IJN Kirishima

As seen in 1942

Hasegawa plastic kit no.112

Scale 1:700 Water Line Series

See how I build the kit on the bottom of this page

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

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

First Kirishima's history:

Kirishima is part of the 4 ships Kongo-class build in 1912.

The class underwent major reconstruction, following which they were reclassified as battleships, Kirishima 1927-30 New boilers was installed , the fore funnel being removed and the second enlarged and heightened, while bulges were fitted and the horizontal protection greatly strengthened (the total weight of amour was increased from 6502t to 10313t). the elevation of the main armament was increased from 33 degrees to 43.

In 1934-36 Kirishima underwent further reconstruction. The hull was rebuild aft, increasing the length, and the machinery completely renewed , the original power being more than doubled. The AA armament was increased, 419 extra tons of Amour worked into the barbettes, and catapult installed.

Kirishima was totally disabled by gunfire from USS Washington in the second battle of Guadalcanal 15 Nov. 1942 (she was hit by 9 16 inch and over 40 5 inch shells at only 8400yds range), and had to be scuttled with over 300 crew lost.

Technical specification:

displacement: 31,900 tons

length: 222.05 m

beam:  31.02 m

draught: 9.72 m

ship horse power: 136,000shp

speed : 30.05 knots

main guns 8 (4x2) 14´ = 35.6 cm 

secondary guns 14 (14x1) = 15,2 cm

medium guns AA 8 (4x2) 12.7 cm

light guns AA 20 (10x2) 25mm

3 aircraft one catapult

crew: 1437

Build process:

This is my third ship the the goal of building all the IJN's Battleships from WWII.

It was a bit of a challenge to start on the model. Right from the start it was quite obvious this kit needed a bit more of just paint and PE.

I rebuild most of all deck fittings as well lots of hull details. Further more I also rebuild the bridge structure and masts. Blast bags were made of masking tape and all 14 and 5 inch gun barrels were made hollow.

Degauss cable was made with a silver thread with several hundred small bracings in copper.

Research was done entirely on the web, as I only have the basic information about the Kongo class ships from my own books –when I was down the road of 90% finish model- I discovered that there was more differences in Kongo and my Kirishima as I thought from the start, so a “little” rebuild was needed.

Building time was 7 weeks.

The signal flags code is J-juliet, G-golf  (As on Jap. BB and CA) but the last two K-kilo and I-india is from my own imagination! If any experts know the right code – please do mail me.

I used PE from EDUARD (IJN railing) and Tom's model works (IJN battleship, horizontal and declined ladders) ect.

Also this time my wife donated an gold necklace for the anchor chains. 

I use a Dremmel and knife to cut out all the plastic windows in the Tower/command Bridge and replace it with PE "horizontal ladders".    

For custom work: Evergreen plastic strip styrene rod, tube and sheet. And also thin steel, cobber, and silver wire.  

Household metal sheet is used for some of the flags. The rigging is made of nylon invisible tread -this time I run a permanent black marker pen though the tread to darken it. I also painted the isolators on the rigging white. (Thanks fellow modellers on the net)

The pictures are taken on my balcony in sunlight. The camera is a 5 Mp. PANASONIC on a tripod on macro and tele-macro mode. The first picture is a computer manipulated pic. with a real ocean and sky. made in Photo Shop.

The model was placed on a blue leather cover book with household clear plastic as water, the effect in the sun is quite real indeed !

For further information please see ISE

The building time was 7 weeks.

Jan. 2006 to mid Mar. 2006.

aeronautic

© 2004-2009 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.