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I was needing a change of pace so, I decided to turn my attention to the IJN auxiliaries. It’s about been 12 years since I last built one. So many more choices now. The one type that I’ve hankered for more than any other is an oil tanker, particularly those used for underway replenishment as part of the fleet train. I mean, what good is a blue water fleet without fuel on the go? What I want is something on the order of this:

It was my interest in this class that led me to correspond with Motoyuki Iwashige for the first time, back in 2005. I had discovered his website devoted to the Japanese Merchant Marine during WWII, and greatly admired his detailed scratch builds (Perhaps even more now than back then). Also around this time, H-P had cast a 1/700 resin version of the class, and I purchased one marketed as Itsukushima Maru. Personally, I’m not big on resin kits but, I thought this kit was very well cast, with few issues. For those unfamiliar with the kit, there is a nice in-box review by Steve Backer on SteelNavy.com: http://www.steelnavy.com/HPTatekawaMaru.htm . So, with the intent of building this kit, I began to bombard Motoyuki-san with questions, and he graciously answered, often with diagrams, photos, and plans.

Here it is eight years later. I have continued to ask questions of Motoyuki-san about the Kawasaki type, I haven’t built the H-P kit, and Fujimi released its injected styrene version of the Kawasaki type late in 2007. With the completion of my Yugumo projects, I felt it was time to put up, or shut up with regard to the Kawasaki type. ( I do have to maintain my credibility with Motoyuki-san ) I prefer to work in styrene, so I chose to go with the Fujimi kit.

A word about this kit, marketed as eight different sisters. It’s great to have a styrene kit of this class, and most folks will be satisfied by it. That said, it’s about as simplistic, generic and inaccurate a kit as Fujimi has ever released. It certainly does not measure up to the detail and general level of accuracy of Fujimi’s other 1/700 IJN releases of the last few years. The bow and stern are wrong, the hull plating grossly overscale, a generic layout is used for the configuration of piping and hatches on the main deck, the forward and aft bridgeworks are also generic (though some kits contain as many as three different bridge facings; a nice touch to try and differentiate among the sisters but, also oversimplified), and a host of smaller errors.

The H-P kit isn't entirely accurate either, but it certainly captures more of the shapes and details correctly. Here are some comparison views between the Fujimi kit and the H-P kit.

I actually have two Fujimi kits and am building them simultaneously. One as Kyokuto Maru, one of the first two Group 1 ships. (FYI, the Harima built half sisters Akebono & Akatsuki Marus are very similar to this group) The other as Kenyo Maru, one of seven Group III sisters. Both ships were members of the fleet train that supported the Kido Butai from the outset of the war until 1944. Kyokuto Maru was raised postwar, repaired, and served as California Maru until retired in 1964.

For the purposes of this build, I will focus on Kenyo Maru and show aspects of Kyokuto Maru that are obviously differentiated. I will also begin by thanking Motoyuki-san publicly for all his help. I’m also fortunate in that Ron Wolford also posted some great photos on the Calling All Japanese Pre-war/wartime Merchant Marine Fans thread.

First things – the hull plating has to come off, and the prow straightened. I’ll need to work the bow to make it finer; it’s pretty blunt. I also installed the rear bulkhead. I will keep updating as time allows.

Hello Dan

having an growing interest for all that is for the Japanese merchant marine, I will follow your project with interest
cheers
Nicolas

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This looks like a nice project. The Fujimi kit is still a good starting point. I will be following.

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On the Bench
1/350 Independence
1/350 Dunkerque
1/350 Shimakaze
1/350 Sharnhorst Dragon
1/350 Belfast

I chose to work on the quarterdeck and aft bridgeworks next, in the mistaken belief that this would be an “easy” step. I scraped off all the molded on fuel lines and winches, and turned my attention to the first level of the aft bridge. To my eye, plans and photos seem to indicate large, open passageways between the outer row of cabins and the internal cabins. So, I opened these passageways. Later, at Motoyuki-san’s insistence, I reviewed again the plans that I had and discovered that these openings were, in fact, large hatches. Oops. So, as photos later on in this build thread will show, I squared off and shrank the openings, leaving off the hatches on those bulkheads to add at a later date, after painting the quarterdeck and mating the boat deck to this structure. I also drilled out portholes according to plans.

At this point , I also provided for a main refueling line and supports on the quarterdeck.

The next step was to re-create the boat deck. The kit deck is closest to that of Nippon Maru, which only had a portion of this deck planked with wood. Most all the other sisters had fully planked decks, though the overall outline changed subtly between groupings. I chose to retain the superstructure portion of the kit and sliced off all the decking, replacing it with .2020 V groove styrene. In retrospect, I think it might have been far easier to not only replicate the deck with V groove but to also scratch built the actual superstructure. Oh, well.

Once the deck was complete, I sprayed the planking with the new Tamiya deck tan (flat). Then came a coat of Future, and a wash of burnt umber. I thought it turned out well. For comparison’s sake, I included a stir stick covered with just the Tamiya deck tan.

Great choice of subject to build Dan! I think the new wood deck looks really good.



Bob Pink.

Hey Dan! I was wondering where you were, have not seen much of your work on the forum lately (or did I just miss it somewhere?)

No doubt this will be a masterpiece, looks like you are pretty much scratchbuilding the whole thing from the hull on up!

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Thx, all. You didn't miss a thing, Ryan. Been really busy so this is the next project. (I haven't even photographed the Yugumos yet for the Gallery.)

Two thoughts that I neglected to bring up in my last post: 1) The boat deck is bordered with a .015” x .02” strip, which will provide the footing for the railings. The border idea came from Motoyuki-san’s work and I think is an excellent idea. 2) I actually attempted to use the kit supplied boat deck first. Doing so required scraping off the raised planking detail (which is very nice – if only their carriers had it this way, which kind of proves my point about Fujimi’s arbitrary planking choices) and scribe new planking lines. Ultimately, that didn’t work out as I couldn’t space the ruler edge properly. Hence, the move to V-groove Evergreen sheet.

Taking advantage of the initial learning curve, I then replicated the boat deck for Kyokuto Maru (top).

Incidentally, you're right about the scratch-building part, Ryan. It looks to be more than 75%. Only the basic hull and deck is really usable. I've really waded into it this time.

Continuing with the build came the addition of vents, a turbo blower intake, and skylights. Lots of little skylights.

A word about the stern - it should be fuller at the waterline at its aftmost, but for me, the fix isn't worth the effort. I can barely tell the difference.

Next, I focused on the distinctive, large gooseneck ventilators on the rear superstructure. Virtually all of the sisters carried seven of them on the rear superstructure, though the positions varied slightly between groups. As the photo of Itsukushima’s aft superstructure shows, the apertures rise substantially above the uppermost housing. Unfortunately, the kit pieces are woefully undersized.

There were a couple of options open to me. Casting was one but, frankly, it’s not an area of expertise for me. There are a number of resin & styrene versions, though I don’t have all of them. Pictured are (l to r) ventilators from the H-P Itsukushima set, those from the Fujimi kit, a version from the PitRoad Kimikawa/Kamikawa Maru kit that’s also sold as part of a sprue for merchant auxiliaries, and one from the old PitRoad E-38/E5 equipment set, which turned out to be the closest match

However, it needed serious reworking as the halves were molded out of alignment. The other drawback is that the final shape is more oval than round. (In truth, this shape is more appropriate for the 1TL tankers.) I spent perhaps 6 hours reworking enough for the two ships. Not so much fun. I probably should have sprayed them with a coat of paint or primer before mounting them, to expose any obvious cracks or imperfections. I guess I was impatient. Now, I will have to wait until I coat the entire structure with paint to check for flaws.

Moving on, I worked on a few things simultaneously: funnels, a framework for a canopy sunshade that was erected over the main engine room skylight array, and a steam, hydraulic or oil line that was fitted to travel over the top of the boat deck.

The kit funnels look very nice but, they are erroneous in three ways: 1) They’re not tall enough. Working from plans and photos, I estimated them to be approximately 20% taller; 2) The actual funnels did not utilize grills over the top of the funnel in the manner of the IJN’s warships. These ships were diesel engined (save for Kurushio Maru, a later sister), and utilized simple exhaust holes. So, in the manner of most diesel engine ships, the funnel top is plated over except for apertures for the exhaust. Patterns differed between ships; 3) The kit funnels are incorrectly shaped in horizontal cross-section. If you were to slice the kit’s funnel horizontally, the perimeter shape would resemble an elongated egg, with the widest portion of the oval forward. The actual funnels were squat, symmetrical ovals, at their widest in the middle.

In order to raise their height, I assembled the original funnels, then sanded off the grillwork of the kit supplied original cap, then reduced its diameter in all directions in order to use it as a guide to wrap a styrene strip around the top of the funnel. I then sanded the sides smooth to erase the seam.

Achieving a symmetrical cross-section of the funnel is not really an option with the kit supplied parts. It’s probably easier to fashion one from scratch. But, I didn’t feel like scratch-building a funnel, either. So, I settled for a compromise. I sanded down the widest section of the funnel wall, while reshaping the overall oval. Now, it falls somewhere in between the kit version and the desired version.

For the tops, I took more styrene strip and shaped it to fit into the top of the funnel, recessed slightly. Using various styrene rod tube widths, I sliced thin cross-sections to match the raised lip shapes atop each funnel, then drilled them out to mark where the diesel exhausts vent. I also fitted a small platform facing forward , on the funnel sides, with ladder access. A small auxiliary pipe was added to the rear (though it’s not visible in this set of photos. Siting the funnel on top of the superstructure called for widening some of the placement holes while also ensuring that the base of the funnel was evenly flat.

A small pipeline was run across the top of the superstructure, while a canopy frame made from brass mesh was placed above the main engine room skylight for Kenyo Maru. It will be glued in place after this area has been painted and detailed. It’s not (yet) clear to me if Kyokuto Maru carried a similar frame. Most sisters did (look carefully at both the Kokuyo Maru photo below & the Itsukushima Maru aft photo prior to the last post), so I can always add it later on. Kyokuto Maru funnel photo courtesy of Motoyuki-san.

Nice work Dan!



Bob Pink.

of good improvement works and search Dan very pleasant to see
cheers
Nicolas

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