by Richard Wonderly
1/700 IJN Ryujo (Fujimi)
This diorama represents the IJN Ryujo launching her first strike of the day on August 24, 1942 during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, accompanied by the destoyer Hatsushimo. Later in the day, it would be one of the destroyers taking off survivors before the crippled carrier rolled over and sank.
The one of the strikes from the Ryujo would find and damage the USS Enterprise, which in turn was struck by numerous bombs (reports range from 3 to 10) and one torpedo in the starboard aft quarter. The Ryujo's captain would report that it was the torpedo that did the fatal damage, with progressive flooding of the starboard engine and boiler rooms causing the already marginally stable ship to roll over and sink.
The Ryujo was an interesting experiment by the Imperial Japanese Navy to build a fleet carrier under the 10,000 ton displacement treaty limit. But even they were unable to meet that unattainable goal and after two reconstructions the Ryujo finally weighed in at about 16000 tons displacement.
I built the carrier from the Fujimi kit and had the destroyer left from another project. Railings were from Tom's Modelworks and the rigging was brass wire. Didn't have the set of details for the aircraft, so the propellors and landing gear are made from scraps of the photoetch. And the crew members were the pre-painted japanese navy crewmen from Eduard (which really saves on the extremely tedious - if you ever done it - painting of 1/700 scale personnel).
