¹⁄350

IJN Nagato

Hagato was Japan’s first domestically designed and built battleship. She was also the first battleship in the world to mount 16” guns for her main weapons.

During World War II she served as Yamamoto’s Flagship during the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was her radio system which sent out the coded message, “Niitakayama nobore 1208 "Climb Mount Niitaka on 12/08 (Japanese Time)". She took part in the Midway operation but never did make contact with the America’s.

Her only true Naval action came during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, due to the Japanese Navy's strategy of keeping major units in reserve for a decisive battle.

Nagato continued to serve her country until the bitter end of the war. She was taken as a war prize by the US Navy. She was taken to the Bikini Atoll for the Crossroads nuclear tests. Having survived the Able blast with little or no damage, she was placed closer to the Baker blast. After Baker exploded she was heavily damaged. Five days later in the quiet of the night she sank. Naval personnel awoke to next day only to see her gone from the ocean.

Nagato was denied the right of all warships, to die fighting. None the less she was a majestic ship.

Specifications…

Displacement: 42,850 tons wartime load
Length: 725ft 2in
Beam: 113ft 9in
Draft: 31ft 2in
Propulsion: Geared Turbine 80,000 shp
Speed: 27 knots
Range: 5,500 nautical miles
Crew: 1368
Armament: Eight 16in Guns
Twenty 5.5 inch Guns
Eight 5 inch Guns
Up to 98 25 mm AA guns
Aircraft: 3

Building the Nagato…

This is the 1/350 scale Nagato produced by Hasegawa intended to reflect Nagato in 1941 at the time of the Pearl Harbor raid. The PE and detail set was from Lion Roar. Even though the Lion Roar set was for the 1944 version of Nagato, many of the parts are still applicable to the 1941 version.

The model is visually impressive in its size. In the waterline version, it is approximately 25 inches long, 5 inches high and 4 inches wide. I think the model also embodies how far our hobby has come. The basic model is very well designed and very well detailed.

Modelers who do not desire to purchase the detail set can never the less build an excellent, well detailed model straight out of the box. In fact, the basic kit is so well designed that the simple addition of deck rails and PE incline ladders would produce a very impressive model. Yet modelers who want can also super detail this kit. I chose to split the difference and add some detail but not go all out. Accordingly, my kit was build straight out of the box with the addition of the Lion Roar detail set.

I only encountered two problems during the build:

1. The fit of the bottom secondary decks onto the main deck. This is where the second and third turrets are located. These decks, when assembled and installed, did not sit completely down on the main deck so that a small gap exists. In my case, the gap is not noticeable unless you know to look for it.

2. The detail set provides incline ladders to replace the kit provided plastic ladders. The kit provided plastic ladders were supposed to be glued into locator squares on the decks. These locator squares must be filled in before assembly begins if using PE inclined ladders. I forgot to do this initially and had to back track some.

The ship was painted with Model Masters acrylic dark grey and the deck was painted with armour sand and then washed with dark yellow and black washes.

I enjoyed building the Nagato and I believe most modelers will too. All modelers can build an impressive model right out of the box while more experienced modelers can detail till their hearts content. Whichever you chose, I think you will be glad you built Nagato.