Aoshima 1/700 IJN Nagato 1927, a.k.a. Ole Grimey

I got this model kit for last Christmas from my wife. As usual, I built it with some gaps in between certain tasks. First I assembled the hull and turrrets, and then continued with other projects. Some time later I did the rest of the subassemblies, then it again took a while to paint them. 

The Nagato-class is perhaps the most powerful of all pre-treaty battleships, and their heptapodal main mast is a trademark feature - also more ergonomical in design than the restructured Fuso-class for example. In the far future I plan to build a Tosa using pieces from a Nagato and a Kaga kit, but that prospect is yet very distant.

The weird slanted funnel was also a focus point when choosing this version instead of the WW2 era rig.

All in all, the build was enjoyable, apart from the casual matter of things getting lost or broken off. I lost an AA gun on the aft platform, and all of the boat davits forward. I replicated these from scratch or turned to my spares box for solutions. 

 

For the matter of painting, I first completed a 1/700 Fubuki-class destroyer, to practice painting and weathering Kure gray. With this one I went a bit more overboard and added a successive layer of washes to all major parts, and a bit more streaking to the hull, to be topped off with an AP Soft Tone wash on the wooden deck. This latter then I eased back a bit with a pale sand drybrush, and as a finishing touch added the reddish brown boot top.

Most of the techniques I learned seem to be working, but perhaps constraint is key, as the ship looks very battered up, hence the title. She must have spent a very long time at sea.

I also seem to have found the holy grail of 1/700 ship rigging, 0.06mm steel wire. Superglue won't eat it at the joins like it does lycra, neither does it yield to tension, and it also has a nice natural sag. It's further very easy to gather lost cut-off bits with a magnet!

I used a Japanese modeler's take on the same kit for rigging references, all I could find were for the WW2 version. As, again, this was a learning piece, I went with the 'less is more' principle.

Armed with a little bit more experience, I think my next project will be to refurbish my Snowman Model full hull Derfflinger with some weathering, and try to repair the paintjob on the deck where the oil wash crumpled up the acrylic layer below it. Also the lycra rigging on that model failed miserably, so lots of masking, scraping and repainting are due.