ModelWarships reveiw

IJN Destroyer michishio
Box Art

Reviewed by Timothy Dike

The Michishio was an Asashio class Destroyer commisioned in 1937. She was with Admiral Kondo when the Japanese forces hunted down the British force Z on December 10th 1941. Other actions she participated in were the Battle of Makassar Strait February 1942, the Battle of Badung Strait in February 1942, as well as many other actions in the South Pacific theater. Luck ran out for her in 1944 when she was sunk in Surigao Strait October 25th 1944 by the USS McDermutt and USS Hutchins during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

She was originally built with six 5" gun in three twin turrets, but traded her number 2 mount aft for additional anti air craft gun in 1943. This kit represent her in her latter appearance with the increaded anti aircraft armament. There are enough weapons included so that it would not be hard to back date her to her original appearance if you so desire.

The hull is well detailed with raised tread plate and lots of sharp well defined features.The superstructure parts have some nice hatch detailing so there is no need to replace them with photo etch.The masts are quite thin too.

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The weapons included in this kit are from the Skywave IJN weapons set that I usually recommend for replacing on other kits. So you already have the best weapons available on the market.

The decal sheet is pretty extensive as well, with numbers to build several ships in this class. There are stripes and ships names as well as a couple of battle flags.They are well registered and the sunburst pattern on the battle flag is well defined.

The instructions are good, consisting of a little history and several exploded views showing the various subassemblies. It is straight forward and easy to follow.

Typical of the water line series of kits this one has a painting guide on the back of the box with color numbers for the Pitroad and Guze Sangyo line of paints. The art work is pretty detailed and includes rigging.

Conclusions:

This is nice kit that can be be built upnicely even without photo etch. But add a some PE rails and rigging and you have a real nice representation of one of Japans lesser known destroyers. This is kit #W31 and has a current retail of $27.50 US.