My version of the Yamato moves along. Remember, it has to be done by Feb. 1st.

Lots of weathering, lots of parts, and lots of building yet to do but I thought I wanted to show it at least partly put together. At least it should give an idea of what the monster is going to look like. I'm not thrilled with the stickers instead of real water slide decals but they do work. The glue is apparently pretty sticky even on flat paint. It's just a pain to cut out the tiny little shutters from the sheet.

Colors are going to be shaded and modified as I do the final detailing but you have to start somewhere. The main color is Tamiya's own Kure Gray, which I feel is just a shade or two too light. Maybe it's already scale effect lighter? I don't know but it doesn't match the Kure Gray on their stickers, it's a bit too light. It is what it is and it's what is called for and looks fine so I have no problems with it.

As I've said, I'm going for April 1, 1945 while she was still the Admiral's Flagship and had been in dock for quite a while to get cleaned up, regunned, and ready for whatever awaited her. The way she looked less than a week later was much different. The soot stained or black stained decks would be accurate but ugly to my eye. I just can't model her looking like a wreck at sea. It just doesn't feel right to me, no matter how accurate it might be.

Again, it is our model and we can build them as we feel is right. I like the trim and proper look. And since it's a review kit it has to look as good as possible for the cameras. Tamiya went through an immense amount of effort and money to produce this kit. I've put at least 150 hours into it already with much more to come. I want it to look as good as possible in print. Since I can't add anything, or change anything, I am trying to show just what the real kit looks like, not necessarily what the real ship looked like.

My overall impressions on the kit are very positive. It's a fantastic kit. It's also insanely expensive at MSRP but boy what a kit! Add the turned metal barrels, a railings set and the degaussing cables and you have everything you need to create a beautiful model.

Illegitimi non carborundum
In memory of Denis Keegan.