Background

At the start of the 1930s, the Type 89 12.7cm/40 caliber gun was the Japanese Navy’s standard heavy anti-aircraft weapon. While highly satisfactory by the norms of the time, the Japanese desired a weapon with a higher rate of fire, greater range and improved training speed. Design work began in 1938 on a successor.

Eventually known as the Type 98 10cm 65cal gun, it would be recognized as the Japanese Navy’s best secondary weapon design of the war. Adopted in 1939, it was a true dual-purpose gun, and highly regarded by the IJN. Even the postwar United States Naval Technical Mission to Japan wrote “Both the gun and the mounts are undoubtably the most outstanding of any around of this size designed and built in Japan.” Its only shortcoming was a relatively short barrel life, due to high muzzle velocity and a rapid rate of fire.

Production began in 1940, with a total of 169 barrels produced between then and late 1944. Of these, 116 were shipboard mountings, including the Akizuki class destroyers, aircraft carrier Taiho, and light cruiser Oyodo. The rest were land-based installations. Post war, several mounts remained in service aboard two destroyers transferred to the Republic of China and the Soviet Union as war reparations.

To be specific, this particular accessory set depicts the combination of two 10cm/65cal barrels and the fully enclosed Model A turret as used on the Akizuki class destroyers. Different turrets were used on Taiho, Oyodo, and the land-based mounts.

The Yamashita set consists of three identical sprues molded in a medium grey styrene. Each carries two turrets and four barrels. All three sprues come in a clear cellophane pouch with cardboard backing.

The turrets are properly shaped and crisply molded, have open side ventilation ports, molded-on access ladders, molded on ladders as well as grab rails atop the turret, gun layer’s hatch, and stiffener bars around the turret. The barrels are properly thin with flared muzzles. There are no muzzle opening.