Expanding on their growing full hull, limited edition series, Hasegawa Models proudly announces the release of their 1/700 Japanese Navy Aircraft Battleship "Ise" and 1/700 Japanese Navy Aircraft Battleship "Hyuga". These kits include a full hull, metal gun barrel parts and photo etch. Expected release date will be in March of 2008.

Ise (伊勢) was the Imperial Japanese Navy's first Ise-class battleship. She was laid down at the Kawasaki Heavy Industries shipyard in Kobe on May 5, 1915, launched on November 12, 1916, and completed on December 1, 1917. Originally planned to be the third Fusō-class battleship, problems, including weak armament and protection, forced a redesign and new classification.

Hyūga (日向), named for Hyūga Province in Kyūshū, was an Ise-class battleship laid down by Mitsubishi on May 6, 1915, launched on January 27, 1917 and completed on April 30, 1918. She was initially designed as the fourth ship of Fusō class but was heavily redesigned to fix shortcomings.

In the days following the debacle at Midway, the Japanese Navy frantically sought ways to make good their carrier losses. Some submarine tenders and seaplane tenders were available for conversion to carriers, (they had been designed with this in mind). Suitable liner hulls were taken over for conversion to light carriers. Most radical, especially in the eyes of traditional line officers, was the plan to take four battleships out of the battle line and modify them to operate aircraft. The Fuso, Yamashiro, Isa, and Hyuga were selected for this conversion which consisted of removing the aft two turrets and constructing a handling deck, hangers and two catapults. The decks would not be large enough for take off or for landing aboard so the aircraft would have to be catapult launched and be equipped with floats to land alongside and be hoisted aboard. A new type of fast seaplane, capable of both scouting and attack, was to be designed for these ships. Conversion began on the Ise and Hyuga but the planned work on Fuso and Yamashiro was held back pending testing results from the first two ships. Work on the seaplane, the "Norm", went forward but very few were built. Neither Ise or Hyuga ever operated aircraft apart from some limited testing. There were never enough aircraft to equip the ships and there was also a shortage of trained pilots. In their only sortie in this configuration, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, both ships were part of the Ozawa decoy force and had no aircraft on board. Almost all of the carriers in this group were sunk but both Ise and Hyuga sustained only minor damage.

After returning to home waters, both ships had their catapults removed. This was done to improve the arcs of fire for the center turrets. The IJN was now totally on the defensive and the concept of operating seaplanes on Ise and Hyuga was abandoned. Both ships remained anchored in home waters for the remainder of the war. Both were sunk at Kure Harbor in shallow water by air strikes from US navy carrier planes.