日本海軍 航空母艦 赤城

The IJN Aircraft Carrier AKAGI (日本帝國海軍 航空母艦 赤城) was a majesty ship of the whole IJN (大日本帝國海軍) fleet during the early Pacific war. She was the only ship of her class. Although she did had a sister ship, AMAGI (天城), but the Great Kanto Earthquake (關東大震災) destroied the ship hull which was still under construction; however AKAGI's hull survived that disaster. AKAGI was originally a heavy cruiser concept, but due to the earthquake, the IJN changed the concept to an aircraft carrier while repairing the hull at Kure Naval Ship Yard (吳海軍工廠).

In 1941, Dec. 7, AKAGI, with 5 other aircraft carriers and several battleship, cruisers, and submarines had done a famous campaign in history, the sudden attack at Pearl Harbor (珍珠港事件). AKAGI was the lead ship of the fleet; she launched the first wave attack. and her attack group was the lead squadron of the whole fighter group. That kinda sums up AKAGI's position in the Imerial Japanese Navy, a crown jewel.

In 1942, June 4, AKAGI suffered multiple bombard by the American dive bombers launched from aircraft carrier USS Enterprice and USS Yorktown. One of the bomb set off explosions among the armed and fueled planes within her hangar deck that were being prepared for an air strike against the American carriers.

the tremendous explosion was fatal for AKAGI. she burnt through the whole night, but did not sink, early on June 5, Isoroku Yamamoto (山本五十六大將), the admiral of IJN, ordered destroyer Hagikaze (萩風), Maikaze (舞風), and Nowaki (野分) to launch torpedos at the dying AKAGI, and she sank at 05:20 a.m. with the loss of 263 men at coordinates 30°30′N 178°40′W / 30.5°N 178.667°W / 30.5; -178.667. Compared to the other Japanese fleet carriers lost in the battle, she was the luckiest, suffering the fewest casualties.

Akagi is my favorite ship of all. I've built a 1/700 scale Akagi when I was small. Of course, I didn't know much technique of model building back then, and the ship turned out looking funny. In October, 2008, the news of the upcoming 1/350 scale IJN Akagi was released, and I preordered one right away.

Here's a view from the back of the ship. As you can see here, I've add the PE detail parts for this model. The hand rails and safety nets have clearly added realness to the ship.

Here is a view of the platform on the side of the ship. On the platform, there are some dual 25mm AA guns and some distance measure towers. the white straps are used to secure the life rafts.


This is the bridge. To be honest, it was killing me when I hanged the flags onto the rope. In the picture on the top, you noticed there are something in a lighter grey color that are tied to the exterior wall. Those are rolled-up bed sheets in real life. You can see how it looked like in real life in the picture on the bottom. The sailors tied bed sheets on the wall to provide protection for the commanders inside the bridge in case of an attack.

(the photo was taken when the planes were preparing to launch for Pearl Harbor)

The deck is made with real wood. Laser cut wood sheet measured only 0.25mm in thickness, and the surface has been laser engraved with the wood pattern of a ship deck. It has sticky side on the bottom like a sticker. Simply peel off the film and put onto the deck. This makes it alot easier for the deck work. Those who have painted a wooden deck before would know how hard it is to make paint color looks like wood......

Here's a view from the front of the ship. See the gold Chrysanthemum symbol (菊花勳章) at the bottom of the flag pole? It is the symbol of the IJN. All IJN ships have it at the same location.

Here's the middle section of the left side of the ship. The three cannons on the platforms are high angle flaks. Those are for defending against airplanes.

The place behind the jail-like wall is the storage corridor. sailors put mostly wood here. in case if the flight deck is damaged, there is always material for repair. You can also see the wires hanging from pole to pole. It wasn't easy attaching the wires, though....

In this photo, you can have a better look at the Chrysanthemum symbol. Notice the anchor chains are actually small metal chains instead of mold-on. Also look at the hand rails on the side of the ship and on the stairs. took me hours to fix them on.

This is the front section of the under side of the flight deck, which is called bow, or fore. Take a look at the amazing detail of the structure. I altered the structure parts with after market PE detail parts. It took a long time to put together, little by little.

Here's the back of the under side of the flight deck, known as the aft, or stern. Same thing here, amazing detail. In fact, it is crazier than the bow. It has the track hanging from the ceiling. and the pillars are so 3 dimentional because it is hollow on the inside. The original plastic parts are solid with no holes on it.

In this photo, you can see why it has the tracks hanging down from the ceiling, because there are life boats. the crane above move along the track, and hang the boats to put them into water, or pick them out of water.

I spent nearly 1 month working on this model, but I think it's worth the time and money. It was, in fact, the first model ship made by Hasegawa I've every built. and I really respect the fine detail on the parts. Another thing I like about Hasegawa is that they always include some kind of bonus in their first production kits, which are limited, and the bonuses are always some goodies such as PE parts, metal figure, or poster.