jknaus
Administrator
Got talked into the new Takom Yamato 1/72 Turret. Been working on this a bit the last couple of days. Big ol hunk of plastic. I painted the deck Tamiya Deck Tan. Will be doing a wash to make it pop. Then can paint the turret ring. Watching a number of videos on Youtube for hints. The best build imho was by Andy of Andys Hobby Headquarters. But he lamented the lack of pin or positioning mark for the 12 plates around the turret ring. He spaced them evenly. Same with another fellow. Then I came upon one where the fellow showed section grooves on the top of the ring. Voila thats how it works. So glued mine all on aligning the 2 bolts in the center of the plates vertically with the grooves. I left off the Y shaped part to be painted separately so it does not get knocked off when masking.
Everything else was pretty simple and this is a quick build. I left off the 2 hatches on the deck also to paint separately
Everyone warned about the PE shelves wanting to bend along the holes rather than the score but if you do it slowly it works out. I used my new DSPAIE/Meng mini PE Bender and love it. I then used Tamiya bending pliers to finish the folds. One thing a lot seem to be complaining about is the plastic sandwiching the PE sheet. Its the normal way but the bottom piece is really stuck to the PE so you really need to be careful. Andy wrecked the bars that run along the edges of the turret and so used brass rod for his. That was my back up plan. I managed to get the plastic wrap off with no damage to gave it a try. On another video the fellow said he could not bend the ends of these bars so he cut them off. Again its a bit thicker metal and so yes difficult to bend. If you use care it can be done. I tried gluing the PE bar and it did not come out well at all. Okay so brass rod it is. Unfortunately uit would be a pain to solder all the legs on the rod and Andy did not bother. So I thought a little and then drilled .5mm holes in all the proper locations and glued in some .5mm plastic rod. I made a little guide with plastic strip and then held it close to the post and cut the rods all to the same height. Then I started gluing on the top bar. Not too bad. I have a compound curve to do so left it to dry for a while before I start to move it into place. I think it looks pretty good and much better than the flat PE. So here are pics so far. Barrels are just dry fit in to see how it looks. Finally I could not find any good refs or pictures of the 10X Range Finders in their wings. There is a lot of empty space in there which I dont think would be realistic. Also I am not sure the optics are correct. From the pictures I have found I think the re should be 5 lenses per side but this only has 4 per side. Also the shape does not look proper but that could just be my perception. I did see some pictures with sliding doors enclosing the wings and so I made those with sheet plastic.
Comments and critiques welcomed and encouraged.
James
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Everything else was pretty simple and this is a quick build. I left off the 2 hatches on the deck also to paint separately
Everyone warned about the PE shelves wanting to bend along the holes rather than the score but if you do it slowly it works out. I used my new DSPAIE/Meng mini PE Bender and love it. I then used Tamiya bending pliers to finish the folds. One thing a lot seem to be complaining about is the plastic sandwiching the PE sheet. Its the normal way but the bottom piece is really stuck to the PE so you really need to be careful. Andy wrecked the bars that run along the edges of the turret and so used brass rod for his. That was my back up plan. I managed to get the plastic wrap off with no damage to gave it a try. On another video the fellow said he could not bend the ends of these bars so he cut them off. Again its a bit thicker metal and so yes difficult to bend. If you use care it can be done. I tried gluing the PE bar and it did not come out well at all. Okay so brass rod it is. Unfortunately uit would be a pain to solder all the legs on the rod and Andy did not bother. So I thought a little and then drilled .5mm holes in all the proper locations and glued in some .5mm plastic rod. I made a little guide with plastic strip and then held it close to the post and cut the rods all to the same height. Then I started gluing on the top bar. Not too bad. I have a compound curve to do so left it to dry for a while before I start to move it into place. I think it looks pretty good and much better than the flat PE. So here are pics so far. Barrels are just dry fit in to see how it looks. Finally I could not find any good refs or pictures of the 10X Range Finders in their wings. There is a lot of empty space in there which I dont think would be realistic. Also I am not sure the optics are correct. From the pictures I have found I think the re should be 5 lenses per side but this only has 4 per side. Also the shape does not look proper but that could just be my perception. I did see some pictures with sliding doors enclosing the wings and so I made those with sheet plastic.
Comments and critiques welcomed and encouraged.
James
