Display Models
IJN Battleship Yamato
a 1/200 scale IJN Yamato by Nichimo
(much as I hope mine will appear when I am finished!)
By now you've likely noticed the IJN Yamato pics everywhere on this
site ;) The ship has interested me for a great long time due primarily
to it's unique place in history. The Yamato class battleships were a class
of ship singular in scale and power, the epitome of the battleship design.
Yet these awesome ships came into being just before the self same nation
which made them made all battleships obsolete by introducing the age of
naval airpower through the devastating carrier attacks on Pearl Harbor.
My studies have shown that the crew of the Yamato and sistership Musashi
were fully aware that they were manning warships whose power had been eclipsed
by that of naval airpower - but with the world at war all around them they
were powerless to do anything about it.
I have long wanted to craft a large scale model of the IJN Yamato to
display in my home because the ship brings to mind so many stories and
issues ranging from the technical challenges of their construction across
a variety of topics including theories of strategic defense planning, naval
warfare evolution in the second World War and finally the personal stories
of the people directly involved with the ships and with fighting them.
I'm presently completing a trio of models of the Yamato to hone my modeling
skills and familiarity with the ship so that my final large scale model
will be accurate and (hopefully) detailed with some degree of finesse :)
Aside from offering opportunities for modeling practice, these models will
indeed be my primary references for my large scratch built model :) The
first in my trio of reference models is the 1/350 scale IJN Yamato by Tamiya.
It is nearly complete now, I'm presently outfitting it with a photo etched
detail kit from Gold Medal Models (I'll post photos when the ship is complete).
Thereafter I have a 1/250 Arii model of the Yamato which is large enough
to have a new level of detail over the 1/350 kit, and it too will have
an extra level of detail added by another GMM photo etched set. The third
and final reference model is the famous Nichimo 1/200 Yamato (although
I'm purchasing the more recently produced "Upgrade" version which comes
with some RC fittings and some trick items including rotating turret assemblies
and working searchlights. To see an online guide to the construction of
a kit like this go visit this excellent site and look over
Bill
Waldorf's 1/200 Yamato Construction Diary
Another inspirational model is Chris'
1/144 scale RC Combat Musashi (sister ship of the Yamato), visit his
website to see many detailed photos of his great RC model! And also Brian
Finster's IJN Yamato despite his many warnings about how challenging
the model is to make it too is inspiring!
The epitome of the truly scale IJN Yamato model though belongs Takaatsu
Fukuoka.
His 1/200 scale display only model is breathtaking in accuracy and
realism.
Clearly I've got a bit of work ahead of me, but this hobby is more comparable
to a journey ever towards the horizon rather than a journey to a specific
destination - the fun is in the process. As things stand now (September
2003) I'm adding brass photo etched detail set to my 1/350 Yamato and then
I'll begin my 1/250 Arii model (of the Yamato). I'll post photos now and
then as my projects progress :) With a luttle luck I should be receiving
the Nichimo 1/200 scale "upgrade" kit sometime in October, considering
that I've wanted to build this model for over a decade now it's fair to
say that I'm really looking forward to October :)
Until next time then ~ Edward
September 6, '03
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