by Vlad Petnicki
1/200 IJN Yamato (Nichimo)
It took me a total of about 1500 hours to finish this kit. My mission: Improve on my original Nichimo Yamato I made in 2007 and featured on this Gallery in the 2007 category. There were many things about that earlier ship that left me unsatisfied, so this time I decided to go 'full-bore, no expenses spared'.
The ship was massively customized to make her correspond to the most up-to-date studies of her final April 1945 "Operation Ten-chi-go" (Heaven Number 1) configuration.
In no particular order, an itemization of the customization done:
1. Metal replacement barrels for the AA machine gun barrels for the 24 turret batteries of triple barreled 25mm AAA machine guns, 28 open mounts of triple barreled 25mm cal AAA machine guns, 2 twin 25mm cal AAA mounts and 8 single 25mm cal AAA mounts, as well as for the 6 turret 12.7 cm (5”) guns were obtained from GPM Models in Poland; The number, location and shield type of the 25mm cal machine guns was based on the most up-to-date Japanese research - you will note that there is some difference from Skulski's diagrams - but his book was written before the wreck was found and fully examined.
2. The main 18.1 inch batteries were obtained from Konishi Modelworks of Japan they are accurate in shape and size and made from machhine-tooled brass. Very expensive (almost twice the cost of the Nichimo kit itself), but a 100% improvement on the inaccurate and too small Nichimo plastic main turrets; Blast bags were painstakingly hand-sculpted by me, one by one, from Quickplastic putty. Support struts were added to the sides of the 3 main battery barbettes from left-over Gold Medal Models photoetch parts. Konishi also supplied the Operation Ten-ichi-go Chrysanthemum Funnel decals, flag, name characters for the stern, and the depth markings for the hull on the bow and stern sections.
3. The main forward fire director was re-sculpted into a semi-circle in the front with the aid of an exacto-knife and Quickplastic putty, in order to match the most recent research; the one supplied with the kit was rectangular;
4. Harry Ohanian (resellersunlimited2007 on ebay) provided the custom made lead binoculars for the command deck, as well as winches, additional ammo boxes, gold-leaf Chrysanthemum Crest for the bow, custom cast lead open mount 12.7cm (5") up and down moving guns, expanded lower part of the rear front tower that was made in 1945, and multiple mushroom vents of various sizes. Harry's own custom Nichimo Yamato is on display at the USN Naval Museum.
5. All of the open 25mm cal AAA machine gun mounts were partially built from photoetch kits made by GPM Models in Poland (a true nightmare as, for example, each one of the 28 open 25mm cal AAA 3-barrel mounts required at least an hour apiece to assemble; additionally I had to cast about a dozen new bases for the open AAA mounts as the original Nichimo kit is based on the 1944 ship configuration which lacks all of the extra AA machine gun mounts added for Operation Ten-ichi-go in 1945. The gold circles are the bulls-eyes on each side of the machine guns, which were manned by two sailors sitting down on each side of the mount, plus a third to re-load the cartridges. I left them gold so they would not disappear into the background;
6. Custom hexagonal AA machine gun buckets were built for the tops of main turrets 2 & 3.
7. Custom AA open deck mount protection walls were built on the deck and a custom platform was built for the two stern AA machine gun batteries;
8. The open aircraft well was built in the rear (the kit makes it look like an elevator, flush with the deck - the problem is, it was not an elevator but a permanent well); custom doors were built and rails added disappearing into the opening below decks from whence the aircraft were brought out; the same railroad metal rails were added to the flight deck for additional realism;
9. Ten additional 25mm AA machine gun turrets were resin-cast (note that I added custom-made metal hand rails to the front of each of the 24 AA turret batteries and 5" gun turret batteries). I also cast 4 additional AA fire directors needed to guide all the added AA machine gun mounts - two replaced the lower deck search lights and two more were added on the second deck between the 5-inch turrets; I also cast numerous additional boat divots for the sides of the ship.
10. Besides adding both of the Gold Medal Models photoetch frets items, I also made some additional photoetch details for the main guns, including the support struts alongside the main 3 gun turrets. I also made some superstructure staircase platforms from left-over GPM photoetch parts.
11. Custom made girders supporting the rear aircraft deck were added to replace the flimsy ones supplied with the kit. You will note that there are 9 instead of 12 struts. I cut the number down as I didn't want it to look too crowded. The actual number of struts on Yamato was 12.
The fire-guards for the 5" guns were made from wire and attached based on the best available Japanese diagrams as to their location and shape, though a bit simplified due to the scale of the ship.
The front bow pole and support struts to which the cables running from the superstructure are attached was replaced with metal wires and a metal pole to prevent bending which the plastic pole tends to do when you attach the cables tightly. Actually, the 2 support struts were in front of the main pole, not behind it. But it was too much trouble to fix.
The deck is the original Nichimo plastic deck, painted and dry-brushed with Acrylic paints to look as much as possible like wood. I felt that my skill level was still not up to trying to lay down real wooden planks, or simulated plastic ones.
Please also visit my website, the Internet's most comprehensive Battleships Yamato/Musashi Photo Archive.
