Store Bought and Ready Made

[treadhead1952]

Hi Everyone,

Since I do like to add as many details to my models as I can but often times lack the patience, skill and talents that many folks who have been card modeling for a long time seem to be able to whip right out. I have to look for other means to be able to do a credible job. Sure, I'd like to be able to cut out a set of two or three row railings to die for in 1/200 scale and slap them down on the deck edge, but that ain't never gonna be me and quite frankly, at 60 years of age, my eyes, hands and such just won't cooperate in any manner that would even come close in scales three times as large.

Luckily for me and others who share my lack of talents for these tiny details manufacturers of the kits who sell them to us also produce a whole plethora of parts that we can utilize, admittedly, for a price, to fill our need for these things. Just like our styrene enthusiastic brethern who use brass Photo Etch parts, there are some companys who work in our scales. But for those who would like to keep to the same basic material of card or paper we can also find them in those materials as well and at a much friendlier price than brass too. I recently had to score some things to go on my IJN Nagatsuki, railings, ladders and ladderways. While some folks can do wonders with thread and super glue as well as card to produce these same items, I find it much more satisfying to just go pick up what I need, install them and go on to the next one. It keeps my sanity somewhat intact not to mention saves more of my hair on top of my pate as well.

I picked these up, they are made by GPM, Answer and a few others also make them as well, from an Internet vendor, a little work with a search box will allow you to do the same. At any rate, here are the goodies that arrived in my mail box today, just in time for me to start working on them on my one day off this week. :thumb:

Three row railing:

Two row railing:

And a combination of ladders and ladderways:

I will be adding to this, showing how I go about using them, building up some of the parts like the ladderways as well as even more parts of various types, to give you an idea of what is available out there.

 

[Zathros]

This is awesome!!

 

[treadhead1952]

Thanks Zathros,

I have some more bits and pieces coming to add to this thread and I have been working on the ones that are in the first installment to ready them for installation on the Nagatsuki. Unfortunately my "Day Job" keeps cropping up to keep me busy. But my weekend is coming now and I can devote a bit more time at the bench. :thumb:

 

[treadhead1952]

Hi All,

I got started in working with the ladderways from the laser cut card details for my Nagatsuki model. Trimming out a single length of the steps and a left and right side rails section was first. Measuring and then cutting down the steps was next. Once measured I folded up the sides and then started bending the steps down on each cut out section.

Cutting and trimming out a section of the handrailings was next. These get glued to the steps in preparation of mounting them in place. They are glued to the downturned flanges of the steps in case you were wondering.

Next comes gluing them in place on the foredeck. If you were wondering the torpedo tubes have a section of the front of the tubes that is folded up and over the top of the rest of the mount so that the entire mount could be swiveled to the sides for aiming and launching to get clear of the ladderways.

The railings on the ship that go along the section of the deck where the torpedo mounts were placed had to be removeable in action. The stanchions were steel pipes with rings welded to them that fit down in to holes where larger pipe sections had been fit in to the deck edges. The railngs were really sections of chain so that these could be quickly removed, set aside in lockers and the mount quickly placed in action.

More on the railings in the next section of the thread.

 

[micahrogers]

Absolutely incredible....

 

[homolka1138]

rails and stair

I think that you have a great start on the additions to your model. From the picture it seems to blend well with the model and doesn't look like an afterthought. Great Job!!!:thumb:

 

[Zathros]

Man this is really coming together quite nicely!

 

[treadhead1952]

Thanks Guys,

The original ship carried ladderways in the same position, they were just a little different than these, but not having an exact matching set up, these work just as well for me. Many times details are manufactured to a certain generic level that will work for more than one thing. US Navy and IJN railings both being what they call "2" rail style, the two navies share the same railings in the modeling world. RN and German Navys carried "3" rail styles with some sections being 2 on their ships, that is where you have to do a bit of research as with most things if you want to get it close. You can purchase photo etched brass railings or laser cut card railings in these generic classes rather than try to do the thread and super glue looms to make them if you like. You can also purchase "chain" railings in brass PE style to replicate that particular type if you really want to. I could have done that on the torpedo deck areas of the Nagatsuki had I wanted to get down to the exact matching details.

Once you cut the railings free from their frets or card carriers whether they be brass or card; Super Glue is most often used for brass while Aleene's or other white glue types will work for the card types. Since my model has a series of nice little circles running along the deck edges that indicate where the stanchions were supposed to go, I used a toothpick to place a dot of Aleene's Tacky Glue on them and started fixing the railings in place starting at the bow.

Yes, you do have to work quickly, but if you have things laid out on your work area, it isn't really difficult to get a section of rail in tweezers to gauge how long the run will go along the deck edge to see where you need to start and stop your line of gluing. Apply the glue, place the rail and press it down into the glue spots with a dry toothpick right at the bottom rail. It often doesn't take a lot of adjusting to get it in place properly if you have eyeballed things to begin with. One sheet of the laser cut card railings was all it took to do all of the Nagatsuki including the places on the upper decks of the Pilot House structure that didn't get any of the canvas covered railing sections included in the kit.

In short order I had the basic railings run and could turn my attentions to the small sections of the Pilot House. There are also places at the bow and stern that will require different things to bring them up to par but that is for another posting. With the rails set I can turn my attention to makeing up the mast sections on this project.

However, this little thread is more about store bought and ready made details that you can add to your models. One thing that I really like about ship models is the number of gun mounts that you will find on the various classes of ships. Everything from small caliber auto firing machine guns and cannons to the really big calibers in multi gun turrets. While they do provide the modeler with a lot of strips of paper that can be rolled up in layers to form the basic barrels for all these weapons, I find it difficult to actually make several identical sized and shaped ones not to mention identically shaped ones for the larger calibers. I know, I have seen lots of more experienced card modelers turn them out like machines building up drop dead gorgeous gun mounts in all shapes sizes and calibers.

I have to turn to the after market manufacturers to seek any sort of hopes to out fit my ship models with their weaponry. And fortunately they do a bang up job with brass and lighter weight aluminum for the larger caliber guns to outfit ships, planes and armor. Often you can just pick up a package of several sizes all in one pack to match up to different classes or named ships. If I can't find one like that for a particular vessel, I am not above robbing one or two different sets to fill the requirements for a project.

There are also the small caliber weapons in single, double, triple, and quad mounts of various types. These are usually furnished in the more familiar photo etched brass sets like these for the Oerlikon single mounts or twin mounted IJN 25MM types. You can find the IJN types in single, dual, triple and quad styles in different manufacturers listings. There are also the popular 40MM Bofors mounts and others.

A little reasearch on the part of the modeler and making up a reasonably appearing gun mount with the sets and kits available shouldn't be too terribly difficult.