Reviewed by Timothy Dike
January 2015
| For six months, Akagi and the other carriers
of the Japanese Navy were the terrors of the seas. From Pearl Harbor to
the Indian Ocean, Japanese planes rained ordinance on Allied warships.
The rate of damage these ships inflicted was severe, but it could not be
sustained. At the battle of Midway a single bomb struck the Akagi, setting
the bombs and fuel in her hangar deck alight and slowly burning out the
ship.
Following up on their recent retooling of the Akagi as a prewar 3 deck version, Hasegawa has retooled the Akagi in her 1941 wartime appearance to replace the old one released in the 70's. |
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| SPRUE A | |||||||||
| The hull is molded in two halves similar to the way the large 350 version was produced. Detail is very good and the molding is crisp and clean. | Click images
to enlarge |
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| SPRUE B | |||||||||
| The second half is also well molded as are the bow inserts and platforms for the AA guns. |  |
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| SPRUE C | |||||||||
| The flight deck looks pretty good overall, but be advised an upgrade is available here. |  |
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| SPRUE D | |||||||||
| Funnel trunking and conning tower parts are included with the waterline base. |  |
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| SPRUE E | |||||||||
| To hold the hull halves together, interior braces are provided. |  |
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| DECALS | |||||||||
| Decals for the flight deck and airwing of 1941 are included. These are nicely colored and well registered. |  |
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| AIRCRAFT | |||||||||
| The aircraft appear to be the same 1970's vintage aircraft as included in the original kit. |  |
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| INSTRUCTIONS | |||||||||
| The instructions are an extensive 2 page booklet with all kinds of exploded views. They are step by step and cover the assembly quite well. | |||||||||
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| Conclusions: | |||||||||
It's nice to see the work that went into the new 350 scale kit make it's way back down to the 700 scale waterline world where it all began. This new kit will make a much more accurate and detailed version of the Akagi. It is listed as #HSGS9227 with a list price of around than $43.00. Thanks to Great Planes Model Distributors for the review sample. They are your US distributors for Hasegawa. |
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