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In the early 90's I decided to try my hand at ship modeling after a very long haitus. However, this time I decided to stick with a single scale. I chose 1/350th, cause it was BIG. In keeping with the theme, I got the biggest battleship of them all--the Yamato. OK, if I'd had it to do over again, I'd probably choose 1/700th scale, cause there's far more variety out there. 1/350th scale kits are either Tamiya or resin. Tamiya only has a handful, and resin garage kits are expensive. I saw a WWII Enterprise carrier that, though beautiful, was almost $900. This Tamiya kit was big and cost about $60. Since I wanted extra detail, I picked up Gold Medal Models photo-etched set as well, for about $35.
The hull is cast as one piece, and only needed sanding down the centerline on the bottom. The deck was two pieces that joined in the middle. Though it made assembly easier, I wasn't able to get rid of the seam between the halves. I could probably do it now, but at the time I didn't have the skills. the superstructure pieces were numerous, but fit well. I drilled out the gun barrels for the main and secondary guns, but left the anti-aircraft batteries alone, as I was afraid of splitting the thin plastic pieces. Photos of the Yamato are few and far between, as it was built under tight security, and didn't have a long service carreer. I painted mine based on the directions in the kit as well as a model of the Shinano (one of Yamato's 2 sister ships, converted to an aircraft carrier) featured in an issue of Fine Scale Modeler magazine. I chose not to weather the model.
For me, the most fun was building the float-planes on the aft deck of the Yamato. Each of these small planes was a separate project. The planes and the launch/recovery equipment benefitted from the photo-etched details immensely. The other major improvements over the plastic pieces include the radar equipment and railings. I hand painted the hino maru flag, but almost certainly have the rigging wrong.
