Ahoy maties,
MSW Associate Editor Frank Portela (clanky44) burnt the midnight oil last night (Bravo, mate!) to give us an exclusive, closer look "Inside the Box" at Hasegawa Models brand new release, Triple Deck Akagi, in 1/700th scale plastic injection mold kit, in this MSW Inbox review!!


Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks Frank!
~Gunny

Mmmmmm, nice looking kit. The original Akagi was nice and this one looks even better.

BZ to you Frank for taking the time to get this done so quickly!

Hi Frank

Excellent review and excellent photos to go along - I know mine is on the mail, so a few more days and I can start to imagine the dio
Thanks for your great job


Rui

PS: Thanks for the PM - I'll check my references

thanks for the review... looks great!

Thanks for burning the midnight oil and providing us with a look at Hasegawas' latest addition Frank. I can see a couple of Andrew Jacksons will be vacating the wallet soon. Now if some enterprising PE company can be convinced to whip up a dedicated PE set we will all be in like Flynn.

Awesome stuff Frank! Thank you.

The beast has arrived and it's all that Frank as said
I would like to suggest that the ship decal sheet to be protected (by plastic or paper) since mine was "glued" to the hull weight part - and with some care, taken without damage

Rui

I'm strongly tempted to start mine, but I'll wait the one or two months for some one to release a dedicated photo-etch set. The wait will be murder!

Frank

Yes indeed, Frank!!!

The "thing" is just crying out - glue me, glue me!!
There are parts that need some Lionroar replacements, but I must confess that the amount of detail on this, is just stunning.
Also a hint for your next review: put something to give scale notion (after seeing the plane parts)

Cheers,
Rui

Hi Rui,

If you haven't ordered the 3D CG Akagi book yet, I would strongly urge you to do so. Although all in Japanese, it has some detailed graphic drawings from every imaginable angle, for the first , second and last configurations of the Akagi.

Frank

Hey there, guys,

Frank, Is this the same 3D book you are recommending? If it is, I second the recommendation. If not, add this one to the list of must-haves, as well.

AKAGI Vol.1
by Adam Jarski & Miroslaw Skwiot from AJ-Press (Encyklopedia Okretow Wojennych #49).


It has the 3-deck Akagi on the front cover... It wasn't in Japanese, though. It's a bilingual publication in Polish and English (left text column on each page is in Polish, right in English. Loaded with tons of pictures and graphics, including two poster sized fold-outs of the Akagi as it was in the 1941 full-deck configuration, one with very detailed B&W line drawings and the other with full color 3D grahics of the ship from various angles (including close-ups of the island.) Highly recommended!

Steve K

Hi Steve,

The AJ Press book (in Polish and English) is a great reference book but not the one I'm refering to. The 3D CG Akagi book I'm refering to is all in Japanese.

The following photos are for discussion purposes only.

The Cover



Examples of the high quality from the 161pg book full of 3D images from all three configurations of the Akagi. This book is a must if you're planning on building either of the 700th tri-decker or the upcoming Hasegawa 350th single deck Akagi.

Aargh! I already have it
Yes it is great for details - the cgi is very good on some renders and a little bit poorer on others, but still a good book

Rui

Looking at HLJ's future releases, there will be wooden flight decks for this kit from Hasegawa and Shinsengumi.

I as well as others that might read this share the same opinion as I do, I hope the model companies continue this early I.J.N. fleet. I mean how awesome would it be if someone made modded 30"ies" Kongo class. I will be buying this kit as well as the aftermarket aircraft sets as well as in the near future building a diorama with the Hosho, and back dating one of the two Tenryu or Tatsuta. The once stagnent 1/700 scale plastic area was dwindiling with only Pit-Road, Tamiya, and maybe Hasegawa would throw us a bone every now and then, but now most of the larger companies are releasing multiple kits with some of the best molds I've ever seen.

I always wondered why the early version was built that way. Then I saw the thinkng, as they were using bi-planes at the time, 2 decks could release planes at a time. Thanks for the pictures from the reference book. I hope Hasegawa is referencing it for their 350 scale build.

I remember one of the compaies announcing doing the Isein 350. Was it Fujimi (I hope) or Hasegawa? Oh and while I am at it, has anyone seen the Fujimi super PE set for the Kongo (350) for sale at a stateside retailer?

I'd love to see them build some Japanese carriers in 1/350th scale , I'd sell my cats to get one Bob

Hi Bob,

We will see how the upcoming 350th Akagi sells with it's anticipated restrictive pricing. In my opinion this model might top $300, and if you factor in the aftermarket P.E. sets, could top[ off at $500. That's a lot of coin for anyone to try to justify.

Frank

Does anyone know if there are detail sets for this monster yet?

Hasegawa has released the aircraft set, which has two identical sprues of three fighters and three torpedo bombers each, 12 aircraft in total. No other AM sets have been announced as of yet.

Frank

Ahoy Mates,

Well, I went by the local Hobbytown USA and snapped up my copy of the 3D Akagi today. It is quite the boxfull, reading Franks in box review sort of prepared me for the contents. Now to do the wait and see thing for PE. I suppose I will have to snag up both of those books now as well as the extra aircraft set. I am wondering if some of Lions Roar perforated support material might work for some of the parts, I know that there are a few things that I will be shopping about for unless WEM does one of their usual "everything that you could possibly replace or imagine" PE sets for the ship.

If IJN Aircraft Carriers float your boat, this one has got to be pretty high on that list, at least up there next to the Shinano.