| HISTORY |
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Musashi
(Japanese: ??, named after the former Japanese province) was one of four
planned
Yamato-class battleships built for the Imperial Japanese
Navy (IJN), beginning in the late 1930s. The Yamato-class ships
were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed,
displacing almost 72,000 long tons fully loaded and armed with nine 460-millimetre
(18.1 in) main guns. Their secondary armament consisted of four 155-millimetre
(6.1 in) triple-gun turrets formerly used by the Mogami-class cruisers.
They were equipped with six or seven floatplanes to conduct reconnaissance.
Commissioned in mid-1942, Musashi was modified to serve as the
flagship of the Combined Fleet, and spent the rest of the year working
up. The ship was transferred to Truk, Japan's main wartime naval base in
the South Pacific theatre, in early 1943 and sortied several times that
year with the fleet in unsuccessful searches for American forces. She was
used to transfer forces and equipment between Japan and various occupied
islands several times in 1944. Torpedoed in early 1944 by an American submarine,
Musashi was forced to return to Japan for repairs, during which
the navy greatly augmented her anti-aircraft armament. She was present
during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June, but did not come in contact
with American surface forces. During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Musashi
was sunk by an estimated 19 torpedo and 17 bomb hits from American carrier-based
aircraft on 24 October 1944. Over half of her crew was rescued. Her wreck
was located in March 2015 by a team of researchers employed by Microsoft
co-founder Paul Allen.
For more information on Musashi's
history, check out her Wiki page,
from which this history was taken from.
There is also information available
on her movements during the war at Combined
Fleet.com. |
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| The
Very Fire Musashi
The Very Fire 1/350 Musashi comes is a very
sturdy cardboard box. On the box top is a painting of Musashi
pier side. Upon opening the box, you'll find the hull sides (yes,
just the sides) secured to cardboard, separate from the rest of the parts,
with the photo-etch sets wrapped in bubble wrap and taped to the cardboard,
underneath the plastic parts. Laid over this was the instructions
for both the kit and the detail up set. Once you remove this layer
from the hull, you'll find 40+ sprues of plastic, turned metal parts, 3D
printed parts and a wood deck. The kit appears to represent Musashi
during her final sortie at the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea.
As Very Fire has also released a Yamato,
it's no surprised that many of the sprues are labeled "YAMATO", but there
are also "MUSASHI" specific sprues in the kit as well. During the
review, I'll call out the sprues specific for Musashi. All
the others are either common sprues or labeled "YAMATO". |
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| SPRUE
A1/A2 - HULL HALVES |
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| The hull comes in multiple parts -
two sides, a bottom, a separate stern piece and the "crown" for the front
of the bow. These appear to be engineered so the parts fit a joints
in the plating. Overall, the hull parts appear to scale out spot
on to the real ships dimensions. The hull halves have lots of details
on them - shell plating, open and closed scuttles, riveting detail and
a very nice degaussing cable. There is a small piece of flash on
the bow of the port side, but it's very small and will be easily removed.
I know some modelers are opposed to any sort of
hull plating, find it over scale. However, it seems to be a thing
that companies have chosen to do, and while some might find the shell plating
and riveting details on this kit to be overstated, they are crisply molded
and do appear to match drawings in "Anatomy of the Ship, Battleships
Yamato and Musashi", by Skulski ad Draminski. I also think they'll
look fine under a coat of paint. |
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| SPRUE
B1 - BOTTOM OF HULL |
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| As mentioned, the bottom of the hull
is a separately molded part, which includes the bilge keels. As with
the sides, there is nice plating detail - you don't see many manufacturers
carry the plating onto the bottom of the hull - along with very well done
sea chests. It's a pity these are on the bottom of the ship and will
never been seen, because they are really impressive. |
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| SPRUE
B2 - MAIN DECK |
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| The largest part of the main deck
is one piece. Other than the crisp planking detail - which has butt
ends - there is no detail to be found, as all the other parts are molded
separately. This will be useful when painting and masking the deck. |
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| SPRUE
B3 - FO'C'SLE DECK |
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| This part, forward of the breakwater,
is a separate piece. There is nice tread plating detail, and similar
to above the chocks and bollards are separate pieces. I do think
the representation of the metal strips on the deck is overscale. |
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| SPRUE
B4/B5/B6 |
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| These parts are stiffeners for the
hull. There are several other parts on the sprue, but they may be
Yamato specific, as they don't appear in the instructions. |
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| SPRUE
C |
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| This is "base" for the superstructure.
It has crisply molded details - subtle vertical ladder rungs, riveting,
diamond tread plating on some of the horizontal surfaces, and terrifically
molded details inside the vent on the sides of the part. These should
really pop with a pin wash. |
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| SPRUE
D (X3) |
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| These sprues contain the battleships
armament - main battery, secondary battery and DP 127mm AA turrets, along
with their associate barrels and some other smaller parts. Everything
is really nicely molded and has nice details. |
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| SPRUE
F |
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| Here you'll find the large deck for
the hangar and boat storage, parts for the prominent tower bridge, the
larger of the two rudders, more hull stiffeners and the emergency rudder.
There's more nice tread plating on some of the vertical surfaces, and fine
surface detail on the bridge and rudder parts. |
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| SPRUE
G - MUSASHI |
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| The aircraft handling deck and the
port and starboard AA gun bases for Musashi are found here.
The raised plating on the aircraft handling deck is much subtler than what
was found on the forecastle deck - it's nice without being too overstated. |
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| SPRUE
H |
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| Another sprue labeled for Yamato,
here you'll find supports for the rudders, which were molded separately
from the bottom of the hull. There are also parts for the aircraft
handling crane, more parts for the bridge as well as two distinctly separate
parts for the stern - one rounded, one with a transom stern. |
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| SPRUE
I |
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| This sprue has parts for the main
mast, more tower parts and more director parts. Everything is well
molded - the mast parts look good for plastic. |
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| SPRUE
J |
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| More mast parts - again, they look
good for injection molded - parts for the director tower at the aft end
of the superstructure, more director parts and wind deflectors. |
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| SPRUE
K - MUSASHI |
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| This is another Musashi specific
sprue. There are AA platforms, directors, parts for the tower bridge
and similar to sprue H, which was labeled "Yamato", two different
stern parts - one rounded and one with a transom stern. Being that
conventional wisdom, as well as the model of the Yamato in Kure,
indicated that this class has a transom stern, I'm curious as to why Very
Fire choose to provide modelers with different options. Not only
are there choice of different shaped sterns, but the parts in the Yamato
sprue (H) are slightly different than the parts on this Musashi
specific sprue! Also included on this sprue are nice little renditions
of the 12cm rocket launcher that Musashi carried. |
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| SPRUE
L (X2) |
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| On these sprues you'll find davits,
small randgefinders, props, and the three-part (yes, 3 part) anchors. |
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| SPRUE
M |
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| This sprue has the struts and shafts
for the ship, jackstaff, front crown for the bow, along with a separate
Imperial chrysanthemum emblem, the small rudder and more. |
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| COMMON
SHIPS PARTS |
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| Now we get into the small, common
sprues, some of which were found in Very Fire's Taiho kit. For all
these sprues, I found them to be well molded with good detail. |
| SPRUE
IE (X5) |
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| On these sprues are the open, triple
25mm AA guns. Each weapon is six parts! |
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| SPRUE
IF (X2) |
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| These sprues has the Mitsubishi F1M
"Pete" biplanes and catapults. The "panel lines" on the Pete are
a bit deep, but should look ok under paint. The catapults are well
done for injection molded parts. |
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| SPRUE
IG (X2) |
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| These sprues contain the Aichi E13A1
"Jake" monoplanes and catapults. Same comments as above. |
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| SPRUE
IK (X2) |
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| Here are some of the ships boats.
These have good detail. I especially like the way the "canvas" covers
on the boats sag naturally between the framing. Nice touch. |
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| SPRUE
IL (X2) |
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| More boats. Same comments as
above. |
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| SPRUE
IM (x2) |
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| Here we have some searchlights.
The details on the shutters is very nice. |
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| SPRUE
IN (X2) |
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| Bridge equipment and paravanes are
here. |
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| SPRUE
IO (X3) |
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| This sprue has the binoculars. |
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| SPRUE
IP (X2) |
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| These appear to be ready ammo boxes |
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| SPRUE
IR (X3) |
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| These sprues contain the nicely done
25mm single AA guns. |
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| SPRUE
IS (X3) |
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| Along with some winches, here you'll
find the cable reels, representing the wound cables themselves. These
will go between photo-etch, and are cleverly molded. |
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| SPRUE
IT (X2) |
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| Large searchlights and what appear
to be deck hatches are on these sprues. |
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| DECALS |
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| There is one small decal sheet included,
with marking for the aircraft as well as flags for the ship. This
is generic set, so there are decals for Yamato's last mission on
here too. I found these to be quite thick, and frankly, somewhat
disappointing. |
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| ANCHOR
CHAIN |
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| The kit comes with a small section
of pre-blackened anchor chain. |
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| PHOTO-ETCH |
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| There basic kit contains one small photo-etch
set, with bridge window and cable reels, among other parts. |
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| INSTRUCTIONS |
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| The instructions are in booklet form,
and laid out similar to most manufacturers, with a parts manifest and exploded
view drawings, across 20 pages. What's different about these is that,
part of the instructions are in color, and some is done as drawing, and
other as 3D drawings. |
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| The painting and marking instructions are on the
last page of the instructions. |
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| DELUXE
EDITION PARTS |
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The version Very Fire so graciously
provided us to review is the DX version, so, along with everything we've
already seen, the kit also includes the following:
-
80+ turned metal parts
-
240+ 3D printed parts
-
5 sheets of photo-etch
-
2 piece wooden deck
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| DELUXE
EDITION - TURNED METAL PARTS |
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| There is a substantial number of turned
metal parts, most of it in brass. Along with a turned metal replacement
main mast, there is a jackstaff, an ensign staff, boat booms, three different
types and sizes of bollards and barrels for the main, secondary and 127mm
DP AA guns. All the parts appear to be finely machined. |
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| DELUXE
EDITION - 3D PRINTED PARTS |
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| This version comes with 12 print rafts
and over 240 3D printed rafts, with AA gun turrets, rangefinders, blast
bags for the main and secondary armament (to go with the aforementioned
turned metal parts), replacement triple 25mm AA guns, gun directors and
more. The printed parts are uniformly well done, with some incredibly fine
details. While I did notice some print lines under digital photography,
I didn't notice any under the naked eye.
First up are the 127mm DP AA gun turrets.
These are fantastic. |
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| Here are the Type A 25mm AA turrets.
Again, really fine details. |
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| This raft has the Type 94 AA gun directors,
25mm gun directors, the Type 85 machine gun fire control directors and
the searchlight directors. |
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| On this raft are the two parts for
the single 25mm AA guns as well as the radars and barrels for some of the
larger AA guns |
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| One these rafts are the bases and
shields for the 25mm triple AA guns, printed as one part, and the barrels,
also printed as one part. |
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| The sandbags used as splinter shields
are on this print raft. |
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| The blags bags for the main and secondary
battery turrets are each on their own print rafts. |
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| DELUXE
EDITION - PHOTO-ETCH |
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| The deluxe edition comes with five frets of very
finely done photo-etch. Included are railings, vertical and inclined
ladders, foot rails for the funnels, baskets for the main battery turrets
(under the main armament), catapults, cranes, aircraft dollies, aircraft
parts, boat boom parts, accommodation ladders, platforms and more. |
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| DELUXE
EDITION - WOOD DECK |
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| There is a two piece wood deck included
in the DX version. It looks good, but as Musashi had her decks
blackened on her final mission, I'd probably leave it off and just paint
the plastic deck. |
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| DELUXE
UPGRADE PARTS - INSTRUCTIONS |
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| There is a separate set of instruction
for the deluxe upgrade parts. The instructions are 10 pages on 5
large sheets of paper. There is a mix of drawings and photographs.
If you are building the deluxe version, best to lay this and the kit instructions
out side by side and make note of what kit parts you need to leave of,
remove or change. |
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| CONCLUSIONS |
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| Forty three years after Tamiya released their
kit of Musashi, we finally get a new injection molded 1/350 Musashi.
Personally, I've always found Musashi ordeal at Sibuyan Sea more
interesting than that of Yamato's death ride, so I'm glad Very FIre
has released this kit. While I'm sure the "experten" will
come out from under their rocks and find fault with the kit, the model
compares favorably to drawings in "Anatomy of the Ship, Battleships
Yamato and Musashi", by Skulski ad Draminski. There is also a
lot to like about this model - it is beautifully molded, with great details,
and this DX version gives you everything you need to build a very detailed
model right out of the box. Imperial Japanese Navy fans, and fans
of big guns ships should really like this kit. Highly Recommended.
This is Very Fire Models 1/350 kit number VF350903DX,
IJN Battleship Musashi (Deluxe Version). The kit retails for
$465.99, but can be found for less at some of our fine sponsors.
The retail price is double what the "basic" kit goes for, but considering
all the turned metal, 3D printed and photo-etch parts you get it in the
DX version, I don't think that's an outrageous price.
This is an in-box review of the kit contents only
- once you start cutting plastic, YMMV. |
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