1/700 – Seven Scales

Posted on August 6, 2021August 14, 2021 by Seven Scales — Leave a comment

[WIP] 1/700 USS Enterprise CV-6 Video Logs

Video Logs:

Writing

I finally started working on my trumpeter 1/700 Enterprise, this time i decided to video log the build. I will probably divide the build into 4 videos: island, hull+hangar, paint, accessories (AA guns, air wings) + sea base, and when i finish a video, it will be updated here. You can also follow me on twitter or youtube for more frequent updates.

This will be my first carrier model, and i intend to give my best on this legendary ship!

Posted on August 3, 2021August 16, 2021 by Seven Scales — Leave a comment

1/700 HMS Hood 1941 [FlyHawk Model FH1160][Video Review]

Posted on April 9, 2021February 27, 2022 by Seven Scales — 2 Comments

1/700 IJN Chokai Heavy Cruiser [鳥海][重巡洋艦]

IJN Chokai, 4th ship of the Takao class. This model depict her early 1942 configuration prior to becoming the flagship of vice admiral Mikawa and the battle of savo island.

Build Log Part1

Conclusion:
This is by far the most difficult build i’ve done so far. Started 24-Oct-2020, slightly surreal to me it’s finally finished!
Despite the difficulties, i really enjoyed the build, and the result far exceeded my expectations. I’m super thankful that nothing went wrong during the painting process, if i damaged the model beyond repair i might be devastated XD.

And I must say Takao class does look very amazing and menacing, and the blue from the ocean really brings it to life!
I also must mention that I learned a lot from Studio Blue Ocean (YouTube), whom inspired me to put more effort into ocean base, I spend a week on it with multiple layers, really like how it turned out, the vivid blue is very satisfying to look at in person.

Also i know the scout planes are supposed to be scouting haha, i just find the model looks more complete with the aircrafts.

About the kit:
Fujimi kit’s has always been up there, although details are not as sharp as those on the newer tooled 1/700 ships (flyhawk, veryfire etc.), but it does provide a very solid foundation for improvements.
Also anyone wishes to build a 1937 Takao (1st refit) could use this kit, because other than some minor details, i did pretty much built a 1937 Takao.

Known mistakes i’ve made:

Hull panel lines are not accurate
didn’t use the corret PE for bridge window
possibly many incorrect vent placements on deck, i merely replaced the kit’s moulded vents
Wake pattern isn’t realistic

Despite the mistakes, i’m still very proud of the result. This build has the most detailing work i’ve ever done. The introduction to 3D printing has showed me many possibilities, i look forward to using it more on future builds.

Thanks for reading this blog!

Posted on April 8, 2021June 21, 2022 by Seven Scales — 2 Comments

[WIP] 1/700 IJN Chokai Heavy Cruiser [鳥海][重巡洋艦] Part 3

Continuing from last post (part 2), it’s time for painting!

I start with Mr. Surfacer 1500 black primer

Waterline is painted with the 50% linoleum brown 50% red

I scraped away the metal bracings with 1mm chisel (trumpeter tools)

I added alittle bit of blue to IJN grey, also white to make it less dark.
I tried to make the base paint less dark than the final result because i usually paint the whole model with black wash which darkens the model.
This eliminates the need of trying to clean up the wash.

(sorry for blurry picture) This is where i begin weathering, i use tamiya’s black and brown panel line wash to create variations on the hull.

I took this photo with my GX9, which shows the actual color much better than picture taken by phone.
This was exactly how the model looked at this stage.

I used PVA glue on the railings to recreate the white canvas

Once hardened, the railings are painted with oil paint (mixed using white and sand color)

I spend a week experimenting with 3D printing, in this batch i printed some reels and the timber.
Layer lines are usually a problem, but here they actually works well.

Ship modellers will understand the JOY of not having to build one of these reels again…

Another print of name plate, oars and llifebuoy. The oars took several trial and error to print.

I’ve seen people 3D print diorama bases for their model, but not for ocean.
I figured i’d give it a go, believing that i could make it work, I spend like 10 hours on sculpting the sea.

It did print! And fits perfectly, the hours of precise measurement paid off.
However i made the base much narrower inorder to fit the case.

I didn’t buy any aftermarket set for the motor boats, so i printed them. The layerlines were a big problem here on the curved hull.

I went ahead painting the boats, i thought the layer lines might look less obvious after painting.
Here i super glued little pins under the boats so i could hold them properly.

NOPE, sadly the layer lines are even more obvious. But other than that, they are quite nicely detailed.

The 13.2mm machine guns took a long time to make, and it’s quite difficult to print too, only 2 good out of 6 due to how slim the barrel is. But 2 was all i needed.

The model at this stage, it’s already looking pretty incredible

I painted inside the lights with silver and topped it off with a drop of clear paint, it didn’t work well, perhaps i used the wrong clear paint.
I’ve seen some youtube tutorials done similar things for aircraft cockpit dials, Ill have to try again with the correct product in the future.

I reprinted the motor boats, this time sanding the layer lines. The result is much better

I tried to improve the aircraft with this PE set from Rainbow

The clear plastic is terrible to work with because it confuses your depth perception. It looks much more transparent and less white in real life.

Decals applied and painted.
However i think i didn’t sand down the wings enough, they still look like sausages, ill 3D print some replacement the next time i build an IJN ship.

Other than the riggings the ship is complete, so i started work on the base.

I added thinned PVA glue, tried to create some layers.

At this point, i added 4 layers of paint + wave medium + clear coat, it’s starting to look nice!
I tried to draw the foam like Studio Blue Ocean (https://youtu.be/bdbGxidDZTU?t=1469), but it didn’t work, i’m not skilled enough yet.

This is the final layer, i really love the vivid blue color

I attached the ship to the base using expoxy glue, and begin the rigging process.
Here i used a very handy rigging PE from oceanspirit.

The rest of the rigging is Modelkasten 0.1

I find it very useful to plan the rigging in photoshop, i used layers to separate them into sections so i can toggle them on or off.
I mostly used Mr Oiso’s Chokai for rigging reference (http://oisofactory.blog.fc2.com/)

The Chokai is finally going to be completed once the rigging is done! I am super excited to see the final result of this long long project!

Posted on January 2, 2021June 21, 2022 by Seven Scales — 3 Comments

[WIP] 1/700 IJN Chokai Heavy Cruiser [鳥海][重巡洋艦] Part 1

In my opinion, Takao class is the best looking heavy cruiser from ww2 era, very iconic, so Takao class has always been on my must build list, when I saw this Fujimi Chokai kit on sale I immediately grabbed it.
It was only after I realized there was no comprehensive PE sets for this ship (Among the 4 sister ships, flyhawk left her out….).

Heres what the kit looks like roughly assembled together, already looking impressive!

I encountered a build of the same kit by Vladi from the shipmodel forum, he pointed out some of the issues this kit had and other useful informations. I mostly followed his advice on what to modify.

I begin with the hull, if glued normally, there would be a really big seam line.
So I removed most of the details on the hull first then glued them together and sanded it smooth.

To create the hull plating, I tried a new method here, simply gluing styrene strips. I used 0.13mm thick styrene here, so it had to be further sanded down a bit.

After sanding the styrene and drilling out portholes, i scribed some plating seamlines.
I think this is one of the most obvious mistake i made, the vertical seamlines are too far apart. I did this around 2am so i had no idea what i was doing… note to self: don’t do anything important on a model after 12.

There is supposed to be a ‘lip’ around the torpedo ports on the takao class. I decide to use 0.2mm wires, the ‘template’ is made from tamiya 2 part epoxy pressed into the port with plenty of water so they don’t stick.
You can also use stretched sprue to achieve similar result, i simply tried this method to experiment.

using the hardened epoxy template, i can easily create the shape and glued it onto the hull.

Bridge:

The massive bridge is pretty complicated, after getting used to building destroyers and the Tenryu in 2020, which had tiny bridges, this was a change of pace for sure.
Here I can only roughly describe what i did, because i keep adding little bits and pieces onto it without documenting it too well.

Before modification, TBH other than the windows, the kit already looks really great, but when photos are taken at this distance, the details starts to look soft.

I first removed the unsightly mast and recreated the structure with brass rods.
For the red box area, i fixed the seamline using a black putty. It’s the first time using this putty, and i have to say it’s AMAZING for small models, because they don’t really dry until you cure it. So it gives me a much better control i can apply it by very small amounts.

The resin parts here are from Rainbow model (rb7154) IJN fire control system IV. They are pretty amazing to look at. The only down side is the set only includes 4 of those small type90 lookout tower, and this kit needs 7. So the other 3 had to be scratch build in a closed position.
I also replaced the middle director on the top of the bridge for the 2nd time. I wasn’t happy with the original part as well as the first time

I also must point out from a few image of the Chokai i found, the kit’s bridge portholes were wrong too. I corrected them during the build.

I also worked on the main funnel area.
Note that one of the pipe wraps around the mast, thus i decide to secure the bridge, funnel and mast onto the hull first before attaching the pipe that wraps and other details.

Initially i followed the kit’s instruction and added those rectangular vents on both side.

This is the most controversial part of the build, i found out the kit could be wrong, from documents on the Takao (Anatomy of the ship Takao by Janusz Skulski), it shows the vent wasn’t a vent, it was a compartment for washing machine? And it’s asymmetrical too, the leftside had the heavy oil hose shed. The shape of the AA platform wasn’t square either.
There wasn’t a exact picture showing the Chokai had this setup, however i’m more leaning towards the idea that they were built from the same blueprint thus mostly identical. So i decide to mod this part.

Modded left side. Can also see i corrected the shape of the second funnel.

I’m not the best at scratch building a entire new part, this was the best i could do. I really need to invest in a 3D printer someday.

Before working on more super structure, i thought i should complete the deck first to avoid damage a finished mast.
The hatches are first glued on to a piece of styrene with CA, then the styrene is cut out and glued onto deck with normal thin glue.
Holes are drilled for the machined metal vents. Triangle supports are added around the turrets

Ahh linoleum bracing.. here we go again.

For the previous Tenryu build, i simply glued the strips with medium CA glue, which left abit of glue marks. Here i decide to use thin CA and clean the extra CA with a 1mm chisel. The result is very clean, but each strip took alot longer. The forward deck took me 5 hours.

At this point i was extremely bored with the linoleum deck bracing, i begin to create a sea base.
The base is cut out from a soft pine wood sheet, and adding clay on top. The center of the base is hollowed out, so i could place the ship at an angle, such as lowering the bow tilting at an angle.

It really make the ship look even more top heavy. But it think it’s really cool!
I’m thinking to add big splashes to both side of the bow and make the sea even more rough.

That’s all for part 1. It’s already a pretty long post, perhaps i need to do 3 parts for this build.
Part 2 will probably focus on the hangars and turrets, and part 3 will be painting and rigging.

Posted on October 2, 2020June 21, 2022 by Seven Scales — Leave a comment

[WIP] 1/700 IJN Tenryu 天龍 (軽巡洋艦) Part 2

Resuming the build from [Part 1]:

Added support structures for mast and the canvas roof

This antenna thing (radio direction finder) was really difficult to make out of random PE parts i found.
The kit(1942 Tenryu) and most WWII IJN ships have the circular version, but 1926 Tenryu did not.

Antenna mounted, also completed rear torpedo resupply crane

forward AA platform, this was modified from a spare platform belonged to another ship, the kit’s platform doesn’t match 1926 Tenryu.

Before painting, i also decided to glue the life boat davits. I thought since i already added most stuff, might as well make the masking and painting even more difficult….

turrets: the plastic part is really thick, i had to shave them down abit with a file. Only the edges are reduced, giving the illusion of thinness

the blast bags are made from regular mr hobby putty. Originally i tried to use tamiya 2 part epoxy putty, but it didn’t really stick to the gun barrel. Using the standard putty was actually pretty good because i can use lacquer paint thinner to smooth and shape it.

i decide to take a good photo of her with all the golden PE parts before painting

Started with black primer (1500 mr hobby surfacer)

I made this “scraper” tool out of a bad tweezer, the hook shape is useful for this kind of things without damaging the railing.
Also, i did knock the forward mast off by accident, luckily it snapped clean off.

Masking with tape cut into little rectangles. This cutting template is really useful but it dulls the blade quite fast.

After painting the primary color, masking tapes are slowly peeled off

I noticed the rear mast was a bit too thick towards the top, i made a new one.

i added some very vague instruments for the bridge. It’s not really accurate, but it looks better than empty.

The canvas roof is something i been worrying about since the start of the build, i didn’t want it look too thick like a cotton blanket.
But i didn’t find any good material other than normal tissue paper. So i separated it to the thinnest layer and went ahead.

I put PVC glue on the tissue paper, it absorbed it really well

Once it hardens, i painted it and other canvas parts with white oil paint
Btw the dark and bright area on the hull is created simply vertical brushing with tamiya’s black panel liner wash, they seem to diffuse nicely when applied just the right amount.

It still looks abit too thick, but i think it looks pretty decent

Only rigging and weathering remains to be done.
Weathering is pretty minimal for 1/700 scale, and rigging is hard to capture with camera, so ill leave it here, hope you enjoyed looking at this build and look forward to the final result!

Posted on August 1, 2020June 21, 2022 by Seven Scales — 3 Comments

[WIP] 1/700 IJN Tenryu 天龍 (軽巡洋艦) Part 1

See the finished model here!

This was supposed to be a ‘fast stash clear’ build (started in June 2020).
But i haven’t had much time to model, and as time dragged on, i started to pay more attention to details, and attempted new techniques, so this project might take a while to complete….

The kit is decent (made in 2015), my complaints are:
– Anchors are molded onto hull
– PE funnel caps requires folding to achieve the desired height
– bridge’s conning tower is moulded in halves, difficult seam line.

Due to me had a very memorable Tenryu game when i started playing WoWS, i decide to make the WoWS Tenryu instead of the kit’s 1940+ Tenryu.
The main modifications i must make is the bridge (more exposed with canvas roof), and mid ship structure is not joined.
From my limited research, WoWS Tenryu seems to be modelled after what she looked like in 1926.

The Build:

I begin with the bridge, the conning tower seam line was really bad, i had to use styrene to re create the slit windows.

I never tried to add panel lines to my ships, so i decide to try it here.

I also decide add PE portholes on the ship hull… i should not have done that because most photos of the Tenryu barely shows any extruded portholes. And it was tedious.

I cut the mid ship structures, and removed most of the details

The WoWS Tenryu had a series of vents around the funnels, i really wish i had a 3D printer, as the styrene ones i made are abit uneven.

at this point i just have cross my fingers to hope they look good after painted.

Tenryu had some very tall masts, another reason i want to build the WoWS version, the 1942 version had a shorter front mast.

realized the torpedo cage i made earlier was a bit too short

added funnel caps, I wish the PE was thinner

The most boring part of the build: IJN linoleum deck bracket strips. I spread the work over 3 month, i would add one or two strips every day and it was finally over!
In future i would look for PE decks for this kind of ship.

Hand rails for the funnel, i lost the one provided by the kit, i had to use some spare railings.
i only glued the front and back of each railing, less chance of showing glue marks.

At some point during the build, i was really displeased with the portholes, i finally decide to rip them all off and went for a more simpler “scribing” method for the panel lines.

I used some back wash to check the lines, they are abit exaggerated, but with this experience, i will be confident to work on my USS Saratoga’s hull in the future.

The most difficult parts of the build are done, now i just need to figure out what the heck this is.

Posted on April 20, 2020June 21, 2022 by Seven Scales — Leave a comment

[WIP] 1/700 USS Johnston DD-557 Part.1

Side profile is checked against a blueprint, looks about right, a good start for the model!

Gun director and mast completed, the signal lights on the mast was later changed to a thicker piece of styrene

this file is useful to get rid of little nubs on the PE parts

realized the bofor tubs isn’t a square…. had to pull the original PE out, and replace them. The more you do this, the more glue residue is left, and the model looks less clean, so it’s always best to do plenty of research first

added little lips above the doors using 0.2mm wire, and some other details on the sides

4 strand braids using 0.1mm jumper wire as anchor chains, technique learned from book: Ship Models from Kits by David Griffith

Side depth charge cage, the johnston had a shorter single row cage, had to chop the PE parts up and modify it into the smaller cage

doesn’t look as neat as the original… but at least it’s more accurate, doing all 6 cages cost me 3 new blades as the PE part was quite thick to cut

details added on the first funnel; More side details, notice the gaps i left for the fire hoses, i plan to add them in after painted, since they are white colour and will be difficult to paint if i stick them on now.

little support fins added, these isn’t part of the PE set, i had to cut them up and it was difficult to get them to the same length… in the end it was still a bit uneven

IJN 127mm barrels are used since i had a bunch of them, since the mk12 is also 127mm caliber, it looks about right.

still quite a few details missing in the aft section

Had to reposition all of the outer railings because i didn’t leave enough room for the fairleads around the ship… rookie mistake

Posted on February 21, 2020February 27, 2022 by Seven Scales — Leave a comment

1/700 IJN Yukikaze

I used Yukikaze by Hyun Soo Kim as a reference for the rigging

IJN yukikaze, Kagero class, one of the well-known destroyers in WWII, also called the lucky destroyer due to surviving numerous major battles while being relatively unharmed, after the war she was transferred to ROC and served until 1966.

Due to carelessness, i mixed thinner containing alcohol with lifecolor acrylic paint, the result was dark, sticky paint that nearly ruined the model. Lesson learned: should always test spray when using a product for the first time.
I managed to paint a third layer, covering up the mistake, but it also made some thin PE details look very thick.

First time weathering with oil paints, i think it turned out well. I was surprised how well oil paints sticks to the model, most of the white color was oil paint, they paint much better than the tamiya xf2 white, which gives me headache sometimes.

I added spare motor boats as the kit didn’t come with any. The motor boats are a bit larger than what they should have been, i would switch them out when i find suitable ones.

Overall if ignoring the paint clogging some of the detail, the model turned out pretty nice, maybe i could of painted the AA guns in a lighter color so it would be more visible.

Ocean Base:
On December 2020 months after the build, i decide to make my first ocean base and i chose Yukikaze to be the ship!
I follow the guide made by Jim Baumann, and it turned out beyond my expectation!

As the first base i made there are mistakes, the most obvious one is that there shouldn’t be wierd double waves, It was too late when i realized the issues so i just went with it.
I should also improve the bow wave next time, it’s abit too far ahead of the bow and spread out too much.
Unlike the guide i didn’t use cotton or fluffs, personally i dislike how waves made out of cotton looks. Instead i just use tissue paper hardened with super glue.
I used to prefer waterline models without ocean base for the clean look, but after making one myself it changed my perspective. Ships do look better with oceans after all!

Posted on October 3, 2019February 27, 2022 by Seven Scales — Leave a comment

1/700 HMS Prince of Wales

This Flyhawk Kit is very detailed, i was really impressed by the detail on the pom-pom guns, not much aftermarket needed (only needed davits, reels and chains). Did scratch made the crest from a ship porthole PE piece, i’m very happy with the result.
I really look forward to future Flyhawk kits like the KMS Gneisenau and HMS Illustrious.