Kajika Review

HISTORY

The Haruna was an Imperial Japanese Battlecruiser, one of four ships of the Kongo-class. Designed in England, where Kongo was built, Haruna was one of the three ships of the class built in Japan. Laid down in March, 1912, she was launched in December 1913 and commissioned on April 19, 1915, the same day as her sister Kirishima.

She had a pedestrian career during World War I. In 1926, and again in 1933, she was rebuilt and modernized, transforming from a battlecruiser to a fast battleship, as she was lengthened, up armored and had her speed increased.

The modernized Haruna served extensively in World War Two, covering the Malaysian landing forces in December, 1941, escorting fast carriers, and bombarding Henderson Field on Guadalcanal on the night of October 13-14, 1942. Slightly damaged by bombs during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, Haruna was part of the Japanese battleship and cruiser force that surprised the American escort carriers off Samar, during the larger Battle of Leyte Gulf, in October, 1944. She ended the war in home waters, finally being sunk by US Navy aircraft, in late July, 1945. She was scrapped post-war.

For more on Haruna, visit her Wikipedia page here, which is where this abridged history was pulled from.

The Kajika Haruna

Kajika’s 1/700 Haruna represents the ship just after completion in 1915. The model comes in a thin white cardboard box with artwork showing Haruna - in her battlecruiser guise - sailing at high speed. The side of the box shows a couple of other Kajika releases – the battlecruisers Hiei and Kirishima, all in their earlier configurations as well.

Inside the box are five plastic bags containing various sprues and the decals. The hull, waterline plate, and two part deck are wrapped in a thin white plastic wrap, secured by colors rubber bands. Also in the box is the waterline plate weight and the kit instructions. There no photo-etch or upgrade parts in the box, but a photo-etch set is available separately.

THE HULL

The hull is very well done. It is finely molded, with good detail. The plating is very good - it's there, but not overstated. The portholes have eyebrows, and there are some finely molded doors and ladders on the hull. A shelf for the torpedo net is molded as part of the hull. The hull scales out pretty much perfectly in both length and beam.

The kit is waterline only, and comes with a waterline plate and separate weight.

DECK - PART A1

The deck is split into two parts. Part A1 is the quarterdeck. Part B1 is the fo'c'sle. Part A1 has very fine planking details, with butt ends for the planks. The hatches, skylights, bollards, vents, and coaling scuttles are all really nice. There are cable reels molded to the deck that are good, but may have been better served as separate parts, for those modelers who like to super detail with photo-etch.

DECK - PART B1

The fo'c'sle has similar details - with the same quality - as the quarterdeck, just more of them. There are also molded on boat cradles and anchor chain. The latter looks very nice for molded on chain, but I would have preferred that Kajika left the chain off, and let the modeler decide how to represent it. The deck has small inserts for the separate winches to be attached. The only negative I can find on this part is that you can see the mold marks of the casement guns though the topside of the deck. Hopefully these won't be visible once the deck is painted.

SUPERSTRUCTURE PARTS

Four of the larger superstructure parts are separate pieces, packaged together in a small plastic bag. These are "sprues" R & S and T & U.

R1 is the armored conning tower and lower level of the bridge.
S1 is part of the bridge.
T1 is the central superstructure and base for the forward and central funnel.
U1 is the barbette for B turret and lowest level of the forward superstructures (part R1 attached here).

Detail is very good, with fine planking details, nicely molded doors, more port holes with eyebrows and boat cradles. There are even molded on running lights on part U1.

SPRUE G

There are four main battery turrets, barrels, plus casement gun turrets and barrels on this sprue. This class carried two types of turrets - one with an angled face, one with a rounded face. These are the angled faced turrets, and not used on Haruna. The casement gun turrets have nice details, like open view ports.

SPRUES J

The aft superstructure is here, along with the torpedo net booms, bracing for the superstructure levels and a pair of solidly molded towers, that don't appear to be used on this ship. Detail is crisp all the way around, the torpedo net booms are particularly nice - they aren't just a simple rod, but have some detail to them.

SPRUE K

More parts for the forward superstructure, boat davits, funnels, funnel piping and funnel caps, aztec stairs, searchlights and guns populate this sprue. The stern walk and its canopy are also here. The funnels are slide molded, with fine, molded on rails. Only one of these funnels is used on Haruna.

SPRUE L

This entire sprue is boats and launches. Detail is good, with planking on the bottoms of the boats and on the decks of the launches.

SPRUE W

Haruna's rounded faced turrets are on this sprue, along with the funnel specific to Haruna, and another launch. The turrets have good detail. The large launch has the boat cradles molded to the bottom of the boat.

SPRUE X

There are more funnels on this sprue, though they don't appear to be for Haruna. There are also searchlights, platforms, boats, funnel piping, guns, the tripod masts, starfish and spotting tops and masts. As elsewhere, the detail is crisp and well molded.

DECALS

There is a small set of decals in the kit. Here you’ll find two different Imperial Japanese Navy battle flags.

INSTRUCTIONS

The instructions are on one 19 inch by 7 inch, two-sided piece of heavy paper, which includes the parts inventory and color callouts, along with the assembly steps. They look pretty easy to follow, but pay attention, as they do note places that you have to drill Haruna specific holes in the deck.

CONCLUSIONS

While I can't vouch for total accuracy, the model appears to closely match the drawings of Haruna in Maru Special #20. This is a very sharp kit, of an interesting subject, with great details and fine molding. This will nicely compliment other World War I era battlecruisers, or be a nice counterpoint to any World War II Kongo-class ships in your scale model fleet.

This is Kajika’s 1/700 Haruna, kit number KM70003. The kit retails for $49.95. Highly Recommended!!

Thanks to FlyHawk Models for the review sample.

This is an in box review. Your mileage may vary upon commencing construction.