IJN Missouri class

[Taiidantomcat]

Big fan of the Iowa-class Battleships so i have a few whifs planned involving them but this is one of the first, for the Imperial Japanese Navy in WWII. Just test fitting parts right now...whatcha think? comments and criticism both encouraged 

[Brian da Basher]

Love the gun barrels....scratch-built or aftermarket?

Looking forward to more!

Brian da Basher

[pyro-manic]

Pagoda superstructure is the coolest thing ever. This can be nothing less than awesome.

[anthonyp]

BOOOOO!!!! HISSSSSS!!!!!!

American BB's for the USN only!!!!






Just kidding.

Very creative.  Like pyro said, the pagoda is one incredibly unique superstructure feature unique to the Japanese.  It almost looks good on an Iowa 

It might just be me, but I've always thought a well placed volley of shells at the base of a pagoda superstructure would bring the whole thing down.

Just me, eh?

In any case, I look forward to seeing this completed.  I really like the custom turrets on this.

As an aside, I've been thinking of taking a Kongo class DDG's pagoda the opposite way and incorporating it into some sort of modern USN surface combatant.  Might need to take another look at that project.

[Taiidantomcat]

Sounds promising Anthony! Scratchbuilt barrels, as you can see on the No. 2 turret I need to glue one back on, thank you for the comments folks ! I'm thinking about doing this in green and red like the Shinano:

[JoeP]

The pagodas actually had a six-pole support system which is somewhat hidden by the superstructure, they're not that weak.

Is that the Revell or the Monogram USS Iowa?
I like that paint scheme idea!

So, what do you plan to use for the secondaries?

[Brian da Basher]

That's some killer scratchbuilding!

Brian da Basher

[Taiidantomcat]

Thanks BdaB.

Its the old revell kit, I plan on using the Standard 5 inch guns that came with the kit...it would probably look more "Japanese" to have IJN turrets there but I don't have any on hand.

[Sauragnmon]

That's a pretty damn tempting idea, TT - Japify an Iowa... hmmmm...

What's your scale? If it's 700 scale, you could look into the sets from Pit-Road/Skywave - they sell pure equipment sets, a lot of them, for the IJN - E-02 is one of the ones that features the Yamato-style fully enclosed 5" twins.

You might consider shorter barrels compared to the USN barrels - the Japanese never really went up in barrel length, the only 16" guns they had were the 45cal models used on the Nagato and Mutsu, the same guns were going to be used on the Kaga and Tosa, as well as Amagi and Akagi.

Top of B and C turrets, you might want to revise your AA positions, size them down on the length, widen them out and put in two 3x25mm mounts.  You could also do a 2/3 conversion on the mounts in the galleries without going to individual tubs.

Your other 40mm mounts, I'm not sure how big they are by scale, but you might be able to do additional 5" mounts in them, or you could go for enclosed 25mm triple mounts.

As to colour, you might want to go a couple shades darker on the green - the lighter green was only used on the Carriers, as part of a shadow-camo concept to make them appear to have the outline of a transport.  The red of the Shinano's deck was actually because of a coating on it - most of the decks on IJN warships were either Teak or Linoleum - Look at ships like Takao and Mogami to get the difference.  The hull colour, as well as all metal, would likely be what is known as Kure Grey, which is not only very dark, but is green-tinted.  All of the battleships at some point wound up going through Kure Yard for something, so Kure Grey is the best bet for a colour on the hull.

Joe's right - all the Pagoda masts were actually hexapods in design - look closely at Nagato's tower to see a couple of the legs, you can also catch them in close up shots of Every IJN battleship BUT Yamato and Musashi, whose tower was actually fully enclosed.


Aside - that angled stack makes it look so damn sexy.  Brownie points to you for that one, man.  Brownie points for that.  The Pagoda Tower modification is also quite interestingly and oddly fitting on the design.  Makes me want to get my paws on a Tamiya Iowa and a sledgehammer.

I'm such a heretic, I'm SO going to hell.

[Taiidantomcat]

The scale is 1/535 or some odd number like that...however I am not above grabbing the 1/700 scale kits you describe and scale-o-rameing the biggest battleship of all time  Thanks for all the suggestions too, i think i will add a third barrel to the secondary turrets and maybe a few other pieces to break up the conventional US outline. Thanks for noticing the inverted smoke stack 

[Taiidantomcat]

I have been working on this off and on for the last few weeks. I even bought a six and a half dollar can of tamiya spray paint which basically means i spent more than half of what i paid for the model on that one rattle bomb    tons of masking later, and one last layer of paint today and i started getting that warm feeling when camouflage starts to show up as you remove the tape.














Still work to do (need to wash off excess tape residue that may be obvious in the pics), but so far this is looking good to me.    I'm not a Battleship guy per se so any recommendations/ comments are welcome

[Sauragnmon]

*whistles, catcalls*

Sexy Beast you have there, TT - I've got my own 1/700 Missouri by Tamiya sitting there waiting for me to take the sledgehammer of heresy to her, and a fistful of IJN shielded 5" and triple 25mm mountings that'll go all over her.  What can I say, your heresy inspired me to take a whack at a similar design.

[ChernayaAkula]

Way cool!  The camo looks awesome!