1/1200 IJNS Shinano: Finishing Touches

Obviously a big yellow line was needed down the middle of the Shinano's flight deck to stop the aircraft falling into the see or crashing into the control island superstructure (see below). As they say at Tesco's "Every Little Helps":

The most amazing thing here is, that this means that I actually did some "decalling" (unheard of). I obviously wasn't feeling myself (see above and below). The decals almost look as if they are a straight line too, being "four small decals" merged into one. If I was to be completely honest here I would have to say there was a "bit" of profanity at one point ;)

My saving grace as always was my trusty MicroSol and MicroSet decal "fixing" solution. The result, the IJNS Shinano departs into the relatively placid waters around the Sea of Japan (see below):

An armoured flight-deck, massive AA defence and no prominent Japanese "Red Circle" to guide enemy bombing attacks in means that the "aerial" war lessons have been learned well by the Japanese Navy (see above and below):

It's such a pity then that the USS Archerfish was hiding beneath the waves nearby and slipped a full load of torpedoes into her belly. The IJNS Shinao was sunk on her sea trials before making a war mission, taking with her over two thousand souls.

That completes the naval section of 2011 methinks. Next up it may well be back to "tanks and the like" but what scale?