Updating the Galleries: 1/700 IJN Hiei

This morning, I added a few photos of two finished models to the picture galleries on the blog. The first of which is the IJN Hiei. While I finished this model months and months ago, I’m just now getting around to taking some decent(?) photos of it.

 

To summarize, this was a 1/700 waterline model of the Imperial Japanese Navy Kongo-class battleship, the "Hiei". Hit up Wikipedia if you want to learn some more history on it–which I’d recommend, by the way, as it does have an interesting history.

 

The kit was built entirely out-of-box. No rigging or photo-etch added–which ultimately detracts from the overall outward appearance. It was, however, my first ship. With that in mind, I’m pretty pleased with the results. Without a doubt, the toughest aspect of the build was painting and decaling the 1/700 plane that sits on board. For frame of reference, that plane can fit on my thumbnail, with room left over. The other "trick" with this one was using just a plain ol’ No.2 pencil for the anchor chains and plane rails.

 

I originally finished this build on the morning of a model contest (back in May?), which I hauled it off to. And–hey–it won 2nd place for 1/700 ships. Yes, there were more than two entries. In speaking with one of the judges, he commented that the wooden decking could’ve used a wash to bring out the plank details, but I’m not so sure that would be visible at this scale, anyways. Maybe I’ll try that for the next one. That’s in addition to the criticisms I’ve already made myself.

 

So… First ship, took 2nd place in its contest class. Definite learning experience. We’ll see how it does in the local Club’s "Ship Happens" contest in October. Till then, it’ll just be gathering dust on my shelf.

 

For more pictures, check out the "Scale Models (misc)" photo gallery. Thanks for taking the time to look.