by Jim C. Smith
1/700 Japanese Type 2A Freighter (Dazzle Modelworks)
Here are photos of my Japanese type 2A freighter. It's not often you can acknowledge fellow members of this site for their contribution to the hobby, but in making this kit available, Scott has helped fill a void that most manufacturers have, up to now, ignored.
The wartime 'standard' types of freighters were Japan's very late reaction to horrendous shipping losses caused early in the war by a combination of a poor, almost non-existant convoy system, abysmal ASW counter measures and far flung, island based garrisons that often necessitated single ship re-supply. The 2A was one of many Japanese 'Liberty ship' equivalents. Unfortunately the program was started very late in the war and many of the ships were sunk after only a few months in service. Some however, did survive the war and went on to provide a base on which to re-establish the Japanese merchant fleet.
Scott's resin kit went together extremely well with only minor clean up required of the parts on the resin wafer. I particularly like the fact that Scott included various deck housings and gun tubs so that alternative versions could be made.
As a 'craftman' kit, accessories such as armament etc.need to be added.
I used:
Rigging is caenis line and the model was painted using a combination of Vallejo and Citadel (Warhammer) acrylics.
I am indebted to Scott for the model and Iwashige-san for the excellent examples of colour schemes and variants on his website.
