1/350 IJN Aircraft Carrier Akagi (Hasegawa)

I have been working on and off on this massive project for about 8 months now, and it is finally done; part of the delay was waiting for the arrival of a final photoetch set from Hasegawa, which (as I have stated previously with some of their ship models) has the often frustrating habit of issuing multiple brass upgrade sets for a single model kit.  In the case of their magnificent model of the Akagi (which led the Pearl Harbor attack and the Midway raid, only to be sunk at that latter battle), they have issued no fewer than 4 separate photoetch sets (Deluxe, Basic A, Basic B, and Basic C), of which I purchased the first three (and any one or more of which will likely be backordered by their various distributors at any given time).

The Deluxe set concerns itself almost entirely with the meshwork of support beams beneath the protruding bow and stern portions of the flight deck, and the numerous small braces beneath the flight deck edges on either side.  These are tedious to install and must be done very carefully, as the individual strips must precisely interlock with one another and can easily be distorted or broken.  Once in place beneath the forward and rear plastic flight deck sections, these will install onto and around the plastic bulkheads of the kit with very close tolerances.  Sometimes those tolerances are too close; several "cage" support pillars on the port side were too long and were partially crushed when the central plastic flight deck section was pressed into place above them, with the result that I had to extract, disassemble, shorten, reassemble (now in multiple parts instead of a single folded one) and finally reinsert them.  The Deluxe set also includes white metal parts that are used to represent the canvas anti-shrapnel bags that hung in groups from various railings and splinter shields on the bridge.

Basic set B includes the curved railings that install beneath the rear part of the flight deck, above the quarterdeck, and were used on the aircraft carrier to move the various motor launches, Also included with this fret are the numerous safety nets along the edge of the flight deck.  Since I wanted to portray the Akagi as she looked during the Pearl Harbor raid in December 1941, I omitted the two large midships safety nets that Hasegawa includes, that were apparently only installed later for the Midway attack.  The Hasegawa model kit includes 12 aircraft, all molded in clear plastic -- 3 "Zeke" fighters, three "Val" divebombers, and six "Kate" torpedo or high level bombers.  The model was finished off with Master Model brass barrels for the 8-in. casemated guns and 4.7-in. twin AA mounts, Veteran twin 25mm light AA guns, and a wood deck from Blue Star.  Although I wiped the plastic flight deck surfaces with isopropyl alcohol prior to installing the flight deck (which also comes in three segments), I had problems with it blistering in various places and this required the application of low-viscosity CA superglue to adhere properly.  This may have been aggravated by absorption of water from the large decals applied to the flight deck, although I sprayed the deck with a dullcote sealant before the decals were installed.  The upper hull and superstructure was painted with Tamiya Sasebo Grey, mostly applied by a spray can (which ensures uniform coverage, and is essential for the intricate brass parts) and the lower hull was airbrushed with a mixture of Tamiya Hull Red and flat brown. Rigging was made from stretched black sprue.

When building the Akagi, I couldn't help but compare its design to that of the USS Lexington (in Trumpeter's kit); both were built from modified battlecruiser hulls.  The similarity, however, ends there; the Akagi design seems to have been based on the Royal Navy's HMS Furious, which underwent multiple modifications before a final single flight deck design was established.  The Akagi originally had three flight decks, with two short ones at different levels at the forecastle, along with a pair of twin-gunned 8-in. turrets.  These early aircraft carriers of the 1920's were armed with a heavy cruiser's guns, just in case surface battles might be fought -- a scenario that became less and less likely as the importance of naval air power grew during the 1930's.  In any case, the Lexington also had twin 8-in gun turrets, but its lines were smooth and, frankly, rather modernistic (especially the enclosed hurricane bow), whereas on the Akagi there are a multitude of platforms and supporting struts all around the ship to give it the typical "busy" Japanese superstructure.  The casemated 8-in. guns, virtually useless in battle, were retained when the ship was extensively rebuilt with a single long flight deck in 1937-38.  The Akagi's large funnel on the starboard side (opposite from the small island on the port side) points downward, another example of early efforts to find the best way to design an aircraft carrier.

I won't dwell on the combat history of the Akagi; suffice it to say that it suffered fatal damage from a single bomb hit dropped by a U.S. Navy Dauntless divebomber during the Battle of Midway, when that bomb penetrated the flight deck near the island while both that deck and the hangar deck below it were filled with aircraft armed and ready to take off -- the resulting chain reaction of explosions of ammunition, aviation fuel and aircraft caused raging fires that doomed the ship, and it burned throughout the night until scuttled by destroyer-launched torpedoes the following morning (June 5, 1942).  Despite the damage received, the huge ship suffered a relatively modest casualty count of 263 officers and men killed.
 

Gallery updated 2013

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