by Robert Apfelzweig
1/350 IJN Takao, 1944 (Aoshima)
I just finished my build of Aoshima's Imperial Japanese Navy heavy cruiser Takao, in her 1944 configuration. The kit was accessorized with Gold Medal Models Takao and Takao Plus photoetch sets, Voyager twin 127 mm (5-in.) Type 89 anti-aircraft guns, Lionroar twin and triple 25-mm machine gun mounts and Master Models brass 8-in. gun barrels. This was a complex build (as are all 1:350 Japanese Navy ships from World War II), but in general went together well. There are some fit problems with the central and aft deck sections, and the bridge does not quite fit snugly onto the forecastle deck without any seams showing. Various references indicate between 26 and 30 single 25-mm ant-aircraft guns, but I chose the higher number based on Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War by Eric Lacroix and Linton Wells, a significant part of which is available online, though the diagrams cannot be printed individually (http://books.google.com/books?id=dP8Yuen6aPsC&pg=PA149&dq=takao+cruiser#v=onepage&q=takao%20cruiser&f=false). The GMM photoetch sets had only enough gunsites and shoulder rests for 18 of the 30 single 25-mm, but I supplemented these with leftover parts from GMM's Japanese battleship set from my earlier build of the 1941 Nagato. The ship was painted with airbrushed Kure gray and IJN linoleum from WEM Colourcoats, and a mixture of Tamiya Hull Red and Flat Red for the lower hull. I drilled out the hull portholes, but may eventually fill most of them to simulate the plating over of these scuttles that the Takao underwent midway through the war (it's just that I'm not sure how many, or which ones, to cover up). The Takao survived World War II and photos of it surrendered at Singapore still show a significant number of unplated portholes. Regarding the brass gun barrels, when the plastic barrels are cut off so that the brass ones can be glued in place of them, this removes most of the molded blast bags. Virtually every photo I've seen of World War II IJN heavy cruisers shows these bags in place, so I had to figure out a way to replace the blast bags and still allow the individual guns to elevate, as the plastic ones are meant to snap into place within the turrets and permit this type of movement. My solution was to glue small strips of white tissue paper (generally four per gun), using Elmer's White Glue, from the plastic base of the barrel insert up to the position on the barrel where the bag would normally end. I then painted these strips very light gray to simulate canvas, using mostly Tamiya flat white paint as both pigment and additional glue. Loose pieces were cemented with tiny dabs of CA superglue. Though the process was tedious, I was quite satisfied with the end result, and will use this on any subsequent such builds that require blast bags but permit individual gun elevation. I would also like to praise the detail in Voyager's twin 127 mm guns; though they cannot (unlike the 8-in. turrets) be made to rotate, they do elevate easily when assembled with fine brass rods for pivoting. I have included a photo of the finished gun mounts and Aoshima's plastic ones from the kit. I had previously used the Lionroar 25-mm multiple mounts on my build of the 1945 Yamato; these are finely detailed but the brass is very thin and extremely fragile; the gun barrels are quite 2-dimensional and so I "thickened" them by dipping into superglue. The single 25-mm guns are from the Aoshima kit, but the barrels were oversize and I cut each one off and replaced it with a short segment of suitably sized stretched black sprue. Longer, narrower stretched black sprue provided the rigging.
