IJN Minekaze

This is my DaVinci Mini 3D printed, 1/450 scale model of the IJN Minekaze destroyer of World War Two.

I wanted to have an older IJN DD design in my armada and the Minekaze class fit the bill nicely. An excellent counterpart to the USS Clemson class. Both had units in service between 1919 and 1946.

To me, Minikaze’s design with her raised turtle decked forecastle followed by a torpedo well then tower bridge, typifies the post WWI Japanese destroyers that found themselves still in service at the start of WWII.

The Minekaze class was rather large as IJN ship classes go at 15 units: Minekaze,Sawakaze, Okikaze, Shimakaze, Nadakaze, Yakaze, Hakaze, Shiokaze, Akikaze, Yukaze, Tachikaze, Hokaze, Nokaze, Namikaze, Numakaze.

All constructed between 1918-1922. Amazingly 4 made it through WW2 to die of old age (scrapped). The Namikaze lived on to serve in the Chinese navy and wasn’t broken up until 1960.

Minekaze is a continuation of my 1/450 scale WWII warship building efforts to have for both the US and Japanese navies examples that were at the time old and new. IJN Minekaze is the old to Yugumo’s new as USS Omaha is the old to Atlanta’s new.

The design of the Minekaze model went quickly with only the turtle decked forecastle being somewhat tricky to create. The printing went well too, mostly because I knew the hardest design elements would be beyond the DaVinci Mini’s capabilities so I left them out. The items I’m referring to are the buttresses to port and starboard of the elevated gun platforms. I have no clue what they were called or what they did but they are a very distinctive design element and were the trickiest part to fabricate. I ended up using leftover plastic railings that came with my 1/400 scale Graff Spee. I think they served their new purpose quite nicely! Other non-printed touches were the use of paper and Elmer’s glue for the bridge covering and sand colored paint on window glue covered PE rails, to simulate the canvas covered rail elements.

All in all IJN Minekaze was a tiny yet challenging, fun project.

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