It's the Pit-Road kit of the Shirakumo being built as the Hatsuyuki in late '42-43. I'm using the "Calling all IJN Fubuki class Toku-gata fans" thread over on the CASF section as well as Dan K's two build threads on this board as inspiration.
Having read through what's here, it's become evident that Pit-Road goofed with this kit. The hull has a long forecastle whilst the actual ship had a short one. From what Dan's indicated in the reference thread, the only group 1 ships to have the longer forecastle were Hatsuyuki, Murakumo and Uranami. I was tempted to do Uranami as the kit funnels are wrong for the rest of the first group, but I decided to follow Dan's example and nabbed them from a scrapped Tamiya offering.
As I have little confidence in my ability to use etch, I'll try and replicate some of what Dan's done in plastic to add extra detail.
Overall shot with some reference pictures and the box:
Early progress:
Funnels on, detailing started. I'm not too happy with the forward stack - it seems too vertical compared with the after one.
Stern, showing the degaussing cable:
Todays progress:
More superstructure on, with a bit of detailing on the rear deckhouse added. I've also begun adding the grills to the top of the funnels - rough shapes at first, then sanded to proper profile once it's all hardened.
If anyone's wondering, the wreck in the background is the old Tamiya kit - that's the kit I nabbed the funnels from.
Comments welcome!
Mike.
