I thought I would do a review of the PE detail set for the 1/350 IJN Haruna for those that may be thinking about building her.
For the 1/350 Fujimi IJN Haruna battleship kit, this is the only dedicated PE set available as of this writing. Some may try to use PE from the Kongo detail sets out there. Although of the same class, there are limited pieces in the Kongo sets that would be of use to the Haruna. All four of the Kongo class ships have rather unique details about them.
The set consists of three brass sheets with good and bad points.
Good:
The brass is thin and the pieces cut away easily. The parts fold nicely and fit well. Be careful, some of the parts like the cranes can be easily crunched and railings can break apart if bent too much.
Bad:
1) No PE for the aircraft or for the large deck hatches.
2) You will need spare vertical ladders and railings.
3) There is some PE missing that is needed for some parts.
4) The instructions omit identifying several pieces of the PE.
The biggest issue is the incomplete instructions. I will try to identify some of the missing pieces for you here as I work through the build.
First, there are few ladders (stairs) not identified in the set. Here is one suggestion to match the ladders up:
A47 I15
A48 I16
A49 I17
A53 F36x2
A57x2 & A58x2 J36x4
A80x2 M11x2
A50 J34
A51 J23
A18 J31
A24 J20
A88 J25
missing J28
Note there is one set of ladder that is missing a PE counterpart, however, several of the ladders that are in the main superstructure like J25 and F36 are completely hidden. You might as well not even install those.
There are also several vertical ladders not identified where they go, so just match them up as you can.
Parts B24 are the 3 pulleys that attach to the mast for the crane.
A84 and A85 replaces parts M43x2.
I used A73x2 to replace M42x2
One of the major omissions is identifying the window replacements. Here’s what I used:
PE Model Part
A84 & A85 M43
A10 G6 & G7
A11 G5
A28 G4
A19 G1
A37 G3
A36 G9
Most of the large braces are not identified, but are easily matched to the model parts.
Railings A74 – A77 replace the model railings D25 – D28.
Life rings C40x2 are included to replace J9x2.
PE parts B50 are rudders for the row boats and replace kit parts K12.
The PE C31 ring must go around the first stack somewhere, but is not identified.
C36 are probably the fore and aft flag staffs for the ship.
Not sure what the 4 small C37 parts go to.
Be VERY careful bending the individual stairs on parts A82 and A83. They will snap off easily, and I ended up using one from the parts box.
PE parts B99 and B100 are details for the 6inch twin mounts. However, there are only enough for 4 mounts. Being the Haruna carries 6, it is odd they would not supply enough. The kit guns are nice enough that I just didn’t worry about them.
Railings H23 and H25, and stairs A52, A46 and A45 are for the 6inch gun tubs. Unfortunately they only supplied enough for one side, they completely omitted the other 2 tubs. This was a major disappointment, whatever happened to quality control! So, you will have to supply extra ladders and railings for those.
For the small boat H15, there are no replacement cradles identified in the kit if you want to remove the molded on cradles. However, there are several spare cradles included, so just grab a couple of those if you want.
On a side-side note, both the model and PE omit the pair of Type 13 air search radar the Haruna carried on her aft mast. I purchased a separate IJN radar set for those.
There are still a couple PE parts I haven’t identified, but don’t appear overly major for the build. This set is getting more difficult to find, expect to pay from $80 - $120 for it. Overall I am glad I purchased it, the set does add quite a bit to the build and the replacement braces look very nice.
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