Calling all IJN Soryu/Hiryu class Fans!

[Dan K]

As you can imagine, photos of that area are a bit sparse. Everything I could find is below, lightened for better visibility. There was a walkway that wrapped around the rear of the bulkhead, sitting right above storage for a boat. Sounds like it's just placed too high by Fujimi.

[Angeliccypher]

Thanks Dan. I think you are correct that Fujimi simply has it too high. I will see if I can determine the actual height of the platform off the boat deck.

[Dan K]

It was very similar to the platform on the Shokakus. Just thought of these pics:

[Rob Weilacher]

I am doing a little research for an upcoming build of Hiryu and have some questions:
1. Does anyone know a good deck color for IJN carriers ? Tamiya�s deck tan acrylic is not orange enough, I think.
2. Which Fine Mold Type 89 twin 12.7 cm gun set is appropriate ? WA13 or WA31 ?

Thank you,
Rob

[Mike Lowe]

I have done numerous carriers and Tamiya's Sand #46 is a good match for the yellow flight deck.

[Mike Lowe]

actually, I think that #3 Tamiya dark Yellow is better

[Dan K]

It's hard to find a color match right out of the bottle. I have yet to find one. Custom mixes help but, IMHO, you'll still need a wash of sorts to bring out orange tones. If you do a burnt umber wash over the Tamiya Deck Tan XF-78, you'll get a pretty good version. Varying the amount of burnt umber changes the tone.

There's no clear photo of a Hiryu mount, so it's not clear which version was appropriate for Hiryu. The mounts differ only in that there's a small cover over the recoil tubes and breaches. It appears that the Shokakus had them, and the FM site says Soryu did as well, so ........................?

[Rob Weilacher]

thank you all.

Rob

[Rob Weilacher]

All,

I am getting ready to start my 1/700 Fujimi Hiryu, (probably circa Midway, but maybe Pearl Harbor instead) so I will have lots of questions, since I typically do not do IJN, but have long admired the ships and fine models out there !

Frist question: A lot of IJN ships had ropes and sandbags along the island and around gun positions - did Hiryu have these features at either Midway or Pearl Harbor ?

Second Question: There is a very, very detailed build of Hiryu here, does anyone know of the accuracy ?:
http://mmzone.co.kr/album/showcase.php? ... 0#end_page

Thank you,
Rob

[Dan K]

Frist question: A lot of IJN ships had ropes and sandbags along the island and around gun positions - did Hiryu have these features at either Midway or Pearl Harbor ?

Yes. Certainly around the bridge, as that was the custom (see photos below). Probably around the 25mm positions, less certain about the 12.7cm mounts, though there may have been hawser ropes hung to either side as splinter shields. The photographic record is spotty.

Second Question: There is a very, very detailed build of Hiryu here, does anyone know of the accuracy ?:

It is a very nice build, though weathered a bit much for my taste. It is generally accurate, though the spotted air group is all wrong. The practice was to spot fighters and either dive bombers or torpedo planes. The doctrine was to launch a balanced strike of all three types between the two ships of a carrier division, with both ships contributing fighters, and the other ship in the division (Soryu) contributing whichever type was not spotted on Hiryu. A maximum strike package on one carrier would be 9-12 Zeros (most likely 9) and 18-21 DBs or TBs. The two blue stripes are correct, as Hiryu was the #2 ship in the 2nd CarDiv.

[Mike C]

Second Question: There is a very, very detailed build of Hiryu here, does anyone know of the accuracy ?:
http://mmzone.co.kr/album/showcase.php? ... 0#end_page

Thank you,
Rob

The weathering doesn't look too bad to me above the waterline, but that amount of rust on the lower hull is wrong. It would more likely be covered with marine growth, but since you only build waterline it's not a problem. As usual, Dan K is correct about the deck load. Common practice for the Japanese was to split the offensive types between in each carrier division pair. That simplified logistics for the armorers.

[MartinJQuinn]

Available kits and gallery entries for Hiryu (courtesy of Dan Kaplan) added to the first page.

[Elmo44]

Hello,

I am trying to find the Fujimi kit number for the Hiryu in 1/700. I have Googled until I'm blue in the face but cannot find this kit. Anyone know the kit number or where to buy this?

Thanks

[Timmy C]

Akagi or Hiryu?

Anyway, Hobby Search has several versions of Fujimi Hiryus: https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_ ... f700+hiryu

[Dan K]

That's Hiryu, but sadly there is no model of her with a detailed interior. That's just a really good cutaway view illustration.

I wonder which volume this is from.

[Elmo44]

That's Hiryu, but sadly there is no model of her with a detailed interior. That's just a really good cutaway view illustration.

I wonder which volume this is from.

Arggghhhh.....

The photos were posted on a Japanese website in a model thread. Of course, I can't read Japanese to save my life so I though the photos were of a kit. Oooops.


Thanks for the replies.

[littlewake]

Planning a future 1/350 Hiryu build and am currently searching for applicable PE and flight deck replacement part vendors. Most paths that I have followed indicated nothing currently in stock. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Dan K]

Unfortunately, patience is required for the PE. Fujimi is still the only maker of a comprehensive PE set for this kit. Big Blue Boy had announced a planned set years ago, but nothing ever materialized. Fujimi is likely to release another set at some point, though when that might be is hard to say.

If you are planning on an actual wood deck, I would recommend the Shipyard Works set. I am not using the planking portion of mine, but I will note that it seems like it could use more/better adhesive. Te planking is to scale, and a truer color, than other offerings. My 2 cents.

[littlewake]

I was able to find and purchase both the Shipyard flight deck set along with the Fujimi PE dedicated set for the 1/350 Hiryu. I see that occasionally there are screen shots of plans for Hiryu and was wondering what plan set is being used. There is a plan set from Profile Morskie in 1/350 which I have ordered. Are there others that can be obtained that would be helpful?

Frank R.

[Dan K]

That's a good haul on the PE and Shipyard set.

I have a Profile Morskie planset in 1/400, and it's fairly decent. If you can find a copy of the Miyukikai 1/200 plans, that would be about as good as you can do.

That said, several of the more recent 1/700 plans in various Japanese publications are good.