IJN HARUNA

As seen in 1945 

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

Haruna (榛名) was a Kongo class battleship (one of four) laid down by the Kawasaki Shipbuilding Company at Kobe on 16 March 1912, launched on 14 December 1913 and completed on 19 April 1915. She was named after Mount Haruna, an active volcano.

In World War II Haruna provided distant cover for the Dutch East Indies invasion forces in January and February 1942, sortied into the Indian Ocean against the British Eastern Fleet with the Carrier Striking Force in April 1942, participated in the Battle of Midway in June 1942, the Battle of Santa Cruz Island on 25 October 1942, the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, and the Battle off Samar in October 1944.

Haruna was attacked by enemy American carrier aircraft of Task Force 38 and B-24 bombers of the United States Army Air Forces while at Kure on 28 July 1945 and sank at her moorings with the loss of 65 of her crew, was stricken from the Navy List on 20 November 1945 and her hulk raised and broken up in 1946-1948.

(From Wikipedia)

Technical specification:

Launched 14.12.1913

Completed 19.41.1915

Rebuild in 1928, 1934, 1944, 1945

Sunk 28.07.1945 with the lives of 65 sailors

displacement: 40,250 tons (1945)

length: 222 m

beam:  31.02 m

draught: 9.72 m

ship horse power: 136,000 Shp.

speed : 25,9 knots

main guns 8 (4x2) 14´ = 35,6 cm 

secondary guns 8 (8x1) 6´= 15,5 cm

medium guns AA 12 (6x2)  5´=12.7 cm

light guns AA 118 (30x3)+ (2x2)+ (24x1)  25mm 

30 depth charges

3 aircraft (JAKE) 1 catapult

crew: 1500+

Build process:

Hasegawa kits of the Kongo-class battleships is to my knowledge from 1994, so I must say that they are not very realistic in detail and has a lot to be desired regarding the other kits like Tamiya´s Yamato or Hasegawa new mould BB ISE. But as a friend said to me " there is no bad or poor kits - just some  that needs more work and attention" .It was with that attitude I started the build of IJN HARUNA. I brought this kit "used" from a fellow modeler with some of the parts glued together so it was more labor extensive than it needed to be! (but also fun). 

When some as I decide to have the hole fleet of the IJN Battleships it maybe can be a dull experience to build four nearly identical ships as these ships in this class represents, but the more I found out about these ships the more I realizes that they have more different appearances than at first. I want to build the model as seen in 1945 configuration with lots of extra "balcony's" of  25mm anti aircraft guns (118) and also the extensive rebuilding of the pagoda super structure was a attractive goal for me.

Some of the methods in building this particular model is the same as for example my YAMATO so please see the build process of YAMATO.

New methods I used on Haruna was:

Hull:

The kit comes with all the portholes on the hull ready to drill out, but I closed the one needed with styrene bars cut in small slices and after sanded the hull down so the closed portholes nearly was visible -but seen in retrospect after some coat of paint and varnish I should have made them thicker to show on the finish model. furthermore on all the open portholes I attached the eyebrows with small pieces of copper wire. The DeGauss wire around the ship was this time the PE set from Lion Roar (WWII IJN Outboard Circuit LE 700016).

Deck: 
I scratch build many details on the deck - all the ventilators as well as the bollards, fairleads and motors. The cable drums  and Paravens are from Pit Road IJN Ship 1 plastic fret (spare part from my FUSO build) I rebuild the aircraft deck with new turntables and rails and use a copper wire as brass bars on the linoleum deck. 

Guns: 
The 14in main gun and 6in has blats bags made of masking tape, the 5in AA guns housings were cut to right shape. All the Twin and triple 25mm AA are from the plastic fret that comes from the set of ISE, HYUGA, YAMATO etc. I cut up the solid magazines to illustrate the individual on the guns. After the guns were painted black I added a very thin layer of gray paint to make more contrast and enhance the moulds. The single 25mm AA guns are from Tom Model Works PE set Yamato/Musashi #749. The splinter shields are made of paper (paper can be a better alternative then styrene plastic sheets because paper bend better around the forms with the use of CA-glue.  

Superstructure: 
It was here that all the hard work appeared, there were hardly any part that not needed attention and I made many scratch build details. The pagoda tower was cut down with a hack saw and all the windows where "opened up" .The holes on all the decks in the pagoda tower where drilled out  for the tripod mast. I use the PE-set from Tom's Model Works IJN Battleship set 2 # 730, Tom's Model Works IJN Battleship set 1 (Kongo-class) #731 and Tom's Model Works 1/700 Inclined Ladders #754. Also PE-set from Lion Roar Hanging Ladders (LE00009) and Voyager Model 1/700 Watertight Door (AP 044)

Anti splinter mattress and ropes:

The lines is made of copper wire but the anti splinter ropes is made by a tip from Mr. Jeff Linn in Taiwan with putty formed with a help of the saw blades teeth's see the link here:

http://blog.yam.com/duroyal420/archives/1681493.html

Photos:

This time I took the photos in both sunlight and overcast weather to enhance the details in different light conditions. The "JAKE" aircraft is attached to the ships catapult by a small wire, I painted the wire over in Photo Shop.  

In picture #2 I altered the color of the sea to a more bluish tone.

Reference: 
A big thanks to the Royal Danish Navy library for lending me the book: Warship Pictorial IJN Kongo-Class Battleships by Steve Wiper.

Books from my own library:

Die Japanischen Kriegsschiffe 1869-1945 by Hansgorg Jentschura, Dieter Jung, Peter Michel

Japanese Warships of World War II by A.J.Watts

Conway´s All the World´s Fighting ships 1906-1921, 1922-1946

Also thank for the references from the net:

Mr.Koji Okamoto Haruna 1/150 (1934) http://www.tcn.ne.jp/~eguchi/okamoto/okamoto-top.htm

Mr. Tomoya Kawai (tkinfo) Haruna 1/700 (1944) http://www.geocities.jp/tkinfo_homepage/model/model.html

And all of the pictures I could find regarding the subject.

Now the model of HARUNA is done I can look back on a job with many hours of fun building -As I highly can recommend to others who will have a model that is not out of the box. - and NOT what so ever a dull build. 

The building time approx 7 weeks. 
Aug. 2006. 
Aeronautic

Wallpaper Pic. 1250x938 BMP

Click on the picture

© 2004-2024 Aeronautic pictures. This website, the content, the design and the pictures and are intended for public non commercial use, and may be redistributed, freely printed, or electronically reproduced in its complete and unaltered form provided distribution is for private use only. Partial and other distribution means require the permission of Aeronautic Pictures. All rights reserved.