as an old man of 66 years I am amazed by what 3D printing has to offer, I was stalled out on my 1st battleship build for 3 years, I ordered Oerlikon 20mm cannons from HS models they are some much better than the stock parts of my 1:350 HMS Warspite model. This has rekindled my interest in modeling since I was not interested in PE nor do I have the skill or patience for PE. Excellent work you have accomplished.
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How is the Kagero build going? your work is very impressive and the build info is appreciated. I have a 1:350 IJN Mogami on my shelf that gives me anxiety issues just looking at it. There is hope for me…I think 
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How is the Kagero build going? your work is very impressive and the build info is appreciated. I have a 1:350 IJN Mogami on my shelf that gives me anxiety issues just looking at it. There is hope for me…I think
Thanks David!
I was enjoying the Kagero build, but I got so much into all those seemingly endless little improvements that I drove myself to a (temporary) standstill.
Well into the project I came across Infini’s beautiful torpedo upgrade set with its turned brass fish including etched fins, props, and trolley.
So far so good, but the set also came with delicate trolley rails to replace the clunky parallel rails molded on the plastic deck (you can see them here between the deck edge and the winch). The etched brass rails are stunning, but using them will require removal of all that molded-in track without damaging the surrounding non-slip detail. I am up for this, but facing this tedious task just sapped my enthusiasm.
I moved on to other projects until I get my Kagero mojo back. 
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Anything that would be posted on kitmaker, Tim?
It’s not the same without one of your builds being live…
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I have been on a temporary 3 year standstill on a 1:350 Warspite build 
problem is I chose the Trumpeter version of this model and not the Academy. Purchased the expensive PE set and found that it is not comparable with the trump kit 
standstill meaning the rails scare me as I would have to find a generic product? your work is excellent and I enjoy following your builds, thank you.
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Thanks David, I feel a little better with my less than one year break! I’ll get back to Kagero, and I’m confident that, when you are ready, you’ll get back on your Warspite too! 
Anything that would be posted on kitmaker, Tim?
It’s not the same without one of your builds being live…
Thanks Russ, you are too kind!
The only builds I’ve posted during the Kagero hiatus were the Roman Merchant Ship finished back in November, and a wingy thing in the form of a 1/72 Heinkel He-111. Lately the job has been most inconveniently cutting into my modelling bench time, but I’ll be back! 
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Both great build Tim… I hope the kitty stays away from the heinkel and the job let’s you get back to the bench more often this year 
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Oh I know all too well what you mean… Take it easy, as good as possible, and at some point the modeling bench will call you back. Looking forward to seeing more of your builds again, even if it will still take some time.
Cheers
Jan
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Quit your job Tim - eating and paying your bills is over rated…
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I am afraid of PE railing I am going to be brave…some day.
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Oh I know all too well what you mean… Take it easy, as good as possible, and at some point the modeling bench will call you back. Looking forward to seeing more of your builds again, even if it will still take some time.Cheers
Jan
Thanks Jan. I actually did catch a break of sorts; my wife had a hip replacement last week (she’s doing fine) and I’ve been around the house more than usual taking care of her. She doesn’t need me all the time, though… so I’ve managed to slip in a few hours at the workbench.
Kagero hasn’t had any attention for nearly a year – so back at it!
I had previously reached the point of assembling the awesome Infini brass torpedo with its trolley but got bogged down when it came to the torpedo reload trolley rails. The etched brass rails are definitely MUCH better than those molded to the plastic kit deck, but removing the molded track without damaging the surrounding non-slip detail would be a challenge.
I began by carefully trimming the rails with a new X-acto blade.
Then they were gradually scraped and sanded down as far as the level of the raised nonslip surfaces. Though fairly straightforward, reducing the rails without damaging the adjacent molded detail required care – and the rails extend over quite a bit of the deck!
Infini had thoughtfully provided a brass template to mark the locations of the etched rail attachment points.
The template was super helpful in establishing the etched rail attachment points on the tracks; these points were initially marked out with light pricks from an awl.
Once I was satisfied that the awl marks were properly centered on the rails, I used a No. 80 (.34mm) bit chucked into my X-acto handle to drill out the 132 locator holes.
This prep work wasn’t the most exciting of tasks, but the new etched brass torpedo trolley rails are incredibly fine and detailed – I can’t wait to get them aboard!
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Woohoo. Glad to see you back at this one!
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Thanks Rory.
Before fitting those delicate rails this seems like a good time to address a discrepancy that I hadn’t noticed before with the reload torpedo stowage boxes mounted on each side of the forward funnel.
Tamiya represented the long boxes as mounted over semi-enclosed support structures. They were also depicted this way on Nichimo’s excellent 1/200 scale Kagero kit, the beautiful large scale Yukikaze build in Gakken’s Pacific War Series Vol.19 Kagero-class Destroyers, as well as in the Profile Morskie monograph on the Yukikaze… so I had assembled the kit parts without questioning further.
However, the Infini brass upgrade parts represent these structures as more open.
Looking at my references again, the few pictures I could find, such as this one of Kagero-class destroyer Shiranui:
…or this one of Yukikaze:
consistently show the structures to have had open frameworks forward. In fact, they are even more open than the Infini parts! As I looked further, the better references seemed to agree: Gakken’s photo history The Imperial Japanese Navy Volume 11 Destroyers Part II, Mori Tsunehide’s Kojinsha Maru Mechanic Mechanism of Japanese Destroyers, Model Art’s Ship Modeling Techniques Course Vol. 6 Japanese Naval Ship Drawings, Valdemar Góralski’s The Japanese Destroyer Kagero, and even the old Profile Publications IJN Yukikaze monograph – all document these open support frameworks under the forward reload torpedo boxes.
There don’t appear to be any photos of Kagero showing this area, but the available evidence strongly suggests that she too must have had the more open arrangement. It looks like I’ll have to remove the already completed kit assemblies and do them again! 
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Thank-you for spotting that Tim and sorry that you’re going a bit backwards. I checked the LionRoar Kagero set and it is also enclosed but, if you have it in your stash, the White Ensign Models Kagero/Yukikaze PE part is a closer match to your references.
Cheers,
Colin
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Thank-you for spotting that Tim and sorry that you’re going a bit backwards. I checked the LionRoar Kagero set and it is also enclosed but, if you have it in your stash, the White Ensign Models Kagero/Yukikaze PE part is a closer match to your references.
Cheers,
Colin
Thanks Colin, good intel! I haven’t seen the White Ensign set, but having spent waaay too much $ on this build already, I’ll just see what I can do with those Infini parts.
By the way, I think I’ve figured out the source of the mistake:
Above is the only surviving Kagero-class destroyer, Yukikaze, in 1946. After the surrender she was used to repatriate Japanese servicemen from across the former Empire. Her weapons were removed and temporary sheet metal structures added throughout the ship’s weather decks as makeshift passenger accommodation. Part of this process included enclosing the bays under the old reload torpedo boxes.
My guess is that someone on the design team for one of the older plastic model kits (Nichimo’s otherwise excellent 1/200 scale kit dates back to 1976, for example) didn’t realize those enclosed bays were a postwar modification and just incorporated the feature. The error has been perpetuated by almost every other Kagero-class plastic model kit since!
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Great to see this one underway again, Tim 
Hopefully Mrs Reygana is recovering nicely too 
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Great to see this one underway again, TimHopefully Mrs Reygana is recovering nicely too
Thanks Russ! Yes, the wife is doing well enough for me to guiltlessly put in a little time at the workbench! 
Prying off the previously cemented reload torpedo box parts created a real mess, but also an opportunity.
There were two air intake vents on the funnel trunking which Tamiya had molded directly to the larger kit part. As a result, their outlines were a little simplified to enable the plastic sprue to be drawn from the molds. I’d originally left them as is thinking that the funnel and the reload torpedo boxes would mostly hide them, but this was never really satisfactory…
With the boxes temporarily out of the way it wasn’t too much trouble to take the X-acto and shape the intakes into something a bit more realistic.
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Tim, I have been enjoying your work. Since you are working on the intakes, I want to send you reference on the shape of them in case it helps
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Thanks for the pic, Sam!
It would appear that my own interpretation of these intakes may be too rounded, at least compared with Yukikaze
. Kagero was the first unit and was built at Maizuru Naval Arsenal, Yukikaze was the eighth and was laid down at Sasebo a year later… perhaps there was some variation among the ships of the same class? Anyway, in the absence of direct photographic evidence showing Kagero’s intakes, that’s my story and I’m sticking with it!
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