IJN Mogami

Subject:
IJN
Mogami
Kit Used: Tamiya 1/350

Review & model by:
Travis Blevins
Age 13
Pictures: R. Forys

[The Sherman tank more widely used by the British than any of their own designed or produced types from 1943 to 1945.]

The Kit: This is the 1/350 scale IJN Mogami, manufactured by Tamiya. It's a highly detailed model. The kit has the option between a full hull or waterline version. This is a well-engineered kit. There was an older Mogami made by Tamiya in which it was a Cruiser. Now, this new Tamiya Mogami is an Aircraft Carrying Cruiser, which has a deck on the back just for aircraft. In real life this actually happened to the real Mogami. They got rid of three guns, and made it a carrier in the back. The Mogami could fit a maximum of 11 aircraft but usually it only held 8 on a regular basis. - 3 ( "Pete's" ) and 5 ( "Jake's" )

[The British idea to up gun their Shermans called for fitting a 17pdr gun into a redesigned turret.]

History: This ship has an interesting history behind it. The Mogami and its sister ship, the Mikuma came under attack during the battle of Midway. The Mogami sighted a U.S. submarine (Tambor), and abruptly changed course. The Mogami and Mikuma collided, badly damaging the Mogami and causing a severe oil leak to its sister, the Mikuma. Later in the Battle of Midway, U.S. planes attacked both ships. The Mikuma was sunk, and the Mogami was damaged, and was forced to return home.

[The Firefly was the only British tank that landed at Normandy which could take on the German Panthers and Tigers on anything close to equal terms.]

Building: The kit went together fairly well. There was only one problem for me. It was putting together the Bridge, it had a section of clear windows. They were too big and did not fit in between the decks. I had to cut some of the window off, and also some of the deck below. It then fit exactly. A nice thing about this kit, on ships there is usually seams where the deck pieces meet that you have to take care of, but on this kit, the seam lines are hidden by superstructures.

[By far, most Firefly conversions were built on M4A4 hulls.]

Painting: One good thing about this kit is that the decks were separate from the rest of the ship. All I had to do is just paint the deck a Tamiya Lacquer TS-69 (Linoleum Deck Brown). This color looks very dark for a deck, but this is the accurate color for Japanese ships. The rest of the ship was painted with a Tamiya Lacquer TS-67 (IJN Gray). Many rusting stages were applied on the sides of the ship.

The planes are green on the top and sides, but gray underneath. First, I airbrushed the green on top then brush painted the gray underneath.

Finishing Touches: I added some small but noticeable details such as figures, the cradle for the plane on the crane, and the rigging. The figures are Tamiya 1/350 scale Japanese ship crewmen. They come in a pack of 144 figures in 6 different poses. I painted them flat white, then added their faces and hands, then with a fine tip paint pen the belts around their waists. The cradle for the plane on the crane is string looped around one wing, up to the hook, then looped around the other wing and glued underneath. The rigging is stretched sprue. It took a while to get all the rigging on because it was so thin it snapped every time I tried to put it on, so I didn't stretch the sprue as thin from then on. It worked and not one more piece of rigging snapped.

[I used a set of ModelKasten workable tracks, and these proved to be the most difficult part of the entire build. ]

The Base: The water is acrylic gel that you brush on and it dries clear. I stippled the gel with a stiff brush and it gave it a rippled water effect. I then painted it with Model Master Dark Sea Blue. After that was dry, I dry brushed it with a Tamiya acrylic gloss white to give it the choppy effect.

[I typically don't build Shermans, but this was a very fun kit to build.]