by Bob Cicconi
1/700 IJN Furutaka (Hasegawa)
The kit builds the Furutaka as it appeared in 1942, the year it was sunk. It's a great kit and a vast improvement over the original issue. I did, however, add some additional details, such as photo etched railings, crane, and catapult, scratch-built masts, jack staffs, and spare float racks . The detail kits were from Tom's and Gold Medal, and Gold Medal's IJN Ultra railings were used. I also tried the Lion Roar turret heat shields which worked really nicely. WEM Kure Grey and IJN Linoleum were used to paint the ship, and Testors IJN green and light gray, and German red brown were used on the "Dave" floatplane. WEM's aircraft detail kit was also used on the Dave, and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the fit was on the wing struts. As always, I bought the Furutaka and the other goodies from Pacific Front, except the WEM Colourcoats which I got from Snyder & Short. Stretched sprue was used to rig the ship.
