Takom H/PJ11-11-30 CIWS

Let the building begin...

The build went as expected. The kit is easy to assemble for the most part and is a good kit to suggest to a beginner, however an experienced modeler will be very satisfied with this kit.  All the parts fit together very nicely. Very little clean up was required however there were a few very small gaps and mold marks that could be filled and sanded if desired but not necessary. The optical sight and radar are super detailed and look great when put together. As anticipated assembling the rotary gun barrels was the most challenging part of the process but well worth the effort when finished. The gun looks awesome! 

Steps 1 and 2 build the turret side assemblies. You can see the minor gaps at the corner seams that I filled and sanded.

Steps 3 and 4 assemble the Radar and Optical sight and their respective mounts. Several steps in one are used making the process as clear as possible. Some parts are labeled to not be glued so they remain moveable. Only the elevation adjustment of the sight and radar is moveable in the end. 

Notice the two photoetch lifting rings at the top of the Radar mechanism.

Step 7 assembles the mount for the rotary gun and the gun support frame. At the bottom of this is the exhaust chute for the spent shell casings. That part was a little tricky at first. The chute only fits one way due to different size and offset holes at the attachment points. At first glance it looks the correct way is upside down but it's not, it just fits tight against the bottom of the gun mount. 

Step 8 builds the floor of the turret and photoetch guide for the empty shell casings. The 2nd part of step 8 lets you attach all the components made in the previous steps to the floor giving you a mostly finished turret, minus the rotary gun and turret mount. Here is the turret floor mounted to the base. Notice the large photoetch piece used for the shell casings.

Step 8.5 has you mount the upper turret assemblies to the main floor and also build the gun frame and gun barrels. I did things a little differently than the directions. I connected the turret floor to the upper sections and put that assembly aside.

My next step was to remove all 11 gun barrels and clean them up as best as possible. Each barrel has 3 points where it connects to the sprue. Each barrel didn't take a lot of work to clean up but 11 of them was a little tedious. They are very fragile so handle with care. Once clean I glued all 11 barrels to the base and slid the support ring over the barrels and let dry overnight. I set the barrel ends part on there just to get a visual of the end product.

Once the glue is dry I removed the barrel support ring so the round end of the frame work could be slid over the barrels. The barrels all stayed aligned when the glue was completely dry. 

Frame support ring installed over the barrels and now the support for the gun barrels and gun end piece can be glued on.

Before assembling the gun support frame I filled in the mold release marks and sanded down the insides of the frame parts. The parts felt slightly too thick anyway so the sanding thinned them just enough the feel right and smooth out the release marks.

Then I could assemble the frame work and let the glue set overnight. The next day the frame was strong enough to fill any gaps and clean up any edges.

Now the gun can be inserted into the frame. Do not glue the gun or frame end piece yet. The gun should be removed for painting.

There it is before painting. How awesome does that 30mm 11 barrel rotary gun look! I love the detail and depth of the separate gun barrels.

I used Tamiya grey primer thinned with Mr.Color Leveling thinner. The rotary gun was removed and primed separately. It is set in position for the photos.

After priming I gave it a quick pre-shading and then a coat of Tamiya Light Grey XF-66 mixed with a little (20% at most) Tamiya semi gloss clear X-35 thinned again with Mr.Color Leveling thinner. Following reference images I painted the gun barrels flat black and the optical lenses gloss black. Very few images show the colors of the optical lenses. Most photos show the optics facing down so I kept it simple and went with black. I added some gun metal pigment to the gun barrels however the images show them as black. Very little if any weathering is seen in reference images so I left things alone with just hints of the pre-shading showing through. I did however, mix in a little Tamiya Light Blue to the Light Grey and spray from above at an angle trying to simulate some highlights.  

All in all I really enjoyed this model. It was something different from my normal armor modelling. For the review I wanted to keep the finish somewhat accurate to the photos I could find. It was challenging to not add at least a pin wash to bring out some details and/or maybe some light dry brushing. If I did I think it would have looked over done in the pictures.

The kit is great! I have no real complaints at all. I think anyone would have a positive experience with this kit and the limits are almost endless with how far it could be taken. Thank you very much for the opportunity to do this review.

Highly Recommended for Beginner to Advanced builders.

Thanks goes out to Takom for this review kit.

Reviewed by Russ Clark

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