by Mario Grima
1/500 IJN Takao (Nichimo)
This IJN cruiser was built from an old Nichimo kit of their 1/500 scale line. It is less popular from their better Myoko class. The draw back is these kits have plastic solid railings and need to be removed, also they have single motorization propeller. The Myoko class come with no railing (which is better) and a scaled 4 propeller system. Comparing all four of this kit class the molds do differ in two forms are not the same ship which can be seen in the last two images. These kits require a lot of TLC, there is the Chokai , Takao are one form. The other is the Maya & Atoga. I will discuss the Maya kit in the Maya gallery entry. The Molded railings were removed. The PE I used was GMM who makes excellent 1/500 scale PE for these cruisers. However , There are way more parts needed not covered by the PE and you need to do a lot of scratch building. A hint for the PE guys these black sheep's need 4 props,main masts,Turret exterior armor, better AA guns,reels, life rings, davits, anchors, diamond plate,better bridge windows, plane wings, paravans,cleats, boat oars. There's probably more things but these are a must. I replaced the AA guns using 1/700 scale IJN naval upgrade sets.
