Very nice update again. It’s these changes which really make a model stand out. The amount of work going into updating/cleaning up these part is quite extensive, but well worth the effort.
Thanks Wouter. That’s the thing about these older kits - they usually get the basic shapes right, but you really have to work with the details!
Both the Miyuki-Kai and Kagero Publications reference drawings show what appear to be plate joins on the foredeck.
There aren’t many surviving close-up photographs of this area, but this one of Akizuki’s rather grim looking officers is useful.
Seen next to the herringbone non-slip surface of the steel deck, the weld joins (if that is what they were) appear to have been covered with long, flat cap strips.
The kit shows the herringbone non-slip surface all right, but there is no representation of the joins. My first thought was to replicate them with Tamiya tape; I began with a simple experiment using thin strips to test the material and to help me visualize the pattern.
The tape didn’t turn out to be suitable, but I also had on hand a set of Archer raised panel lines (intended to create panel lines on aircraft models). These were similar to the raised rivets I had used previously on the gun and torpedo mounts and on the funnel. Not really decals as such, they consist of raised resin strips bonded to clear decal film.
I applied them beginning with the fore-and-aft running lines followed by the short lateral connections.
They went on all right, but the rough surface of the non-slip pattern is going to be a problem as the thick, rigid resin prevents the decal film from fully conforming to the surface. I’ll hit it again with Solvaset (a fairly aggressive decal setting solution) and see how it goes…