Thank you guys - and Kowalski, welcome to the new MSW, great to have you aboard! You are right, there is a lot of detail I’d like to add to the 3.9 inch gunhouses, and I’m ready to get started on them… unfortunately, crazy real life work commitments at the moment are commanding most of my attention, so it might be a while… 
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Right then I knew that we were in for another great ride… like those torpedo tubes… So, I buckled in, grabbed a hold of something sturdy and got ready for the ride. Amazing build so far…
Bob
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Hi Tim,
I already followed your built on the old forum, and here again it’s a joy to see you bring this ship to life. Absolutely stunning work.
Greetings
Alex
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Hi Tim - glad to have found you have moved entire blog over to new venue . I’ll be watching over here with the same ( or more ! ) enthusiasm as on the old site .
Cheers - Richard
Thanks guys! I’m cranking forward slowly on this one, although at the moment I’ve hit a bit of a minor roadblock…
As with all the Akizuki-class destroyers, Hatsuzuki’s Type 98 gunhouses had sliding panels to protect the sensitive gun laying optical equipment located inside.
You can see them on this postwar view of sister Harutzuki’s forward gunhouse. The flexible panels were ribbed like roll top doors.
I’ve made an attempt at portraying these panels using Evergreen “N Scale Car Siding” grooved sheet, but the .020 inch thick plastic seems somehow too heavy. Maybe they’ll look better under paint?
I wish I had something like these in photo etch. I’ll have to think about this some more…
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Hi Tim - how about scribing them yourself on thin sheet styrene ?
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Tim,
As you know, as a purely armor modeler what I don’t know about ships could fill a library, but two things stand out to me from the photos. First, the louvers on your parts look to big, the ones in the photo are smaller. I would be tempted to use a lot thinner plastic and perhaps rod sanded flat… or even a thin metal over a form. Second, I know that the detail shot is of a sister ship, but the long shot seems to have the same round design to the upper one you modeled.
Just a couple observations… I am sure whatever you come up will enhance the model and make it look more realistic and alive…
Enjoying the build… carry on.
Bob
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As always Tim this build is truly amazing!
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Taking a seat here!
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Tim,
As you know, as a purely armor modeler what I don’t know about ships could fill a library, but two things stand out to me from the photos. First, the louvers on your parts look to big, the ones in the photo are smaller. I would be tempted to use a lot thinner plastic and perhaps rod sanded flat… or even a thin metal over a form. Second, I know that the detail shot is of a sister ship, but the long shot seems to have the same round design to the upper one you modeled.
Just a couple observations… I am sure whatever you come up will enhance the model and make it look more realistic and alive…
Enjoying the build… carry on.
Bob
Thanks Bob. I think your observations are on target. Since taking a break from Hatsuzuki I have found Peter Hall’s etched brass Deck Planking and Edge Fittings set at Atlantic Models.
I cut pieces out of the 1/700 etched decking sheet to form the ribbed sliding panels.
Although more difficult to work with than the scribed plastic, the etched brass parts are thinner and the finer ribbing more closely resembles the photos of the original.
I have cut a total of sixteen of these louvered covers out of the brass sheet, but these parts are just mocked up for now. Since these will be rather delicate assemblies I plan to install the side scuttles, hatches, and the sliding doors aft first.
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Very nice remedy Tim. Looks much much closer to the mark. Nicely done 
Nice job Tim - glad to see this blog picking up
again !
Outstanding job, looks beautiful so far
Tim,
good to see you working on your Hatsuzuki again - yep, much better! Good call to change that!
Cheers
Jan
Awwww yes, Tim’s back in action! looking forward to your progress.
Thanks guys! while I did have some fun with the USS Constellation, my real passion is still really more with these steel monsters…
Anyway, after I trimmed away the unconvincing molded handrail detail on the gunhouse roofs, the first items to be added to the gunhouse exteriors were the ventilators on the aft upper starboard corners and the scuttles on the sides. I made the four vents from .030” X 0.60” strip, and the 24 scuttles were made from .058” discs of .010” thick plastic.
I positioned the vents and scuttles following the Miyuki-kai 1/200 plans for sistership Fuyutzuki and a photo of sister Harutzuki.
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Sweeeeeet, Tims back at it!
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Tim,
Nice but I know you are not done yet.
Mark
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Tim,
Amazing work - really like the modification you made using the PE. Really excited to see you continue this build.
David
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After applying all 24 of the scuttles, I test fitted the four gunhouses on the hull… and for the first time I noticed that the scuttle covers are visibly too heavy (after all, in 1/200 scale the .010 inch plastic would be two inches in thickness!) Just to make sure, I removed one of the scuttle covers and replaced it with a test piece cut from .005 inch plastic:
Yep, definitely better. Although it won’t make a huge difference, the overthick scuttle covers would have bothered me… so I went ahead and removed all 24 covers and replaced them with .005 inch discs.
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