1/350 Musashi wreck

[modelcrazy]

Here's a new one for this thread.

I was stoked with Paul Allen's discovery of the IJN Musashi in March 2015. I saw the story just a few days afterwards and wanted to replicate the wreck, but how to do it?

I had an old Tamiya hull of the Yamato that I was in the middle of building while I was in the Coast Guard. I never completed it, lost the parts, and dragged the unfinished hull around with me for years for some reason. The Yamato, while being sister to the Musashi wasn’t the same, there were some major differences to the AA complement and deck arrangement. Like all ship classes, there are some minor or major differences between the other ships in the same class. In this case, I decided, it didn’t matter because the ship was in two sections with the superstructure section spread all over the sea floor. So the story goes, after she was hit by 17 bombs, 18 near misses and 17 torpedoes she rolled over, losing her turrets in the process and suffered a magazine detonation on the way down, completely obliterating the center section of the battleship. The only recognizable sections are the bow and stern.

OK, so now that the Yamato could be substituted for the Musashi in this case, how do I know what she looked like? Allan’s video footage is detailed but not on the whole. The ROV just concentrates a little on front of the bow and on the rudder section. They also look closely at other parts on the sea floor, which showed me the extent of decay and sea life but not how the sections were sitting. Then I ran across the side scan sonar. Apparently the highly detailed side scan sonar pictures showed the bow and stern sections, their orientation and a remarkably detailed condition of each. So, with a little imagination I got to work.

The holes were created by removing sections of plastic and replacing them with pieces of aluminum cans. The decks were created using cardboard and the seafloor is dirt and pastels. The separation of the hull and stern are further in real life but for the sake of space, I shortened the distance. The photos were taken with lowered light to simulate the dark atmosphere of the sea depth. The ROV was scratch built using PE pieces.



            
  

[406 Silverado]

This is truly remarkable work and one of my favorite as well as most memorable builds from you Steve. The thought and planning that went into this build just HAD to be extensive. Didn't this one end up in a museum somewhere or do you have it at home?

I never knew that you used cardboard for the decks which is a fantastic idea!! My hat goes off to you for such a fantastic result bud.

[armornutii]

  Never cease to amaze Steve. Incredible!

[406 Silverado]

Jul 8, 2023 10:43:33 GMT -5 armornutii said:

  Never cease to amaze Steve. Incredible!

Dude's on fire with these ship builds of his.

[Joe Rix]

Thanks for sharing this absolutely incredible display of master modeling. To me, this has been your masterpiece. From planning to implementation this is just mind blowing. I never get tired of seeing it.

[Joe Rix]

Jul 8, 2023 10:14:48 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

This is truly remarkable work and one of my favorite as well as most memorable builds from you Steve. The thought and planning that went into this build just HAD to be extensive. Didn't this one end up in a museum somewhere or do you have it at home?

I never knew that you used cardboard for the decks which is a fantastic idea!! My hat goes off to you for such a fantastic result bud.

Isn't this on display at the USS Lexington Museum near you Joe? 

[406 Silverado]

Jul 8, 2023 11:23:36 GMT -5 Joe Rix said:

Jul 8, 2023 10:14:48 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

This is truly remarkable work and one of my favorite as well as most memorable builds from you Steve. The thought and planning that went into this build just HAD to be extensive. Didn't this one end up in a museum somewhere or do you have it at home?

I never knew that you used cardboard for the decks which is a fantastic idea!! My hat goes off to you for such a fantastic result bud.

Isn't this on display at the USS Lexington Museum near you Joe? 

Now that you mention it I think it is.



Joe

[41chevy]

I am absolutely awe struck by this build. Everytime I look I see another hidden detail.

[stikpusher]

I remember this build. It’s still damned impressive after all these years on this go around. Simply awesome work!

[modelcrazy]

Jul 8, 2023 10:14:48 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

This is truly remarkable work and one of my favorite as well as most memorable builds from you Steve. The thought and planning that went into this build just HAD to be extensive. Didn't this one end up in a museum somewhere or do you have it at home?

I never knew that you used cardboard for the decks which is a fantastic idea!! My hat goes off to you for such a fantastic result bud.

Yes sir, It was donated to the Lexington Musuem in Corpus

[modelcrazy]

Jul 8, 2023 11:22:19 GMT -5 Joe Rix said:

Thanks for sharing this absolutely incredible display of master modeling. To me, this has been your masterpiece. From planning to implementation this is just mind blowing. I never get tired of seeing it.

Thanks Joe, it was a fun build and I learned much about the Yamato class ships

[modelcrazy]

Jul 8, 2023 13:53:28 GMT -5 41chevy said:

I am absolutely awe struck by this build. Everytime I look I see another hidden detail.

Thanks Chevy

[modelcrazy]

Jul 8, 2023 19:49:52 GMT -5 stikpusher said:

I remember this build. It’s still damned impressive after all these years on this go around. Simply awesome work!

Thank you Carlos

[modelcrazy]

Jul 8, 2023 10:43:33 GMT -5 armornutii said:

  Never cease to amaze Steve. Incredible!

Thank buddy!

[ogrejohn]

Freaking cool build! Love the photography too.

[406 Silverado]

Jul 8, 2023 23:46:24 GMT -5 modelcrazy said:

Jul 8, 2023 10:14:48 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

This is truly remarkable work and one of my favorite as well as most memorable builds from you Steve. The thought and planning that went into this build just HAD to be extensive. Didn't this one end up in a museum somewhere or do you have it at home?

I never knew that you used cardboard for the decks which is a fantastic idea!! My hat goes off to you for such a fantastic result bud.

Yes sir, It was donated to the Lexington Musuem in Corpus

I'm gonna have to go over there and see this one first hand on one of my next days off.

[modelcrazy]

I am too, The cureator said he wanted to put it into the Captain's quarters but I'm not sure if that actually went through. In fact, I'm not sure if it's currently on display. The trip would have to be a weekend. It would be a 7 hour drive from where I live. Texas is big!

[deafpanzer]

Definitely a TEN from me too!!! Superb work

[moparmadness]

This is probably my favorite of your older builds.

[Real G]

Oh wow Steve, another amazing build - and now immortalized at a museum!  

[Leon]

That is simply amazing Steve!

[m1keh]

Nothing I can add that hasn't already been said. "Destruction Construction" like this is an art unto itself. Marvelous work.

[tcoat]

Do you have any build progress pictures? This is amazing. I have an old Academy 1/350 Titanic that was badly damaged and I have always wanted to do the wreck but wasn't even sure where to start.

[modelcrazy]

Jul 14, 2023 6:16:28 GMT -5 tcoat said:

Do you have any build progress pictures? This is amazing. I have an old Academy 1/350 Titanic that was badly damaged and I have always wanted to do the wreck but wasn't even sure where to start.

Yes sir. I'll hunt them down and post them.

[modelcrazy]

Hi guys.

I found the WIP pics of this build. The stern section decks were made of plastic and the bow decks were made from cardboard. I did this because I was going to heat the stern to crush it and cardboard would not have acted like I wanted, Cardboard is easier to work with and the bow didn't appear to be crushed. I referenced some pictures of the deck layout and torpedo blisters.

The original Yamato hull that was cut up



Making the stern decks out of plastic sheet



I thinned the plastic to duplicate the scale armor thickness and added aluminum to simulate armor impacted by bombs and torpedoes more realistically. The torpedo blisters of the Yamato class were different than those of all other navies. The blister was thinner which allowed the torpedo to detonate against the inner hull blowing the exterior out. US blisters were compartmentalized with two layers, one filled with air and the one closed to the inner hull filled with water to disperse the blast wave. The Japanese used two but the first was small and both filled with air.

    

I then worked on the bow section. You can see the cardboard I used as decks and bulkheads. I also added some solder wire and stretched sprue for cabling and such. then painted everything with a green algae color and then added a decaying rust tone. I wasn't too concerned about the color and whether it covered the entire model because it was going to be covered with dirt anyway

    

During this time, I carved out a slab of styrofoam, found at craft stores, fitting the bow and stern. The impact area was created using aryilic gel.


 

I wanted to recreate Allan's ROV so I made it out of spare PE and inserted an LED. I used shrink tubing to act like the umbilical but I wasn't pleased with the scale. The wires run through the tubing and exit through the bow deck and into the base


 

I put a base of dirt on the base prior to attaching the bow and stern to it.




Then I added the parts and continued to add dirt and pastells to the base.




I was pleased how it turned out except for the umbillical.

[Joe Rix]

Thanks for posting this Steve. Kudos to your creativity and ingenuity. The results are truly remarkable.

[moramartht]

I have an old Academy 1/350 Titanic that was badly damaged and I have always wanted to do the wreck but wasn't even sure where to start.

It might take a bit of detail scratchbuilding (lifeboat davits, for a start) but less wrecking if you were to model it as the wreck of HMHS Britannic...

Cheers,

M

[modelcrazy]

I was watching a YouTube video of the "Shipwrecks of leyte" and about fell out of my chair when I saw the YouTuber used a picture of the bow to show the probable damage. Since those pictures are in the public domain, he's more than welcome to use any of my pictures.

[brandonk]

I had forgotten about this one. Thanks for bringing it back.

[406 Silverado]

Jul 17, 2023 13:55:59 GMT -5 modelcrazy said:

I was watching a YouTube video of the "Shipwrecks of leyte" and about fell out of my chair when I saw the YouTuber used a picture of the bow to show the probable damage. Since those pictures are in the public domain, he's more than welcome to use any of my pictures.

I can only imagine the surprise you must have felt seeing that. Too cool Steve.