By far the weakest cruiser of Vice-Admiral Mikawa�s fleet, the 24- years old vintage-looking light cruiser Tenryu proved to be a valuable asset of the Japanese assault force on August 9th, 1942. Armed with 533mm torpedoes (no Long Lance, but still among the best of that time) and only four 14cm guns she managed to put two torpedoes into USS Quincy thus sealing her fate and Tenryu�s gunfire contributed to sinking USS Astoria, USS Vincennes and HMAS Canberra and damaging other units. Hit by a 5in shell probably from USS Chicago she suffered 23 casulaties that night.
Tenryu and Tatsuta were the first newly molded Japanese cruisers by Hasegawa in 2016, finally replacing very outdated 40-years old kits by the same company. The mold is really sharp and features neat detail. Hasegawa also later released a "Super Detail" and a more extensive �Full Hull Special� versions (the latter with even a more complete PE) but that happenned only after I already bought the regular plastic-only kit. I had not find any possibility to buy just the PE upgrade from Hasegawa without the plastic parts I already had, so I bought instead the Five Star Models IJN Light Cruiser Tenryu PE Upgrade set for Hasegawa, a complex PE set incl. brass barrels for the 14cm guns at a price lower than the Super Detail version from Hasegawa (and I did not have to bother with selling off my regular kit).
Photographic coverage of the Tenryu class is actually not that bad, I was able to collect some 40 photos. However, most of them are not quite clear, all but two of them are pre-war and just about four (all pre-war) were taken from close enough to show some detail on the deck. So using a quite extensive PE set is a good option here as possibilities for more in-depth research are quite limited.
I decided to use soldering for some PE parts as I was never quite happy with using CA glue for larger PE parts. I used soldering brass masts for my ships before, but this was the first time I tried using it for PE. I found it really useful here, much sturdier than CA and quite easy to cleanup. The Five Star set contains some relatively large (for 1/700
) replacement parts for most of the superstructure and the bridge and soldering proved to be a good solution there.
A downside of the Five Star set is that the linoleum attachment stripes are far too wide (these were only approx. 4cm wide in reality so should be 0,06mm in 1/700 � just about noticeable), so I decided not to use the PE deck replacement and to mix the PE and plastic deck parts for the aft superstructure. Linoleum attachment stripes on the bridge had to stay like on the PE and for the other places I used a thin fishing line. The PE set is also hampered by an inadequate instruction sheet that does not mention or even show in place quite many of available parts. Otherwise parts are nicely rendered and not too fragile like it sometimes happens in 1/700. Visual comparisons of the Five Star and Hasegawa PE sets showed some differences, too. In a situation without reliable photographic reference I had to use educated guess to choose from the multiple options available (e.g. regarding presence of linoleum and railings on the superstructure between funnels and so on).
I used also some additional after-market parts:
� 25mm twins (Fine Molds)
� 11m motor launch and 9m whalers (Pit-Road NE-02)
� Type 96 90cm searchlight (Pit-Road NE-02) for the aft position
� Resin binoculars (Voyager)
� Crew members from 3Dmoldeparts
� Minor PE parts from various sets by Flyhawk, Rainbow, LionRoar
Both masts were replaced with soldered brass rods that I turned myself using a mini-drill to obtain a conical shape, and combined them with PE parts. I replaced the Five Star supports for the �starfish� on the foremast with perforated ones from a Flyhawk set and I scratchbuilt the lookout platform above the compass bridge level instead of using the one from the kit. The Five Star windows for the lookout station (crow�s nest) on the foremast did not correspond to photos so I used different PE part from my scrap box for the second attempt. The small derrick aft #1 funnel (for hoisting paravanes) was soldered from brass wires, too. Contrary to the Five Star instructions I decided to use railings with its lower half including a net in the vicinity of 14cm guns as seen on many 5500-ton IJN cruisers. Also I decided not to use PE for the walking lines on funnels except of the topmost level (that was significantly wider that the lower levels) as they are largely overscale and too wide.
According to Lacroix & Wells the height of torpedo tube mounts was increased in 1927 for the torpedoes to clear the deck safely and interfere less with splashed seawater when fired. On a 1938 broadside photo (the only one showing them clearly) I noticed that � contrary to the kit � the aft torpedo mount sat higher than the forward one, so I increased the height of the aft mount on the model, too. As the deck was narrower around the fore TT mount I thought perhaps they did not have to increase the fore mount�s height that much as in case of the aft one. For the same concern it seemed to me likely that railings were folded in the vicinity of torpedo mounts before action. I wanted to show her like just before firing her torpedoes at the USS Quincy, so I folded the railing accordingly. I also added voice conduits above both torpedo mounts as seen on many photos of the Tenryu class.
I used Lifecolor paints for the first time for IJN, but I already had good experience with them from my other builds. The TROM for Tenryu shows she was last drydocked at Maizuru before the battle so I used the corresponding Maizuru Grey. It seemed to me a bit too dark (more like Kure) and greenish from the bottle so I mixed it with white to make it lighter and for the scale effect and the result seems good to me. I also painted her rangefinder white, a recognition feature carried by participants in the battle, although in case of Tenryu the director is really small. As usual I used artist�s oil paints for weathering and UNI Caenis 20den monofilament for rigging. There was a problem with reference once again as the rig changed considerably with technological advances before the war and there is no clear photographic evidence for her wartime appearance, so some estimation had to be used. She displays two 7 meters long white sleeves on the foremast for recognition in the night battle as mentioned by several Japanese sources.
The Tenryu with her WW1 appearance really stands out of the crowd among other participants in the Battle of Savo Island in my collection � now consisting of 5 ships
More hi-res photos are available here .
Reference:
- Lacroix, Eric & Wells, Linton: Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War
- Patton, Wayne: Japanese Light Cruisers In Action (Squadron-Signal Warships In Action 4025)
- Modelwarships.com: Calling all IJN light cruisers fans thread
- Photos from various internet sites like NHHC and Flickr and those provided by fellow modelers
- Instruction sheets for Hasegawa Light Cruiser Tenryu "Super Detail" and �Full Hull Special� versions on Hobby Search
Special thanks to Dan Kaplan and Lars Scharff for their help and advice!
