Original post: 1/10/2016
This is another kit review I wanted to get up on the web as I’d looked for one without much luck. I’m a fan of 1/450 scale ship models and Japan’s WW2 fleet, so this kit held great interest for me.
Once I decided to start this project the first thing I did was mix up a batch of hull paints: red with a touch of blue for the lower half. For the top I used a mix of: blue, green, black, white and thinner. Then I jumped right in and put a coat of each on the two primary hull pieces before remembering I wanted to photograph the kit parts for this review!
The kit parts.
After the photo shoot I jumped back in and painted most everything while still on their trees. This too was premature as there was enough plastic flash and unevenness to make me wish I had fixed things first.
While in kit quality territory, I’ll mention the most annoying production defect: dimples, dimples all over the place! Tops of AA guns, tops of casemated guns, tops of range finders, backs of search lights… All easily fixed with some plastic filler, sand paper and TIME! Seeing how time was at a premium, I decided not be a perfectionist on this build. That decision is a nice segue to my next topic: Props, prop-shafts, rudders and this kit’s lower hull shape… Fujimi’s design choices here were made 100% in support of this kits utility as a motorized toy, with zero attempt made to be accurate. Like the Hasegawa Missouri’s prop issues – but worse. They’re bad enough that I decided early on to just have a good time building this model “as is” and not worry about accuracy. It took me just over a week of ‘spare’ time to complete and I do think it’s a good looking model when finished.
I only added a few leftover photo-etched parts: doors, rails, ladders and a couple of stairs.
I did leave out a few parts: AA guns (I couldn’t find in any photos), the third plane, and two deck boats, but other then that, she is build as designed.
Well, kind of…
I think this kit has parts to build the other ships in its class, but the instructions are only in Japanese… pretty sure I built a Kirishima/Kongo/Haruna/Hiei mash-up.
Other minor nits to pick: The separate range finders on the super-firing main guns are pretty awful, they’re too high & wide and keep those turrets from turning as they hit the superstructures behind them. The lower main guns can’t really turn either, the molded on deck details behind them rub against and catch on the undersides of those turrets. Still more turret problems, the guns would not stay elevated to save their lives, so for the first time on any kit – I glued the whole mess into place: guns, turrets everything!
To summarize:
This kit was an easy, fun build, it has decent detail and finished looks, its roots as a motorized toy will make it a modding challenge for the perfectionist, and unfortunately it has an expensive price tag, typically costing about $100.00 US – if you can find it.