by Dan Kaplan
1/700 IJN Hiryu (Aoshima)
This is the new Aoshima tooling, which is extremely well executed. I spent a lot of time researching Hiryu, and the list of build particulars is long (I’ve included it below ) but of special interest is the scratchbuilt rain gutters along the flight deck, from strip styrene, the rear elevator, well, and shaft from a set of modified Junyo parts, scratchbuilt mainmast, FineMolds wind barrier, the larger aircraft safety nets, and the flight deck, which used a wash of burnt umber over a custom mix of Tamiya paints. As far as finish goes, I prefer to build them “dockyard” fresh.
This is the same model which suffered severe frosting from a coat of Future and Tamiya flat while attempting to reduce the sheen of the flight deck. Subsequent fixes made things worse. Some of you may remember my frantic board pleas for help. Many solutions were offered (thx) and ultimately led to successfully resuscitating the model. Unfortunately, the additional coats of Future and flat combinations rendered the finish less “crisp” than it had been in its original state but, the judges deemed it still worthy enough to grant her 2nd place in her category at the 2006 Nationals. That was a bit of a surprise.
New Aoshima 1/700 Hiryu 1942 kit, Tamiya/Leviathan & PitRoad equipment sets.
Photo Etch from GMM, Tom’s, Fine Molds, Hasegawa, Joe World; Railings, doors, hatches, bridge windows, ladders, main mast base, radio aerial masts, aerial outriggers, netting, landing light arrays, life preservers, 25mm mounts, boat crane hooks, #3 elevator shaft, flight deck wind barrier
Scratch built (from styrene unless noted otherwise)
Painted in Kure Grey & hull red. The flight deck is custom mix of Tamiya paints with wash of burnt umber over Future Decals: Aoshima Hiryu sheet, PitRoad IJN 1/700 decal sheet, Fujimi IJN CV decal sheet
Pictorial References
