About a week or two ago, I came across a brief reference to the possible release of a 1/350 styrene IJN Fuso on this board. Has anybody else heard this?. I made the mistake of asking about this rumoured announcement on the Steelnavy.com message board and the majority of the replies were either argumentative or snarky. Only a couple of posters actually furnished me with some information. Some nasty ppl over there sometimes.

Bill,

We shoot nasty people here!

Seriously, I had seen a post or two about it as well, but not much more than that. I bet when Dade or Frank sees this they just might have some info on Fuso. Those two seem to have a nose for for the IJN battlewagons.

Hi Bill,

There will definitely be a 1/350 styrene Fuso- it's the last major IJN BB of the WW2 era that has to be kitted in 1/350. The question is who is going to do it. There has been talk that there are three different manufacturers looking into it. My money is that at the very least Aoshima will be involved as they have produced the recent 1/700 Fuso class offerings. The other two are likely Hasegawa and Fujimi, but I'm nearly positive that Aoshima will be involved based on some of the stuff I've heard.

Frankly, I'm amazed we saw an Ise before a Fuso...

Jim, you've got me blushing.

I know this is off subject, but....

Fujimi Haruna

That's because the Ise with that hybrid carrier design is "cooler"...

Now we don't want any trouble.


Fuso was kind of unique looking, that big tall superstructure and everything.

Sorry to hear about the snarkiness(is that a word?) there Bill.....you wont find that here ,,,,these guys are top-notch gents!

The exceptionally tall pagoda mast is exactly what attracts me to this class. The Yamato class pagoda is what sets off that class of ship as well. Something very uniquely Japanese about that type of structure.

Frankly, I'm amazed we saw an Ise before a Fuso...


Me too. Ise has been done in 350, 500 (Nichimo) & 700. I'm not really big on the carrier version of the Ise class- the addition of the flight deck takes away from the 'battleshipness' and ruins the lines of the vessel making it a little heavy in the butt.

Here-here! If no company releases a full-BB Ise or Hyuga, I'll be happy to back date an Ise in 1:350. Midships turrets are fascinating.

--Karl

On the ways:
1:350 USS Nevada & Arizona
1:125 USS New Orleans

Fitting out:
1:350 SMS Kaiser and SMS Kronprinz

I tend to look at things on the plus side. That beign said I would almost be willing to be soembody has the Fuso on the CAD system and is getting ready to make some molds.

I have lost count, but she would be the last BB for the IJN to be made into a 1/350 kit. So almost any time now I would think.

Jim, I can say in all honesty that yes, at least one company does have it a CAD file running. I received an email from a little bird who apparently heard of this discussion. All I can say is that yes, a 1/350 Fuso is coming. That's all, nothing to see here, move along.

Speaking of the Fuso, I've been keeping this under my hat for a while, but it's on the web site so I'll say it. Pavel is going to do the Fuso as a 1/700 "2 in 1"- as built, or in 1919. So, for anyone hoping to see the awesome powers of Admiralty Model Works aimed at the IJN, here it is. I, of course, am chomping at the bit to get to work on the instructions on this kit, but we have some other projects first.

Lets see, we have a Yamato, Mushashi, Nagato, Mutsu, Kongo, Haruna right now. Ise and Kirishima are within a month or so so that leaves a Hiei, Fuso, Yamashiro, and Haruna. If Ise was done, you can pretty much bet on a full BB HAruna, Better than average chance someone will get the Hiei down the slip as that is noticably different superstructure from her sisters. As Dade says, a Fuso is in the works, so more than likely they'll do some version slightly different for the Yamashiro. Then what probably a massive run on carriers and cruisers with an ocassionaly DD thrown in. In the mid 70's I had all the 700 scale offerings. We set them all out in a formation MAN what a sight. They only had a dozen or so DD's back then and carriers were a bit sparse. They didn't have a Kaga and some of the later ones like th Taiho and Junyo when I did the "fleet" Of course back then for $100 you pretty much had everything I'ld send Squadron a check for $20 - 25 and get 2 or 3 BB, an AC, some cuisers and DD's and pay for shipping. I'ld crank out a capital ship in a weekend while attending school full time. Lets just say mass produced would be a way of describing my work back then. P/E didn't exist and they were just starting to develop "correct paints.

Haruna has already been announced by Fujimi. I read a Hiei and Kirishima are coming from either Aoshima or Fujimi (perhaps both, I forgot which one I read was doing these).

My gaff. I meant Ise's sister....Hyuga...for that last ship to be done. My specualtion is that she will be full BB.