The Ship Model Forum

Alright, have been looking at these two kits for awhile, the kits are both Pit-Road/Skywave 1/700, and they are waterline. Although the kits I have are the older version of J27 JMSDF DDH-141 Haruna and J-6 DDH-143 Shirane. I want to build both of them at the same time frame just before they got decommission so they will have SH-60 helos and CIWS.

These two ships were built before the Hyuga DDH and later Izumo DDH were built ( Check my build of the fictional Ibuki DDV-192, similar to Izumo, but with ski-ramp and F-35B's ).

I picked up the PE for both of these kits, again from Pit-Road (these were hard to get!! )

The only regret is that these kits are both waterline....when I build, look at, sail on ships, they are Full Hull . Although I did e-m Pit-Road, they couldn't help me, Oh Well.

Although I mentioned that I will build the ships together...I think now that I will post them together, and build separately. Started working on Pitroad/Skywave 1/700 JMSDF Haruna, an okay build, just for the lack of an lower hull, but the Pit-Road PE is something else.

For not being familiar with their main radar sensor, building Japanese radar is a bit unfamiliar to me, unlike an AN/SPS-49 radar or an AN/SPS-43. So look up those picts!!!

But as for the Pit PE, it seems quite 'thick', much thicker than the Gold Medal Model PE that I so use to using, started building the mast on Haruna and putting the upper superstructure together, I hope to get some photos posted soon.

M

Here are a several shots of JMSDF Haruna.... As I mentioned the PE of PitRoad is pretty thick (but I have been using PE from Gold Medal Models for a long time), but it is quite nice. Although the only thing is that you need more railing, doors, and ladders and Plenty of references for JMSDF ships, I found out that there is a link http://www.seaforces.org/ that shows good photos of foreign navies.

But on with the ship... first set of photos are of the mast.









This is just the start of the mast, I will add more railing on the mast and ladders if needed.

Next painting of the non-skid areas of the ship, and masking the forward part of the ship. Back aft, there are a set of ladders from the flight deck (FD) going into the ASW deck where the Japanese tow their sonar array, the kit displays it, but I Want PE ladders....so I replaced them. I also cut open the hatches on the FD and I will PE those hatches open on the FD....this will show the ship not launching the aircraft (A/C), that is ok by me, since my next ship will show A/C on the FD. Haruna, will display their helos in the hanger bay (to be displayed open) so trying get the photos of interior but the link mentioned before does show some photos











Helo control that is on the FD, was removed and PE is offered for the Haruna kit, I sanded down the FD a bit but will need to re-scribe the 'claw' that the Japanese use on their ships.

M

Hulls are something Pit Road have only been including in kits recently. I don't know if Pit Road is willing to sell just that sprue, but even if they did you would probably need to know someone in Japan to get it. I think you would have more luck getting it from someone that purchased the newer boxings of the kit and only want to build it waterline. I have a handful of such hulls, but unfortunately not the ones you need.

I believe the Haruna retired with the old-style helicopter landing markings, but if you want to make the Shirane as retired you need the newer markings. Again, it's something included in the latest boxing. But it's simple enough that you should be able to mask it off and paint it yourself. I can provide some help with this if you need. At least you don't have the oldest boxing of the Shirane, which had essentially useless decals.

Both ships at retirement also have communication domes and dishes those kits don't. Check the photos.


That's an OPS-11, and even in strong steel it's a fiddly beast to put together. I think the best references of it come from pictures of DD-121 Yuugumo (ゆうぐも) so try searching for that.

Near retirement the Haruna didn't have the towed array, so don't install that yellow submersible thing. I also have good pictures of the hanger interior if you need it.

_________________
"Those of you who volunteered to be injected with praying mantis DNA, I've got some good news and some bad news." - Cave Johnson, Portal 2

Interesting subjects,M.You may have already seen this link about
the Haruna,but if not,here it is:

https://www.seaforces.org/marint/Japan- ... -class.htm

Scott

_________________
K494 HMCS Arnprior
Royal Canadian Navy

Hey Spejic....you give a lot of good information! Yes, I would like to see Any photos of the kit I'm building....could you e-m me those photos, any references would help, especially the hanger, AND that ladder on the starboard side.........it seems strange that the JMSDF Always has some ladder on the sides of the ship that seems 'work-out!!' to us USN guys, but then again, we do go up ladders, BUT Not along the side of the ship like JMSDF Hyuga/Izumo-class ships . I do hope that Somebody might want to part with a hull for my Haruna/Shirane builds, but also for my Ibuki....but I might have an idea on that....Stand-by, One!!

K494, yes I did see that site....I think that it is quite cool seeing ships of other navies . My first project was to build EVERY carrier from the 1980's to present, this project is just a bit of a tangent on the evolution of JMSDF (possibly building ) a carrier of modern age. Check out my IBUKI build that I made eariler this summer!

M

I do have a Izumo-class lower hull from the Pit Road kit that I'm not using. I think it should be a reasonably close fit to the Tamiya kit.

_________________
"Those of you who volunteered to be injected with praying mantis DNA, I've got some good news and some bad news." - Cave Johnson, Portal 2

Spejic....Cool Beans!!!! . I Sure do appreciate it, I will send a personal e-m, just as soon as I get off work today.

Thanks A Lot!!

M

WOW, Spejic those picts are Outstanding!! I was in the USN for 21 years and I don't think I Ever had photos of foreign ships in that much detail....how/when did you get those.

Again, thanks for the photo refs!

On another set of photos here is the upper superstructure of JMSDF Haruna. I added rails, doors, and ladders around the structure, but these are from the photos that I have collected/looked at on websites or as a reference from 'spejic'. Here are some photos I will, hopefully, post some of the photos of weapons onboard the ship later.









On the PitRoad PE they also have rails...but they are the 'covered' rails (nice touch ), but again the metal of their PE is a bit thick and a little tough to bend....the good news is that it Does bend downward as with the deck of the upper superstructure.

I also had to place a bit of Evergreen in-between the spaces of the superstructure, it might need to be filled in later, stay tuned.

M

The trick is to search for the ship name in the native language. The JMSDF uses Hiragana characters for the ship names, so here are the words you can search for for the ships you are working on:
Haruna = はるな
Hiei = ひえい
Shirane = しらね
Kurama = くらま
and the character "型" means "class", so if you want to search for, say, the Haruna class, you would search for "はるな型".

Japan has frequent open ship days, so you will find more than a few walkarounds. You can also try searching within picture sites like Flickr.

And the post office says the hull should have been delivered by now. I hope it's useful.

_________________
"Those of you who volunteered to be injected with praying mantis DNA, I've got some good news and some bad news." - Cave Johnson, Portal 2

'Spejic', thanks for those lower hulls, I can sure put them for good use!!

Posting a few more picts of JMSDF Haruna, but even though I posted the main title as "Early JMSDF DDH Haruna & Shirane", maybe it should be 80's Haruna and Shrane, because of the weapon systems (CIWS) being installed on the ship. I think I'll portray JMSDF Haruna as a 80's refit.

I have photos of 5" guns with a little bit more detail...again from PitRoad PE.







Here are the CIWS.....with the Close-in Weapons System on Many kits....I feel that the guns are So misrepresented, so I use Flyhawk's Modern Weapons II PE and use there Tiny flatten barrels that need to be 'rolled' to get that effect of a better looking barrels. The Flyhawk PE does have the supporting beams that surround the CIWS barrels in a short and longer support beams. I'll show the kit CIWS then the updated with PE....









I'll put the longer supporting beams on JMSDF Shirane, have seen quite a few ref photos of Shirane CIWS with longer supporting beams that surround their CIWS.

M

So these are picts of the lower superstructure....on the model kit, and Maybe even on the newer kit of Haruna, there is a stairway down the starboard midship going behind the boat derrick. Reference photos are quite necessary (and I think the same staircase is on Shirane, but on the port side midship). The only problem is that there are few if Any 'ladders' that go down that far and on-top-of-that there is a large double-door hatch just underneath the ladder, making the angle quite tough!! Check it out!



Now, I had to tape down the helo roof onto the sides of the lower superstructure, just to get an idea of where to place such ladder.

I used the GMM ladders and accomadation ladders to get the much needed extension of the lower part of the ladder. The ladder does not reach all the way down the deck but will try to extend another part of the a ladder to get to the end.



I also started on the face of the superstructure, by adding search lights and 'Big Eyes' (binoculars) on the nav-bridge. Also added was the PE for the support for the ASROC launcher, I believe it is used to assist in placing such ASROC-torpedoes inside the box, but I could be wrong ( any ideas?? ).





M

Interesting!

Here more photos:

Haruna
http://jmsdf.info/?mode=search&sword=Haruna

Shirane
http://jmsdf.info/?mode=search&sword=Shirane

(for some reason most photos of the real ships show them "waterlined" )

_________________

Maxim...thanks for the links!! They are just what I needed for the JMSDF Shirane that I'll do next year ( which happens in the next couple of days!! )

The photos for JMSDF Haruna are also helpful especially along the side of the superstructure.... I did see how the ladder comes down the rest of the way around the boat deck....will need to make some small adjustments on Haruna

Again, thanks.

M

Doing a New Year dump....although I don't think it to 'dumpy' with putting railings on the mast.

I notice my mast was looking a bit naked so I added the ASW cans on top as well as the railing around it, have not done painting yet because of weather in So Cal and with the holidays being with family and all, but here you go. Tried looking at photos for reference on the railings, I believe I got it correct.

Again, mast was from PE for Haruna (sold separately) and added GMM railings.









Have a Happy New Year all, I am hoping for a better New Year!! C-Ya on the flip side!!

M

Alright, Happy (belated) New Year...now back to the build. Been out being with family, having fun, and not doing work on Haruna, so here we go.

Started building the hanger bay of Haruna, thanks to all that helped me out in obtaining photos for the ship. People like 'maxim', 'K949', and more importantly 'septic', who also provided me lower hulls for Many ships!! !! The hanger bay is a bit more complex for this kit, because the sides of the hanger are not like the ones on A/C carriers model kits, in a sense the hull makes up the 'structure' to build a hanger deck that many of us could scratch-build. So I have to prop the sides of the 'hanger bay' and build the interior bay, using ref picts.

I'll post those photos soon, stand-by.

M

So I am working on the helo hanger on Haruna. To start, the lower superstructure has two sides and an overhang for the rail system to move heavy equipment, while on the overhang upper deck is part of the BPDMS deck and support for the upper superstructure. All you have on those sides are a couple of raised slots to place those sides, while the overhang Just has an angle that mates with the upper-portion of the hull sides ( weak bonding )



The lower-picture kit part is the starboard side, while the upper-picture is the port side. The starboard side has a Long ladder on the exterior (as seen in previous posts) so there is a bit of support on that side, while the port side hanger piece snapped on a weaker section ( I Always hate it when those weak portions 'Snap-off' ). I did drill a hole/passageway for the exterior side of the hanger deck, that is why you see that hole there (will be placing an opened hatch there later.

I then taped up, for my own reference, the sides and overhang together, but the whole Thing got lop-sided!!



I did shave off the kits railing on the access/maintenance platform on the insides of both hanger sides, this is where port side got Snapped!!



I did add a 1mm wide strip for the platform and railings and on the port side helo hanger a tight ladder. On reference picts that I received from 'septic' & 'maxim' ( Thanks shipmates ) who help me out with many pictures of both ships that I plan on building.

Lot a work ahead, I'll post later this week.

M

Today I'm uploading my next set of photos.....but its been difficult about what happened in L.A. for me....

This week, I continued working on the helo hanger building up the insides, because the kit Does Not make any attempt to build this part. On top of that I will also build a catwalk inside the hanger thanks to the photos provided. I build the starboard side catwalk as one single piece as I made a back portion for the hanger and a compartment within the hanger (due to exhaust stack??). Getting some rough idea I started with the extra compartment...it looks like it might be the same width as the center of the hanger...So I place two (2) SH-60 from my 'Ibuki' kit that I built last year to get a general dimension, after that the catwalk. The catwalk is the thinnest sheet styrene that I have and superglued some railing on it from GMM.









M