Tamiya 1/700 Waterline Series: LST-4002 Shimokita (Unboxing)

Another Gif-fing taken to the next level!

Tamiya 1/700 Waterline - YAMATO Finished

Since today was a public holiday ive decided to take some time to construct the worlds most dodgiest light stage so nobody has to see my clothes in the shots anymore. Luckily i managed to salvage some offcuts and spare materials from my uni days for this. Not so bad i might say.

Since there was more time to blow on this today, i decided to test the NX1000 out and get to the bottom of this lighting issues. After a fustrating one hour, ive accepted that the tinted light in my room doesn't really help the shots, so i ended up photoshopping each of these images to get them to the levels and contrasts that best represent the model. So here goes. 

Firstly, some overall views

Front 'ish

Back 'ish

Fighter Deck and Catapult

Believe it or not those are actually two slingshots on either side used to launch the scout/fighter planes on either side. From what i can tell from the diagrams, these planes then land on the water and the crane in the middle would then pick them up and dunk them back into the hangar below. 

47mm Main Guns

Back in the days these were actually built in secret, where international armament treaty capped guns like these at 40mm. 

More Photos

Next kit: a 1/350 full series with hull!

Tamiya 1/700 Waterline - YAMATO (comming soon)

Actually had this kit for quite a while but have always been leaving this on and off. Busy period at work. But the amount of detail that goes into putting this kit together is crazy, i would rate this more of an intermediate kit rather than the beginners ones that ive been used to.

Yamato. Built to withstand heavy firepower and to engage with multiple ships at once. It spots their main 46cm guns, giving them a firing range further than allied counterparts. The ship was basically spec'ed up to be a giant firing fortress against other battleships, which was next to pointless against aircraft carriers which dominated the fighting style in the Pacific theater. See all those mini guns around the whole ship - that was a later addition to the whole ship in an attempt the counteract its vulnerability from air attacks. Poor ship never got to see any action thou, except for the part where they decided to kamikaze into Okinawa but instead got slowly shredded from submarine and air attack.

Because of its near symmetrical design, each section of the kit comes in pairs. 

Main Body, plus tons of guns surrounding it.

The white paint coagulated and screwed up the communications tower. Its basically a blob now.

Ship so far. Need tape to hold the glue in place.

Next up! Pei will show us how to frame a puzzle, at least. 

1/700 Scharnhorst: Tamiya Waterline Series (completed)

Some final shots of the Scharnhorst from the previous post. Ive recently bought a Samsung nx1000, which i now have mixed feelings about. Image stabilisation would definitely be a plus as i don't have to mount a camera on a tripod everytime i want a good shot. Following photos are using a shutter speed of 3", any tips on how to get the lights right would be awesome. Apart from that i really do need to build a good camera stage for my models, maybe that'll be a next hobby.

Started to lose control of my light settings at this point. What do you think? the darker more tonal images or the ones that look more grey and clinical?

1/700 Scharnhorst: Tamiya Waterline Series (building)

First post for this blog. Ive actually built this together two or three months ago, but never got the chance to post it up. Scharnhorst is a WWII German battleship which fought in the arctic arena. This guy sank a couple of mostly convoy ships before it got cornered by both the Norweigan and British navy in 1942. 

Unboxing the kit. Actually not a complicated kit with only 4 sets to glue together.

Details of a gun part.

Bridge coming together and painted.