Baubericht

Some of the ingredients for construction. 

Let's start by putting the fuselage together 

Prepare everything for the stand. 

These are the very nice model building supports from Pontos. 

Now all possible details are sanded off again and will later be replaced by the etched parts. 

Screws for the stand attached. 

The hull structure is very stable. 

Holes for the crampons 

Now let's open the portholes. 

After researching the few images available, I noticed that the porthole that sits on the model below the anchor hawse did not exist.
This was then closed with a round styrene profile. 

Filled and sanded. 

Another mistake that needs to be corrected. Merit made recesses in the fuselage to accommodate the etched piece gunports from the model in the correct location.
Since I’m using the pontos set here and the hinges of the gunport on the original ship were riveted onto the hull from the outside, I close them with styrene.

 

I’ll be busy with that for a while. 

Continue working on the hull, which will probably take quite some time.
Because after I filled the recesses with styrene profiles, I noticed significant sinkholes that unfortunately had to be thickly filled.
On the right side, I think you can still clearly see the small dent of the sink under the filler. 

Since I had to do a lot of filing and sanding here, I could no longer take the surface structure of the hull into account and removed it. Which isn’t a big deal since I’ll be making them again with styrene. 

After the first sanding process, the worked areas were primed as a check and I am quite happy with the result. 

So, I have created the removed surface structure with my styrene profiles.
It's a little bit wider than the original line, but if it's painted afterwards it should fit. 

And so I continued on the port side and completed the areas around the casemates.
Consequently, all structures of this type on the fuselage are now being replaced by styrene profiles. As can be seen above.
Otherwise it would no longer look consistent. 

Ok, let’s fill the holes that I don’t need due to the etched parts sets. 

Then check with a white primer to make sure everything is sanded smoothly. 

Of course the fuselage seams were also checked. 

 

Then we come to my beloved Styren profiles. 

I use this to imitate the seams of the armor plates. At that time, riveting was still taking place, not welding. However, you can hardly see the rivets under the paint on the original. So that’s enough for me. 

The storage areas for the anchors were sanded smooth, as Pontos also fills everything here with brass. 

Now for a special feast for the eyes. The dinghies from New Zealand have arrived. 

Absolute detail madness. I’m blown away. ? 

Continue with the seams for the armor plates.
This time on the underwater ship.
It takes a bit of effort and nerves. They have to be attached very precisely and parallel.
But it seems to work: 

However, I have to move the torpedo tube opening a little at the stern, so I first closed it with styrene. 

Continue with the profiles. It’s slowly going faster now. 

But there are still a lot.

 

Now, however, I also have to take add-on parts into account, such as roll keels and propulsion.
They will only be attached to the fuselage after all the profiles have been done so that I can sand them properly beforehand. 

I created the vertical joints on the bow and sanded everything well.
Now I had to paint part of the fuselage to see if I didn’t make a mistake with the profiles.
I think you can take it. 

The casemates were also checked again.
Can stay like that. 

At first I wasn’t sure if I liked it because it’s actually shown the wrong way around. 

Done with the profiles. 

Because the flaps would have to create a gap and not an elevation. 

I also sanded down the profiles on the underwater hull a lot 

Of course also in the places that you can hardly see afterwards. 

A privacy screen must be created so that you cannot see the portholes from one side and the other side.
That’s why styrene plates were placed in the middle.
At the bow. 

And at the rear.
The whole thing is flexible so I can move the plate back and forth a little. This is how I get the front 3 inch cannons to fit into their openings. 

After that I need a little individual privacy protection. 

One for the muzzle openings of the torpedo launchers, yellow arrows. And for four small portholes that are located under the first deck near the green arrows. It’s hard for me to get the plates right here, hence the angles. 

Good thing I put the Pontos wooden deck on. (Which wasn’t lasered properly and I had to help with my scalpel.)
Doesn’t fit at all. 🤔cream: I’ll have to work a little with the milling head.
But it was actually about creating tubes for the anchor hawse. 

Now that I knew that, I created half tubes. But they are larger in diameter. 

Which should be completely sufficient. It’s just a matter of ensuring that no light shines through on the chain. 

Nice and dark. That’s the way it has to be. :hole: 

First I soldered the shields of the cannons on the bow and stern. 

Then, since you can’t see anything behind the shields anyway, I simply replaced the cannon body with a small piece of styrene pipe. 

This was then glued in… 

…and I’ll simply put the barrel of the cannon through the hole later. 

The same with the middle casemates, only here it is much less complicated. 

Now that all the cannons in the hull are installed, I can prepare the deck.
First say goodbye to unnecessary details. I got a small electric chisel, it simplifies things a lot. 

After the grinding orgy, the deck was glued to the bow. 

And the other two parts. 

Great, deck ready. 

I will also raise the hull to the next level earlier than usual. It’s about the upper row of casemates.
If you glue this fuselage part later, which is actually logical and intended, you can get to the internal structures much better.
But you also end up with a very unsightly slot that can no longer be removed.
Here you see the culprit. I might still put up with the gap at the yellow arrows. But the one with the green arrow, no, doesn’t work at all. 

And that’s exactly the problem.
What I would then have to mask off on the wooden deck, superstructure and other details if I wanted to fill and paint the gap late was almost impossible.
That’s why I’m going to say it in advance. 

Continue with additional small details.
The next picture shows why I add large parts like gun barrels as late as possible. 

I would like to implement this device with which the anchor was lowered into the water. 

To do this I first have to remove material from the fuselage. 

Then all profiles are checked again and some are sanded down a little further 

The torpedo tube opening also has a riveted ring. 

On to preshading.

 

And then tape it off. I’m doing this relatively precisely, even though I’m only in the basic color.
Of course I could spray the red without masking it off, but then too many layers would overlap afterwards and the whole thing would be too thick for me. 

And now the antifouling paint is on the underwater hull. 

The waterline is running great. Profiles attached at the correct height. 

Here are the two recesses for the side with the double anchor. 

I really like the structure I made from the styrene profiles. 

And the preshading also comes into its own.
Now we continue with the details on the upper ship. 

Next I went to the ship’s rudder. I had actually lost sight of that a bit.
Never mind, styrene attached and painted red. 

Then to the upper casemates. Unnecessary holes closed again. 

Sanded and found to be good. 

So the etched parts battle could finally begin.

 

The MK1 set has already scored its first points.
Shortly before I had sanded away the rather rough details, I thought about taking a quick photo of them. Pontus had not planned anything here. Incomprehensible, even if you can hardly see it on the finished model. 

So, one to zero for KA Models.
Still processing the remaining doors… 

Then the first superstructures can go on the deck.
I will probably lay more electrical cables when my 0.1mm wire arrives. 

The holes for the crampons were still missing on the upper casemates.
I repeat myself, but this is one of Ponto’s great strengths. The drilling templates! 

Simply fix it with an adhesive strip and off you go… 

Next I checked the wooden deck amidships. It had to be trimmed a bit to get it to fit properly. Because of the slightly different approach, I have little leeway when installing the parts.
But done satisfactorily. 

So I was able to add the next floor. 

Additional parts placed on top to check whether everything is in the correct position.
Everything fits perfectly. 

Here are the pictures to show why I go to this length.
The slits in the four round casemates would still be manageable. 

But this one isn’t very nice. 

I think this is better. 

After sanding three times… 

…and prime, I am very satisfied. 

And I especially like this one a lot better now.
The extra two days of effort were worth it.

 

Off to the dry dock with the Mikasa. 

There’s enough space in here on the port and starboard sides to protect the ship while you’re tinkering without it becoming too big and unwieldy. 

This means it can be safely laid on its side, for example to work on the portholes. 

I can also attach sheet pile walls of different heights to further increase the protection at the top. 

Let’s attach the first large etched parts. The anchor supports… 

…and the doors at the rear. The ship also had electrical cables all around the back. What purpose they had, however, is unknown to me. It will not have been demagnetizing cables. 

First one, next to go. 

The portholes are closed on the port side. At the bow. 

They cannot be seen in the pictures from back then. Most of the images of the ship are of poor quality and taken from a great distance. There are only some in a decent resolution very close up from the front. But of course you can’t see the casemates from the side.
But on the museum ship. And since I can’t imagine that they were added later, I adopted them. 

I noticed another error in the model amidships. Three more portholes were missing from the upper row of casemates. 

I put my ship on its side again. 

And the portholes at the stern. 

It was time for the final details to be added before painting. For me there are always very few. Most of it is only processed towards the end. This includes the grilles in front of the bow and stern cannons and of course the crampons. 

I don’t use the crampons on the etched part boards. I don’t like these one hundred percent because they are of course flat. So I prefer to take thin wire and bend it to size.

 

In addition, crampons of different thicknesses were probably installed on the Mikasa.
And I want to represent this using 0.2 or 0.3 mm thick wire. I initially had 0.1mm wire in mind, but that wasn’t practical because it was too unstable. ( 0,2mm is 0,007 inch and 0,3mm is 0,01 inch) 

And this is how it turns out after checking the primer. I like it quite a bit. 

A few small irregularities can still be seen and will be removed with fine 1000 grit sandpaper after it has dried. 

But I think you can guess that the different strength crampons are like the original. 

I finished all the rough work on the fuselage and was finally able to finish painting it.
After a proper preshading the whole thing now looks like this. 

What followed was an accentuation. 

Which means nothing other than that I painted fine details in a lighter gray.

 

Here too, water-soluble acrylic paints have a big advantage. Small slips can be removed immediately with water without leaving any residue. 

Which was a real fiddly job. The dry decals from Pontos are really impressive. The depth marks are razor sharp. 

This gives a decent contrast to the preshading areas. 

I’ve already started aging. 

Now i can start aging. 

As always, very tedious. But the result that a little diluted dark gray paint leaves on a painted surface still amazes and fascinates me. Even after all the years I’ve been doing this. 

Hello dear model building friends, I’m a little further along. 

The first round of aging is complete. 

There are three filters on the underwater hull. 

On the gray two. 

Also a first washing. 

Above and below. 

I’m quite happy with it. 

I have finished aging the hull for now and turned a new ship into an old veteran. 

I particularly aged the anchor hawse and the area below the anchor berths, as a lot of dirt is likely to accumulate here. 

 

And port side. 

The chipping is also strongest here, as the anchors are likely to leave clear marks.

 

 

Amidships I aged more subtly. 

And a little more at the rear. 

The painting of the fuselage only continues when the missing parts are attached to the outside, i.e. pretty much at the end. 

The wooden deck was also glazed and applied. 

Now I can start equipping the deck, which I’m looking forward to.