Dear Colleagues
The Royal Navy only called upon nature to inspire the naming of warships with their Flower class corvettes, but for the Japanese all their destroyers were named after poetic natural images. In this case Hatsuharu apparently means 'early spring'. Unusually, the 1931 design genuinely tried to fit the treaty restriction of a sub-2000 t weight (which they later abandoned) and the ship was launched in 1933. However, a drastic redesign was needed in 1935 due to top heavy problems with a super-firing B turret arrangement (later moved to the stern). Hatsuharu lasted until 1944 when sunk by bombing in the Philippines in November 1944. The Aoshima kit has a lovely hull and is one of their better ship kits. As is my way I have added a lot of photo etch apart from the stuff that came with the ship and used brass rods for the masts.
Hope you like it
Andrew