IJN Cruiser Agano

In my last post I ran a tease about me getting back to painting some ships. I'm working with my friend Kevin on some 1/1200 scale ships for some small night battles. As part of my contribution I ordered some 3D printed ships from XP Forge. I started off with a small order of resin printed ships, picking the American cruiser Salt Lake City, the IJN cruiser Agano, and some American destroyers. The main reason I chose the cruisers is that they aren't available in 1/1200 scale from Superior (through Alnavco), but they seem like useful ships for Pacific battles. Kevin would like to do the Battle of Komandorski Islands, which features Salt Lake City, and I would like to do the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, which features Agano (yes, I know that is probably too large for 1/1200 scale, but it could be broken down into parts). 

The 3D printed ships arrived without any issues and are completely useful for games as is. But the masts for most of the ships are a little bulky compared to the rest of the ship details. I considered making some adjustments to the ships (replacing most masts and cranes). But before I did that I decided to paint up one ship to see if I could use paint to add more details. I decided to go with Agano, since it seemed to have the least mast problems. Here is how she appeared before I started painting.

Agano out of the box

I grabbed my box of Lifecolor Imperial Japan Navy WWII paints (a good box to have on hand) and pulled out Kure Grey and Linoleum Deck. I used those as my main colors, with a few other colors (scale black, canvas, etc.) to round out the model. As I mentioned, I was trying to see what I could do with just paints to make it look good. 

Lifecolor IJN paint set 1

The basic painting went pretty smoothly. Then I began looking at how to add some details. I did some work on the floatplane deck and catapult. Then I added some canvas on the main guns and some windows for the bridge. Overall, I think it turned out pretty well and is certainly good enough for gaming. I could have done a little more weathering or added some more details, but I'm not sure how much it wold have added. Here are some photos from different angles, starting with the port side, so you can compare it to the unpainted photo above. 

Agano - port side view

port forward-quarter view

port rear-quarter view

starboard side view

starboard forward-quarter view

Even with this result, I feel like I need to make some modifications to the other ships. The more I look at the masts, the more out-sized they look. My plan is to clip them off and add change them to thinner wire. Stay tuned.