1/700 IJN Mine Sweeper W-14 (Fivestarmodel)
|
by Christian Hoeltge |
1/700 IJN Mine Sweeper W-14 (Fivestarmodel)
The No.13 class of mine sweeper was an improved version of the No.1 class. They tried to achieve similar or better performance on a smaller ship. 4 ships were built in the years 1931 to 1934. These were the ships W-13 to W-16. The two ships W-17 and W-18 were slightly modified and were built from 1935 to 1936.
The No.13 class was 74 m long and had a displacement of 525 t. The armament initially consisted of two 120 mm anti-aircraft guns and two 13 mm MGs. This was later reinforced with 25 mm guns. They had also two water bomb throwers and two paravanes.
After the Tomozuru incident, the ships were revised in 1935 and the bridge construction and the funnel were built lower. For this purpose, the hull was reinforced and additional ballast was installed. This increased the displacement to 691 t.
The mine sweeper W-14 was laid down in the yard Hitachi in Sakurajima on 22 December 1931. The completion took place in September 1933. On January 7, 1942, W-14 participated in the invasion of Borneo, which belonged to the Netherlands. On January 12, a fleet of six mine sweepers drove to the port of Tarakan. They ignored the warning that the crews of the harbor batteries were not informed about the capitulation offer. Since this was the case, the harbor batteries opened the fire and the minesweepers W-13 and W-14 were hit and sunk by 120 mm guns.
The mine sweeper kit comes from FStar Model. The kit represents the W-13 class after the reconstruction of 1935. It is a resin kit and contains in addition to the hull also parts for the construction of the life boats. The 120 mm guns came with a resin gun shield and turned brass parts. In addition there are 5 etching boards. I added also brass pipes to the chimney. Likewise, I added several boxes and other stuff from several Fivestar sets to make the ship look busier.
In addition to the mine sweeper I put the 100t aircraft rescue ship from the harbour set of the Waterline consortium. There is now an accessory set by Fstar and upgrades the ships from the set tremendously. This allows you to build as detailed as the big ships. As a cargo, I placed several boxes on the deck.
For the painting I took Tamiya's Gray Kure and for details Vallejo colors. Since I wanted to represent the ship before the war, I added the boat numbers with white and black numbers. The water design was done again with Vallejos Water Effects. Then several layers of NOCH's clear model water came over it.
