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IJNS Jintsu Light Cruiser


PeterB

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I have started on the masts.

DSC02759-crop

The IJN like the RN used tripod masts. The foremast has a platform on it carrying the 2 forward 43" searchlights and the mainmast has another one. As you can see they painted the masts black above the level of the funnels - not quite sure why - something to do with smoke perhaps, or an identification feature? The object behind the mainmast is the aircraft handling crane.

 

With luck the rest of the masts and the boats should be on in a day or so - the main guns and the floatplane may take a bit longer.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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Took a while but all 7 x 5.5" guns are on in their shields/gun houses. The kit guns are crude but I have added blast bags made of toilet tissue soaked in diluted PVA glue, which improves the appearance a little.

DSC02763-crop

The layout was not ideal but they could get 6 guns firing on a broadside, which is the same as the later Agano's with 6 x 6" guns mounted in 3 twin turrets. At other angles however they I suspect they would be limited to a max of 5 and sometimes only 3 or even just one dead astern due to blast effects - the gun crews would be vulnerable if an adjacent gun fired too close with the open backs to the mounts.

 

I have just finished painting the boats so when they are dry they can go on, as can the rest of the masts. The floatplane is waiting to be painted.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

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Irresponsible, I think! 😁 Still, I guess if one were to use the corners only for the model, the majority of the sheet can still be used for its original purpose. 👍

It does however improve the look of the guns. Almost worth risking life and limb for the materials, I think. Regards, Jeff.

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Hi Guys,

 

Well I only used a strip 2mm wide so I have plenty left - probably as well as the stuff is currently non - existent in the local shops! I see that many are now having a happy hour for pensioners only - no doubt their families will be giving them a long list! Other than a bit of touching up and the "Dave" it is now complete. I will see if I can find the brush handle I used way back to do the Hinomaru - if not I will have to modify one into a small flat end.

 

Pete

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The Jintsu is just about finished. I will give it a coat of flat varnish before I take pics for the gallery. The IJN ships in this series usually come with a thin card with a couple of flags on to cut out, fold and glue, but they were missing from this kit - I may have some lurking somewhere.

DSC02767-crop

 

The early versions of the 1/700 Waterline Series ship came with a mix of aircraft, and supplementary sets of IJN, USN and FAA were available. All were not unreasonable in shape for the size, but rather crude. The carrier planes had “legs”, and some had badly overscale props, but most did not. Biplanes also lack struts between the wings. Until later kits arrived there were few decals – and then only for the US planes and IJN destroyers. IJN carrier planes included D3A Val, B5N2 Kate, D4Y Judy, and of course A6M Zero. One kit included an odd B6N Jill, and another had a G4M Betty for some reason. As to floatplanes the ones I bought had I think 4 types. Most were either E7K Alfs, or E13A Jakes, though the Yamato BB also had F1M2 Petes and a couple of the subs had M6A Seiran. This kit adds another one to the list, the Type 95 E6N2 “Dave”. Like the Alf this biplane was obsolete but lingered long enough for the Sendai and Jintsu to carry one each during the Battle of Midway and I seem to recall reading that at least one was launched for a recce mission – not sure from which ship though – probably Sendai as she was with the attack force whilst Jintsu was part of the escort for the “transport division”. In front of the ship is one of the "Alf" floatplanes from one of the other kits.

 

Incidentally the black things sticking up on the 3rd and 4th funnels are "H" shaped chimneys, one of which at least was I believe for the galley stove.

 

It is not a bad little kit - a bit cruder than the Tamiya and Hasegawa ones perhaps but the SPR set helped with the guns and boats, speaking of which I have no idea how they were painted in real life so I have gone with the colours on the drawing of Sendai in the Osprey book. Not quite OOB but it did not take long - lot easier and less detailed than the resin ones being built in this GB!

 

Cheers

 

Pete

 

Edited by PeterB
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Ok,

You have seen some of these before but here is the full set plus a bonus!

Tenryu.

Tenryu

Tama

Tama

Natori

Natori

Jintsu

Jintsu

Yahagi

Yahagi

Furutaka

Furutaka

 

I think I might have been slightly wrong when in my intro I said that only 3 of the 6 planned Sendai's were built because the IJN decided to build something more modern - it seems that the last 3 were cancelled as a result of the Washington Treaty limits according to some sources. These limited the total tonnage of light cruisers (guns up to and including 6") and heavy cruisers (more than 6") and the IJN  was only able to squeeze in 3 Sendai's and the much smaller experimental Yubari (2890 tons compared with 5195 tons standard - somewhat heavier when loaded). However, as they had no heavy cruisers to speak of it may equally be a case that to avoid being left behind by other navies they began concentrating on them instead starting with the Furutaka and her sister Kako laid down in 1922 (the bonus picture I mentioned). As built they had, like Yubari, single guns in open gunhouses but these were later modified to 3 twin 7.9" turrets on a displacement of 7100 tons (the treaty limit was 10000 tons a ship). These were followed by the similar Aoba and Kinugasa in 1924, and then came the better known large heavies starting with the 4 ship Myoko/Nachi class (depends on which book you read) of 10000 tons in 1924/5 and the 4 Takao's in 1927/28.  I don't know if they had run out of available tonnage for heavies and the limit for light cruisers had been increased, or they just wanted a big light cruiser but the Mogami's were initially built with 15 x 6" on a heavy cruiser hull, but later converted back to heavies with 10 x 8". Possibly it was because the later London Naval Treaty of 1930 limited the IJN to just 12 heavies which would make more sense.

 

After a gap of over 10 years, the next "proper" light crusers were the 4 Agano's of which Yahagi was a member, carrying 6 x 6" on a displacement of 6652 tons, and showing a considerable resemblance to the Furutaka's.  This class was laid down in 1940/42 and fell between the slightly lighter RN Arethusa class (6 x 6") and the slightly heavier Leanders (8 x 6") and some consider them undergunned. The hull form of all the IJN cruisers from Furutaka onwards benefitted from the work of the then Captain Hiraga with his experimental Yubari and tend to look very similar up to main deck level.

 

So that is my take on IJN light cruisers, well most of them at least - 18 out of 23 that were actually built I think, not including 2 captured Chinese ones.

 

I have enjoyed the build and will continue to enjoy this ever expanding GB.

 

Thanks for watching and sorry for the lectures!

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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Gidday Pete, don't apologise for the lectures, they're very interesting. The models look very good too. Now that you've done the light cruisers are you intending to do any more of the heavies?

As I understand it, the two Tone class ships were originally intended to be armed with twelve 6.1-inch guns but the treaties or whatever expired during their construction, allowing them to be armed with 8-inch guns instead.   Regards, Jeff.

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Hi Jeff,

 

I built one of each class of heavies many years ago. I also have one of each class of Battleships, ditto the major fleet carriers though not the light ones and some of the late war builds, and at least one and sometimes 2 of the various destroyer classes.

 

I confess that although I was aware of the various treaties I did not know the details. Basically the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 limited the number of battleships and carriers each country could have, displacement and gun size, but as far as cruisers were concerned it seems to have just imposed a max displacement per ship. It was the later first London Treaty in 1930 that imposed a maximum number on the heavy cruisers per country as there had been a surge in building so called "treaty" cruisers. IJN were limited to 12 so the Mogami and perhaps Tone classes had to be "light" cruisers on heavy cruiser hulls, but the later Second London Treaty of 1936 was too much for the Japanese and they walked out apparently. That allowed them to ignore the limits and both classes were changed back to 8" guns. At least that is how I understand it. The Brits stayed in and ended up with large but thinly armoured 8" cruisers and Battleships with only 14" guns. I gather that although the numbers of ships could not be "fiddled", the tonnage was often understated - for example the Panzerschiffe "heavy armoured cruisers" of the Germans - ie the "pocket battleships". The treaty of Versailles allowed the Germans to build a number of 10000 ton ships with up to 11" guns, probably anticipating the need for coastal defence  - well they stuck to the gun size but the standard displacement they claimed to be 10000 tons was actually 11700 tons and that was only possible because of extensive use of welding.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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Hi Adrian,

 

Yes it was a good idea at the time though itr seems there was a bit of duplication in some cases - both Fujimi and Hasegawa made the some of the same class(es) of 5500 ton light cruisers I believe, though maybe one was later than the other. Back in about 1980 I was talking to Tony Walker of H.J. Walker (Hackney) Ltd about some of these ships that were not readily available over here, and he decided to import a large batch direct from Japan. Unfortunately he was struggling to find out exactly what was available, but I was able to send him a leaflet that was included with the early kits showing the whole "fleet" as it was at that time. It was of course in Japanese but he managed to get it translated and a couple of months later I paid him a visit and picked up a battleship ship Fuso and at least one carrier - Shokaku and maybe Hiryu as well. Apparently the delivery had arrived a couple of days previously and they had boxes piled up all over the pavement outside the shop for an hour or two!

 

Happy days.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

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  • 3 weeks later...

Great build! I just realized you were finished - first ship in the "navy" group build gallery - well done!

 

Mine will be not far behind - I think I can wrap it up in the next day or two.

 

Thanks for the guidance on my build!

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