1/350 IJN Mikasa (Hasegawa)
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by Anthony Tow |
1/350 IJN Mikasa (Hasegawa)
This Hasegawa kit of the Mikasa was built with the Lion Roar P/E set. I had started on this build at the beginning of this year, hoping to make it for the May show in Atlanta but it had turned out to be more difficult and time consuming than I had expected, and I didn't complete it till June. I liked the appearance of the LR railing; they are very fine and probably closer to scale than other brands I have used. However they are also more fragile and considerably harder to work with. A very delicate touch is required. Make 2 or more bends/folds on a single piece and it quickly shows an alarming propensity to turn into a mangled ball of wire. LR also did not provide any spares at all, just the right length is provided for each location. I ended up destroying the rails for the little square platform on top of the stern superstructure, and the searchlight platform on the funnel, and replaced them with spare (and thicker) 1/350 rails from my stash. As for the circular foot rails around the funnels, I did not try to insert them from the bottom of the funnel per the instructions, but just cut them in two and glued each half from each side.
I experimented with some heavy weathering of the lower hull. Results were mediocre but I was in no mood to strip the paint off and just left it as is.
