Built on the hull of a Yamato-class battleship, she was the largest aircraft carrier to take to the sea during the Second World War and her existence was unknown until after she was sunk by the USS Archer Fish. Hasegawa is re-releasing its old (and rather rarely seen) 1/450 kit in what could be a re-tooled offering.

Laid down in May 1940 as the third of the Yamato-class battleships, the partially completed hull was ordered to be converted to a carrier following Japan's disastrous loss of four fleet carriers at the Battle of Midway. Her conversion was still not finished in November 1944 when she was ordered to sail from the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal to Kure Naval Base to complete fitting out and transfer a load of 50 Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka rocket-propelled kamikaze flying bombs - not a single carrier aircraft. She was sunk en route, 10 days after commissioning, on 29 November 1944, by four torpedoes from the U.S. Navy submarine Archer Fish. Over a thousand sailors and civilians were rescued and 1,435 were lost, including her captain. She remains the largest warship ever sunk by a submarine.

This kit (No. HSGS4153) is comprised of 281 pieces, including 5 carrier based aircraft. It will measure 23.3 in (592 mm) long and 6.1 in (155 mm) wide when completed. The provided images are from an e-mail notice I think it's interesting to note that they are 3D renderings rather than images of the original kit. Maybe this suggests re-tooling but I have yet to see any confirmation of that. Some sites list this kit as a 'new tooling' but I have not seen anything yet from Hasegawa stating the same. It's due for release but the end of this month and is available for pre-order for ¥4,48 ($37.27 USD, €32.86) from Hobby Link Japan. As we get more information on this kit we'll update this posting.