Tamiya 1/350 IJN I-400 Sen Toku Class Submarine

[Lynx7]

Hello chaps. First time I've ventured in to the maritime section. A different direction for me as I tend to build Lynx helicopters!

Anyway, I watched a documentary a while ago about the missions of the IJN I-400 class of submarines and found it thoroughly interesting. That got me building the Tamiya Aichi A6 Seiran (link) cos I liked the look of it. I went the whole hog and bought the Tamiya 1/350 I-400 from SMW 2011 at Telford. This was a bit of a Christmas project for me and the first time I've built a boat. I've stuck a bit of WiP on this topic too.

Kit - Tamiya 1/350 I-400

Extras - Eduard PE

Voyager PE

White Ensign Type 96 Triple 25mm AA guns

References - 'I-400 Japan's secret Aircraft carrying strike submarine' pub by Hikoki (thanks for the lend, Pete)

Paints -

Tamiya fine primer

Tamiya IJN Grey (Kure Arsenal) spray

Army Painter Desert Yellow primer

A selection of Model Master and Vallejo paints

As usual from Tamiya, an excellent kit. All parts fitted like a glove (with the exception of a slight bulge on the lower hull near the bow) with a comprehensive instruction booklet.

Voyager brass on the forward bow area. I decided to use a combination of Voyager, Eduard and the supplied PE and luckily, all of the sets have mostly different bits as well as a few that were the same. It allowed me to pick the best of each.

My first exposure of TINY PE that you ship types seem to love

The sub was designed to carry three folded up Seirans in the cigar shaped structure. You get 5 Seirans with the kit. Three folded and two in normal config. I decided that it was kicking the bottom out of it sticking the other 2 folded Seirans in the tube as they cannot be seen. Tamiya have released a version of this kit with a clear tube so you can see in side.

Start on the deck areas. I sprayed the deck using Army Painter Desert Yellow then applied a wet mix of dark brown/black water colour then carefully wiped it as it was drying. Seems to be a good effect. From my references (and wrongly in the Tamiya manual), the decks are a dull dark colour as opposed to the traditional wooden deck.

Initial coat of Tamiya fine primer. The hull had a couple of seam lines on the join so they had to be filled and sanded (unheard of on a Tamiya kit!)

First coat of Tamiya IJN Grey. Again, Tamiya have their painting guide wrong. The pictures in my ref book show the hull to be an overall grey as opposed to grey top, red lower. They may have been when new but all ref's I've seen show them all grey.

Start of weathering using a collection of Mig pigments.

Then the mighty task (minor compared to a Cruiser or Battleship I guess) of PE railings and other minute bits of etch.

Well, here she is; An unrealisic pose as the periscopes are up, control vanes deployed, crane erected and hangar door open but I think it adds to the shape with all the crap showing.

I've also done a separate Seiran. Shes sat next to a 1p piece

Sat with her big sister;

I would like to make a nice wooden base for the sub with brass turnings but that can wait for a bit as I'm getting back to my 1/35th Lynx

In conclusion, a very enjoyable build and its made me interested in build more stuff that goes on or under the water...although the tinyness of the PE will make my eyes bleed!!!

Thanks for looking

Edited January 8, 2012 by Lynx7

[turnerdad]

Fantastic build of a truly fascinating suject.

[johndon]

Very, very nice.

John

[Shar2]

Superb build. I've got the clear version which may one day get built, but will certainly be getting the Eduard and Voyager sets having seen yours.

[Lynx7]

Superb build. I've got the clear version which may one day get built, but will certainly be getting the Eduard and Voyager sets having seen yours.

Thanks for all your comments, chaps. Much appreciated.

Shar, I mainly used the Eduard set (nicer railings and some very fine detail). Voyager is good too as it has the forward plated area ahead of the catapult run. Their ladders are also good too. I used a combination of the Eduard and voyager sets for the periscope area (Eduard spiked air search radar and its frame secondary but used voyager for the E27 radar detector antenna). The Tamiya stuff is a bit clunky to say the least but did use a couple of the standard bits. I highly recommend the book; I-400 Japan's secret aircraft carrying sub ISBN-10: 1902109457. No idea how they get to £119 on Amazon! It retails for £29.99. Either way, its an excellent reference with tons more info and pics than you can find on the web.

[Shar2]

Thanks for the info. Will look out for the book.

[Danila]

A wonderful model.

Photo with two Seyrans just great!

However, the bottom below the waterline must still be dark red. In old bicolour photographs very difficult to distinguish red from gray.

[Lynx7]

A wonderful model.

Photo with two Seyrans just great!

However, the bottom below the waterline must still be dark red. In old bicolour photographs very difficult to distinguish red from gray.

My references suggest the hull was covered in an anechoic coating made up of gum, asbestos and adhesives and photos of the sub in dry dock indicate that the hull was all over grey. Henry Sakaida and Koji Takaki also state they were all grey in their book and from the illustrations made by Kyoshi Harada from within the book. Quite subjective I agree as I-400 is currently in 2,690 feet of water!

[Phil Reeder]

Great build!Excellent PE work ,and weathering .

Cheers Phil

[Dave A]

Lovely! The Seiran's a beautiful aircraft even when it's the size of your thumbnail. I've got the 1/48 version wrapped up for my birthday in a few weeks - I'll be aiming for half as good as that one...

[Lynx7]

Lovely! The Seiran's a beautiful aircraft even when it's the size of your thumbnail. I've got the 1/48 version wrapped up for my birthday in a few weeks - I'll be aiming for half as good as that one...

Its a pleasure to build! When stress gets the better of me, its a perfect kit to destress with

[jimbuna]

That is an extremely excellent build...very nice indeed.

[Alan P]

Another superlative build of this kit

Really like the weathering, especially on the planes.

Al

[Madam I'm Adam]

My first exposure of TINY PE that you ship types seem to love

love to hate!

Truely glorious modelling.

Thanks for sharing

Adam

[InFlames]

stunning build!

[Moofles]

Stunning kit, i might well have to pick one of these up.

[Madam I'm Adam]

RE; White Ensign Type 96 Triple 25mm AA guns

were these Voyager or Veteran Models resin & photo etch? I cannot find WEM ones on their website.

Cheers

Adam

[Lynx7]

RE; White Ensign Type 96 Triple 25mm AA guns

were these Voyager or Veteran Models resin & photo etch? I cannot find WEM ones on their website.

Cheers

Adam

My apologises, they are actually the Alliance Modelworks guns bought through WEM Type 96 25mm triples A huge amount of detail but the PE is so fragile it is impossible to not break it when folding. The reason I got these was because I'd lost one of the kit guns. I built one using the PE from MA/WEM but due to it being so fragile, I just used the resin guns from them and applied bits of PE to the kit mounts for the other two.

[Madam I'm Adam]

Thanks for the info, I missed the Alliance modelworks upgrade.

That means there are 3 upgrades for the Triple AA guns. Judging by your remarks the MA ones have there shortcomings. The Voyager ones have 2 dimentional barrels, which I suppose one could get round by using the kit barrels so perhaps the Veteran models set would be best but I bet they have shortcomings too.

A side by side review would be good, who's up for that? or has anyone else got an opinion to throw into the mix?

Cheers

Adam

[Madam I'm Adam]

Has anyone else had any other experiences of the various triple aa etch?

CHeers

Adam

[robtmelvin]

Stunning work! My favorite subjects are USN and IJN ships since my main area of interest is the Pacific Theater, but I have't yet build any subs. Looking at your build of the I-400 I'm certainly tempted to give one of those a shot. Great work on an interesting topic.

Bob

[AnonymousDFB1]

Wonderful, love the weathering : thumbsup:

[subhunter]

Have two of these babies in my TO-DO List - with all the PE sets as well plus spare guns - The reason for two is that there are just soo many options in buildings this Sub - and being soo tiny - it is not possible to depict all on one Boat / Sub.

Nice to read about the Triple AA PE short comings

Thanks for such detailed feedback.

[whitestar12chris]

Fantastic build, love the weathering, hope mine comes out half as good, got eduard photoetch for mine. Just a note about the seirans, when the sen toku's were deployed to attack the panama canal at the end of world war 2, recalled before actual attack took place due to Japanese surrender. They were painted silver and sporting American markings see snippit below.

The first mission planned for the I-400 and I-401, along with I-13 and I-14, was to bomb the Panama Canal to slow the transfer of U.S. naval units from the European theater to the Pacific theater. Japan knew that even the destruction of the Panama Canal could not stop the flow, but it was hoped that it might slow it down enough to give Japan time to finish their defense of the home islands from the invasion they knew was coming.

The plan to attack the Panama Canal changed from an attack to a suicide mission. The Serians and their pilots would destroy themselves by diving into the locks of the Canal, insuring their eternal glory to the Emperor and hopefully putting the Canal out of operation for several months. Despite objections from the pilots, the Seirans had been painted in silver dope and carried brush painted U.S. insignia while the submarines were resupplyed in Maizuru Harbor. The pilots felt that dying for the Emperor while flying a plane carrying the enemy’s markings was dishonorable. It was also against international law.¹ The plan may have worked, as the Seiran was unknown to the Allies and it could easily have been mistaken for an American plane.

Before the Panama Canal mission even began the mission was changed again. The new mission was to attack Allied naval forces gathering at Ulithi Atoll. Operation Hikari had the I-13 and I-14 launching their Nakajima C6N Saiun (code named Myrt) observation planes to give last minute intelligence on the Allied fleet gathering at Ulithi. Operation Arashi had I-400 and I-401 arm and launch their six Seirans without floats for a Kamikaze attack on the carriers and any other capital ships at Ulithi. All four submarines were then to proceed to Malaysia to load supplies and new aircraft for another attack.

The submarines left Japanese waters in early August 1945 and took separate routes to a planned rendezvous point off Ulithi Atoll.

An Avenger from the carrier USS Anzio (CVE-57) damaged I-13 while it was running on the surface and the USS Lawrence C. Taylor (DE-415) sank I-13 with Hedgehog depth charges the next day. The remaining three submarines failed to rendezvous as planned due to communications difficulties and on August 15, 1945 they received the surrender order from Emperor Hirohito. The war was over.

The I-400 and I-401 quickly assembled and launched their unmanned U.S. marked Seirans, knowing they violated international law. The Seirans flew a short distance and then plunged into the waters of the Pacific. All secret communications, logs, boat schematics, and other vital papers were collected in burlap bags, weighted with handguns and ammunition and dropped into the Pacific as well. All the submarines except I-401 then hoisted the black flag of surrender and began their voyages home.

Again great build.

All the very best Chris

[Guest]

Just love every thing about this, superb