I-400
by Paul Helfrich

1/700 I-400 STO (Aoshima)

I posted some photos of various WWII submarines in 1/700 a while ago. Included among them was an Aoshima I-400 which was somewhat the worse for wear after various moves and a long sit on the shelf in my garage. So, I decided to build another I-400, to have a better example in my collection.

I found the latest release of the I-400 to be an improvement on the first kit, one that I built over a decade ago. You now get an IJN weapons sprue in addition to the regular kit parts. This new sprue has lots of parts you don't actually need, which of course make nice additions to your spares box, plus you get much nicer versions of the triple 25 mm AAA guns that are a prominent feature of this boat.

I added some railings from an IJN battleship to the deck and fairwater, to further enhance the kit. I built it into a mini-diorama, using some Hasegawa support vessels and all three Seiran aircraft that came with the kit, plus another.

This giant submarine was constructed by the Japanese to cross the Pacific and attack the Panama Canal, using the three Aichi M6A1 torpedo bombers carried onboard. Three of this type were constructed, out of 18 originally planned. They were the largest submarines and their era and had a phenomenal cruising radius (in excess of 37,000 miles; enough to cruise all the way around the world on a single fueling).

While three torpedo bombers using conventional weapons couldn't possibly have caused that much damage, the possibilities for these ships using cruise missiles plus biological or nuclear weapons are sinister indeed. The boats had great surface stability that would have made them ideal for missile platforms. However, their 6.5 knot underwater speed and 100 meter maximum depth were clearly not state of the art, even for 1945. These boats were turned over to the US Navy after the war and, after testing, were scrapped or sunk as targets.