¹⁄700

The Imperial Japanese Destroyer Shirayuki (White Snow) was the second of twenty-four Fubuki-class destroyers, built for the Imperial Japanese Navy following World War I. When introduced into service, these ships were the most powerful destroyers in the world. They served as first-line destroyers through the 1930s, and remained front line weapons systems well into the Pacific War.

It took a bit of surfing to figure out what this kit actually was. The Pit-Road site translates the ship as "Snow White". I wasn't sure how that label could be applied to an IJN destroyer. After cross referencing several web sites, I found that the reverence held by the Japanese for the arts of war, promoted by the pre-war military governments, led to poetic sounding names for warships. Destroyers were allocated names associated with natural phenomena of weather, sky and sea, e.g., wind (kaze), snow (yuki), rain (ame), clouds (kumo), waves (nami), mist (kiri), frost (shimo), tides (shio), and the moon (tsuki).

This particular kit (No SPW-39) is to represent the destroyer "White Snow" (Shirayuki) that took part in the Battle of Cape Esperance from 11-12 October, 1942. It takes a previous destroyer kit release and combines it with a Pit-Road parts detail set (No. NE07) to better represent this specific vessel.

This kit is available now from Hobby Link Japan for ¥2,400 ($19.31 USD) plus shipping.