¹⁄350

Building The Fujimi 1/350 IJN Kongo, Part 1

Part 5: The Turrets…

Some hollowing of the turrets has to be filled...

The instructions seemed to be reversed in how the railings should mount.

Here are what each of the turret types look like with rails mounted.

Part 6: The Flight Deck…

The most PE heavy aspect of the build is the flight deck. First up is the catapult. The instructions are incorrect again. Here are the changes-- if you build this kit, follow my lead here. Otherwise, there is the potential to glue no less than three items in the wrong spot/ position and really mess up your catapult. Particularly bad are the two platforms (B62) which, if glued according to the original instructions, will hinder you from being able to glue the top section into the bottom section which must fit AROUND the top.

The front pulley must be flipped and mounted upside down from the original picture (see my illustration).

Here is the catapult assembled. Note that I haven't glued the top into the bottom yet (thus the slight gap). This is to make painting and rigging the cable easier.

Next comes the aircraft crane...

And the flight deck structures. On the control house (center structure), one of the folding cuts didn't exist , so it was time for some extra bending on the old Etchmate...

Here's everything dry fitted on the ship...

Here are close-ups of the cradle mounted on the transport carriage...

And that same cradle with an F1M2 Pete sitting on it. I am one of the crowd who can't stand planes molded in clear plastic. It's a pain to figure out if you've got everything lined up because you can't see the panel lines! Interestingly, there is really no reason why the included Petes had to be molded like this. The canopy part is a separate piece, so the rest could have been molded in opaque plastic. You'll see some green in the cockpit area- that is interior green that I put in before closing up the sides. I'll mask off the canopies before painting.

The transparent plastic notwithstanding, the Petes are very nice little kits unto themselves (16 parts each). The Pete is my favorite float plane of all time and I have nearly every model made of this little guy. So I was very impressed with what Fujimi did in 1/350.

Here is the flight deck area dry fit together separate from the ship... but including a Pete. The top wing isn't attached here. The top wing will stay unattached until after painting to make it easier.

Also, PE transport rails will go into those open slots during final construction, as will turntables for the carriages.