1/350 IJN Aircraft Carrier Shokaku (Fujimi)

Commissioned in August 1941 and sent with much of the Combined Fleet for Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor that December, the Shokaku was, with her sistership Zuikaku (with which it often operated) considered on of the best Japanese aircraft carrier designs of World War II. Badly damaged by bombs at the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, it was undergoing repairs back at Kure Naval Base and missed the Japanese disaster at Midway a month later.  She participated in the Battle of Santa Cruz in October 1942 and again was badly damaged, being struck by multiple bombs and having her flight deck wrecked, but survived and was repaired once again over the following several months. Most of 1943 and early 1944 was spent in non-combat operations, but the Shokaku, Zuikaku and the new aircraft carrier Taiho participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea from 18 to 20 June 1944.  On the 19th of that month, both aircraft carriers were sunk by American submarines, the Shokaku being struck by three torpedoes from the USS Cavalla.  Her demise was particularly unpleasant; exploding aircraft bombs and ammunition and leaking aviation fuel stoked a severe fire and explosions in the forward hangar deck; the ship sank by the bow and then exploded once underwater, and there was a huge loss of life -- a total of 1272 fatalities.

Fujimi's model kit is typical of their quality production values; most of the parts fit snugly together, although there are some design problems with the canvas-covered motor launches near the fantail, since if you follow the instructions the deck above them doesn't fit properly unless those canvas covers are sanded down.  The one-piece flight deck fits very snugly but it should be dry-fitted a number of times to make sure all the photoetch gussets are set correctly in place -- many need to be moved closer to the underside of the flight deck edge.  The Fujimi photoetch sets I added to this kit are those brass gussets and the complex set of braces beneath the rear of the flight deck, and a set of steel railings, all of them pre-cut and pre-bent but sometimes not fitting well along the little plastic platforms that line the port side just beneath the flight deck.  The photoetch sets do not include ladders; I used Lionroar sets and few smaller ones from my spare parts boxes. The aircraft crane was scratch-built from extra GMM IJN battleship photoetch frets.  Fujimi's 3-part wood deck adhered well but was slightly misaligned forward; I had to trim off a little bit near the raised wind barrier in front of the forward elevator and along an edge where the rear and middle sections join; fortunately, the latter juncture is covered by a steel fastening strip.  The metal anchor chains were included with the wood deck.

I painted the ship with Kure grey -- most of the hull was done from a Tamiya spray can and for various other parts I used Tamiya acrylic Kure grey.  The "cocoa brown" lower hull was airbrushed with a mixture of Tamiya Hull Red and some Brown; the aircraft (Fuimi includes only nine -- three each of Zeke fighters, Val divebombers and Kate torpedo bombers -- all in brittle clear plastic) were painted in a mixture of Tamiya flat aluminum and sky grey, with a mixture of light green and black for the Kates and Tamiya brown daubed onto the upper wing surfaces.  The kit was completed with Veteran twin 5-in. Type 89 open mount guns and Veteran triple 25mm AA guns, without shields.

Gallery updated 12/19/2014

© ModelWarships.com