IJN Ironclad Battleship Kashima 1906

I have always had a bit of a thing for boats when it comes to wargames. Its not an addiction, I can give them up anytime I want but, I am easily distracted by a well turned hull and sleek lines. It has often caused me trouble as I will see a nice ship model at a show and I end up buying it for no more a reason than I liked it. It can thus be an expensive distraction too, the MDF frigate made and sold by Dark Ops is a constant threat to my wallet and mental well being.

At a recent Salute show I saw the ship models on offer by Old Glory. I was first struck by the large size, these are 1/600 scale, and I surprised myself by somehow walking away from them. Long story short, I now have one of these resin and metal kits and know it will not be long before more are purchased. My good friend, Mark, has also become  'involved' with them and has three! Who knew wargame addiction was a communicable disease? I have started with the Imperial Japanese Navy, Mark with the Russians. It seems that the battle of Tsushima is our eventual goal and at £15 - £20 a model eventual is definitely the word.

My first model is the Ironclad Kashima. She was built in Britain for the Japanese who at that time, 1906, did not have the facilities for such large projects. Annoyingly, I cant really use this model for the battle of Tsushima as it wasn't completed until after the Russo-Japanese war ended. Still, it has been an enjoyable experience and I have learnt a lot along the way, not least about the building and painting of these large models. 

The model cleaned up and ready to start. The paint pot is to give you an idea of size.

The models have a resin hull and metal parts. My one concern is the metal parts, they are quite soft and can bend pretty easily; gun barrels are a particular worry and I lost one despite care during the painting process. 

For a novice this array might look daunting especially as the models do not come with any instruction sheet or guide. The web page does have some photographs, one of most models but, I found a couple of annoying errors that may trip the less experienced.

I started by cleaning up the parts and washing the resin hull to remove any release agent left over from the casting process. I then part-built the model but temporarily glued the smaller parts to sticks for ease of painting. Given the fragility of some parts this pays dividends rather than try to get around and between small parts. I then gave everything a coat of Warm Grey as a base/primer.

The Vallejo extra opaque paint gave an excellent coverage and base coat to the model.

The fragility of some of the pieces became quite apparent at this stage, one of the smaller gun barrels in particular began to come away just through careful brushing. Next stage was to apply the main colours, Vallejo Light Grey for the hull, guns and superstructure followed by highlights with Sky Grey. Various details were picked out in the darker German Grey. For the wooden deck areas I used the Citadel Screaming Skull. I know, an appallingly ridiculous name for a paint but there you are. It at least gave the effect I wanted so I try not to complain too loudly.

Apologies for the poor quality of the picture. Lighting is clearly not my thing.

The next issue was the placing of the ships boats and the derricks. No pre-drilled holes existed on the model for these and, even though the website photo showed where they should go, they were placed back to front with the boats inboard and the derricks on the very edge. So, with a little care and common sense I measured out the correct positions and spacings and drilled my own holes. The resin is helpful here as it is very easy to work with.

Note the pencil marks giving the correct positions for the boats and derricks.

The various pieces were now glued into place and the odd areas of paintwork tidied up. I then left the model to fully dry for twenty four hours prior to adding a diluted wash over everything. It is always best to allow this time as even though the paint is touch dry it remains a little porous. Any wash added too soon will stain the paint rather than flow over it and give a very different effect to that required. It will recolour areas instead of adding a degree of depth and shading. I use the Army Painter Soft Tone wash, the one in the plastic bottle rather than the tin of dip. They are not the same despite the blurb and the acrylic wash is far more versatile; cleaner to use too without the strong smell. This was also left for twenty four hours before brush varnishing; I don't really trust spray varnish after one too many incidents of 'frosting'. Varnish too soon and you may reanimate the wash and move it around which can be quite annoying.

The model is now complete, albeit that I still need to add a flag to the stern and I am tempted to add a little rigging here and there. The model most definitely needs a base but I am in two minds as to how to proceed. Do I try to add a scenic sea base or, do I simply add a more expensive clear acrylic base? Each method as its pros and cons but I really cant decide. Any thoughts, dear reader?

The completed model...bar flag etc.