1/350 IJN Carrier Junyo (Hasegawa)
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by Robert Apfelzweig |
1/350 IJN Carrier Junyo (Hasegawa)
The aircraft carrier Junyo began its career in 1939 as a 27,000 ton ocean liner, the Kashiwara Maru, but was purchased by the Japanese Navy before its launch in June 1941 and renamed Junyo (usually translated as Peregrine Falcon or Falcon Hawk); conversion into an aircraft carrier was completed and the ship was commissioned in May 1942. It was smaller and slower than Japan’s large fleet carriers, such as the Akagi and Shokaku, but served throughout the rest of the war, participating in the invasion of the Aleutians in June 1942 and the Battle of Santa Cruz in October, when her aircraft contributed to the sinking of the USS Hornet. The Junyo was torpedoed in November 1943 by an American submarine, but survived and was repaired. It was badly damaged by US Navy carrier aircraft, and its airwing decimated, in the June 1944 Battle of the Philippine Sea (when its sistership Hiyo was sunk), and Hasegawa’s excellent model of this ship portrays her at that period in history (subsequently she received more 25mm AA guns and six racks of 30-tube AA phosphorus rocket launchers mounted on additional sponsons). The Junyo was torpedoed again by American submarines in December 1944 but managed to limp back to Japan and was drydocked in Sasebo, where repairs were never completed due to lack of materials. The ship was then camouflaged and eventually, just before the war ended, had all her armament removed in anticipation of the American invasion that never came. At war’s end, she was, despite her condition, one of the very few Japanese aircraft carriers still afloat, but an inspection by American technical officers determined that repairs to make the ship into a repatriation vessel for Japanese troops would not be feasible, and between June 1946 and August 1947 she was dismantled and scrapped.The Hasegawa Junyo is a wonder of excellent plastic kit engineering, augmented with (as usual for this manufacturer) all three separate brass photoetch detail sets and a wood deck. The extensive instructions include a full size poster for painting and rigging. Instructions those for the brass frets are very detailed and helpful but assembly and placement of some of the brass antenna sets are a little difficult without 3D images; fortunately, the box of the Super Detail set (which includes the numerous – and generally unseen – brass grid pieces beneath the bow and stern of the flight deck, the motor launch and aircraft details, and the four flight deck antennas) illustrates the model with ALL of the unpainted brass pieces in place, and this helps to position them properly. The plastic kit comes with a more than complete set of decals, especially for the aircraft (the kit supplies three each of Zero type 21 and type 52 fighters, “Jill” torpedo bombers and “Judy” divebombers), and the decals also include those for the flight deck markings (in several different time periods of the ship’s career). The wood deck comes with an even more extensive press-on set of dry decals. Railings, primarily in the Basic A fret, are relatively sturdy and hinged where necessary for easy installation. A poster illustrating the ship in action (the image is identical to the box art) is also included.
