by Lars Juel Mosbaek
1/700 IJN Haruna (Hasegawa)
Hasegawa kits of the Kongo-class battleships is to my knowledge from 1999, so I must say that they are not very realistic in detail and has a lot to be desired regarding the other kits like Tamiya´s Yamato or Hasegawa new mould BB Ise. But as a friend said to me "there is no bad or poor kits - just some that need more work and attention." It was with that attitude I started the build of IJN Haruna. I brought this kit "used" from a fellow modeler with some of the parts glued together so it was more labor extensive than it needed to be! (but also fun).
When some as I decide to have the whole fleet of the IJN Battleships it maybe can be a dull experience to build four nearly identical ships as these ships in this class represents, but the more I found out about these ships the more I realizes that they have more different appearances than at first. I want to build the model as seen in 1945 configuration with lots of extra "balcony's" of 25mm anti aircraft guns (118) and also the extensive rebuilding of the pagoda super structure was an attractive gold for me.
New methods I used on Haruna was:
The kit comes with all the portholes on the hull ready to drill out, but I closed the one needed with styrene bars cut in small slices and after sanded the hull down so the closed portholes nearly was visible -but seen in retrospect after some coat of paint and varnish I should have made them thicker to show on the finish model. furthermore on all the open portholes I attached the eyebrows with small pieces of copper wire. The DeGauss wire around the ship was this time the PE set from Lion Roar (WWII IJN Outboard Circuit LE 700016).
I scratch build many details on the deck - all the ventilators as well as the bollards, fairleads and motors. The cable drums and Paravens are from Pit Road IJN Ship 1 plastic fret (spare part from my Fuso build) I rebuild the aircraft deck with new turntables and rails and use a copper wire as brass bars on the linoleum deck.
The 14in main gun and 6in has blast bags made of masking tape, the 5in AA guns housings were cut to right shape. All the Twin and triple 25mm AA are from the plastic fret that comes from the set of ISE, HYUGA, YAMATO etc. I cut up the solid magazines to illustrate the individual on the guns. After the guns were painted black I added a very thin layer of gray paint to make more contrast and enhance the moulds. The single 25mm AA guns are from Tom Model Works PE set Yamato/Musashi #749. The splinter shields are made of paper (paper can be a better alternative then styrene plastic sheets because paper bend better around the forms with the use of CA-glue.
It was here that all the hard work appeared, there were hardly any part that not needed attention and I made many scratch build details. The pagoda tower was cut down with a hack saw and all the windows where "opened up" .The holes on all the decks in the pagoda tower where drilled out for the tripod mast. I use the PE-set from Tom's Model Works IJN Battleship set 2 # 730, Tom's Model Works IJN Battleship set 1 (Kongo-class) #731 and Tom's Model Works 1/700 Inclined Ladders #754. Also PE-set from Lion Roar Hanging Ladders (LE00009) and Voyager Model 1/700 Watertight Door (AP 044)
The lines is made of copper wire but the anti splinter ropes is made by a tip from Mr. Jeff Linn in Taiwan with putty formed with a help of the saw blades teeth's see the link here: http://blog.yam.com/duroyal420/archives/1681493.html
This time I took the photos in both sunlight and overcast weather to enhance the details in different light conditions. The "JAKE" aircraft is attached to the ships catapult by a small wire, I painted the wire over in Photoshop.
A big thanks to the Royal Danish Navy library for lending me the book: Warship Pictorial IJN Kongo-Class Battleships by Steve Wiper.
And all of the pictures I could find regarding the subject.
Now the model of Haruna is done I can look back on a job with many hours of fun building -As I highly can recommend to others who will have a model that is not out of the box. - and NOT what so ever a dull build.
The building time approx 7 weeks.
