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Super Scale 1/200 Yamato 1944 corrected and superdetailed - Update 11 February: WIP Pics


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Hi, in the early eighties I built some 1/700 WL dioramas for a change of pace. From the modeler's point of view the Japanese Nagato/Mutsu and Yamato/Musashi are particularly attractive. After finishing this detailed 1/700 Yamato post-11944-0-09867700-1375212067_thumb.j it was clear that one day I would build Nichimo's huge model. Some years later I purchased among others this normally quite pricey kit at a close-down sale and started it in the early nineties. I used a GMM photoetched set that was very rudimentary because it was a simple up-scaled 1/700 set. Some time later GMM released a new outstanding set in 1/200 - too late for me.

I was determined to superdetail my model as far as possible. Originally I planned to write a magazine contribution about it, so I took a lot of notes. I realized however that this would go beyond the scope of any article. Anyway I can say that the model is made of more than 6000 parts and that I spent more than 2000 hours building it. This was necessary because the Nichimo kit was designed as an R/C model, so it is mostly rather crude. Some large parts were badly warped. Moreover the model is partially wrong and essential parts are missing. Today the work would be much easier because besides the new GMM set there are many aftermarket parts for those things I had to make myself. In more than 50 years of modeling this was the biggest callenge for me to this day. Building such a detailed model was only possible by the outstanding book "Anatomy of the Ship - The Battleship Yamato" which contained nearly 200 pages full of plans and detail drawings.

Since such detailed model needs protection I made an appropriate showcase for it.

I am going to post the most interesting pictures in high resolution. Please zoom them by holding your key ctrl pressed and pressing your key + several times. You will even recognize sights on the tiny single 25mm MGs.

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Edited by Plastheniker
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  • 2 months later...

Jurgen, That really was a labour of love to super detail that old 1/200th scale Nichimo kit. It just shows what can be done with something that is very basic. I had this kit once and sold it on. But I can remember it being very simplified for radio control and it is one BIG plastic kit, so I can appreciate the amount of work that you have put into it to turn it into a highly detailed display model.

Tamiya have retooled their 1/350th scale Yamato recently along with a lot of photo etched stuff to go with it, but even that can not look as impressive as the model that you have built.

If only you could get it from Germany to show at the UK ScaleModelworld Show at Telford in England?

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Thanks for the comments!

I found some old WIP paper pictures made with a 35mm SLR and scanned them. Though they are more than 20 years old the scans didn't turn out that bad.

These first 6 pictures show the finished ship before I added the final display stand and before I put her into the display case. Due to the different illumination and without any glass reflections further details become visible.

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The following 11 pictures show some WIP sub-assemblies. Probably the give a rough impression of a few problems and some detail work.

1: I aligned the warped sides of the hull with telescoping plastic tubes. The warped „wood“ deck of the kit (brown) was aligned with massive metal square rods and then covered by a scribed new deck. Since the main superstructure part (shown on pictures #3&4) was also badly warped I decided to screw it onto studs. You see some of the brass studs protrude.

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2: The port-holes were poorly moulded and mostly placed incorrectly. I replaced them (if not blanked off) by wire end ferrules. The moulding of the degaussing cable was conspiciousy varying. I replicated it with soldering wire.

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3: I aligned the warped main superstructure part with treaded rods and treaded sleeves fixed to the bottom.

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4: A detail shot of the superstructure. The brass studs protrude into the bases of the 12.7mm AA turrets. These turrets would conceal studs and tightened nuts.

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5: A detail shot of the tower bridge with some corrections.

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6: The massive, completely closed funnel hood after reworking.

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7: The tripoid mast of the kit didn't show the 1944 refit. Converting it I used universal PE frets and telescoping hypodermic needles.

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8: A modified 46cm gun turret and barbette. The light railings on top are made of thin hypodermic needles and nylon monofilament.

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9: A modified 15.5cm gun and barbette.

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10: A modified 12.7cm AA gun turret and a modified triple 25mm AA gun with shield (rather small even in 1/200)

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11: New ensign staff, towing fairlead, and further details hypodermic needles and nylon monofilament.

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Edited by Plastheniker
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