| Tassafuronga was the last major naval
battle around Savo Island in the Guadalcanal region. The IJN Kurishio was
one of the key players in that battle. A member of the successful Kagero
class, these six gun destroyers packed a powerful punch, with their three
twin turrets and their deadly long lance torpedoes. This kit by Aoshima,
one of the original WaterLine Series Manufactures has upgraded their
old kit to help compete with those on the market today. |
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| HULL PARTS (SPRUE A) |
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| The hull appears to be from the original release. I don't
have one of the originals to compare it to, but I am told it is an improvement
over the original and much more accurate. It does features some pretty
good molding. The one standout feature is the diamond plate tread molded
on. This is pretty nice, but a bit over scale. The kit is waterline with
a flat hull bottom with a space for the included weight. The molded on
superstructure parts are pretty plain in detailing, but the included photo
etch set takes care of that. |
Click images
to enlarge |
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| SPRUE B |
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| The superstructure parts are not bad, but a little soft on the details.
Some items like the funnel caps will need some plastic surgery to make
them look good. The masts are fairly thin and most parts are usable. The
weapons on this sprue are not up to today's standards, but that is not
a problem as a new sprue is included with better parts. |
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| SPRUE C |
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| This is the newer weapons sprue included in most of the big 4 waterline
manufactures kits and also available separately as the IJN
Light weapons set. These were included to compete with Skywave who
was selling more accurate weapons sprues to upgrade these older kits. The
weapons and fittings on this sprue will be used in place of most on sprue
B. They are a big improvement and have much finer detailing. |
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| BONUS PHOTOETCH |
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| This relief etched fret helps remedy the other shortcomings of the
kit. Lack of superstructure details is partially fixed by the addition
of new hatches and doors. Boat davits, depth charge racks, and new mast
parts are a dramatic improvement over the plastic counterparts. There are
even some nicely etched gun platforms that will help enhance the kit. There
are also a bunch of cable reels with nicely relief etched parts. No railings
are included, though we probably all have plenty of those in our spare
parts box. I do like the bridge window frames that were included. |
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| DECALS |
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| The decals appear to be the same one included in the original
release. They include flags, and plenty of aircraft markings that you can
save for other projects. The white markings don't show up very well against
the white sheets so the numbers are not visible in this scan. |
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| INSTRUCTIONS |
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| There are two separate instruction sheets, one for the
kit, and one for the weapons set. They are adequate to build this ship.
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| Conclusions: |
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| It is nice to see this kit upgraded and kept affordable.
This is kit #: AOS03483 1/700 IJN DD Kuroshio Battle of Tassafuronga listed
for 2,000 yen, or about $17.05 USD. A pretty good price for a kit with
photo etch. Check out this and other ships on
Hobby
Link Japan's searchable website. |
