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IJN Aoba at Kure Harbor, 1945

Here are some shots of a build that I did for one of the guys at my local modeling club. He actually knows, or is related to, one of the pilots that sank the Aoba in the shallow waters of Kure Harbor late July, 1945. He asked if I would build it to replicate the photos taken right after the war ended that show Aoba on the bottom of Kure Harbor. I did put the AA guns on as they weren't taken off until shortly after the final attack that sank her.

I used the Hasegawa re-tooled Aoba, which is accurate for her final AA fit, Testors paints, and Gold Medal railings and other photo etched details. The hardest part of the build was trying to make the waterline kit seem to be listing in the water and trying to make the scene faithful to the well known photos taken about a month or so after the war ended.