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IJN Tatsuta, 1944

Conclusion...

This little model kit is often overlooked maybe of it's age or the cruiser design of the 1920 is not as glamour as the well known cruiser-classes of Mogami and Chikai heavy cruisers. But sometimes building a model that's not to often seen in all IJN-modelers collection can be an rewarding experience - Also just because of the "unknown history" of the ship. This cruiser of Tenryu-class is the very first light cruiser design of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and one of the first thing that strike the observer is the modest size of the vessel (not much bigger than a average destroyer later in the war) also this ship is not well represented in every reference book of the area, simply because there is only a handful of pictures of the class in the wartime period.

As said before the only difference between the two Tamiya-ships is that Tatsuta comes with a single pole mast! The after decks of the ships is with in moulds rails for deploying mines and not as I have shown on this model, with depth charge equipment etc. This is thanks to the two drawings from the Narod website (please see my reference list at the end of the Tatsuta picture page)

If the modeler is willing to let the work expand a little further than just "build right from the box"- My personally opinion is that this not so famous ship, is indeed worth of some extra time.