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IJN Carrier Kaga Kagero Kaga was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), the third to enter service, named after the former Kaga Province in present-day Ishikawa Prefecture. Originally intended to be one of two Tosa-class battleships, Kaga was converted under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty to an aircraft carrier as the replacement for the battlecruiser Amagi, which had been damaged during the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake. Kaga was rebuilt in 1933–35, increasing her top speed, improving her exhaust systems, and adapting her flight decks to more modern, heavier aircraft. The ship figured prominently in the development of the IJN's carrier striking force doctrine, which grouped carriers together to give greater mass and concentration to their air power. A revolutionary strategic concept at the time, the employment of the doctrine was crucial in enabling Japan to attain its initial strategic goals during the first six months of the Pacific War. Kaga 's aircraft first supported Japanese troops in China during the Shanghai Incident of 1932 and participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War in the late 1930s. With other carriers, she took part in the Pearl Harbor raid in December 1941 and the invasion of Rabaul in the Southwest Pacific in January 1942. The following month her aircraft participated in a combined carrier airstrike on Darwin, Australia, helping secure the conquest of the Dutch East Indies by Japanese forces. She missed the Indian Ocean raid in April as she had to return to Japan for permanent repairs after hitting a reef in February. Following repairs, Kaga rejoined the 1st Air Fleet for the Battle of Midway in June 1942. After bombarding American forces on Midway Atoll, Kaga and three other IJN carriers were attacked by American aircraft from Midway and the carriers Enterprise, Hornet, and Yorktown. dive bombers from Enterprise severely damaged Kaga; when it became obvious she could not be saved, she was scuttled by Japanese destroyers to prevent her from falling into enemy hands. In 1999, debris from Kaga including a large section of the hull was located on the ocean floor at coordinates 28°38′34″N 176°29′16″W Coordinates: 28°38′34″N 176°29′16″W at a depth in excess of 5,000 meters (16,404 ft); 350 miles (560 km) northwest of Midway Island. The main part of the carrier's wreck has not been found. This one hundred and forty page hardback book is much more comprehensive title than the book on the Soryū and Hiryū as she was a much older ship and there is a great deal more information available, including a larger number of photographs available. Not only is it an accurate history of the ship, but it also makes for very interesting reading, particularly on how the Japanese Navy converted the design of the intended battleship into one of a large fleet carrier. The period photographs accompanying the text show a huge amount of detail of her build, original design and after the large modernisation and refit she had to her complete her final transformation, very useful for the modeller. It is certainly great to see pictures of the ships crew and aircrew, giving them some human interest, rather than just being about the ship, which is nothing without her crew. The restrictions levied on photographers just before the war, and the destruction of a lot of photographs at the wars end doesn’t seem to have affected the Kaga as badly as most of the other ships of the carrier fleet. There atmospheric photographs of the ships flightdeck, aircraft landing and take-offs, and showing the Kaga through the flightdeck supports of the Akagi on the Pearl Harbour raid. Along with the various design changes of the ship there is a lot of information on the aircraft she carried, the weapons they used as well as the operations which took place. Naturally, the operations were pretty much the same as all the carriers in the 1st Air Fleet as they were used together as was the Japanese Naval doctrine of the time. So, there are the usual photographs of the Pearl Harbour raid and the Battle of Midway, although with odd exception which were new views this reviewer had not seen before. For me the Port Darwin raid photographs are the most interesting as, although I knew about the raid, I hadn’t seen decent photographs from the time. At the end of the book the last few pages are dedicated to two sets of coloured plates, giving views from port and starboard sides, top down, plus bow and stern as the ship was in early 1941 and at the time of Pearl Harbour. Throughout the book there are additional line drawings of the ship, from the battleship design, triple deck carrier to her final configuration. There are also line drawings of the ships armament, propulsion systems and various early design concepts. Conclusion This is a superb book, filled with detail and would be a fine addition to the library of the maritime historian and modeller alike. With the recent release of the new 1:350 Fujimi kit this book release is perfectly timed. For those who model in 1:700 there are several versions of the ship available and, again this book will prove invaluable. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Subs from left to Right: USS Cusk. IJN I14, IJN I19, IJA Transport Submarine, HMS Graph (Type VII C u-boat) I19 Fujima kit with scratchbuilt hull.

IJN Battleship Haruna Kagero Top Drawings The four Kongo class ships were the first modern warships in the Japanese Navy. They were designed by Britain's Sir George Thurston, and strongly influenced the design of the forthcoming Tiger-class battlecruisers. They were originally rated as "battlecruisers", but pre-WW2 rearmament reclassified them as battleships, though they were relatively lightly armed and armoured when compared to their modern battleship counterparts. During the Second World War, Haruna was extensively employed, often in company with aircraft carriers. In December 1941, she covered the invasion of Malaya. The first four months of 1942 saw her supporting the conquest of the Dutch East Indies, participating in a bombardment of Christmas Island, and participating in the Indian Ocean Raid. In June, she was part of the ill-fated Japanese carrier force during the Battle of Midway and was lightly damaged when a bomb nearly hit her stern. The Guadalcanal Campaign that began in August 1942 also brought Haruna into action. With her sister ship, Kongo, on 14 October she delivered a devastating bombardment of Henderson Field, the U.S. airfield on Guadalcanal. Later in the month, she was present during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands and in mid-November operated with the Japanese aircraft carrier force during the climactic Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Like most of the heavier Japanese warships, Haruna saw no combat during 1943 and the first five months of 1944, though she steamed north to Japan in May 1943 in response to the American landings on Attu and was in the central Pacific later in the year during the invasions of the Gilbert Islands and Bougainville. In mid-June 1944, however, the Japanese fleet was sent to counterattack the U.S. forces then assaulting Saipan. As part of the heavily-defended van carrier group, she took an active role in the ensuing Battle of the Philippine Sea and was hit by a bomb on 20 June. Haruna also participated in the Japanese Navy's final fleet action, the Battle of Leyte Gulf. She was damaged by bomb near-misses in the Sibuyan Sea on 24 October 1944, but steamed on to engage U.S. escort carriers and destroyers in the next day's Battle off Samar. Stationed in Japanese waters by the beginning of 1945, Haruna was damaged at Kure during the U.S. carrier plane raids on 19 March. Still moored near Kure four months later, she was sunk by Task Force 38 aircraft on 28 July 1945. Haruna's wreck was scrapped after the war. This is the latest book from Kagero in their Top Drawing series, and like the previous books it has a brief history and the ships specifications at the beginning. Unfortunately, in this instance the history is rather too brief as the ship had a long career and more than one or two paragraphs could have been provided. The rest of the twenty two pages are filled with beautifully drawn diagrams of every part of the ship. It is obvious that a lot of time has been taken to get the drawings this good and accurate. This cannot be said for at least one of the annotations though as the diagram showing the No.4 turret is marked as No. 3. But this is a a mere trifle, especially when compared with the wealth of visual information provided in this book. Amongst the larger diagrams are smaller sketches giving further details on some of the ships hardware and fittings. No scales are given for the diagrams within the book, but the additional sheets are marked up, at least for the main drawings on them. Sheets A is in full colour with top, profile and fore/aft views on one side, in a rather odd 1:360 scale and an oblique drawing on the other, along with additional drawings of the aircraft, ships boats and 127mm AA mount. The line drawings on sheet B and C join together to provide a full profile port and starboard in 1:200 scale, complete with all the rigging, which certainly isn't as bad as that seen on some ships. Conclusion This is yet another brilliant book in this series from Kagero. It may not be quite as good as that of the previously reviewed title on the USS Missouri, but still very useful to maritime modellers nonetheless. Definitely gives the modeller an excuse to buy the Fujimi 1:350 kit, not that most modellers need an excuse. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Not sure if this is the correct place to put this but here goes, (apologies if not) I've just grabbed myself Fujimi's Zuikaku in 1/350th scale, I'm just wondering if there's a company who produces a full set of P.E for this vessel (apart from Fujimi, themselves that is). Or is it a case of having to buy individual P.E sets? Thanks in advance 😃

Dear Fellow Modellers These peculiar shaped IJN Destroyers were inspired by German WW1 designs. The gun armament was placed above the main deck to ensure all armament would function in heavy weather. The strange focsle reminds me of a whaler? This old kit had no portholes or details on the deck houses so I embarked on a month of scratch building and photo etch extravaganza! I think Mikazuki means 'full moon' Hope you like it? Andrew

Hello Shipmates Here is the Fujimi 1/700 IJN battleship Hiei with Fujimi PE set and Veteran Models turret set. I imagine it at a warm anchorage somewhere off the coast of China perhaps? Originally a battlecruiser based on the Royal Navy Lion/Tiger class. Probably these Kongo class ships were the most useful and used heavy units in the IJN. The Hiei was named after a mountain near Kyoto (which I have visited) and sunk at Guadalcanal in 1942. Been at it on and off since 2011! Andrew

Hello, I'm presenting my Special Hobby's A5M4 Claude in 1:32 scale - model represents the machine from Soryu carrier, pilot PO1/c Matsuo Hagiri, summer 1939. The kit contains numerous resin and PE parts, so I did not use any other aftermarkets. Painting was done using Mr. Hobby Super Metallic metalizers and acrylics. Hope you enjoy!

IJN Submarine I-53 Lindberg 1:72 I-153 (ex-I-53) was a Kaidai-class submarine (KD3 Type) of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She was laid down 1 April 1924 at Kure Naval Arsenal as submarine No. 64, launched 5 August 1925, completed 30 March 1927. She was renumbered I-53 on 1 November 1924. During the war she sank Dutch merchant ship Mösi on 27 February 1942, sank RMS City of Manchester on 28 February 1942 and sank unknown merchant vessel on 27 February 1942. On 20 May 1942 The I-53 renumbered again as I-153. Sometime during 1943/44 she was modified by having an enlarged casing fitted fore and aft to allow the carriage of Kaiten suicide torpedoes. This necessitated the removal of the main gun and the breakwaters around it. She was decommissioned on 20 November 1945 and scuttled in Iyo Nada on May 1946. Lindberg originally released this kit in 2008, unfortunately to much derision. The bow was wrong, the sail structure was wrong and the Kaiten were wrong. Yet, since receiving this kit for review, Dave Wardle and myself have been researching why and how it was so inaccurate. What we eventually deduced, thanks mainly to Dave remembering that the Japanese renumbered their submarines a number of times, was that the kit does indeed look like it should but the number is wrong. The few available photographs on the net only show the submarine in it's pre-conversion guise, but does show a downturned bow and a similar bridge structure. The rest of the deck, including the step and thin walkway would disappear when the extended casing was added. The horn radar and it's mounting are missing in the kit, but this could be down to it being used for training and a light fitted in the radars place. So, if you buy this kit, and start building it, keep in mind you are building I-153 not I-53. As for the Kaiten, well they too look pretty accurate in accordance to photos and line drawings seen on the next when compared to the later versions. The kit itself arrives in a large are very sturdy top opening cardboard box with a picture of the sub on the top. On opening, you realise just how big this thing is going to be. The hull is split longitudinally as per a lot of maritime kits, but it is also split laterally amidships. Dry fitting on front and one rear section shows exactly how big this will be, measuring out at a total of 58.5” or 1485mm long. The plastic is quite hard and rigid so there won’t be any requirement to add any bulkheads etc to those already provided. On top of the black styrene parts, there are also some black vinyl strapping sections for the Kaiten tied downs, some thread and a fair number of screws. Initial fit appears to be pretty good although there is a fair amount of flash and areas that have been trimmed off by the company that will need cleaning up. Details are generally oversized in appearance and will need to be reduced. There is plenty of scope for scratch building and refining the exaggerated details, but if you’re not up to this than just give them a light sanding to reduce their prominence and you should get a decent result. The hydrophone arrays on either side of the bows would be better if they were removed completely and replaced with suitably thin circles of brass or other such material. The model should build fairly easily, partly due to the screwed together nature of the large hull sections and other details. The drain holes all along the bottom and lower sides of the hull could be opened up and a brass mesh fitted followed by a backplate of sheet styrene. The free flooding holes on the hull are deep enough to be kept as they are, unless of course you really want to go to town and construct the pressure hull, then they can be opened up fully. The build begins with the fitting of the bow tube doors to each front hull followed by the tube openings themselves which are screwed to the insides of the hull. The foreward and aft sections of each hull are then screwed and glued to make one full hull half and the two main deck sections joined and fitted to one side of the hull, (although it might be prudent to leave this until the hull parts are joined together). Each half of the hull is then screwed and glued together after which there are separate panels to fit over each area of the hull in which the screw holes are visible, a very neat solution which also alleviated much filling and sanding. On the underside on each hull a bilge keel is attached. The construction then moves on to the assembly of the foreplanes, lower and upper rudders, sternplanes and the fitting to their respective positions. The various plane and propeller guards are also fitted at this time, but they appear rather thick and it may be better to make them out of a suitable diameter brass rod instead. The propeller shaft skegs are now attached along with the shafts and propellers. Moving the deck, there are a number of gratings to be attached both fore and aft, along with mooring bollards and cleats. The large deck hatches are also fitted, unfortunately they do seem impossibly large for this scale, but without further research I couldn’t ascertain whether they were really this big. The build then moves onto the island/tower. The construction starts with several sub-assemblies including the lower conning position and its large clear window section, the three piece periscope tower, onto which a lookout position is fitted, made up of three ladder rungs, platform and railings, plus the two periscopes. The tower itself is a large single piece moulding and the above sub-assemblies are attached, as are two large lookout binocular stations, foremast and a strange mast like structure with a number of aerials fitted. On the conning position roof a two piece DF loop aerial is fitted and aft of the periscopes the distinctive snorkel, made up of two halves with separate intake and exhaust grilles is fitted. The main railings on either side of the tower are attached as is the ensign staff right aft. The instructions call for the rigging to be attached at this point but, again, it may be best to leave it till last. The completed tower can now be fixed to its position on the main deck. With the submarine essentially complete it time to build its external war load of five Kaiten. Each is built up from two halves, upper and lower this time, with the entrance hatch, upper and lower rear fins and the contra-rotating props. Each Kaiten is mounted onto two cradle blocks affixed to the deck with the vinyl straps glued to one side, wrapped over the Kaiten and fixed to the other. It’s possible to build the Kaiten strapped to their blocks and yet still be removable to aid painting and weathering of the main submarine. Decals The small sheet of decals includes the submarines number, which will need some careful repainting to add a 1 in front of it. Alternatively the modeller could replace the numbers with large Rising Sun flags which the subs used occasionally use. There are also several kill markings and some other spurious markings which I can’t quite make out. There is also a single self adhesive ensign, which, if fixed to something like tin foil could be made into a fluttering or certainly something rather less stiff. Conclusion The bad press this kit got when it was first released was perhaps justified with respect it looked very little like the submarine it purported to be. Dave and I may not be right in our theory, but it does make for a good case in why the model looks the way it does. If Eduard re-release their etch set for this then it can be built into an impressive and very imposing model otherwise it’s out with the styrene and brass to do it yourself. Oh, and remember to give yourself plenty of time to do the weathering, if I haven’t said this before, this is a BIG model. Good luck. Recommended with some slight reservations. Review sample courtesy of

Hi All, This is my first post on here after lurking for a long time. Here is my most recent kit i finished. This is the Tamiya A6M5 in 1/72. The kits is completely OTB. Painted with Alclad II and Vallejo Model Air paints. Used the kit decals for 652 Kokutai from the Junyo carrier. Hopefully I have done the kit justice as its just a well layed out kit. Enjoy Jason

IJN Light Cruiser Agano Eduard 1:350 Having reviewed the Eduard etched sets for the IJN light cruiser Agano HERE last October; it was a bit of a surprise to have this Big Ed set land at BM Towers. Containing both the ships set and the railing set Eduard have also included two identical sets of IJN crewmen Eduard indicate that this set is cheaper than buying the sets separately. That certainly appears true when looking on the Eduard website, but it would have been nice to have two different sets of crewmen, which follow the standard format of being self adhesive and when the two halves of each crewman are folded together they still appear slightly skinny. As has been suggested before by members you could use a dab of white glue or even paint to give them a fully profile. The etch is up to the standard we have come to expect from Eduard and are indeed a very useful asset in the absence of the proprietary sets from Hasegawa which are increasingly difficult to find and are rather expensive, particularly compared with the Eduard offering. The Eduard sets are not as comprehensive and the brass appears to be a little thinner than that used in the Hasegawa sets but the detail is still amazing and will look great when added to the model Conclusion A surprise arrival, but will be of great benefit to the modeller of the Agano or either of its two sisters, Yahagi and Noshiro, both of which have been released by Hasegawa. The crewmen will bring some life and interest to a seascape which is where they are best used in my opinion. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Another excellent, relaxing Tamiya kit. Fit was brilliant and it went together quite fast. I also tried chipping for the first time. Undercoat was done with Humbrol's #11 Silver, then hair spay and finally Gunze IJN Green. When almost dry, I chipped the surface with the help of a dumb q-tip.