by Dan Kaplan
1/700 IJN Shirayuki, 1943 (PitRoad)
The Fubuki class destroyers, known in Japan as the Toku-gata or Special Type, were a revolutionary design whose size and performance were a considerable jump over all other navies existing destroyer designs of the early interwar period. Twenty four ships, in three batches of increasing complexity, were built. Their collective success set the overall design parameters for succeeding IJN destroyer classes. All (save for Miyuki, sunk in a prewar collision) served with distinction, particularly during the early phases of WWII
Pictured is Shirayuki, a Fubuki class Type I destroyer, from the PitRoad Fubuki kit, modeled in her early war fit as of March 1943, at the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, where she was sunk. The only notable change to her fit at that time was the replacement of her 7.5m motor launches with larger 10m, cargo type launches.
For decades, only Tamiya offered a kit of this type, in 1/700 scale. Unfortunately, this tooling’s hull is appropriate for only Type I ships, yet six kits were released, depicting variants of all three types. PitRoad released new, vastly improved 1/700 versions of all three types in 2007-8. (For class information, ship details, and Tamiya vs. PitRoad kit notes, see their CASF thread: http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=39642 )
IJN DD fan that I am, and having previously struggled with less than successful corrections of the Tamiya version, I leapt at the new kits and chose to build 4 different versions (see build progress report here: http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=36732 )
The PitRoad kit is a significant improvement over the Tamiya kit, though not perfect. While hulls are appropriate for each variant, all kits come with molded-on deck details, turrets and torpedo tube mounts that reflect their as-built configurations. All must be changed to properly model the appropriate pre-war and wartime fits. Fortunately, PitRoad also includes its E-10 IJN DD weapons sprue for later turrets, tubes, AA mounts, etc. Even so, correctly shaped torpedo tube mounts must be fashioned with additional work.
The most notable problem with the Type I kits are the funnels; they are flat wrong. PitRoad carried over the funnels from the later Type IIS and IIIs into these kits instead of providing thinner versions appropriate to the Type Is. After considering several options, I actually used funnels from the Tamiya kit to complete Shirayuki.
List of Corrections
Scratch built (from styrene unless noted otherwise)
Painted in Kure Grey, hull red & IJN linoleum using Tamiya Paints
Pictorial References
