by Dirk Ponge
1/350 IJN Akizuki (Yankee Modelworks)
The IJN Akizuki ("Autumn Moon") was launched on 2 July 1941 at Maizuru. She was the first destroyer of the Akizuki class, on of the most successful destroyer class of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Altogether 12 of these destroyers were completed. The initial concept was to design an anti-aircraft cruiser to protect the fast fleet carriers against air attack. [1,2]. For this reason the ships were build around four twin mountings for the new high velocity 3.9 inch (100 mm) anti-aircraft gun Type 98/1938 with a caliber length of 65. These powerful dual-purpose guns combined a maximum elevation of 90°, a high rate of fire (15-21 rounds/min/barrel) and a high surface range of 20,000 yards [3]. Because the demand for multi-purpose destroyers was increasing, a type 92 mount with four torpedo tubes for the 24 inch Type 93 Model 1 or 2 "Long Lance" oxygen-powered torpedoes and 72 depth charges were added [3]. This led to a very large destroyer with a length over all of 134.2 m (For comparison: British Navy Battle-Class 115.5 m, US Navy Fletcher class 114.7 m, German Kriegsmarine Zerstörer Typ 36 A 127.0 m [1]). By American forces the Akizuki class destroyers were often misidentified as cruisers, perhaps due to their size, their four turrets and their swept back smoke stack, similar to the light cruiser Yubari. On 25 October 1944 Akizuki was part of the screen escorting Admiral Ozawa's Northern Force with Japans four remaining carriers (Zuikaku, Zuiho, Chiyoda and Chitose) into the Battle off Cape Engano. The objective to bait Admiral Halsey and his Third Fleet to sail to the north was successful at a high price. The four flattops and destroyers Hatsuzuki and Akizuki were sunk. Akizuki was sunk probably by a torpedo during the initial U.S. air attack on the Northern Force. Most sources credit the hit to an aircraft of TF 38, but some give credit to submarine USS Halibut (SS-232). Blew up and sank with 183 dead, Maki rescued 145 survivors, including Captain Ogata; one other survivor later rescued by Americans [4].
Building the model:
I received the model in June 2006. The Yankee Modelworks resin kit of this very elegant ship is very nice and detailed. However, removing the resin overpours was a lot of work and I changed to building another ship model. My progress of building the Akizuki was at first very slow.
The main guns in this kit are made of soft white metal looked very odd. I substituted them by turned brass barrels from Burkhardt Masch Kleinserien. This barrels – you will not believe it – are meant for the heavy AA guns of Bismarck or Tirpitz. But they fit quite well (10.5 cm/65 (4.1"/65) compared to 10.0 cm /65 (3.9"/65)). Considering the possible elevation of up to 90° and inspired by Jeff Lin’s fantastic 1/700 scale model of sister ship IJN FUYUZUKI [5], I used a high main gun elevation.
Another model inspired me very much: Keith Bender’s 1/200 IJN Akizuki early war destroyer (Nichimo) [6]. He added a lot of step irons and rails to the turrets, torpedo mounts and superstructure. This was what I wanted to do with my 1/350 scale model. I know that there are some crazy guys who are able to do this even in 1/700. But I have to admit that at first my trials led to bad results. Then I found a good method: At the same time I was building the IJN Yukikaze, using the corresponding LionRoar detailing set. In this set there are nice PE step irons and handrails which I also used for Akizuki.
The turned brass depth charges in this set were also a welcome substitution of the original resin parts and the finer depth charge racks. I used also the very detailed PE triple 25 mm Type 96 anti-aircraft gun mounts from the LionRoar Yukikaze set. This is historically not correct because in the initial 1942 configuration Akizuki was equipped only with two twin 25 mm mounts. In addition, I am wondering how in the later configuration the necessary crew of nine for the triple mount found enough space on the gun platform. In my pictures you can see that already 4 or 5 L’Arsenal crewmen are having space problems.
I really liked the idea of Yankee Modelworks to use a brass part for the bridge area with a very detailed representation of the (open) bridge windows. The bridge is even detailed inside.
For the anchor chain I used very fine chains (0.2 mm x 0.9 mm x 1.1 mm) from Krick. I paintbrushed Akizuki with WEM Kure Grey and Linoleum and used masking tape to add a structure to the hull.
Fortunately for me, the hull in this kit came in two parts. Therefore, I did not have to use force and a Dremel in order to get a waterline model. Another advantage was that the hull has no molded on degaussing cable. Therefore nothing had to be removed. I simply used the highly details PE degaussing cable parts of the LionRoar Yukikaze detailing set. The very detailed line drawings in the Yankee Modelworks instructions in combination with the pictures and line drawings in [7], [8] and [9] were a good help to build my model.
In the pictures you see a red and green marker in the rigging of the foremast. I build this from a fine PE mesh. I saw these objects in drawings of heavy cruiser Takao. I think that they were not used on destroyers. But I hope you will forgive me because I like them.
By the way: In some of the pictures you will also recognize IJN Yamato. This Tamiya model I build three years ago. I was not completely satisfied with my model building abilities at that time and didn’t send it to this gallery.
I finished Akizuki in November 2007.
If you have comments or questions concerning my model, please send an e-mail to me or the forum.
References:
[1] Zerstörer im Zweiten Weltkrieg, M. J. Whitley, 2. Auflage 1997, Motorbuchverlag, pp. 198-199 [2] Z-vor! Bd. 2, Harald Fock, Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbh Hamburg 2001, p. 246
[3] Mechanisms of Imperial Japanese Navy Warships in 3-D, Joseph Low, http://www.ijn.dreamhost.com/Model%20-%20DD%20Akizuki/Model%20-%20DD%20Akizuki.htm
[4] IJN Akizuki: Tabular Record of Movement, Allyn D. Nevitt 1998, http://www.combinedfleet.com/akizuk_t.htm
[5] http://blog.roodo.com/duroyal420/archives/2759115.html
[6] http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/dd/ijn/akizuki-200-kb/kb-index.html
[7] Tamiya News Supplement, Random Japanese Warship Details Vol.1
[8] Tamiya News Supplement, Random Japanese Warship Details Vol.2
[9] Destroyers of “Akizuki” class, A. Oryol, Morskaya Kollektsiya (Naval Collection) – supplement to “Modelist-Konstruktor” magazine, No. 5, 2001
