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Hikawa Maru Hospital Ship 1:350 Hasegawa History Hikawa Maru is a Japanese ocean liner that was built for the Nippon Yusen KK line by the Yokohama Dock Company. She was launched on 30 September 1929, and made her maiden voyage from Kobe to Seattle on 13 May 1930. She is one of three sister ships. The sister ships were named after important Shinto shrines, Hikawa Shrine being located in Saitama. The other two, both lost in the war, were Heian Maru and Hie Maru. The service provided on the ship was famous for combining splendid food and beautiful art deco interiors. She was often referred to as the Queen of the Pacific. Charlie Chaplin and Kano Jigoro (founder of Judo) are amongst the ship's more notable former passengers. In 1941, before Japan's entry to World War II the Hikawa Maru was used by Jewish refugees escaping the Nazis via Japan After Japan's entry to the war Hikawa Maru became a hospital ship, and as a result, she ultimately survived the Allied campaign against the Japanese merchant fleet. After the end of the war she was used by the U.S. for troop repatriation until 1947. Afterwards the Hikawa Maru was returned to Japan and carried cargo between Japan and the US. In 1954 she was taken out of service, but following a refit she returned to carrying passengers across the Pacific. Falling passenger numbers due to the growth of air travel led to the eventual termination of the service in 1960. In 1961 Hikawa Maru became a floating youth hostel and museum permanently berthed at Yokohama. In December 2006 the Hikawa Maru museum was closed and doubts about her future were raised. Happily, NYK Line began the restoration of the Hikawa Maru in August 2007, and the ship was reopened to the public on 25 April 2008, the vessel's 78th birthday. The Model The kit comes in the usual, attractive, top opening box from Hasegawa, with an artistic interpretation of the vessel at sea in her hospital ship paint scheme. On opening the box the two hull halves, which are mounted on a cardboard insert along with a large poster which also acts as the painting guide. Removing the hull insert reveals 10 sprues of white styrene and one of clear. As is usual for Hasegawa the parts are nicely moulded with crisp detail with only a few moulding pips on the parts, although there is a small amount of flash at the sprue junctions. Construction starts with the two hull parts being joined together with 7 internal bulkhead parts adding considerably to the strength of the structure. Whilst the propshaft fairings, props and rudder are fitted later in the instructions, I would probably fit them at this point to help with painting before the rest of the build commences. Next to be fitted are the 3 cargo deck and the raised foredeck with its bulkhead. The promenade deck is built up with the superstructure parts, which are again nicely strengthened with internal bracing. Once complete this sub-assembly is added to the hull. At this point the myriad of deck pieces can be added, these include items such as ventilators, winches, bollards, cleats and the anchors. The stern castle is built up next followed by the boat deck. The bridge section of the superstructure is next to being assembled with some nice internal details such as the ships wheel, binnacles, signal lamps and transparencies for the windows. The final section of superstructure is the boat deckhouse with the funnel, more ventilators, winches and fan trunking housings. The rest of the build consists making up the ships lifeboats and attaching them, with their associated davits to the boat deck, followed by the many masts and derrick arms all of which will require some careful rigging combined with some research as to how and where the cables are fitted, as this information isn’t given in the instructions. This version also includes a smallish etched brass sheet which provides the de-gausing coil which goes round the hull just below the main deck line. Decals The model comes with a very nicely printed decal sheet containing the various red crosses for the role she was converted to. There are also a selection of signal flags, Japanese Ensigns, depth markings, name plates for the bow and stern, and the green stripe that runs down both sides of the hull, complete with openings for the port holes. There are also decals provided for the numerous liferings if you don’t fancy painting them. There is very little carrier film so all should settle down ok with some solutions, they are also nicely opaque and in register. Conclusion Ok, so Hasegawa have now released three versions of this ship, if you include her sister Heian Maru, so they’re really getting the monies worth out of the moulds, but who’s to blame them. At least you won’t have too many spare parts as you would have had the three versions be included in one box. I think she looks great in any guise and as a hospital ship she would certainly make a splash of colour amongst the greys normally found in maritime collections. Although Hasegawa do their own update sets for these ships, Artwox are now releasing wooden decks which will be great. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of UK distributors for