¹⁄700

Seals Models takes you back to the birth modern Imperial Japanese Navy with their upcoming release of the 1/700 Armored Cruisers Asama and Tokiwa. These small scale offerings are due out in early June 2008 and will retail for $33.98 each.

The two Asama class cruisers were armored cruisers operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy. They participated in numerous actions during the Russo-Japanese War and in World War I.

Ships History
The Asama class armored cruisers were the first pair of six cruisers ordered from overseas shipyards after the First Sino-Japanese War as part of the "Six-Six Program" (six battleships-six cruisers) intended to form the backbone of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Construction of the Asama-class ships began as a private venture by the British shipbuilder Armstrong Whitworth of Elswick, for projected export business. Upon reviewing the design, the Japanese navy required only slight modifications to the initial design. At the time of their completion, the Asama-class cruisers were considered the fastest; most heavily armed and most heavily armored cruisers in the world. However, extremely fast development of technology, weaponry and armor in this field of ship design meant that that the supremacy of this design was short.

The hull of the Asama class cruiser was a typical flush deck with high freeboard to improve seaworthiness. The design still came with a ram attached to the bow. The 45 caliber 203 mm main guns were mounted in twin gun turrets fore and aft. Each could fire a 113 kilogram shell at the rate of 2 per minute over a range of 18,000 meters. The turrets were capable of 150 degree rotation left and right, and the guns could be elevated to 30 degrees. The secondary side-mounted 40-caliber, 152 mm rapid fire guns had a range of 10,000 yards (9,140 m), and could fire at the rate of 5 shells per minute (up to 7 per minute for a very skilled gun crew).
Propulsion was by two vertical triple expansion steam engines, 2-shafts, with 12 boilers, yielding a speed of 21.5 knots and a range of 7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h) based on a 1,409 ton load of coal.