by Mario Grima
1/200 IJN Yamato (Nichimo)
Three years ago I took the undertaking of refitting an old r/c Yamato. The model was originally built in the 70's and r/c fitted in the 80's. Once completed in the 80's, the model featured a wooded deck, detailed with GMM's first Yamato brass set and the r/c system which by today's standard is primitive. The model was in desperate need of modernization. During the tear down, the model was completely gutted out of all mechanics/electronics to the bare hull. Old glue parts broke apart clean, but some parts were missing and had to be re-fabricated. One thing I did that I still question to myself, was to alter the Nicihmo stern. I kept running into photos in Japanese books depicting a flat stern, so I wanted to do something different with this old Yamato. I used a steel plate and finished it out into the stern, even though I did it, I feel it was one thing I didn't have to do. Performance in the water is still similar to that of the regular Nicihmo stern. The only difference is that it plows up more water in reverse mode.
After improving and reinstalling the mechanical and electronic r/c system, I proceeded the reconstruction of the upper hull and superstructure. I used Loren Perry's Gold Medal Model 1/200 Yamato Set with the Gold plus set. These are excellent sets and helped in replacing lots of the old lost plastic parts. I had previously refitted my 1945 Yamato and added the gold plus set to it. They are a must with these ships. The aircraft trolley railings look 100% better then the stock solid Nicihmos. One of the things I retained from the old ship was the wooded base wood deck, I wanted to built a 1944 yamato so the deck should look yellower then the 1945 dark wood Yamato. The base wood preformed well for this so it was left alone. I also added more details to both ships with extra side grab irons and the hole on the bow that is missing on the Nicihmo kit. The hole is sealed internally with a backing to keep water out from hitting head on waves. The grab iron glue set holes were drilled out very carefully not to puncture the hull. The rigging was installed similar to my 1945 Yamato in that it detaches to free access under the superstructure island. The ship also runs on a 7.2 Nicad Battery. The two surviving aircraft had their cockpits drilled out, and the windows remade using wire for the frames and clear poxy for the glass.
With that, here are the images of the completed 1944 Yamato trials along side the 1945 Okinawa Yamato in a Day Of Yamatos.
