UPDATE 11/18/07: (construction) FINISHED!
Posted by Matty
on February 2, 2008, 20:46:04, in reply to "A Ship In A Saturday"
4.235.206.163
--Originally Posted 11/11/07--
This weekend, once again I hit the bench hard to finish this build, starting with digging back into the fit problem with the flight deck - and I soon discovered exactly what was causing it:
Click on Image to EnlargeThe top pic (though out of focus) really says it all. Remember the two parts I said I forgot to install? You're looking through the portside holes left by their absence - but even so you wouldn't see daylight all the way through the starboard side unless there was an additional gap under the flight deck. Turns out the flight deck was bowed up over the funnels, and repositioning them (see below) allowed for the flight deck to seat properly at last.
The flight deck now mated properly with the supports aft (bottom left), though the forward supports had to be re-oriented yet again (bottom right). Note the latter now stand completely independent from the forward AA platform, which has been removed in this pic.
Just as well, because it had suffered a broken (and lost) support leg, which had to be replaced:
 (Note the very nice girder detail under even this minor part!)
But that was nothing compared to the work required to refit the funnels:
Click on Image to EnlargeThe after funnel was the bigger part of the problem, so I started by correcting it. The key to dropping it down to clear the very narrow flight deck clearance for it (top), lay in re-orienting its heavy support pylon (bottom left); note its top is no longer horizontal (should be rounded anyway) and now is pitched outward. This is the only way the funnel can clear the flight deck, and I believe the pylon - or the funnel, or both - must simply be designed wrong.
Note - again, in order to fit under the flight deck cutout - the funnel must also be mounted significantly aft on the pylon (bottom right). Pretty much of a mess - and even this was not aft quite far enough (see below) - but at least hardly noticeable from above.
Then on to reposition the forward funnel:
Click on Image to EnlargeThis one has no support pylon; the key to pitching it out and lower was simply to hack a buch off the outboard side of the base (top left) - until achieving the best alignment with the other funnel (top right). The ends did not end up exactly flush (top right and bottom right) - but at least the outboard sections were pretty much parallel and level with each other (bottom left and right).
So - yet again - I had worked for over 2 hours, only to end up back at the step of re-attaching the flight deck once more:
Click on Image to EnlargeThe total time for the build was by now 13:45 - but at least now everything looked good - and good for completion.
Many of the subsequent detail parts had quite a bit of flash, as well as bad seam lines - all of which took a lot of time to clean up.
And then a very curious development - with the rudder:
 Note the instructions show the rudder (light blue) with a heavy collar - a feature not included on the OOB part, as you can see - nor anywhere on the sprues. The hole in the fantail is indeed very large, as indicated, and the Japanese text - which, you will note gives no part number, either - does nothing to solve the mystery. Perhaps it says "If you don't want your rudder attachment to look like sh** in this big f-in' hole then you better come up with a goddamn collar like this one here!" 
So, of course I did - although little things like this, and again, drawbacks of temporary attachments using white glue - conspired to eat up fully three more hours before every last piece was in place:
Click on Image to EnlargeGrand total: 18 hours, 10 minutes - which I figure would probably have been 12-13 hours if not for the major funnel problem and numerous little delays and setbacks from working with white glue. Still, this build was very enlightening - regarding the Nichimo carrier kits and this one, in particular.
And what a joy to see everything - finally - coming together properly:
Click on Image to EnlargeNote the spectacular appearance of the extensive flight deck girder detail, into which the aft supports now fit perfectly.
I'll present a bunch more as-completed pics in the next post.
Cheers,
-Matty
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