Calling all Japanese pre-war/wartime Merchant Marine fans

[Dan K]

I'm not sure why this post was not added to the existing thread: Calling All Japanese Pre-war/wartime Merchant Marine Fans. Moderator, please add. Thx.
Mod edit: Done.

1. Does Frogfoot still exist, and is there an English language vendor for their resin ship products?

Yes. Best to go to the Fleet.net website: http://fleetnet.jp/ and use the Google Translate (or similar) function.

2. Has anyone figured out the best approach for correcting the Pitroad Kamikawa Maru hull length problem?

Yes. If nowhere else, it's been done several times in the Model Art Ship Modeling series. #27 comes to mind, among others. 13mm of length needs to be added to the hull. Midpoint under the bridge is the best place to cut and add. 3mm of length needs to be added to the superstructure. Immediately behind and adjacent to the bridge facing is recommended.

Did Aoshima issue a Kimikawa Maru kit in the past two years, or just a PE set?

Yes, released about 45 days ago, along with the PE. I haven't allowed mine to ship yet so I can't comment, but word from Motoyuki-san is that it's pretty good.

Has anyone tried to document and summarize the hull shapes of the available japanese merchant ships available as 1/700 plastic kits?

Well, if it's been done, it's been held privately. There's got to be (easily) 100-300 different ships classes with their respective hull shapes.

[DavidK]

Thanks Dan. That was a quick response.

I installed a browser translator. Fleet net had five pages of Frogfoot kits, all of which were "Out of stock". Do you think they can actually get them in and ship them? I'm also wondering about the browser translator's ability to get a ship's name correct.

Do you think the ships are listed by their Japanese merchant marine name or by their original commercial name?

Re the documenting 1/700 plastic Japanese merchant ship kits question that I asked. I know there are perhaps a hundred distinct Japanese merchant ship classes in reality, but in terms of what's available today in injection-molded plastic, there are, what, maybe ten basic mold sets for Japanese merchant ships at war, e.g. the Fujimi Toho(?) Maru class oilers, the Fujimi Sado/Sakito etc IJA transports, the Pitroad auxiliary seaplane carriers (undersized Kamikawa Maru, etc), the Fujimi Osaka cargo ships, the Pitroad Aikoku Maru aux cruiser, and probably a few others, but not a lot, still in production and available today. If one wanted to start a conversion build, knowing some specifications on the available plastic kit hulls would help (especially if the kits deviate a little or a lot from the nominal dimensions for their subjects).

What I had dreamed up for stretching the Kamikawa Maru was going to be a lot more complicated and involve having two sets of hull pieces and multiple saw cuts cross-ways (I have one Pitroad KM on the shelf). What you cited sounds bad, but not as bad as my idea. If the Aoshima Kimikawa Maru has the right length hull, though, wouldn't that be the way to go? Aren't they pretty much the same ship/sister ships? I'll stay tuned to see what you get once you ship your Kimikawa Maru and get to look at it, or someone else can chime in who already has theirs...

[Lester Abbey]

Hello David K

Yow wrote:

1. Does Frogfoot still exist, and is there an English language vendor for their resin ship products?

I have been able to obtain Frogfoot models through Fleetnet. There is a Mr Jun Pei who has good English and can access the frogfoot models (and others). He is honest and reliable.

3. Did Aoshima issue a Kimikawa Maru kit in the past two years, or just a PE set? I've only been able to find the PE set at HLJ or Freetime.

The Aoshima Kit is due to be released this month according to HLJ. Hopefully it's hull is correct.

4. Has anyone tried to document and summarize the hull shapes of the available japanese merchant ships available as 1/700 plastic kits?

I have made an effort to find 1/700 kits suitable for using for a collection of the transports under Adm Tanaka on Nov 12 1942. The Kimikawa Maru can be fairly easily built as the Hirokawa Maru, the Fujimi Sado Maru can be built as the (are you ready for this) Sado Maru, Frogfoot makes an Arizona Maru and the old Waveline Noto Maru can be built as the Naka Maru and Nagara Maru.
I cannot find suitable hulls for the other 6 transports of this famous convoy.

Hope this helps.

[Quincy]

There are also 1/700 scale drawing/plans in Motoyuki sans books of Arizona Maru and Yamaura Maru I believe. I don't have them on me now as I type. It would be nice to have a set of drawings for the other ships in the convoy that you mentioned Lester, especially the Canberra and Brisbane Marus. I especially am after the Brisbane Maru myself.

I wish Motoyuki san would do just a book on 1/700 drawings/plans on all his ships on his website. I'd pick that book up in a heart beat!




Bob Pink.

[AJohnson]

Dear Colleagues

Am building the 1/700 Yamashita Line oil tanker Nihon Maru. It has black sides and white superstructure. Would anyone like to hazard a guess about the colour of the steel deck?

Or should I just take artistic licence and use a Royal Navy grey green colour which I have in mind?

Thanks for your advice

Andrew

[Dan K]

The Japanese merchant fleet seems to have used what I would describe as an orange-brown, sort of rust colored deck covering, at least in the prewar period. I don't have a good match for it.

Here are two examples from Motoyuki Iwashige's collection. Though these were both war-built ships, it's not clear that such ships didn't carry the same covering. Deck color during the war remains a matter of speculation of red-brown vs. grey.

[Jim Smith]

I'm with with Dan K on this.

I asked the question on a number of websites and consulted Iwashige-san's website before building my model of Nippon Maru. I used Citadel (warhammer) acrylic Scorched Brown (now listed as Rhinox Hide) toned down with a little Vallejo medium sea grey (#70870).

If you are going to add photo etch, I would suggest you use L'Arsenal's excellent IJN oiler catwalks set - ref # AC700.58

Note that if you are building pre-war, the funnel colour was yellow and the Yamashita funnel emblem was red (not black as supplied in the Fujimi kit).

My model is shown as Photo 614 in Jim Bauman's Telford report or on the Finewaterline website.

http://www.finewaterline.com/pages/gall ... smith.html

Hope this helps

Jim S

[Dan K]

So, I have received my new Aoshima Kimikawa Maru. It's very good. I'm thinking about posting some pics under reviews, perhaps with the PitRoad kit as a comparison. Or, I could attempt a full write up, which would take a while. Thoughts?

[Quincy]

Please do! I look forward to your review Dan!




Bob Pink.

[Lester Abbey]

Hi Dan,

I'm waiting for my Aoshima Kimikawa Maru. I am hoping to build it as the Hirokawa Maru as she was in Nov 12 1942. My inderstanding is the the Pitroad Kimikawa maru is a tad short - can you comment on any dimensional issues with the Aoshima Version?

Also - whats all this about NOT being a Fuso Fan?

[Dan K]

whats all this about NOT being a Fuso Fan?

What can I say Lester, the Fusos just don't shake my tree.

It's true about the PitRoad version, the hull is 13mm short, and the superstructure is also about 2.5mm short. The Aoshima version is dimensionally correct! I think what I'll do is start posting some comments and pics shortly in the Review section. This way, I can add as time allows.

I, too, want to build a Hirokawa Maru. I'm probably going to get a second Aoshma kit and build them together at some point. One important note about Hirokawa Maru that comes to mind after viewing some recent builds of her: Unlike her four sisters, she was built with different shaped drainage slots cut into the hull off the main deck. Hers were shorter, and more numerous. So, the kit has to be modified accordingly.

Unsurprisingly, Motoyuki-san's version is correct.

[Hen]

Unsurprisingly, Motoyuki-san's version is correct.

Where does this camo scheme come from? His first model of the Hirokawa Maru looked completely different and I built mine as he supposed...

[Dan K]

This was possibly an early version. I believe he may have revised the camo. I imagine this version is what you mean:

[Hen]

Thanks Dan, that's the one I was talking about... looks very different

[Dan K]

In case it gets missed by future readers in the Review section, here is a link to the Aoshima vs. PitRoad Kimikawa Maru kit thread in the review section. I've also added a comment about the upcoming Aoshima Kiyokawa Maru kit: viewtopic.php?f=84&t=158097&p=644363#p644363

[Quincy]

Aoshima's Kamikawa Maru is out now, though, on backorder at HLJ. FYI




Bob Pink.

[D-Boy]

Pit Road's release in plastic of the IJN Munitions Ship Kashino has arrived in stores in Japan and is now shipping.

Unlike the original release (2005) in resin, the new Pit Road release in plastic offers a full hull option, and includes the Yamato's main and auxiliary armament turrets, and hatch covers.

Hobby Link Japan: http://www.hlj.com/product/PITW-160

Hobby Search Japan: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10289522

And here's the original release in resin: http://www.hlj.com/product/pitspr-08/Nav

[Quincy]

You can make the Kashino waterlined. All it needs is a trace on an Evergreen sheet, then cut it out and affix it to the bottom. Voila.

[D-Boy]

You can make the Kashino waterlined. All it needs is a trace on an Evergreen sheet, then cut it out and affix it to the bottom. Voila.

Quincy, your post made me revisit my own above - the Pit Road kit offers a WL/full hull option, but no bottom plate is included in the kit. This can be addressed as you described.

D-Boy

[decemus]

My 1/700 Taifuku Maru