by Robert Apfelzweig
1/350 IJN Kongo (Fujimi)
Here are photos of my recently completed build of Fujimi's generally excellent 1944 battleship Kongo. The model was completed with GMM's IJN battleship photoetch set and MasterModels 14-in., 6-in. casemate and 5-in. AA brass gun barrels. The 25-mm light AA guns were actually left over from previous Tamiya's IJN cruiser Mogami and Hasegawa's 1941 battleship Nagato kits, as these were more realistically modeled than those provided by Fujimi. The single 25 mm mounts used the GMM photoetch and the double and triple mounts used Lionroar photoetch. Rigging is stretched black sprue. The model fits together beautifully and the hull is firmly cross-braced with internal plastic joists. The Kure grey and deck tan colors are from WEM Colourcoats and the hull below the waterline is Tamiya hull red. I also used a pair of leftover "Pete" floatplanes from the Tamiya Mogami kit, rather than the clear-molded ones in the Fujimi kit.
The Kongo was the last major Japanese warship built in a foreign shipyard -- in her case, Vickers of Great Britain (1913). She set the standard, along with her three subsequently constructed (in Japan) sisterships, for the powerful battlecruiser and significantly influenced the Britain's later construction of the battlecruiser HMS Tiger. The Kongo was given a major reconstruction in the 1930's, receiving new boilers, reducing the number of funnels from three to two and being lengthened 25 ft. at the stern and given improved armor protection and speed, as well as the typical Japanese pagoda bridge. She was active throughout the Pacific theater of WWII, especially the Guadalcanal campaign, and participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, being present at the Battle off Samar in late October 1944. It was during her return to Japan on 21 November 1944 (already somewhat damaged by near misses from aerial bombs) that she was hit by three torpedoes fired from the submarine USS Sealion (SS-315), sinking early that morning about 60 miles north of Keelung, Taiwan. Lost with her were about 1200 of her crew, including two admirals.
