by Lars Juel Mosbaek
1/700 IJN Kirishima (Hasegawa)
This is my third build of all the Japanese battleships from WW2. It was a bit of a challenge to start on the model. Right from the start it was quite obvious this kit needed a bit more of just paint and PE.
I rebuilt most of all deck fittings as well lots of hull details. Further more I also rebuild the bridge structure and masts. Blast bags were made of masking tape and all 14 and 5 inch gun barrels were made hollow. Degauss cable was made with a silver thread with several hundred small bracings in copper.
Research was done entirely on the web, as I only have the basic information about the Kongo class ships from my own books –when I was down the road of 90% finish model- I discovered that there was more differences in Kongo and my Kirishima as I thought from the start, so a “little” rebuild was needed. Building time was 7 weeks.
The signal flags code is J-juliet, G-golf (As on Jap. BB and CA) but the last two K-kilo and I-india is from my own imagination! If any experts know the right code – please do mail me.
