Original pre-build review: 12/18/2016
This is the Nichimo 1:500 scale Heavy Cruiser Myoko.
It’s one of three kits I’m thinking of building next, the other 2 are the
Revell Yorktown and Revell USS Helena.
This is an older kit, (though not 60s-70s old) but definitely worth building.
It may still be in production and is fairly plentiful on eBay where it can be found for about $25.00 US and for that price you really get a bargain (this has gone up since my first posting to $45 +/- $10). I’m very impressed with the detail and quality of this kit.
Add the Gold Medal Models photo etch set and you can really do the Myoko justice. Be aware that at $30.00 the photo etch may set you back more than the model. Still, for about 60 bucks, this can be a quality budget build.
Update: 7/12/2018
I finally started building Myoko. Between Helena and Myoko I’d completed seven 3D printed projects, Myoko seemed so much easier!
Even though this is an excellent kit (especially for the price and date of production) I hesitated to start my Nichimo Myoko mainly because at 1/500 scale she is about 1.5″ shorter than a 1/450 scale Myoko would be and that’s pretty noticeable. I kept hoping I’d find a true 1/450 scale IJN cruiser – but without luck.
While 3D printing one is probably doable, it would have taken many more hours to design and assemble than this Nachimo Myoko kit and there would have been a quality trade off and I already had this otherwise excellent kit and photo etch set….
However, the biggest reason for not going the 3D rout was that at a whopping 17.64 inches it would have been nearly 20% larger than my currently largest 3D project: USS Omaha and experience tells me Omaha is about as large a project as I’d like to tackle with the Da Vinci Mini printer.
Update: 7/15/2018
IJN Myoko is getting there. I’m liking the Gold Metal Models PE set, I only wish it had stack louvers and screens as the plastic parts are hideous. Solid stack tops are a pet peeve of mine. I was able to perfectly replace the aircraft catapults and the twin towers supporting the searchlights on either side of the main funnel with PE. The stock plastic towers holding (what I’m guessing are) the fire directors for the secondary guns, located on either side of the secondary funnel, were a difficult PE swap. The PE used made them 1mm or so shorter then the plastic parts but they look much nicer. There was no perfect replacement for Myoko’s crane boom. Even though the PE set thankfully comes with several. However adapting one to good effect was be pretty easy.
All in all, the PE set worked out great and I’ll have plenty of leftovers to spice up past and future projects.
So far, I’m finding the fit of the Nichimo kit parts to be mostly excellent. The only fail needing attention was the range finders for the 8″ turrets. They needed to be glued on and just like the Fujimi IJN Kirishima kit, Myoko’s range finders are oversized. If simply added as is, the lower forward 8″ turret is prevented from rotating because the top of its range finder hits the upper superfiring turret & barbet behind it. I ended up thinning all the range finders vertically so they don’t ride so high atop the turrets and clipping them a bit horizontally so they don’t stick out so much to left and right.
All said – pretty minor stuff.
Update: 7/21/2018
Just the PE rails and rigging to go but done for now. Myoko was a pretty fast build. I probably could have put more time into this project but I really didn’t need too. The kit quality and PE made things pretty easy on me. With comparatively little effort she looks as good or better than the other ships in my Japanese 1/450 scale fleet. I do want to get to the finish work though, we’ll see, Myoko will need to get in line.
Nichimo 1/500 scale warship model IJN Myoko, WW2 Japanese Heavy Cruiser