Yahagi. Building Hasegawa's kit in 1:350
The Yahagi was one of four Agano-class cruisers. They were designed to be torpedo squadron leaders which explains their strong torpedo armament and their relatively weak artillery. The Yahagi was launched on the 25 October 1942 and had a very active career that ended with her being sunk on the 7 April 1945 while escorting the Yamato on the last mission of the Imperial japanese navy. There is a good article about her on the Wikipedia in english.
Hasegawas kit is one of the best kits I've built, with excellent fit and great detail. Hasegawa also issues three PE sets to go with her, of which I used two. They are very good but somewhat fragile. I'm quite used to working with PE but I still managed to deform some of the PE parts just by cutting them off the sheets. Apart from adding PE, I also scratchbuilt parts of the masts using piano wire.
Yahagis decks were covered with linoleum mats and to make the decks come alive I masked and painted them in several nuances of reddish brown. The contrasts between the mats turned out to be a bit to strong, so I toned them down with a thin mist of light red brown.
To make the underwater hull come alive, I first sprayed the bottom of the hull in a chaotic green and brown pattern, over which I then sprayed a thin layer of red. Then I used a cardboard template to create vertical green streaks of algae, after which I used another template to create a miscolouring along the waterline.
Pictures of ships serving in the Pacific theatre of war show that they were very heavily bleached. I tried to recreate that by first spraying the ship with an IJN grey of my own mix, onto which I then sprayed ever more bleached grey tones
There was quite a bit of PE work involved, not the least on the 25 mm AA guns, of which there were quite a few... Threading all of the PE cable reels with sewing thread, was also a bit of a challenge.
The kits aircraft are excellent, with separate clear parts for the canopies. Why can't the other manufacturers do that.
The model was finished in june 2010.
That is outstanding work there in all ways. The painting techniques are very interesting, really bringing the mo0del to life. And Yahagi is a very good looking ship indeed. Great job.
Ulf, what a great model! I know there are a lot of modellers here who will be pleased to see a ship model of such a high standard.
Beautiful representation Ulf. Your underlying paintwork really created a realistic appearance.
Very well done.
Thank you Bill, Rob and Al!
Yes, I have spent quite a lot of time experimenting, trying to adapt armour- and aircraft modellers weathering techniques to ship modelling, and coming up with some techniques of my own as well.
Exemplary workmanship, sir...turned out really well. I like that.
Beautifully done Ulf, your paintwork is outstanding
I'm definitely stealing all those "tricks" for when I make the Tamiya IJN Tone. Those are all fantastic ideas.
Superb model, very realistic in look.
Steal away Tom!
The Tone is a really kool looking ship. I was always fascinated by the heavy japanese cruisers. Be sure to post an article about the build when you've finished her.
Meanwhile I'll dig up some pictures an write an article about my Takao.
As Rob said, here is another modeller, who is highly interested in ships.
You build is awesome with a not noften seen well done weathering, which make your build even more impressive.
What material did you use for rigging this beauty ?
Her is a link with a photo from this ship in its last minutes,
http://www.battleshipyamato.com/index.album/operation-tenichigo-april-67-1945?i=139&s=1
Lt.Stetson was the Avenger flight leader, ordered to give Yahagi the "death blow" found her in this stadium and attacked instead the heavy damaged but still underway Yamato. His torpedo attack finally sunk this huge and proud battleship.
This webside is full of interesting photos from the Yamato class battleships and her escorts
Can t wait to see more of your buils, Ulf, well done
Thanks Bernd!
As you can see from the pics, I partly scrachtbuilt the mast from piano wire. Plastic masts tend to bend under the strain of the rigging lines, so scratchbuilding metal masts is more or less a prerequisite for successful rigging as i see it. It's not as difficult as you think if you learn to use jigs for holding the parts together while gluing.
For rigging thread I use fly-tying thread, that is thinner than ordinary fishing lines.
I hope to get around to posting an article, where I show some of my rigging techniques. Once you get the hang of the techniques, it's not as hard as many people think
Thats a very nice idea, Ulf. There is a H.M.S Hood half build waiting as well Bismarck,Tirpitz,Z-30 and the russian cruiser Varyag.
While i have build some ships, they were rigged with stretched spues not the best solution.
Started building ships in 1/700 as well.May we will be here at some time the "Navy Department"
A nicely built ship Ulf, I like the details you have added.
Well done mate.
I know even less about ships than I do about aircraft, but it's plain enough for anyone to see that this is a superb model, the finish, especially, and also the detailing, really help to make this ship stand out.
very sharp
Stunning model! The level of detail is amazing! That's a scary amount of photo etch! Thanks for the work in progress pics there as well, very informative.
Another beauty Ulf, thanks for sharing!