Scratchbuilding the IJN Myoko in 1/144

For the past 9 months I have been building a wooden kit of the IJN ( Imperial Japanese Navy) Myoko in 1/144 to battle for Model Warship Combat. The kit was an old Swampworks wooden kit that was a gift to me years ago. After meeting up with the guys from SCRAP (Southern California Regional Attack Patrol) I began the task of completing the ship, attending build sessions and battles to get ideas on how best to construct my ship.


Here are some pictures of the past 9 months of construction.




A Colorized Photo of the Myoko Prior to the Pacific War



My Model on sea trials at Prado Dam in Southern California. She is 99% done but needs to have faster motors installed to reach 100' in 23 sec for the hobby.



Myoko at Prado Dam. Southern California







Here in comparison to my next project; the battlecrusier, IJN Kongo

BB cannons have been installed as well as watertight box with all my electronics.



Fiberglass Kongo Hull next to wooden Myoko hull.



Myoko in my pool. For the hobby, she has to clock in at 12 lbs fully loaded and being a wood hull was pretty heavy the first time she was fully installed with electronics. Word to the wise, when building cruisers always think light in construction.



The watertight box I built from scrap plywood I had from other projects. All my materials in my ship minus electronics etc, came from the Home Dept. My Fiberglass cloth/resin, glue, spray paint and metal hardware.





Aichi E13A ( allied nickname "Jake" ) Floatplane found on ships of the Imperial Navy from 41'-45'

"Jake" I made for the Myoko out of blue foam , cardboard , toothpicks and two part epoxy, planes canopy is half a plastic wall anchor used for hanging picture frames to drywall.



The superstructure for the model is made up of blue foam, fiberglass resined construction paper , toothpicks and small pieces of styrene plastic. I used Rustolium Painters touch Grey Primer



More superstructure. Funnels were made by hot gluing strips of heavy construction paper to a cardboard skeleton. Fiberglass cloth and resin was applied in 3 layers and once dry was sanded and shaped with bondo.



A pic of the cannon magazines over the motors and pump. Because of the cruisers narrow size, space in this area is at a minimum and foolish me installed my motors before my cannons. Big no , no for any rookie as I found out. I had to remove my motors and mounts and move them forward so my cannons would have space. I devised the following... (4.1 refers to the weight of the wooden hull, pretty heavy)



In order to fit the cannons I had to construct two extension propeller shafts and use 4 sets of dog bone connectors to reach my motors. It might be the weirdest propulsion system on the water but it works.




I am using Leoch 6v 7amp sealed lead battery . They are quite large and in order to fit them in the ship I had to sand my ribs out. Still a tight fit but it works.



Battery in its place



My motors in their new location



Here is the model in a early state. As you can see the superstructure is mainly green paper I bought at Target, the grey foam came with the Swampworks kit. The blue foam I cut to scale, taped it with packing tape and applied fiberglass cloth and resin and sanded in the same fashion as the funnels I described above.



Here you can see the turrets I casted using products bought from www.smooth-on.com
They are a mold making company and because the kits old turrets were vacuum formed styrene, I wanted to make them more sturdy.





I will be posting more pics soon, as well as products I used and how to articles when I get the time. So check back soon !

Happy Hunting !