Saur's Grand Collection - Shinano Finished!! -

Sauragnmon · August 10, 2009, 05:36:59 PM

Well, here's my first post into the new sub-section for ships - all my ship projects, I'll copy them in here for better organization and such, so here we go.

Gneiseau, As Planned originally with 38cm not 28cm, Upgrade with Atlantic Bow and 10.5cm guns:

Beside Fenris, to be built close to Grossflugzeugkreuzer A IIa Proposal:

Fenris, Bismarck conversion to GFZK A IIa:

Z-50 - 15cm armed Zerstorer, hybrid of the 1938A and 1936 designs:

Von Der Tann - Modified Panzerschiffe, similar to Kreuzer P, refitted with 15" guns:

HIJMS Koya - Japanese Panzerschiffe concept with 10cm broadside, 155mm Secondary, and two 16" mains:

HIJMS Bufu - Shimakaze with improved AA armament - 10cm/65 twin turrets:

HIJMS Shinano - Whiff into service, hosting B7A, D4Y, C6N and J7W aircraft:

HMS St George - N3 class Battleship:

USS Black, Korean War Mod - altered heavy AA, 3"/50 refit and Hedgehogs:

USS Charles J Barclay - Upgraded Gearing class with 5/54 mains and 3/50 AA battery:

Tirpitzski - Soviet Captured Tirpitz, refitted with Russian armaments, modern SSM's, and retracting side helipads:

ROKN Mod Spruance - Pre-KDX Upgrade for ROKN - Oto Melara 5" guns, ABL for Hyunmoo III, Mk26 Mod 1 launcher for 44 Standard series Missiles:

RFS Vladivostok - Upgrade concept for Kiev II, with enhanced defensive suite, Moskit AShM, Yak-141 airgroup:

RFS (Unnamed) - Slava II concept, with Kashtan CIWS, Moskit AShM, S-300FM SAM.:

RFS Frunze - Modified with S-300 in aft block for expanded long range SAM support, will host Kinzhal forward:

RFS Admiral Kucherov - Udaloy II Class DDG (yeah, I figured out AFTER I got it rolling, that the bridge was too short to host the band stand in this case, and I didn't thin the forward step enough too, among a few other realizations during construction):

Mightier Mo - Iowa Class, refitted heavily in the 2000's with massive VLS, modernized mains, RAM and Goalkeeper, in addition to nuclear replacement for boilers:

ROJS Kongo - Kongo class Battlecruiser, refitted with modern weapons systems, helipad, and diesel engines:

ROJS Shirane - Shirane DDH with VLS and heavier 5" armament:

ROJS Sawakaze - Tachikaze Class DDG, ROJN 5" guns, VLS, Modernized 24" TT:

ROJS Sendai and Oyodo - Abukuma DE's refitted with 10cm twin (AAW) and 24" TT (ASuW) (Two different ships):

anthonyp · August 10, 2009, 06:03:34 PM

You had too many pic links in one post, so I split it into this one as well. All pics are from the above post.

HIJMS Owari - Iowa class, Modified with IJN armaments, including IJN styled 16/50 guns:

And, an Akula that I did just for kicks - no mods, just a modified paintjob, including a silver waterline just to bling it up a little:

Alright, let's get this new board off with a bang - Questions, Comments, Queries and Rude Remarks are welcome, as always.

dy031101 · August 10, 2009, 06:06:34 PM

Lots of interesting and seemingly incomplete topics...... can't wait to see them progressing further......

Sauragnmon · August 10, 2009, 06:32:00 PM

Thanks, Anthony - I wasn't sure if I'd crossed that line, and it Seemed to work when I previewed the post.

Dy, that's the nature of the beast, isn't it? I have a Lot of projects in progress, and I'll get them all done... eventually. It's just a matter of inspiration to keep going.

seadude · August 11, 2009, 06:05:09 PM

No offense, but what type of camera are you using? Might be nice if future pictures were a little clearer to see more detail.

Sauragnmon · August 11, 2009, 06:53:18 PM

First shots were problematic because of a poorer quality camera - I then got to borrow a professional grade camera for a bit to snap some before last year when I got my own Canon that shoots quite nicely, but a lot of the problem Then became motion blur - as shots will show, like the Owari, I have acquired a Gorillapod which sits nicely on my desk and stabilizes that trigger-pull motion blur effect. I also have the problem of somewhat cramped quarters for shooting, as I pop them right on my desk.

Cobra · August 11, 2009, 10:40:46 PM

Awesome Job

Great with All of it!!!!!!!!!! Fave would be the Akula Though,You really did a sweet job on that 1!!!!!!!!!!

Got Anything Else as Cool to Show?

?

Sauragnmon · August 12, 2009, 12:54:23 AM

Nothing at current, for the most part, that's all my ship builds I've done, barring a couple of them that haven't much to show for them.

Sauragnmon · October 08, 2009, 04:24:38 AM

Alright, it's 7:30am and I just finished snapping these pictures, gods I need to get to bed.

First up, the IJN Koya - I've been working on her, as the little gremlin in my head said "hey, get her finished, she's not THAT far from done!" And of course, I listen to the voices in my head, so here we go. I put in some deck mounted AA positions - referenced them off a picture of one of the Mogami's in '44 before conversion. I gave her the flight group - two E13A's and a F1M - yeah, it's a lot, and it's a little cramped, but it's not impossible. It just takes some shuffling before the first one's launched, and this looks good as a dockside view. I got her masts mounted, and her crest is in place, though unpainted at current. I got the props from a Skywave IJN aircraft set (they have spares, so I snitched them.) and fitted them in place. Still a little touching up to be done on the airgroup, a couple of missing meatballs (they fell off the spaghetti) and a float that got a little too gray somewhere (dangit). PICS!

Ok, that's done. Now we come to the Owari, which has seen some massive surgery on her. I took some Yamato turrets, and chopped them to provide the sides and tops for the main guns, Iowa rangefinders are still being used. I did the deck, picked out details, and set her down in place. I'm debating whether I do the AA first, or the structure, it's an argument in my head right now, and I'm left to wonder if I have enough 25mm singles to make it, or if I need to take the knife and do some cutting to make Oerlikon 20's look like 25mm gun positions. Triple 25's will be set in the old 40mm tubs, which should look pretty cool I think. I also took the time and putty to bulk out the barbettes around the 5" shielded mounts. Pics!

As Always - questions, comments, queries and rude remarks are welcome and in fact invited.

proditor · October 08, 2009, 06:52:59 PM

The Koya's super-firing big guns are trippy. I look at them and think "that's not right...but it is dead sexy." So good on ya!

Sauragnmon · October 09, 2009, 05:05:54 AM

I know it's a rather obscure layout, but the superfiring mounts really were the option that stood best in my mind, with the turret layout as it was. It let me retain three secondary mounts, kept the big barbettes in close, it really was the best layout that came to mind. I'm thinking about doing a similar layout with a Takao, though I'll probably commit plastic surgery to put the superfiring mount in place of the C mount, and then invest in a compass cutter to do short barbette plates to support a pair of 14" guns this time - of course, that'll come after the investment in an Ise Hybrid to have the spare turrets on hand. It'll probably be a lot easier than when I did the barbettes under these guns by bending sheet styrene to shape around a pair of Bismarck Barbette rings, which was STILL easier I think than slicing the chunk of pipe I originally was going to slice to make the barbette rings. Of course, the linoleum decks have these convenient cross lines and I can just take a square and line up the cuts to slice out around the two barbettes and directionally reverse the mounts with a pair of styrene strips under them to hold them level with the deck. I've got plans inside my head, partially stemmed from the Von Der Tann concept which should have received similar treatment to shift the barbettes outward so I could put set the guns nice and centerline, but I didn't think of it until too late.

Sauragnmon · October 22, 2009, 10:30:32 AM

Alright, it's been a little while, and I've been a busy man. I got into a serious Finish It kick over the last little while, with significant progress on a number of projects.

The Koya's been finished, finally, some time after I started her. I got the crest on, the masts done, the details are all picked out. I even added a few extra 25mm triple mounts on the decks to give her more of a "1940's" feel in general with the extra AA additions. All in all, I'm happy with her, and she's quite the little slugger. Pics!

I've been working on my Republic of Japan Destroyers, the Shirane and Sawakaze, and I've come to the conclusion - the ROJN concept has posessed me in some ways. It started with the concept of doing my own VLS fitting from sheet "tile" styrene, then new gun turrets upgraded from the Shielded 5"/50 turrets with more bulk and new gun barrels, and now these two have gone Frankenstein. I'd already started the concept of using the old Shielded 25mm mountings as the basis for a CIWS mounting, but a couple days back I finally got the CIWS done - I took the gun mounts, and made them completely, then took off the gun barrels. I followed this up by taking a Phalanx, and carving away the stand, the bracket, the drum, so I had the gun barrel, with a slight extension, and the radar dome. I then seperated the two, and fitted the gun barrel with extension on the original gun mounting, and put the dome on the back of the turret top. Looks pretty good, I think, and would logically have a larger ammo capacity than the Phalanx mounting. Then, I got to the electronics. The directors you might recognize from Skywave/Dragon Type 42's - apparently, according to Kidcurrie, who served on the T42, the domeless 909's in the kit look Nothing like true 909's, so I figured I'd borrow them for my own Japanese SPG radars. Then I noticed they both had planar array radars, and when the Shirane had a STIR ball on its aft mast, I thought "you know what, I know something better, let's go for an NTU style suite!" and added the SPS radar seen here - I'm guessing the dish was off an SPS-49, as I jacked one from a DML FFG61, but the base is off an SPS-6 from the Pitroad E6 - I don't know I have anything I'd use SPS-6 on anyways, so it works out. Combine that to the planar array, and we have the 2d/3d radar combination similar to NTU. Chop a couple of Mk42 barrels off the mountings, fit them on the front of the bridge, they'll pass for SYS-2 antennae when painted right. Sawakaze got an extra pair of directors, as she had a second director tower fork. I chopped down the original forward position, until I could fit the director section over it, puttied a chunk so it had full solidity, and that was that. Of course, I had to raise the array a little so it would have view over the director, technically, but hey. Pics!

As always - questions, comments, queries and rude remarks are more than welcome, if not outright invited.

batmancustoms · October 22, 2009, 12:12:29 PM

Wow just awesome stuff , So detailed!!!

Sauragnmon · October 22, 2009, 01:53:23 PM

Thanks, BMC - they are quite nice pieces, and I've enjoyed working on them. I take a lot of pride in the result, even if I'm stunned that so much has run out of my fingers and into the two ROJN Destroyers.

Sauragnmon · January 27, 2010, 05:31:06 AM

Alright, this little beauty got worked on a few months back, and I never really got to take pictures of her, so here we go, the Amagi. She's the Mirage Ocean Craftsman kit, and I had to get Nagato parts for her, but she's been underway for a while, and got paused some time back. I'll pick her back up in time though. Pics!

As always, questions, comments, queries and rude remarks are welcome, invited, and appreciated.