B4en wrote: ↑January 28th, 2024, 10:06 am
The madness continues...
Totally impressive Tim.
You may have a point about the madness!
Returning to the AA platform, it is time to sort out the 25mm guns and other equipment.
To start, the Infini upgrade set comes with four open mesh boxes to be mounted on the outside of the safety rails abaft the funnel. I’m not sure what these things were used for – perhaps to hold emergency floater nets like the USN? Anyway, my references confirm that they were there, so I folded the flat etched brass parts into shape and readied them to go aboard.
Although the Infini set also comes with nice brass fold-to-shape replacement ammo boxes, I found these 3D printed resin parts from Blue Fatty Models to be more convincing. The one-piece box castings are remarkably detailed not only with correct lid and hinge detail but with almost microscopic latches as well.
Here the baskets and 25mm ready ammunition lockers are test fitted.
Good as the Blue Fatty ammo boxes are, their type 96 25mm twin guns are truly astonishing! Cast in only two parts (guns/slide and mount) these little gems must be seen to be believed. The hard resin parts are perfectly scaled, and everything is there: open muzzles, detailed ammo clips, trainer & pointer seats/backrests, open handwheel controls and footrests, even flawless ring-and-bead sights... they are absolutely gorgeous!
Another big improvement over the Tamiya kit parts is this resin 90cm searchlight from Black Cat Models.
Here are the Infini brass pieces, Blue Fatty guns/ammo boxes, and the Black Cat searchlight all test fitted in place. They are a jumble of colors at the moment, but once given their uniform coat of IJN Maizuru Naval Arsenal Grey these diverse parts should integrate together nicely.
