I like a little bit of a challenge, and while I enjoy building model warships, I thought I'll check through the internet, ask people, check and double check, and believe it or not, no one has ever built a single battleship 1 from from each of the 5 different classes Japan had during WW2, so as you do, I'll take this as a world first.

Battleship row 022 by warship, on Flickr
5 classes of battleship complete and photographed together in one place.

Battleship row 016 by warship, on Flickr

Battleship row 007 by warship, on Flickr

Battleship row 013 by warship, on Flickr

Awsomeness .... nice lineup.

So nobody has been so crazy before ???

Cheers/Jan

When you see a build of the Yamato you say, wow, she was big. When you see her with her counter parts, you say WOW!

Looks good Alec!

Stop! you'll kill us all!! ok never mind. Speaking for myself, I have, over my lifetime, built all of those kits, I just haven't been crazy enough to put them all together in one place. (lol) But it does beg the question. "Why are the deck different colors if they are all built by the same country? (lol)

Thank you for the replies, as we know age and weathering plays quite a part in the final colour of anything man-made, brand new ships believe it or not have an amount of rust, and that's even before they've been to sea. Back to the deck question, most of these were built in Japan, Yamato laid down in 1937 and launched in 1940 along with Nagato and Ise all built at the Kure dockyards between 1912 and 1919 so even at the outbrake of WW2 these were old ladies of the sea. The Vickers shipbuilding company that constructed Kongo back in 1911 and launched a year later. The colour of the wooden decking and metal plating, sea air built at different times, up-grade and the imagination of the model builder. And while no doubt there are many people that have built these wonderful battleships, how many have actually photorgaphed 1 from each of the 5 classes ?

What an excellent concept, Alec! Can you repeat this for the heavy cruiser classes?

--Karl

P. S. That's a nice stripe pattern to your red shirt, too!

I couldn't say if you are "Numero Uno" here Alec but it is a beautiful piece of work you have posted. Looks fantastic, ( and what a giant the Yamato was ).
cheers,
Julian

I miss the pink fluffy towel though Karl don't you?

I hate to be meta about our photography, but it is a tribute to the cleanliness of Alec's household. I'd still love to see him produce a heavy cruiser lineup.

--Karl

Fluffy eh ? I knew you'd warm to that after a while lol. Heavy-cruisers, now that is not a bad idea. Most certinly won't be doing the carriers, or the 15 or more destroyers. It is somewhat strange when you look at something like the Kongo which is no small battleship, then line her up against the Yamato especially when the build was most kept secret, the sheer amount of steel, 18'' guns and wow how many crew ?

You have made a fine collection of IJN BB here.

I have build 10 IJN BB in scale 1/700 - only missing Nagato & Kongo as they lay in my stash.

my collection of IJN warships is displayed on the net too.
Your welcome to visit my site at: www.aeronaurtc.dk
http://aeronautic.dk/Warships%201-700.htm

Regards
Lars
Denmark


http://put.url.here

Bit of a problem in downloading the link, but when it did load. What a great little site you have there, wonderful photographs, great looking models and if I can push you a bit. Any chance of a better link due to the problems I had ? Many thanks for the effort in posting.

HI Alec!

Thanks for considering the heavy cruiser idea.

There is a diorama in 1:350 I have in mind that is very similar to your photoset involving most of the ship classes you had--I just have to get three of the classes in my stash, first!

--Karl

Heavy-cruisers Japan had during WW2 were 5 different classes -
Furutaka
Mogami
Myoko
Takao
Chikuma

So sorry to dissapoint you AL but it 1974-1975 I built EVERY Japanese battleship, most of the heavy crusiers. About 6 AC and all the major DD classes. I went nuts over the then fairly new 700 scale. BB and AC were $4....HC $@ and DD and sub were a buck. Yes indeedy I had a mighty fleet. It was something else when we spread it out on the floor of our 5 man room. I was attending VMI at the time.....military modeling was encouraged

Now in perspective....they were no where near the level of your fine work

Most certainly NOT disappointed in any way shape or form, I am merely happy to have snapped 1 from each class of battleship during WW2 which, as you and another chap said ''have over 1100 models and built every battleship'' and of all those photo's, was there one of those class of battleship ? No of course not, which was my point. Building 1 battleship from each class and then having them photographed together which has never been done until now.
It doesn't honestly matter to me if these models are finished to a high standard or simply straight out of the box without so much as a lick of paint, simply set out what you want, have fun in doing that, and good luck.
At the moment I have sent off for the IJN Mogami, this will be my first of the heavy cruisers, as for me, this will be the worse build due to all those aircraft which I hate building, so perhaps its best to get this out of the way first. Now if you still have all those surface craft, take the five and photo them together before I claim another world first lol.
Many thanks for the response.

Al,

Excellent models, thanks!