The bottom shot is a 1/2400 "model" of the IJN's Ryujo, painted, based, and ready for the game table. This thing's been laying in the figure pile for a long time. A resin casting by Panzerschiffes, it came close to being tossed a few times for being terribly inaccurate. The issues were many, but primarily involved the shape and length of the flight deck, placement of the 40mm gun tubs, and other hull and superstructure details. There was no way to really fix it, but I figured I could at least make it presentable.
Sarge kicked in a piece of thin sheet styrene from which I could cut a new flight deck. I applied a deck decal to the styrene, then carefully cut it out with scissors and a hobby knife. Liberal use of MicroSol provided a good bond. Before cementing the new deck in place, I repainted the ship in a darker gray and gave it a wash using some black ink. Then I ruined the paint-job with an overspray of Testors clear matte (I've just about given up on this stuff). I cleaned it off, repainted it with the flat dark gray, then a dry-brush with off-white and a bit of burnt sienna. Topped the funnels with a dab of flat black. I then painted the edge of the styrene dark gray to match.
With the painting done, I cemented the new flight deck onto the original using some Loctite GO2. I had to trim the deck slightly to clear the AA positions, but fortunately it's not too noticeable. The new deck, being a bit longer than the original, overhangs too much, especially over the bridge, but no worries. I was going to grind off the edges of the original deck forward (you can see it protruding on either side), but then realized the top-down view was basically correct, the protrusion actually being the gunwales of the hangar deck, one deck down. So I left it...looks sorta okay from an aerial view, but terrible in profile.
I found a clear plastic ODGW etched base for it in the supply drawers, but it was a bit long. I scored it with a knife, then snapped about an inch off the wake-end. I trimmed it up and rounded off the corners using the Dremel and a sanding wheel, then I made a label using Excel, scotch-taped it to the underside, trimming off the excess tape. Glued the ship to the base using more GO2. Normally I would have given the ship a shot of protective clear matte before basing, but until I can find a good alternative to Testors, I'll pass.
I actually have a few planes that I could paint and cement on the deck, but I'll defer on that for now (wingspan is roughly 3/16 of an inch). Instead, fighters are on CAP, everything else is stored below or away on a mission. Now I have a juicy target for my SBDs.
Seems to me, painting a big meatball on the flight deck was a tactical error by the Japanese, but what do I know.
Maybe a lunch time expedition would not be to heinous...