Some months ago when I first saw the attached photo, I thought it was some designer’s fantasy, and the paper media helped reinforce that. However, I soon discovered that it was a fairly accurate depiction of the forward tower of the Japanese battleship Fuso. I then looked at a lot of photos, and although this tower style seemed globally popular around 1930, no other country came close to the Japanese “Pagoda” towers. Other countries might build towers as tall, but without the superstructure continuing all the way to the top - uninterrupted.

I am not a ship modeler, but found these Pagoda towers quite appealing as architecture and sculpture. Over the weekend I wrote an e-letter to a representative of Aoshima, which produces 1:350 and 1:700 models of the Fuso and her sister ship Yamashiro. I suggested that they introduce a “Pagoda Edition” of just the forward tower, which was fortunately isolated from other superstructure on the deck. I thought Japanese and other modelers might be very enthusiastic about this, as these kits would cost less than the full ship and require much less space when complete.

I think the ideal scale for these might be 1:200 or even 1:144, but mentioned that Aoshima might start with a 1:350 version. Only a minimal investment should be required, as they already have the design work and masters done, and would just need to create new sprues for styrene and layouts for PE. I suspect I’m not the only one who finds this by far the most interesting aspect of these ships, and other non-maritime modelers might be drawn to them, or even non-modelers – perhaps a simplified version without the PE.

If others would like to endorse this idea to Aoshima, their English-language contact is Mr. Naoto Sakakibara; his email address is
[email protected]

charles,

I actually like the concept. I will write Aoshima.

Looking at that structure just makes my knees hurt!

I just got the whole kit...kinda like all the guns and the hull and other stuff.....puts it all in proper perspective. I would say the likelihood of what you ask is nil to none. They may do a 200 scale kit someday, but it is only in the past couple of years that they started really producing that scale (the AZ,BIS, MO, and now the Hornet) of course there is the ancient NIchimo Yamato kit as well

Well - that's the great thing about democracy. You can have all the stuff you want, and those that don't feel they need all that other stuff, can try to just get the pagoda and enjoy it from a perspective that you might not understand.

Aoshima do not produce 1/350 Fuso or Yamashiro, Fujimi produce them. I know as I have them both.

Thanks for the info Warren - I guess the first 100 people who looked at the post were too shy to mention that;-)
I thought I had taken the info from one of the build threads (perhaps on another site), but must have gotten confused by the number of options - I'm pretty sure Aoshima has full and waterline hulls, say three different builds/rebuilds, etc.

I was pretty sure I had seen some posts that Aoshima had better quality than Fujimi, but I could be mistaken on that aspect as well. Would you be willing to comment on that? I now gather that most Japanese battleship classes had the Pagoda towers, and perhaps some heavy cruisers also?

I just found it a very appealing and compelling (super)structure, but had no desire to buy and build the entire ship. Perhaps such an idea is anathema here, but I thought there might at least be a Japanese audience for it. It looks like you guys are having fun on the Channel.

Great idea, Charles! May I suggest we include other manufacturers such as Fujimi and Trumpeter as well?

Thanks for the support Troy. Now that Warren has corrected my knowledge of just who produces the 1:350 version, I will be contacting Fujimi very soon.

I recognize that it is a longshot, and I realize that to some extent I'm suggesting it as an architectural as much as a naval model, but feel these towers do deserve recognition in that regard, and only hope the Japanese manufacturers recognize this.

No doubt there have been other interesting towers through history, but hope I'm correct in saying that the Pagoda towers are unique.

One concern I have about contacting too many companies is multiple parties bringing out the same model, thereby having poor sales, and not wanting to do any others in the series. I wasn't aware of Trumpeter as a player in this arena.

Hi Charles.

I would say Aoshima is not quite as crisply moulded as Fujimi. That is for older Aoshima kits whereas their Retake kits are on a par with Fujimi, but again the newer Fujimi kits are better again.. Sorry if I confuse you but it all depends on the individual kit.

Cheers
Warren

No confusion Warren, and since Fujimi is the only one with a 1:350 version, they're the logical place to start. However, I've just begun work on the pagoda of an Aoshima kit, which makes me fairly certain that 1:350 isn't going to satisfy my interests at all.

I don't know the official height, as length and beam are the only dimensions given, but using the small plans in the kit I make the pagoda as roughly 8/7 the beam, or about 128'. That's only some 11" even in 1:144, or 8" in 1:200. So, 1:72 would give a much more satisfying build, while 1:200 might be a better target, as it could be a head start to a full ship. Of course, this is all fantasy.

Maybe I'll have to check the scale of that paper model.

Charles

Why wait? You can buy a digital model now of the Fuso in 1/250 scale from http://www.digitalnavy.com/ which you can print out and resize to 1/200, 1/144, or whatever. It is intended to be constructed as a paper model, but the choice of materials is yours. I've seen these model designs transferred to styrene plastic card and built up, for example. The model is challenging but very well designed and reasonably priced.

This is why I often write posts in Word and copy them over. I was just about done typing when I hit an errant key and everything disappeared.

Thanks so much for the link Tim. I hadn’t previously considered paper as a serious option, but I plan to order the CD right after I send this. After carefully comparing it with the photo at the top of the thread, I’m reasonably certain this is where it came from. But then, why would two companies knowingly create the same product – for what is undoubtedly a very small market.

Some of the benefits:
- Scalable – don’t know how much image quality is impacted
- I can print and build precisely what I want
- Can build paper version and use that to decide what I might want to copy over to styrene
- Cheap
- As you say – why wait?

The stock kit has a height of 9”, so I’m thinking that I’ll try 1:125 initially, which should give me the mass that I want.

My one hesitation is that I find PE fiddly enough, and can’t imagine the work involved in making all those cuts with a very sharp X-acto blade, keeping track of all the parts, folding/rolling, and then assembling. I can imagine that sequence of assembly is even more critical than with styrene/PE. I’ll mostly be glad that I’m not doing the whole thing - and very few railings.

Thanks again

Hi Charles!

You know, Voyager Models already has a 1/144 Fuso class main turret kit, so why not approach them about the bridge idea?

--Karl

Thanks for the information, Capt. Karl. As should be clear, I'm not familiar with the ship modeling arena, and don't think I've even heard their name before, but will check that out. It's interesting to know that there is already some interest in models of just a component of a ship, although there have been separate weapon models (cannons, etc.) for some time.

Charles