Tamiya IJN Kagero

[Tim Reynaga]

On 3/17/2024 at 4:15 PM, ArnoldAmbrose said:

       G'day Tim, nearly four years ago for a GB I converted a 1/700 Hasegawa kit of IJN Yugumo into the Kagero class IJN Yukikaze in late WW2. The kit had the paravanes mounted earlier in the war as you are doing here. I wondered why the kit had them like this and if this was simply a crude depiction of them but thanks to your post above I now know why. Thanks. Your quarterdeck/fantail is somewhat more detailed than mine though. 🙂

Regards, Jeff.

 

Thanks Jeff. I built that kit too as a kid back in the day, but I thought the paravanes were torpedoes! Live and learn...

 

Rarely depicted details on model ships are the water mains located on the weather decks.

 

 

Wula Models of China have produced some truly amazing 3D printed versions of these.

 

 

This set represents USN fittings, but the design is fairly universal. Though taller, the valve with the hand crank on top closely resembles the IJN style.

 

 

 

Cut down to match the shorter IJN mains, these already small parts are reduced to a mere 1.5mm in height...

 

 

 

...but now Kagero’s crew can do some proper damage control when the time comes!

[Tim Reynaga]

Adding to Kagero’s damage control capability were portable fire extinguishers secured to bulkheads on the weather decks.

 

 

 

Five Star makes some beautiful renditions of these with resin canisters and brass holding racks.

 

 

Here is one of the extinguishers test fitted. Though tiny in 1/350, the real units seem to have been rather large and unwieldy; it must have been a challenge for Imperial Navy sailors to muscle these things around in an emergency! 
 

[Courageous]

You're definitely adding the detail to this build, thank goodness that i build in 1/700.

 

Stuart

[Tim Reynaga]

A final component of Kagero’s damage control suite is this set of oxygen canisters by Black Cat Models.

 

 

Used for oxy-fuel welding in repair work aboard ship, these canisters were commonly mounted on superstructure exteriors of World War Two era warships.

 

 

I don’t have information on where these may have been fitted on Kagero, but photos of other ships show that they seem to have been secured wherever there was space available. This spot tucked away behind the torpedo handling winch seems reasonable...

[Tim Reynaga]

Ok, I haven’t played with the Kagero build for nearly a year – time to get back at it!

 

 

I had reached the point of assembling the awesome Infini brass torpedo with its trolley but got bogged down when it came to the torpedo reload trolley rails. The etched brass rails are definitely MUCH better than those molded to the plastic kit deck, but removing the molded track without damaging the surrounding non-slip detail would be a challenge.

 

 

I began by carefully trimming the rails with a new X-acto blade.

 

 

Then they were gradually scraped and sanded down as far as the level of the raised nonslip surfaces. Though fairly straightforward, reducing the rails without damaging the adjacent molded detail required care – and the rails extend over quite a bit of the deck!

 

 

Infini had thoughtfully provided a brass template to mark the locations of the etched rail attachment points.

 

 

The template was super helpful in establishing the etched rail attachment points on the tracks; these were initially marked out with light pricks from an awl.

 

 

 

Once I was satisfied that the awl marks were properly centered on the rails, I used a No. 80 (.34mm) bit chucked into my X-acto handle to drill out the 132 locator holes.

 

 

This prep work wasn’t the most exciting of tasks, but the new etched brass torpedo trolley rails are incredibly fine and detailed – I can’t wait to get them aboard!

[Tim Reynaga]

Before fitting those delicate rails this seems like a good time to address a discrepancy that I hadn’t noticed before with the reload torpedo stowage boxes mounted on each side of the forward funnel.

 

 

Tamiya represented the long boxes as mounted over semi-enclosed support structures. They were also depicted this way on Nichimo’s excellent 1/200 scale Kagero kit, the beautiful large scale Yukikaze build in Gakken’s Pacific War Series Vol.19 Kagero-class Destroyers, as well as in the Profile Morskie monograph on the Yukikaze... so I had assembled the kit parts without questioning further.

 

 

However, the Infini brass upgrade parts represent these structures as more open.

 

Looking at my references again, the few pictures I could find, such as this one of Kagero-class destroyer Shiranui:

 

 

...or this one of Yukikaze:

 

 

consistently show the structures to have had open frameworks forward. In fact, they are even more open than the Infini parts! As I looked further, the better references seemed to agree: Gakken’s photo history The Imperial Japanese Navy Volume 11 Destroyers Part II, Mori Tsunehide’s Kojinsha Maru Mechanic Mechanism of Japanese Destroyers, Model Art’s Ship Modeling Techniques Course Vol. 6 Japanese Naval Ship Drawings, Valdemar Góralski’s The Japanese Destroyer Kagero, and even the old Profile Publications IJN Yukikaze monograph – all document these open support frameworks under the forward reload torpedo boxes.

 

There don’t appear to be any photos of Kagero showing this area, but the available evidence strongly suggests that she too must have had the more open arrangement. It looks like I’ll have to remove the already completed kit assemblies and do them again!

[Tim Reynaga]

 

 

Prying off the previously cemented reload torpedo box parts created a real mess, but also an opportunity.

 

 

There were two air intake vents on the funnel trunking which Tamiya had molded directly to the larger kit part. As a result, their outlines were a little simplified to enable the plastic sprue to be drawn from the molds. I’d originally left them as is thinking that the funnel and the reload torpedo boxes would mostly hide them, but this was never really satisfactory...

 

 

 

With the boxes temporarily out of the way it wasn’t too much trouble to take the X-acto and shape the intakes into something a bit more realistic.

[Thom216]

That looks like Wizard's work!

[Tim Reynaga]

On 3/23/2025 at 11:34 AM, Thom216 said:

That looks like Wizard's work!

Thanks, but It would appear that my interpretation of these intakes may be too rounded, at least compared with Yukikaze. Kagero was the first unit of the class and was built at Maizuru Naval Arsenal, Yukikaze was the eighth and was laid down at Sasebo a year later...  perhaps there was some variation among the Kagero class ships? Anyway, in the absence of direct photographic evidence showing Kagero's intakes, that's my story and I'm sticking with it! 😁

[beefy66]

Great work so far Tim love those tiny details.  

 

Stay Safe

Keith

[Thom216]

A little too round or not, they are much improved from stock!

[Tim Reynaga]

On 3/27/2025 at 7:33 AM, Thom216 said:

A little too round or not, they are much improved from stock!

😁

 

 

With the glue-damaged decks repaired it was a simple matter to reattach the plastic reload torpedo box parts. The Infini etched brass supports fit perfectly underneath them. 

 

 

Although better than the Tamiya plastic parts, I opened up the bays even further by removing most of the solid portions of the Infini brass parts forward. These were replaced with thinner girders from bits of Fine Molds brass. 

 

 

 

 

Just visible inside are boxes from Five Star’s amazing 3D printed WWII IJN Sundry Box III set.

 

 

Finally, I wanted to add inspection ports to the reload torpedo box front and sides. Since the Infini upgrade set didn’t come with these, I improvised. The small stainless steel ports forward were Gold Medal Models 1/700 scale hatches with the dogs sanded off.

 

 

 

The three ports on the sides came from a 1/400 GMM doors and hatches set (hatch type E) with two of the four dogs sanded off. I left two dogs on top of each of these to suggest latches.

 

 

 

  

 

The hatches on the aft ends were British Standard Doors from the 1/400 set cut in half – not perfect, but serviceable!

[Tim Reynaga]

 

With the reload torpedo boxes done, I test fitted the trolley rails.

 

 

  

 

The rails look great, and I was impressed that all those template-sited mounting holes drilled into the deck correspond exactly to the mounting tabs on each rail. Infini even designed the site specific rail parts so that the relief etched sides face outward. Really nice!

[Harrysgrandad]

On 23/12/2023 at 16:03, Tim Reynaga said:

Having become bored with my more elaborate builds, I thought it might recharge my modeling mojo to take on a simple Japanese destroyer – and perhaps actually finish it!

 

 

 

Tamiya’s of the 1/350 scale IJN Kagero seems like a perfect choice. If it lives up to the Tamiya reputation of great fitting parts, assembly should be a snap. Just to keep things interesting I picked up the Infini brass upgrade set for it too. I’m hoping to complete this one fairly quickly with a minimum of the scratchbuilding which tends to bog down my projects. We’ll see, but this should be a fun, straightforward build!

Hi Tim

Arrived very late to this build, having just worked my way through the thread and the amount of detail you are adding, I have to wonder (after reading your opening sentence regarding a simpler build!)  what you consider an elaborate build to be 😜🤪. Coz this is crazy good.

Cheers

Graham

 

 

[Tim Reynaga]

2 hours ago, Harrysgrandad said:

Hi Tim

Arrived very late to this build, having just worked my way through the thread and the amount of detail you are adding, I have to wonder (after reading your opening sentence regarding a simpler build!)  what you consider an elaborate build to be 😜🤪. Coz this is crazy good.

Cheers

Graham

 

 

Hi Graham, LOL, and thanks! I did really start off this Kagero intending it to be a simple quick build, but "mission creep" set in as usual and it has become rather more elaborate... but it is actually simpler than some others. For example, on my 1/200 scale Hatsuzuki a simple two-part kit motor boat has somehow turned into this:

 

 

 

...and it isn't even painted yet!

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

7 hours ago, Tim Reynaga said:

"mission creep"

       G'day Tim, this is a new word I'll add to the modeling dictionary. But I understand the concept, although the 'mission creep bug' hasn't bitten quite as much as it has you. 😁

It's incredible what you've done with this. I'd still like to do this ship myself again, in 1/600 (previous was a 1/700 conversion), but it won't be in your ball-park.

Regards, Jeff.

[madtatt]

Incredible, Tim, what you have conjured up from this little boat. 👍

[Mals Way]

Geez this is what i mean, i got huge respect for ship modellers.

 

im usually aircraft builder.

got a bucket list in things ive never built between my builds

(aircraft 1:32), and ships, never done that before and yes building one, first ever, and realized, yep that is something else....when seeing builds like yours and others....

damn respect, done alot of scratch in aircraft and all that yaidi yada yada...,geez impreseeive.

 

 

thats why i try new things, and se othrr builds...

 

Not glue two flat PE parts, ships with PE is complete different ballgame...LoL.

 

as i realized on my first ship ever..lol.

 

so to say, all this looks fantastic what you do.  from a builder in other genre.

 

/Mal 

Edited April 5 by Mals Way

[Alan P]

Superb detailing work here 👍

On 4/4/2025 at 8:08 PM, Tim Reynaga said:

simple two-part kit motor boat has somehow turned into this

I feel this 😂

[Mals Way]

WoW....looks fantastic.

 

All this PE...geez...

[Thom216]

What a lovely lil boat!

[Tim Reynaga]

The foremast:

 

 

Tamiya’s rendition of the mast is excellent right out of the box – they even provided a temporary alignment jig base to make sure everything lines up correctly. 

 

 

I would have happily used the kit parts unaltered, but that outrageous Infini set will make it even better. Accordingly, I cut away the kit platforms and spars from the plastic kit parts.

 

 

 

Infini provided an etched brass perforated platform with fold down support sides and some beautiful turned brass replacement spars.

 

 

 

The Infini set also provides etched brass parts to replicate access ladders, spar support rigging, hoist blocks, even an anemometer... awesome! These parts are so delicate, though, I’m afraid to attach them until after the mast is installed on the assembled and painted model. 😬
 

[Tim Reynaga]

 

I keep trying to stop buying these extra enhancements... but yet another small addition will be these 3D printed boat booms.

 

 

  

 

The kit booms molded to the hull sides really aren’t bad, but these resin replacements are noticeably finer and more three dimensional.

 

 

The crispness of detail on these miniscule 3D printed parts continues to amaze... will the madness never stop?

[Thom216]

Careful, that could be a splinter!