As a famous Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier, Hiryu was finished at Yokosuka naval yard in July,1939. As one of the 6 carriers which attended Pearl Harbor Attack, until she was sunk in the battle for Midway, she attended the battles not only in Pacific but also in Indian Ocean. And the hard-trained navy pilots belonged to the carrier also expressed the highest level during the W.W.II.
The renewed 1/700 Ashman Hiryu was the best CV kit of the series besides Tamiya's Shinano and Pit-road's Unryu class. The shape is correct. The detail is not so over-scale,so it's just convenient for me to increase the details by myself. I didn't use Joe-world's photo-etch flight deck because I want to test some more interesting methods on the deck.
The plastic deck provided in the kit is
very well detailed though a little thick. I drilled the holding-holes by
0.2mm drills and add the rain-exclusion ditch by plastic paper and
rods.The safety net was made by the nylon percolation net and the
support by brass rod. The island is also too simple, so I cut the
plastic-molded window frames and add them by extended-runner. Fine
molds' clear seachlight provides quite good result. The main mast behind
the island was made by 0.2mm brass-rods and the sub masts are Fine
molds' etching parts. The lied chimneies are one of the features in IJN
carriers. I re-made the inside by plastic paper and add jack-stay by
processed etching rail. The barrels of the 127mm AA gun were replaced by
the brass pipe, and I drawn some signal flags on a white decal. The
combination of the flags means "Ready to take off".) The status of the
ship was decided during Pearl Harbor Attack and Indian Ocean Operation,
and it was also the most sprint period in her short life. After some
research, I found the Sasebo Naval Arsenal color by Gunze Sangyo is OK
for the kit. After painting,0.074mm nylon fishing line was used. The
planes are A6M2 Zero (Ame-iro),D3A1 Val (Light grey-white) and B5N2 Kate
(Camouflage),all detailed in Fine molds' PE. It took me about one years
to finish the work. Hope you'll enjoy it.
Photos and text © 2005 by Yufei Mao June 07, 2005 |
