IJN Mogami, Aircraft Carrier Heavy Cruiser, Tamiya 1/350 [Completed Build]

[Will @ Trilogy]

After much studying and soul searching I picked the Mogami for my next build. I have two reasons why Mogami was picked the first being a kit of intermediate building skills necessary and the second I like the unusual appearance of the flight deck cruiser.
Rather than writing a ship history I'll post a short description taken from the Tamiya website:

The Aircraft Carrying Cruiser In the latter half of the Pacific War, the Japanese Navy refitted the Mogami to improve her reconnaissance ability. Construction of the Mogami was completed in July 1935, and she was initially armed with five triple 15.5cm main guns. After the withdrawal of the London Naval Treaty, she was refitted with three triple 20.3cm main guns and became a heavy cruiser. In the first half of WWII, she served at the Malayan Operation and the Battle of Sunda Strait. Later at Midway in June 1942, she was heavily damaged by an aircraft bombing raid but was able to return to port. During repairs, she was fitted with an upper deck which could carry 11 aircraft, and ten triple 25mm anti-aircraft batteries were added for defense. In May 1943, the newly shaped Mogami left the dry docks but due to damaged sustained in November of the same year from air attacks at Rabaul, she underwent further repairs and her armament was once again strengthened. In June, 1944, she served at the defense of the Mariana Islands, and it was in October at the Leyte Gulf where she saw her end when she was attacked by enemy warships suffering catastrophic damage and sank into the depths of the Mindanao Sea.

After waiting for delivery a box arrived yesterday



Opened shipping box


Unwrapped bubble foam


First look


Next is to verify contents for missing pieces and inspect individual sprue. More to come

 

[Iterum]

Hello Will, as I do like IJN designs I am happy to have found your threat and do follow with great intrest.

As I ready a lot by the great modeller Wolfram zu Mondfeld my question is certainly If you did have the finished ship imagined to your inner eye. So you know what the model Schall Feature in the very end? A Diorama with floatplanes taken aboard? Or a harbour scene? Her in typical display manner? What is the "look" you do aim for?


On the Website of Kagero in Poland

The Japanese Cruiser Chikuma

Waldemar GóralskiThe Japanese Cruiser Chikuma According to arrangements of the Treaty of London light cruiser could be armed with guns of maximum caliber of 155 mm, in number of up to 15 pieces. Japa

shop.kagero.pl

you will find some astonishing booklets with tremendouse details about


IJN Cruiser's MAYA, CHIKUMA, and TAKAO - all her sisters anf/or halfsisters. So this may hopefully some helpfull hint in some way to your great project.

Thanks a lot for sharing your progress with us.

 

[Will @ Trilogy]

Thanks for the book Chris. I bought a used copy today and am sure it will come very useful with my build.

Spent the day examining the sprue pieces along with the hull. Inventory revealed no missing or damaged pieces. The hull is one piece and was slide moulded leaving lines extending fore and aft from the stabilizers. I'll have some careful to do as these lines cross some of the plate image lines.

Overall impression of Tamiya moulding quality was highest that I've seen. Will have to wait to dry fit and see how it goes together. I took pictures of the sprue and will post them below


Tomorrow I'll try a method of scraping I saw on a youtube video.

 

[NMBROOK]

Fabulous to see another IJN build on here Will. Flyhawk do a particularly nice upgrade package for this kit.

I love these vessels almost as much as 17th century warships and my stash is growing particularly fast, perhaps too fast

As well as currently building Akagi, I also have the following;

Two ! Glow 2b Yamatos 1/200, one to be built as Shinano

Tamiya 1/350 Musashi with Flyhawk super detail kit.

Currently in the post, Fujimi 1/350 Kaga with the completely bonkers Tetra upgrade kit.

Fujimi Ise to be added at some point but I need to slow down

Yes, I have a problem.....

Kind Regards

Nigel

 

[Donnie]

Very impressive kit and model - this all looks rather intricate and complicated. You mentioned intermediate skills - hmm - I wonder what the advanced would be then - wow.

 

[Will @ Trilogy]

Logged on this morning seeing these lovely reviews, comments and likes. Thanks to all
Nigel thanks for the Tetra Model Works PE upgrade information. While deciding what to build my next contender was Fujimi Akagi when Mogami is complete.

 

[Will @ Trilogy]

Yesterday was a day that made me reflect on starting plastic models about how much progress is made at the beginning of a build. One day and it looks like a ship. Started the day removing the mold lines from the hull.

mold line proceeding from the stabilizer

Using the scraping method I saw on a youtube video worked as shown. Take a new #11 blade and holding almost perpendicular to the surface lightly (I mean very lightly) drag the blade along the length of the item being scraped. Care must be taken not to over scrape when on a curved surface as you don't want to make a flat. On each pass of the blade scraping the surface small pieces accumulate on the blade indicating that you are removing material. I found the method easy to use and worked as hoped. The lines preceding aft of the stabilizer were a little fiddly as the crossed plate mold lines. When the lines crossed I started scraping at the junction not to damage the plate line.

The scraped line prior to sanding.


The kit has a package with brackets and screws along with a screwdriver.


The sides were attached using the brackets and screws provided . It is impossible to misalign the sides to the hull as there are molded pins on the sides that along to holes on the hull. Attaching the brackets was very fiddly as you had put the hull braces inside the hull on the privies step and the are small. The screws for the brackets are 1,2mm x 6mm so thank goodness the screwdriver is magnetized.

Hull supports


Sides on and ready to test fit the decks


Now on the first kit modification. On a video it was pointed out that the deck below the aircraft deck was molded a pair of stair cases like big blobs. These stair cases led to closed deck hatches on the flight deck. I decided to remove the staircases open the deck hatches and install a pair of angled pe stairs with IJN open pe deck hatches.
First thing was to cut off the molded stairs. I forgot to take a picture of the stairs before cutting them off so I staged them for the before photo.


Next was to cut them off and scrape flush with deck put a backing piece on the back and fill with plastic putty.


Next step for tomorrow is to cut off the molded hatches on the above deck as show in photos.

Busy day and a good days work.

 

[Will @ Trilogy]

Day was spent cutting openings in aircraft deck for incline ladders to the lower deck. This took longer that I thought it would and I'm very glad that the deck gets painted hiding my blemishes.

Above is the topside of the aircraft deck and below is the bottom or ceiling.

Here is a photo of the incline ladder sitting place. You must look carefully between all the posts to see the pe ladder just sitting in place.

Next step was the propulsion system. Very straight forward without any necessary comments.

Next is to drill out the port holes as I think it looks better open instead of the grey paint. I saw a YouTube video where the port holes were glazed using plastic wrap behind them in the inside of the hull and I decided not to try this with my limited experience. Maybe another model.
One thing Tamiya was molding the degaussing cables into the hull so I ordered a set from Tamiya. I'll have gone as far I as can until the Flyhawk pe arrives which is scheduled for next week deliver. Not sure about Tamiya and the degaussing pe but without these painting has to wait.

 

[Will @ Trilogy]

I have completed up to step 9 and need to add the degaussing cables from Tamiya. One thing Tamiya left off was the degaussing cables from the mold and they sell a pe kit of degaussing cables which arrived yesterday. I ordered the FlyHawk pe to enhance the look. Part of the pe kit is to plate the decks. Whether to use the pe deck is going to take some serious studying as they require removing parts of the plastic deck. Just not sure which way will be the best.
The degaussing cables were very fiddly as the width of the image is such that no springing they just bend. Two days of work and they are done and primed ready to paint.
Photo pe kit


A couple shots of pe degaussing cable
Before cable


After cable added


What is very interesting is the color images of the Mogami show the cable and even the pe instruction mention to add them as in the Mogami and yet not molded into the hull ?????
I've primed the boat and is ready for paint. I think the decks will be very challenging with the brown wood and the grey steel. I can't see how to paint them after they've painted. More pondering

 

[Will @ Trilogy]

I made the decision not to use the FlyHawk pe decks. If following the instructional photos you would have to remove all the deck features molded into the kit decks.

and add the features back to the pe deck. The FlyHawk kit does not supply the features to the level of the molded deck. If you add the pe deck it would sit tall of the ship hull not as the kit is designed. So moving forward with the kit build I painted the red anti foul paint with a second coat being added today. Next tape off the red and paint the hull and deck ijn dark grey.

Now with the painting started I can continue with the build. I had finished section nine and will move on to section ten before painting the grey.

 

[Will @ Trilogy]

Finished painting the hull ijn grey with the ijn red rust. i'm very happy with paint results and the colors.
Two coats of promer

Just the red


Grey and red


Remember when I cut hatch holes in the aircraft deck and how they looked so rough and unfinished here's a picture of the deck painted.


I've been working on the superstructures with the FlyHawk pe attached. Some of the pe calls for using pe decks and not the kit decks but in some cases the kit deck have better features.


Now with painted completed I can concentrate on completing the build with more to come.

 

[Will @ Trilogy]

Well I thought the painting was completed and then I realized that the brown wood decks needed painting. So again spent the morning taping the grey from the brown. That done it was back to the paint shop (garage).
Completed brown decks



The pe ladders between the gun deck and forecastle deck.


Afternoon spent assembling the deck fixtures and preparing the hanger deck.


Have now completed section 15 of the instructions. Some pictures of where Mogami stands after todays work.

No work tomorrow have a medical appointment lunch with daughter and maybe a nap.

 

[J L]

Looking great; lunch with the daughter and a nap after. The best part of the day!

 

[Will @ Trilogy]

Lots of work on superstructures and adding pe parts and railings. Completed up to section 23 and now almost ready for airplanes. Some pictures of present state showing the parts needing painting and the 3d printed aa guns. I found these type 96 triple cannon aa guns at BlackCat Models.

showing the midship structures and 3d aa guns. it was a very difficult assembly. The ladders between the decks were very fiddly.

View from forward looking aft

View looking forward from the aft


Closeup of midsection


Closeup of the type 96 aa gun.


Now on to the flight deck

 

[Bryian]

Thats looking great. Are you going to weather the paintwork, or leave it new looking ?

 

[Will @ Trilogy]

Thanks to everyone following and the likes/comments it helps me staying motivated. Bryian I plan to weather the hull with rust and salt and the superstructures with light rust staining.
Yesterday I started the flight deck and immediately discovered a problem. I couldn't find part D19 for the track runners. No matter where I looked it remained AWOL. Spent the balance of afternoon cutting a strip of ABS to fit in the track.

Strip glued into the slot only thing missing will be the diamond plate texture but I'm hopping the planes will hid the missing diamond plate pattern. This done now its on to sections 23 and 24. I'll continue studying the photo etch and the guns trying to decide if using the pe will improve the out of the box look. I have two sets of pe one being the FlyHawk and the other being Gold Medal Models. I'm thinking to make a gun with each pe with temporary glue to decide which way to go.

 

[Will @ Trilogy]

After studying the differences between the FlyHawk and Gold Medal pe I decided on the Gold Medal pe for the main guns. First was to build the gun housings. When building the first housing I forgot to put the poly caps in causing major oh *****. Fortunately I used thin cement that had not set completely and with fiddling I was able to separate the joints without any damage. Then I scraped off all the molded features to give the pe a flat smooth surface to adhere. GMM pe came in two weights. The heaver one with the sides and the lighter with railings. The railing very very delicate to attach without deforming.




On the smaller guns in the middle of the ship

 

[SigEp Ziggy]

I can see why you chose this model, it is a very interesting model ship build

 

[ConsNZ]

Nice work with the PE. I agree about railings, very easy to mash up accidently and without thinking.

 

[Will @ Trilogy]

Finally finished everything with the exception of the boats and airplanes. Started the boats but soon realized they would be small projects by themselves. The first boat has 4 paint colors to deal with so a carful plan needed to be thought. Started with painting the inside desert yellow and after drying the red gunwale. When dry the IJN grey hull and lastly the pe thwarts to a desert yellow. So after some thought I think I'll build the boats simultaneously. Until then the airplanes can be build in conjunction with the boats. Assemble, finish and paint go to the other set assemble, finish and paint. I'm figuring on a couple of days maybe three, so here is a Jake painted green for testing.
A long shut of the finished Mogami

First plane



Plane with carriages

Carriages

I did a short walk around video of the Mogami but cannot figure out how to upload into my post.