by Edward Pinniger
1/250 IJN Hashidate (Zhengdefu kitbash)
This was one of a class of two small patrol/escort ships built by the IJN in the 1930s. Classed as gunboats, they were very similar to the RN's Kingfisher-class coastal sloops in size and appearance, and carried two 120mm single mounts and a few light AA guns. "Hashidate" was sunk during WW2 but its sister ship, IJN "Uji", survived the war and was acquired by the newly formed Communist Chinese navy (PLAN) and renamed "Nanchang". Being one of the PLAN's first warships, the Chinese manufacturer Zhengdefu/Kitech produced a kit of it in their 33cm "box scale" series. This scales out at around 1/250. The kit is rather basic in detail, and some conversion work was necessary to represent the ship's WW2 IJN fit (a task not helped by the lack of reference photographs for this rather obscure warship). I kept the basic shapes of the hull, superstructure and funnel, along with the 120mm gunhouses and a few smaller fittings, but most of the model was scratchbuilt from styrene stock and metal wire. I also used L'Arsenal PE hatches and ladders, GMM PE railings, and a couple of spare twin 25mm mounts from Nichimo's 1/200 IJN Kagero. The finished model may not be a completely accurate representation of IJN Hashidate, due to lack of reference material - but it was a very interesting build and definitely a worthwhile addition to my collection of larger-scale WW2 warships.
