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New design IJN Fuso 1/200. 3D printed kit.

Bryian

Bryian

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Hello friends,
I have just taken delivery of my latest purchase, a 3D printed resin kit of the Japanese battlecruiser Fuso (circa 1944).
I’m currently researching the ship and not sure whether she was a battlecruiser or a dreadnought battleship. Please chime in with a comment if you can clarify this for me.
By the size of the ship, I would assume she is in the super dreadnought class of ships.
Today I have started separating the pieces from the 3D printed cages that contain the parts and washing them with warm soapy water and scrubbing with an old toothbrush.

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You can see it’s glaringly obvious the deck planking is rather ugly and over exaggerated . I will rectify this with some generic timber decking in 1/200 scale.
Other than that, my first impression is it looks good to me.
 
she is a battleship as a battlecruiser would have been faster. http://combinedfleet.com/ships/fuso
besides fixing the decks, you will also have to do something about the grooves representing hull plates as in that scale the hull hull would be smooth as would the decks be.
 
Definitely a Battleship. She and Yamashiro both had decent armor for the time. They had 12" thick main belts compared to 8" on the Kongo class battle cruisers (as built.) I'd love to see what the pagoda tower looks like. I'm working on designing that in 1:96 ATM.
 
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Thanks David. I'm pretty sure I have those. And I've got many other references including card models and the AOTS book. I'd definitely recommend the book. What I really need is time and to get my CNC router up and running. I am curious to see how and where they decided to break up the pagoda. There's a lot of trade offs.
 
David, thank you. You’re a great naval historian.
Question, I agree with you about the heavy panel lines in the hull, and intend to fill them in with putty. But I was wondering if it’s accurate for the portholes to be protruding from the hull like the photo attached ? In addition, would the portholes be brass coloured or grey painted ?

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If the resin is brittle like that, you will want to dip the parts in hot but, not boiling water to soften them up when you remove the supports. I've had parts that were so difficult that I had to blend two resins together to prevent prints from shattering when removing them from the platter : (
 
xanthar said:
If the resin is brittle like that, you will want to dip the parts in hot but, not boiling water to soften them up when you remove the supports. I've had parts that were so difficult that I had to blend two resins together to prevent prints from shattering when removing them from the platter : (
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Thank you. I have washed the parts in warm soapy water a few times, as there was sticky residue on the pieces.
 
That's not a good sign. Sounds like they didn't take the time to clean the parts well. You'll want to use isopropyl alcohol to clean them instead of water. You don't want that nasty resin stuff going down a drain. Letting the left over alcohol sit in the sun will cure what gets dissolved into solids that are inert enough to land filled.
 
xanthar said:
That's not a good sign. Sounds like they didn't take the time to clean the parts well. You'll want to use isopropyl alcohol to clean them instead of water. You don't want that nasty resin stuff going down a drain. Letting the left over alcohol sit in the sun will cure what gets dissolved into solids that are inert enough to land filled.
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Thats a good tip, thank you. So will isopropyl alcohol will not damage the parts ?
 
Bryian, how thick are those port holes & does the Fuso email i sent you show any port holes as i think they should be either almost flush or they might be steel plated over on the hull like the Americans did after Pearl Harbor?
how thick of material can that cutter cut thru & how thick is the deck?
according to the Japanese Combined Fleet & math, your model should be 41.88"/1063.572mm long. http://combinedfleet.com/ships/fuso
your Arizona model with the real ship at 608.5' long should be 36.51"/927.354mm long.
 
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Davidp said:
Bryian, how thick are those port holes & does the Fuso email i sent you show any port holes as i think they should be either almost flush or they might be steel plated over on the hull like the Americans did after Pearl Harbor?
how thick of material can that cutter cut thru & how thick is the deck?
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David,
the portholes protrude 2mm out from the hull, and it doesn't look correct to me. Anyway, I will enjoy modifying the model to truly represent the real ship.
 
re-read my last post as i added more info.
are the holes horizontal or slightly angled downward depending on the hull shape?
at 2mm, in real life, that would be 15.748"/399.9992mm, i would do it flush.
 
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