The Ship Model Forum

Hi all
Does anyone know if there is a kit out there in 1/350 of the Hyuga pre carrier conversion?
The only ones I've seen are her as a battleship aircraft carrier, and I'd like to have her as she was originally made

Unfortunately not. Despite years of clamouring from modelers, Fujimi never put out a normal battleship version of the kit.

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De quoi s'agit-il?

Because that would require skills I just don't have Not a resin printer in sight either

You could develop those skills... it may or may not come out well, but the one thing I can guarantee you is that if you never try, your skills will never improve.

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... Brian

Oh don't get me wrong - I can scratch build things like a base for a Star Destroyer or some things Sci-fi but when it comes to real life things such as making Pagoda towers etc - sadly, I am just not good enough.
I did contemplate kit bashing 2 IJN BBs together to make the Hyuge but the Hyuga had a unique gun layout and that tower at the mid-rear section which isn't on other BBs kits (to my limited knowledge anyway)

Fujimi’s hyuga kit already provide some of the parts needed for the battleship version, so the barbettes and the original wooden planking on the quarter deck covered over by carrier conversion are represented. clearly at one time Fujimi wanted to leave options open for a battleship version.

the main parts you need to add the 2 main turrets and the 5.5 inch casemates removed during the conversion. i believe the main turrets are available in 3D printed version at shapeway.com and scratch building the casemates should be easy.

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Assessing the impact of new area rug under modeling table.

so the barbettes and the original wooden planking on the quarter deck covered over by carrier conversion are represented.

Good that you posted that, Chuck.

Looking over the sprues posted on Hobbysearch Japan, it seems there are two extra turrets included as well. Though, they might be meant for Ise. I'm not sure how different the sisters were in this regard. Certainly nothing like the Kongos, so they might do.

That's really good to know - thanks for that info Chuck!
AFAIK, the Hyuga and Ise were both the same class. You can get the Hyuga in her original form in 1/700 scale but that's a bit too small for me

I just recently started preparing for this conversion myself. A few observations that might help (but again, this is early in the process):
Regarding the aft deck: It has planking detail, but nothing else; it's just a flat piece of decking - there are no barbettes provided. Still, having this piece to start with is a great head start. The linoleum aircraft handling area and tread plate at the extreme stern will need to be added, along with the barbettes and all the miscellaneous deck fittings. The crane blister is already present on the hull.

Regarding the main turrets: Two extra turret tops and extra rangefinder ears are in the kit, but not the bottom plates (these can be cut out of sheet styrene using one of the other four as a guide), but you'll need 4 more gun barrels and blast bags.

Regarding the secondary guns: These are the same mounts as the ones on Hasegawa's Nagato-class kits. I feel like somebody out there ought to have some 3-D printed replacements. If not, they're not so hard to create out of tube. Anyway, adding them to the Hyuga's superstructure will take a little bit of surgery for the forward facing ones (cutting out the plating and fashioning a little bit of interior deck to support them), and a bit more for the aft facing ones, where the superstructure was substantially reshaped during the hybrid conversion. More on this below.

Regarding the aft superstructure: It looks pretty much the same as a hybrid as it did in her late full battleship fit, so the kit parts should be good to go for the most part. Shouldn't be hard to address any of the minor changes. Likewise up in the main pagoda. A little tweak to a platform here and there, and probably more cutting off than adding on.

Regarding AA guns: Battleship-fit was packing twin 25mm, the hybrid had triples - but the kit has generic AA weapons sprues that provide plenty of both, so no worries!

Regarding float planes: You'll need some Daves from somewhere else.

Regarding lower level of superstructure/aft casemates: Personally I see this as the biggest challenge. With casemates deleted, big wells were cut into the deck to protect high angle heavy AA mounts. You'll need to reshape the superstructure sides back to casemate configuration and cover up the holes - with planked decking. I'm thinking flat styrene, carefully blended flush, with very carefully scribed lines to match the kit's surrounding planking pattern.

Overall, I think it's a very do-able project. Would've been nice if they'd just released the thing properly as it seems they'd once intended, but here we are.

- Sean F.

Regarding the secondary guns: These are the same mounts as the ones on Hasegawa's Nagato-class kits.

If you can find this: https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10284285

Pricey, but available here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/303915087598


What I meant about the main turrets is that, apparently, there were slight configuration differences in the turret for each sister. Very insignificant.

Would be great to see a W-I-P, Sean. As far as I can tell, no such conversion has been posted on the 'net as of yet.