stanctions and "in port canvas cover supports these were foldable for sea duty or in action stations
upload png
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this is the main funnel smoke generator, the tank allows a small dish to fill with smoke oil and is then fed by capillary action up to a small electric element, works just like those bird feeders,
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this is how i lifed the "island" up to get at the batterys etc, it's a car jack, accessed through a small hole in the side of the hull, insert the crank handle and up ya go
upload png
another smoke generator, this one worked on dry smoke pellets from the "joke shop" small element opperated by the R/C started it going, the square pellets slowly burn away creating large ammounts of grey/black smoke, this was then piped throughout the ship and up every deck and island vent to give the impression of the ship being hit and burning belowdecks, the brass box got real hot tho so i had to seat it in it's own tank with some water it it or the ship might just have caught fire for real
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screw shaft & rudder's oiler arrangements
image upload
the four main motors, each of these geared "decaperm" motors cost me around £80
hosting images
fore anchor winch
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this is the speed controller sandwiched between to water cooled slim tanks, as these controllers get really hot i made this cooler from brass plate with a 12v pump to pump water from the ballast tank around these coolers, as a sort of heat sink
upload png
adult image host
the main electronics box, this housed all the relays and fuses
hosting images
thats it,
image hostingthanks for looking
, this model was my pride and joy, i spent an awefull long time working on it and it's the one i wish i still had, even if it was far too big to display anywhere, i would guess i had it about 80% finished leaveing only the main 18" turrets, the aircraft catapults, a few odd's and sod's plus paint, much of the superstructure was finished, the main drive motors (4) fitted and working, rudders, fore and aft anchor winches, ballast tanks and pumps, smoke, bilge pumps, main electronics all fitted, i had a few electronic kits left to make like aldis lamps, gun sound etc, full steering was via a multi-channel Futaba radio, a screw/rudder computer and a speed controller, the comp allowed steering by combining rudder turn with screw slow down or into reverse depending on how much ya moved the stick, i did intend to make the guns turn linked to the main range finders and also fire black powder charges in time with electronic "big gun" sound ( a big sub-woofer speakers was needed for this)
i wont have enough time tonight to load and describe all the pics (theres quite a few) so i'll add some more tomorrow night,
these first two show how i did the "subtle" plating on the double skin bottom of the hull, just strips of tape laid on then paint sprayed over, (several coats for depth), then tape removed and more paint added leaveing ridges simulating the overlapping plates, only the botton was overlapped and riveted, the reast was butt welded plates giveing a "smoother" look, i just detailed this by scoreing lines witha scalple prior to paint,
image hosting
free image hosting
these show it on it's first "cradle" this one didn't last long as the ship got heavier
adult image host
hosting images
It's first "test" launch after fitting the pumped ballast tanks which were made of perspex, this enabled me to lower the hull in the water so it floated about right according to the waterline, shafts and some weather deck cross braceing also fitted, btw this is the work pit in my garage before i tiled it
hosting images
image hosting
these two are the weather deck fitted along with the main guns barbette's cut out, the deck planking glued on and several coats of flat varnish, the fore break-water slot seen just aft of the fore steel deck, (cheqer plate)
hosting images
hosting images
most of the fore deck "clutter fittedalthough some of the parts were bought ready made in resin form i did have to make a lot of stuff, gard rail stanctions were phot-etched on a sprue and the gard rail (chain on the real thing) was brass wire run through an homemade "splined mangle" type rollers which sort of crimped the wire so it resembled chain, (couldn't find any real chain that small), working forward anchor winch and anchors also fitted,
the main bollards were resin but i had to make the fairleads, cleats etc also the main hawser holes, and prow fairleads along with the "chrisathmum" (? spellings crap) emblem all japanese ships had this emblem on the bow
image hosting
adult image host
It was starting to get a bit haevy by this stage and the old support frame was buckling so i had to make this much sturdier arrangement, timber and thick ply with rollers made out of 28mm copper tube (i was plumbing back then so it was easy to obtain copper tube), the whole table support was moveable back and forward so i could get either side and the rollers allowed me to move the ship left and rights
image upload
This show the basic "Island" spuerstructure in place along with the fore secondary turret (6" guns) the islad needed a lot of work to detail,
adult image host
These three are of the aircraft handling crane, i made this from brass stock, angle, rod and flat plate, all from the model shop,and it's soldered together, it actually works and the plan was to have it turn via a geared motor and also pay out and rewin cable (cotton)and jib up and down, the smaller parts i made on a mini model lathe like the pulleys etc
a right fiddley thing to make
upload images
upload png
image upload
these are pics of the island superstructure i got this more or less finished apart from paint, loads of scratchbuilding needed for this lot, when you get the kit!! if you casn call it a kit, you get the basic structures in fiber-glass, no real detail is present, so it's lots of brass bits, styreen sheet and filler, "scalelink" do a good range of photo-etch brass stuff, like ladders, vent mesh etc, the main rangefinder/ radar array turn on a brass shaft which was to be geared to the forward main turrets, same for the smaller aft rangefinder, geared to the aft main guns,
upload png
upload images
image hosting
image hosting
adult image host
adult image host
hosting images
image hosting
last lot of piccys thank god, this is the aircraft deck, planes were pushed out into this deck on rails and lifted up onto the catapults
the boat davits, like all gard rail stanctions and "in port canvas cover supports these were foldable for sea duty or in action stations
upload png
adult image host
this is the main funnel smoke generator, the tank allows a small dish to fill with smoke oil and is then fed by capillary action up to a small electric element, works just like those bird feeders,
image hosting
this is how i lifed the "island" up to get at the batterys etc, it's a car jack, accessed through a small hole in the side of the hull, insert the crank handle and up ya go
upload png
another smoke generator, this one worked on dry smoke pellets from the "joke shop" small element opperated by the R/C started it going, the square pellets slowly burn away creating large ammounts of grey/black smoke, this was then piped throughout the ship and up every deck and island vent to give the impression of the ship being hit and burning belowdecks, the brass box got real hot tho so i had to seat it in it's own tank with some water it it or the ship might just have caught fire for real
free image hosting
screw shaft & rudder's oiler arrangements
image upload
the four main motors, each of these geared "decaperm" motors cost me around £80
hosting images
fore anchor winch
image hosting
this is the speed controller sandwiched between to water cooled slim tanks, as these controllers get really hot i made this cooler from brass plate with a 12v pump to pump water from the ballast tank around these coolers, as a sort of heat sink
upload png
adult image host
the main electronics box, this housed all the relays and fuses
hosting images
thats it,
image hostingthanks for looking
Good thing it's not 1:24th!! 
