1/700 IJN Chokai, Battle of Savo Island (Fujimi)

[Vladi]

Hi fellow modelers!

I am happy to share some photos of my new model of Japanese heavy cruiser Chokai and my experience with the recent Fujimi kit. I hope you will like it
Please visit my photoalbum at Flickr for more photos in better resolution.

My build shows her just seconds before firing salvos at the American Northern Group at Savo, guns and searchlights trained to port. She�s got no floatplanes on board as the IJN doctrine called for flying them away before entering combat to get rid of unnecesarry inflammables on board. She wears the flag of Vice Admiral Mikawa on the mainmast as well as white sleeves on the foremast that were used on Japanese ships at Savo for recognition in the night battle as mentioned by several Japanese sources.

My Chokai is based on the recent IJN Heavy Cruiser Chokai 1942 kit by Fujimi in 1/700 scale plus the corresponding Fujimi photo-etch set. Parts from many additional aftermarket sets (photo etch, turned brass barrels, mushroom vents, 25mm guns etc.) were added.

Some problems of the Fujimi kit that I addressed:

1. Degaussing cable should be positioned slightly differently than in the kit (even if the small PE correction sheet supplied in the kit would be used) - see discussion at CASF IJN Takao thread page 27 for correct position
2. Aft funnel has incorrect crossection shape (horseshoe vs. oval shape, see Skulski fig. C12/1) and its aft part leads all the way vertically while it�s bottom part should be curved aft (like it�s front) � however, this error would not be too noticeable on the completed ship even if left as it is.
   This and the four following problems are documented in my post at CASF IJN Takao thread page 29
3. Torpedo tubes have no torpedo warhead detail, they are just flat in the kit - if you want to show them trained to the side (standard requirement during combat) you need to add detail or replace them e.g. by the corresponding Pit-Road set
4. The 12cm secondary armament in the kit is unusable (it�s back is closed and flat) and needs to be replaced (I used those from Pit-Road NE-03 set)
5. Anchors supplied in the kit are simply horrible and need to be replaced
6. Main bridge windows of all three bridge levels are molded on incorrectly and the adjacent roofs above them are slightly shorter than they should be. No replacement windows are provided in the Fujimi Chokai PE set so an additional set (e.g. Rainbow IJN Bridge window set Rb7092) is needed.
7. Front director/lookout platform on port side of the bridge (kit part C35) should be shortened and the frontmost director removed so that it is symmetrical with the platform on starboard (part C36)
8. Aft superstructure � its forwardmost part (at the base of mainmast) needs lowering one level, aft bridge windows need to be added
9. There are two small symmetrical structures (parts J6, J7) on the secondary gun deck sides in the kit, both of them are incorrect (see Skulski fig. H5/3-6 for reference). J6 can be used as a basis for depicting the washing machine shed on stardboard, but J7 should not be used at all on the port side. Heavy oil hose shed is completely missing on the port side. Also the central structure supporting the front funnel (part P1) needs adding side vents.
10. Torpedo loading area had storing for 4 torpedoes side by side in the kit while Chokai only had 2 (Skulski fig. E23/8-10), anyway this area was covered with canvas most of the time as shown on many photos
11. Although the mainmast and the foremast are molded carefully in the kit, especially the foremast still comes out far too thick compared to the very light-weight construction on the actual ship, so I replaced both masts with soldered brass

References:

• Janusz Skulski: Anatomy of the Ship - The Heavy Cruiser Takao (Ed2)
• ModelArt Super Illustration: The Heavy Cruiser Takao 1927-1937
• Modelwarships.com: Calling all IJN Takao class fans thread
• wartime photos from different sources

Many thanks to Dan Kaplan for his extensive help and advice!

[Vladi]

I add three more "authentic" shots of Vice Admiral Mikawa�s battle column at Savo. Yes, they came out quite dark, but it all happenned just before 2am on a dark night

I realize the distance between the two ships should have been much larger but then the second ship would be very small and totally out of focus with the lens used.

No retouching was done on these photos except applying noise filter and adding some (perhaps too much) funnel smoke.

Thanks to my son Vojta for helping me with these photos

[Atma]

The model is awesome, same with the pictures ! Great job.

Edit:Whats the second ship btw ? Cant tell...

[MartinJQuinn]

Welcome Vladi. Great model - she looks like a predator on the prowl.

[Vladi]

Thanks a lot, guys, that�s very kind of you.
The second ship in Mikawa�s column was Aoba, however it is my Furutaka in case of these photos. You may also notice her guns are actually trained to the other side than they should be in this situation. Well, nothing�s perfect

[Dan K]

Beautiful piece of work. The scratch-built masts are phenomenal.

[saldy]

Great battle, great work

[James M]

Is there a build log on this model?

I would like to see the work that went into this project

James

[Vladi]

Thanks!
Sorry, James, I did not create a build log. But I can post a few snapshots here that I took to share with my friends during the build. Please forgive they are quite poor photos done just by my smartphone, and the parts there have not yet been cleaned up properly.

The bridge in about 90%-finished status - lookout post and railing on the front roof is still missing as well as voice tubes from director tops:

I used 0,45mm and 0,2 mm brass rod to solder the base of the foremast and 0,45 for the top parts, but I was not really happy with the yardarms shown here.

So later I decided to replace the top part of the mainmast with a thinner one and I turned a brass rod using a hand drill to make nicer yardarms. I used the original kit part for the radio compartment.

I also thought I should enlarge on what I meant above in my initial post by point 9:

The red arrow below points to the heavy oil hose storage that was completely omitted in the kit, just like were the side vents on the central structure (blue arrows). Part J7 should not be used as shown in the kit instructions at all, but it can be cut, modified and placed accordingly to model the hose storage.

The red arrow points to the washing machine shed that I modified from kit part J6. Only one of the two side vents (blue) is visible here, they are symmetrical to the port side.

Hope this helps

[James M]

Thanks for the photos.
I will be starting a 1:96 Chokai before the end of the year and I am collecting information on her.

James

[ch hoeltge]

Great model !
Thanks for posting it.

Greetings Christian

[J. Soca]

I love those B&W shots of the battle line It reminds me of my pc game "Destroyer Command" its an oldie nowadays but i love playing Savo island battle, Chokai always first in line then Kinugasa or Aoba can't remember well now. I've always liked to see the majestic sight of their battle lines in pictures, immense power and size. It didn't help much at the end but still cool to see even if its recreated with models!




Jose

[Vladi]

Thanks, guys!

Jose, your point is spot on . I never played too much games but I know Destroyer Command and you are right that these shot resemble it - I think it is because of placing ships so close to each other . I actually tried to make the photos better in this respect and put them farther away but then one of them ended up so much out of focus with the camera we used that we had to compromise on this aspect.

[medicmike]

Very nice looking Chokai and the pics are great. I really like the battle line pics!

[Scott56]

Great job and the pictures are great. I am in awe over what you guys can do in 1:700 with PE. I still struggle with PE in 1:200. All I can say is fantastic work. 1:700 is not my cup of tea, but that said, I have to admire the workmanship and tenacity you have. Keep up the great work!