Calling all Yamato (大和) and Musashi (武蔵) fans

[Atma]

The tower is available with the Tamiya kit as optional fitting.

[chuck]

So, Atma, will its Mushasi companion be in the 1941 or 1944 fit?

BTW, it appears to me the blast bag on the depressed 18" barrel seems to be of a different shape from the elevated one's, so I think while the barrels might be optionally mounted elevated or depressed, using alternate blast bag parts, like on recent tamiya CA kits, they can't be moved while in place. also, it appears the 6" guns also has this option.

[Atma]

Some more close up of the new 1/350 Yamato by Tamiya:
http://www.hobby-show.info/tokyo2011/0152.html

[denstore]

Some more close up of the new 1/350 Yamato by Tamiya:
http://www.hobby-show.info/tokyo2011/0152.html

Hmmh, why the split hull? Wasn't there something about the unlikeliness of a Shinano because of the different stern and bow?

[Atma]

The split hull is for keeping in mind for a future releases, IJN Shinano is high on the list.
As for possible different versions of IJN Yamato( as build for example) is also possible, but as I said earlier, it all depends how well the new IJN Yamato will sell for Tamiya(and by the looks of reserve stock is goes well so far).
An IJN Musashi release too is almost certain, and thats all the information I got so far.

[chuck]

Some more close up of the new 1/350 Yamato by Tamiya:
http://www.hobby-show.info/tokyo2011/0152.html

The shape of the hole in the middle deck for the superstructure strongly suggests the deck is meant to be easily adoptable to early version with wing 6"

[Atma]

The hole in the middle deck is the same as the holes in the stern, there is a different spot(a removeable part) for the 15,5 cm wind turrets, that is hard to see from the pictures.

[Atma]

A nice video about the new IJN Yamato in 1/350 presented by the president of Tamiya, from Hobby Link Japan:
http://www.hobbylink.tv/interview-mr-tamiya

[Atma]

And one more:
http://www.hobbylink.tv/show-report-tamiya

[ceefood]

I can only hope they do the Musashi in as built config ie with the wing turrets - I'd buy that in a heart beat

[denstore]

In the video they say that Musashi saw more action than Yamato. Surface action. When and where?

[Atma]

In the video they say that Musashi saw more action than Yamato. Surface action. When and where?

They are wrong.

I can only hope they do the Musashi in as built config ie with the wing turrets - I'd buy that in a heart beat

There is always the 1941 new tooled 1/500 IJN Yamato by Fujimi:
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10155426

[denstore]

In the video they say that Musashi saw more action than Yamato. Surface action. When and where?

They are wrong.

Thought so.

[dsk]

Musashi took more punishment than the Yamato did before sinking. Maybe that's what they really meant?

[ceefood]

I can only hope they do the Musashi in as built config ie with the wing turrets - I'd buy that in a heart beat

There is always the 1941 new tooled 1/500 IJN Yamato by Fujimi:
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10155426[/quote]

I was hoping to keep the same scale as my others - already have 2 scales 1/350 & 1/700 so dont want to add a third

[JHS]

For those who read Japanese and are familiar with the Japanese sources on the YAMATO class:

Have you encountered any source with commentary on the theory YAMATO's forward turret was painted a dark color and her superimposed turret was half painted in a dark color during the Leyte operation?





Thanks. Jeff Spencer

[Senkan]

Think the darkness is from a bomb hit.

[Atma]

During Leyte operation, IJN Yamato had not hits in the era of number 1# or 2# turret. I agree with the theory of the dark grey number 1# turret.

[chuck]

I don't think the apparent darkness of number 1 turret is necessarily real. Note that number 3 turret appears to be the lightest. Number 2 turret appears slightly darker, number 1 turret appears much darker.

Why would 3 main turret be painted 3 different shades? I know of no other evidence of this sort of camouflage on Japanese battleships. So why do they appear to the 3 different shades in this photo?

A possible explanation is found in the direction of the sun light. Note the shadow cast by the bridge tower falling diagonally across the forward 6" turret. This shows the sun is roughly at the 4 o'clock position relative to the bow of the ship.

Note the length of the bridge tower shadow. It seems a bit shorter than the height of the bridge tower. This suggests the sun is slight over 45 degrees from the horizon.

This means the sunlight is falling at roughly 45 degreesu onto any horizontal surface of the ship. When light shines on a surface, the reflected light from the surface will appear the brightest if the surface is perpendicular to direction of incoming light. As the angle between the incoming light and surface decrease, the reflected light from the surface will get dimmer. When the true Albedo of two surfaces are the same, and the intensity of the incoming light is also the same, a surface perpendicular to incoming light will appear to be 1.4 times brighter than a surface arranged at 45 degrees to incoming light.

Now consider the slope of the turret roof. Number 3 turret is most nearly turned towards the sun. So it's roof, sloping forward, is most nearly perpendicular to sun light of the three turrets. So it appears the brightest.

Number 2 turret is turned more perpendicular to the direction of the sun, so it's roof appears the second brightest,

Number 1 turret is turned away from the sun. It's roof, sloping forward and thus away from the sun, is the least perpendicular to the direction of the sun, so it appears the most dark.

So I think it's all a trick of the lighting. The turrets are he same shade.

[bucketfoot-al]

Musashi took more punishment than the Yamato did before sinking. Maybe that's what they really meant?

That is also debatable. The reality is that both ships (judging by COMPLETE USN battle reports, not PARTIAL ones, plus the accounts of Japanese survivors) were hit by very similar numbers of bombs and torpedoes. (17 bombs for Musashi, 18-20+ for Yamato; 19 torpedoes for Musashi, 19-26 for Yamato).

The mythical "11 torpedoes and 8 bombs" that you will see listed as having hit Yamato are based on PARTIAL USN battle reports (it does NOT include the reports from ALL the carrier air groups and survivors' accounts).

As far as Yamato goes, reports by ALL pilots (somewhat inflated to be sure by instances of 2 pilots claiming the same hit) indicated scores by 25-30+ bombs and 25-30+ torpedoes. The 8 bomb figure is comical - as the History of U.S. Naval Operations in WW2, written by Samuel Elliott Morrison notes, "at least 10 bombs exploded on her decks.." just during the FINAL bombing run when she was circling at 11-12 knots and listing heavily to port.

[Based on what I read, as well as interviews I saw with several pilots that bombed Yamato, many of the attacking planes dropped TWO bombs each, not one, so I have also wondered if some of the bomb 'hits' reported by pilots actually meant that BOTH of their bombs hit...]

Survivor's accounts indicate around 18 bombs and 20 torpedoes. However, the final, "mysterious torpedo", hitting with the power of "several aerial torpedoes" according to Yoshida, was in fact not one, but as many as SIX near-simultaneous torpedo detonations that hit Yamato's exposed red leaded underbelly from starboard. They were dropped simultaneously in a 4 + 2 formation by the late arriving bomber flight from Yorktown. The ship was already in its death throes but this final 'coup-de-gras' caused her to roll over within 10-15 minutes of the impact. [In my own view, at least one of the two large holes in the aft underbelly of the back half of the wreck of Yamato are likely from this near-simultaneous multiple-torpedo strike. The larger hole of the two being presumably caused by the explosion of the aft powder magazine. Of course this is speculation on my part.)

If Yamato had been hit by only 8 bombs and 11 torpedoes she might have survived long enough to exchange shots with the 6 USN battleships that were steaming northward to intercept her ....