This is one of those "I just want to see how it comes out" type of builds. I found this design on Mr. Sato's site. Mr. Sato, from what I am able to interpret from his webpage, desided to design a few commercial ships for which he could not find model kits for. Lucky for me, he designed them to be made from paper. Here is the web link:
http://www.geocities.jp/monksato/index.htm
Mr. Sato has quite a few designs at his site, but I had a bit of difficulty trying to get them printed at the right scale. This build is made based on a guesstimate of what length it should be, and it probably came out too small...it's about 6 5/8th inches overall when it probably should be more like 9 1/2 inches. As a result of how I downloaded it the resolution isn't too good (some of the photos are a bit out of focus anyway, but even those that are in focus you can see the printed detail is off a bit). I eventually learned (of course, AFTER I already started this build and was just about done) a better way to download the pictures and convert them to keep the original scale. What I would recommend doing is to save the picture in it's original gif format and then convert it into a pdf file using A4 sized paper (Mr. Sato reveals, after I went through a translation a third time, that he designed his models to be printed on A4, although the original graphic is more like 18 1/2 " x 25 1/4"). If you do this, it probably comes out to the right scale length of around 9 1/2 inches.
Anyway, it was a fun build, just a bit of difficulty with fitting some of the parts until I decided to alter the building method a bit. The model as designed uses a base that has the hull sides attached that fold and glue to tabs forward and aft. I cut the hull sides from the base and laminated the base to some cardboard (that "chip board" stuff you get from the back of writting pads). That made it easier to glue up the hull sides. I then glued the main deck (removing the forecastle and quarterdeck from the deck piece) and used the raised area of the hull at the bow to guage the location of the forward end...and the after end fit in just about right too!
It was then a pretty simple matter of using the forecastle and quarterdeck pieces (again, laminated to cardboard and trimmed to match the bevel or slant of the hull sides) and installing them. I separated the bulkheads from these two pieces to make fitting them snuggly a lot easier.
From there it was a fairly straight forward build. The house went together easily, and the hatches were a charm to build. The mast houses (the little structures between the hatches) were fun to build, but I found it easier to clip the tabs off of all parts to get a better fit.
Unfortunately, Mr. Sato does not have any photos of his finished model (or at least I could not find them) so I had to improvise on the masting and cargo boom arrangement based on what I felt was a good guesttimate of how they would be set up. I had to scratchbuild all masts and booms, using wire and paper where thickness was needed (i.e., on the masts), but it still bothers me that I could not find a picture of this ship anywhere for guidance, so it's really a "generic freighter based on the Mishima design as created by Mr. Sato and modified by me". :lol:
I did find one error in that the running lights were backwards, he had the starboard light red and the port light green; it's the other way around so I changed that. I also had a bit of fun building up the main house mast with a running light and radar, and the forecastle mast for the other running light and a ship's bell...the details were made of small pieces of wire that I altered with PVA to give it a shape that resembles these items. The cargo boom rigging is really simplified, but at this size I couldn't go nuts and not knowing the actual set up of the ship I didn't feel compelled to add the vangs and other things that help support the cargo booms. I added just a tab of 3D effect to the printed anchor windlass but didn't try to do the same for the cargo winches since I wasn't running the cargo wire from them anyway. I also scratch built the life boats and davits since the model design used a pretty simple set up which I felt would stick out like a sore thumb when done...of course, my scratch built boats and davits do that too, but, hey, it was fun trying to get something that resembled lifeboats at this scale. I'm not sure the type of davit the real ship used so I figured the old fashioned rig would fit the bill...again, a bit of artistic license.
Well, so here it is...built during a holiday weekend visit by my brother and law, his wife, his daughter and her husband, so excuse the shortcuts if you would be so kind. :lol: I would recommend trying some of his other designs too (I hope to at some point), because he has some very nice looking passenger ships and other freighters, none of which you will probably see in kit form anywhere else.
Finally, I'd like to thank Mr. Sato so very much for having the inspiration and love of merchant ships to even attempt these models and more so for having the patience, talent and generosity for designing the models and making them available for free download on his site.
I would hope he would put a few photos of the other two ships, this one included, to give one an idea of how he meant them to look when done, more for the details as the overall general arrangement is pretty straight forward from his design. Hope you enjoy the photos.
Cheers!
Jim
http://www.geocities.jp/monksato/index.htm
Mr. Sato has quite a few designs at his site, but I had a bit of difficulty trying to get them printed at the right scale. This build is made based on a guesstimate of what length it should be, and it probably came out too small...it's about 6 5/8th inches overall when it probably should be more like 9 1/2 inches. As a result of how I downloaded it the resolution isn't too good (some of the photos are a bit out of focus anyway, but even those that are in focus you can see the printed detail is off a bit). I eventually learned (of course, AFTER I already started this build and was just about done) a better way to download the pictures and convert them to keep the original scale. What I would recommend doing is to save the picture in it's original gif format and then convert it into a pdf file using A4 sized paper (Mr. Sato reveals, after I went through a translation a third time, that he designed his models to be printed on A4, although the original graphic is more like 18 1/2 " x 25 1/4"). If you do this, it probably comes out to the right scale length of around 9 1/2 inches.
Anyway, it was a fun build, just a bit of difficulty with fitting some of the parts until I decided to alter the building method a bit. The model as designed uses a base that has the hull sides attached that fold and glue to tabs forward and aft. I cut the hull sides from the base and laminated the base to some cardboard (that "chip board" stuff you get from the back of writting pads). That made it easier to glue up the hull sides. I then glued the main deck (removing the forecastle and quarterdeck from the deck piece) and used the raised area of the hull at the bow to guage the location of the forward end...and the after end fit in just about right too!
It was then a pretty simple matter of using the forecastle and quarterdeck pieces (again, laminated to cardboard and trimmed to match the bevel or slant of the hull sides) and installing them. I separated the bulkheads from these two pieces to make fitting them snuggly a lot easier.
From there it was a fairly straight forward build. The house went together easily, and the hatches were a charm to build. The mast houses (the little structures between the hatches) were fun to build, but I found it easier to clip the tabs off of all parts to get a better fit.
Unfortunately, Mr. Sato does not have any photos of his finished model (or at least I could not find them) so I had to improvise on the masting and cargo boom arrangement based on what I felt was a good guesttimate of how they would be set up. I had to scratchbuild all masts and booms, using wire and paper where thickness was needed (i.e., on the masts), but it still bothers me that I could not find a picture of this ship anywhere for guidance, so it's really a "generic freighter based on the Mishima design as created by Mr. Sato and modified by me". :lol:
I did find one error in that the running lights were backwards, he had the starboard light red and the port light green; it's the other way around so I changed that. I also had a bit of fun building up the main house mast with a running light and radar, and the forecastle mast for the other running light and a ship's bell...the details were made of small pieces of wire that I altered with PVA to give it a shape that resembles these items. The cargo boom rigging is really simplified, but at this size I couldn't go nuts and not knowing the actual set up of the ship I didn't feel compelled to add the vangs and other things that help support the cargo booms. I added just a tab of 3D effect to the printed anchor windlass but didn't try to do the same for the cargo winches since I wasn't running the cargo wire from them anyway. I also scratch built the life boats and davits since the model design used a pretty simple set up which I felt would stick out like a sore thumb when done...of course, my scratch built boats and davits do that too, but, hey, it was fun trying to get something that resembled lifeboats at this scale. I'm not sure the type of davit the real ship used so I figured the old fashioned rig would fit the bill...again, a bit of artistic license.
Well, so here it is...built during a holiday weekend visit by my brother and law, his wife, his daughter and her husband, so excuse the shortcuts if you would be so kind. :lol: I would recommend trying some of his other designs too (I hope to at some point), because he has some very nice looking passenger ships and other freighters, none of which you will probably see in kit form anywhere else.
Finally, I'd like to thank Mr. Sato so very much for having the inspiration and love of merchant ships to even attempt these models and more so for having the patience, talent and generosity for designing the models and making them available for free download on his site.
I would hope he would put a few photos of the other two ships, this one included, to give one an idea of how he meant them to look when done, more for the details as the overall general arrangement is pretty straight forward from his design. Hope you enjoy the photos. Cheers!
Jim
