by Andrew Johnson
1/700 IJN Kako (Hasegawa)
Kako was one of the treaty cruisers that were upgraded before the war from having five turrets with single 8” barrels to three turrets with paired 8” barrels. In form they then resembled the RN B-class cruisers York and Exeter but with the addition of eight torpedo tubes. Kako brief moment of fame was in the Battle of Savo Island in August 1942 where she took part in sinking four allied cruisers in a night surprise attack at Guadalcanal. She then had the misfortune of being torpedoed and sunk by a US submarine on the return journey.
The Hasegawa kit shows the lines of these cruisers very nicely. I replaced the deck ventilators and added PE cable reels. The best guide to detailing the cruiser particularly with its platforms and ladders on the sides of the bridge structure is the crisp box art. The GMM IJN heavy cruiser set is essential to provide the searchlight platforms and crane. The turrets have the lion roar ventilation panels, and the aircraft Flyhawk PE for their struts, the catapult is from Voyager. As many of you know PE davits are essential in this scale and I used Lion Roar again. I enjoyed adding Flyhawk PE binoculars to positions around the bridge (those that disappear up my fingernails!). The excellent twin 25 mm guns and their ammo boxes are from Veteran models. The Kure grey and linoleum paint were from WEM. To add a bit of fun I modified the search lights have small lenses which are available in the UK from littlecars.com.
