by Dirk Pitt
1/700 I-58 Late (Tamiya)
Aiming to control the Pacific region, both the US and Japanese navies of the World War II era employed an array of deadly submarines. While the main objective of the US was to destroy enemy supply lines, their Japanese counterparts were designed to operate in fleet warfare. By the end of the war about 200 US Navy warships and shipping vessels had been sunk by Japanese submarines. In contrast, over 1300 Imperial Navy vessels were sunk by US Submarines which dealt a vicious blow to the Japanese supply lines. However, some major victories were attained by these submarines, including the sinking of the aircraft carrier Wasp by the I-19 and the sinking of the heavy cruiser Indianapolis by the I-58 just before the close of the war.
The I-58 was the last vessel to be produced of the scouting class of subs, which was the main class of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). The role of the scouting class subs such as the I-58 was to locate and attack key warships of the enemy, dealing a preemptive blow and weakening an oncoming fleet. The I-58 was laid down in September 1949. It displaced 2,140 tons standard and 2,607 tons submerged and boasted an overall length of 108.7m. The I-58 was capable of speeds of up to 17.75 knots surfaced and 6.5 knots submerged. Its maximum range was 21.000 nautical miles at 16 knots surfaced and 105 nautical miles at 3 knots submerged. In the beginning the I-58 carried a type 0 small reconnaissance seaplane and a catapult to launch it.
The primary weaponry of the I-58 consisted of 6 torpedo tubes, 3 on each side of the bow. However in the later stages of the war the I-58 was configured to serve as the mother ship for the Kaiten human torpedoes. These one-man attack subs were equipped with 1550kg explosive tips.
Perhaps the greatest victory ever scored by a Japanese submarine happened late on the night of July 30th 1945, at the hands of Lieutenant Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto. He detected what appeared to be a New Mexico class battleship, but was actually the heavy cruiser Indianapolis which had just dropped of the material for an atomic bomb in Tinian.
The Captain decided to attack with a salvo of six regular torpedoes rather than the Kaiten suicide torpedoes. After seventy-five seconds, two of those torpedoes struck the cruiser ripping out chunks of the ships hull with massive explosions. The Indianapolis sunk in about fifteen minutes.
This was my first attempt of a model of this scale. This is a replica of the later version of the I-58. As you can see by the photos it is pretty small. I lost about half of the parts to knife and tweezers accidents. While trying to handle the parts with the tweezers I would apply just a little too much pressure which sent the tiny parts flying into oblivion. I had to scratch build the stern (What I believe to be prop guards) with square stock staples. The bow plane guards were remade with round stock staples. I added PE ladders to the conning tower and ladders to the Kaiten subs. I also PE rails to the deck.
At this point and time I have never made water nor do I know how so for now it will stay like this on my desk. Someday when I learn how to replicate water I will do so. The photos captured a lot of the flaws I didn't see before. I learned a lot and look forward to doing a few more and improving my skills and techniques.
