Hello Everybody,
I am finally getting started on one of my first builds of the New Year,
Tamiya’s 1/350th Scale Japanese Navy Destroyer, Yukikaze I picked up from
Hobby Link Japan. This build in it’s entirety will be only shown here on SMA.
So let’s dig right into this…
Here is a quick few pictures of what is in the box:
First, after looking through the directions and getting familiar with the kit, I started right in working on the hull.
First, I sanded down the hull a bit. There were a couple of pin marks and bumps that needed to be dealt with. In this picture you can see one, slightly different color, dead center on the picture.
After giving everything a quick wash to knock down some of the dust from sanding, I have to install the base mounting nuts. There are two of these. They fit nicely in two molded sections inside the hull. Each one of these mounting nuts has a covering cap that needed to be glued on. This keeps the nut in place after the weather decks are installed. First the holes needed to be fully drilled out before installing the nuts.
Then I installed the nuts
Once the mounting nuts are in place, I turned my attention to the bulkhead pieces that are supplied to keep everything tight and square between the lower hull and the upper hull sections. There are three of these that need to be installed.
Shortly after installing the three bulkheads, I realized how delicate the forward bulkhead was. The piece is designed with a breakaway top. This is removed and used if the model is being constructed in a waterline configuration. This piece started to become loose. I decided to attach a couple pieces of spare styrene to both sides to strengthen it a bit.
At this point I will be straying from the directions for a short while. Although this is a finely molded kit, the hull was molded completely smooth. I wanted to add some definition to it and decided to create some panel lines to show where the large steel plates would have been welded together. Most of these panel line I will be putting on will barely be seen when done...but they will be somewhat noticeable.
First I needed to mark out the area so I would not end up randomly placing panel lines all over the hull. Here you can see I drew a center line (right) and an end line on the bilge keel.
These marks will aid in making sure my vertical and horizontal line come out fairly straight.
As you can see above, I placed masking tape vertically the entire length of the hull. By trying to leave an approximate 1mm gap between each piece of tape, this will serve to help me create a raised welded panel line in the hull. Below you can see how I began to apply some white putty to just the little gaps between the tape.
After removing the tape, you can begin to see the formation of raised lines. These look a little rough at first but when all the lines are placed some sanding will be done.
Next I needed to run horizontal lines from one end to the other. These lines I wanted to stagger. These panel lines are not always run in straight lines. The ship builders would get a stronger hull from staggering the joints of steel.
You can see how I placed putty on every other spacing and then doing the same on a secondary horizontal row on the hull.
At this point I took a break from making panel lines and began to open up the port holes on the hull. By opening the portholes, this adds a sort of volume to the model and a touch of realism. Using a #74 drill bit and a pin vice, simply drilled them out.
Next up, I needed to deal with the joint where the upper hull pieces and the lower section came together. The joint was actually really tight right out of the box. Normally I would have just glued the three pieces together and filled any depressions in the joint. This time, I ran tape as I did with the other hull section I made along this joint.
Using the same application of putty, I ran this line around this entire joint of the hull.
In this shot you can see the open portholes.
Getting back to construction I needed to set a poly-washer in a pre-foremed spot in the hull where the rudder will be attached.
There is a molded cap that needs to be installed here as well.
At this point in the build, the hull is ready to be closed up with the installation of the weather deck sections. There are three horizontal sections to the weather deck.
There are various 1mm and one 1.5mm holes that need to be drilled out on these deck sections. These will be needed later on with other pieces.
After drilling all the holes out, I then dry fit the entire weather deck assembly checking for any areas that might need attention before gluing.
The deck fit is actually really good. I will have very little work on gluing all of the weather decks in,
At this time, I had given the entire lower hull a quick sanding with 600 grit sandpaper.
This is pretty close to what I wanted to see it looking like at this point, slightly raised panel lines. I have some touch up sanding to do at this point and then I will be attaching the weather deck permanently. As a final check I will spray a light primer coat to the entire hull assembly. This will let me see how well these panel line look and show me any gaps I may have missed during the gluing processes.
As always thank you for stopping by to check out my progress on the Yukikaze. I hope you come back soon to see my next update here on SMA.
