Introduction

Anthony Kochevar offers up a nice little review of his Fujimi Q-Ship IJN Kongo kit. This kit was released earlier in 2014. Along with the typical ship scaling of kits offered from Fujimi, they also have a few of these odd-ball kits for the discriminating builder as well.

Background Borrowed From Wikipedia

"Kongō, "indestructible", named for Mount Kongō) was a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II. She was the first battle cruiser of the Kongō class, among the most heavily armed ships in any navy when built. Her designer was the British naval engineer George Thurston, and she was laid down in 1911 at Barrow-in-Furness in Britain by Vickers Shipbuilding Company. Kongō was the last Japanese capital ship constructed outside Japan. She was formally commissioned in 1913, and patrolled off the Chinese coast during World War I."

The Kit

First this kit is really a mixed bag as to scale. Some parts are close to 1/700, some look 1/500 and some look 1/350. Opening the box is a pleasant surprise as it has six frets of parts, a sticker sheet and instructions. While the kit itself is a caricature of the real ship. It is great that Fujimi put so much detail, parts and effort into the model.

Fret A

This fret has the upper hull and a couple of pieces of the superstructure. You can see just how much detail is on the pieces, the hull even has degaussing cable and porthole eyebrows. For a egg shaped hull these parts have the right shapes.

Fret B

This fret is the lower hull, propellers and shafts and rudders. You can see plating lines on the rudders and even a slight torpedo bulge on the sides of the lower hull. Fujimi hit a home run here you can easily build the kit waterline or full hull. Having the option ether way is a great feature.

Fret C

This is a small fret that has minor details, some superstructure levels and hull turret barrels and the tops to the 12cm AA. The superstructure levels are highly detailed and look about 1/700 in scale. They even have molded anti-skid diamond plate and linoleum deck lines on them. The gun barrels are all hollow which is a nice effect, the only downside is there are mold lines clearly visible a good modeler will need to clean them up to get a god look especially if you intend to paint the kit.

Fret D

More small parts, range finders, funnels and large turret bodies and barrels. You can see the high level of detail from the photos that abounds on all the parts. The Type 96 triple guns are on this fret they are nicely detailed and look around 1/350 in scale. You can see ladders and diamond plate on the parts showing again how high the detail is for such a simple kit.

Fret E

This fret has the 12cm AA bases, internal lower hull support blocks and mast and another superstructure level. The parts are all well molded and show a great deal of detail.

Fret F

This has the deck, more superstructure levels, funnel caps and a few other details. The deck is quite impressive and shows a great level of detail. You can see individual planks on the wood deck areas, turntables and raised lines on the linoleum deck. All the pieces are molded well, though Fujimi I think should have made the funnel tops hollow. They did such a good job on the other pieces on this fret and the others.

Foil Stickers

This sheet contains wood deck and linoleum stickers you can put on the deck if you don’t want to paint them. Funnel tops, the chrysanthemum crest, search light lenses are also included. More advanced modelers will likely paint the model, in which case the stickers might possibly be used as masks.

Instructions

These are mostly in Japanese and come on a long double sided sheet. One side in full color the other in black and white. The steps are well illustrated and painting instructions are included if you want to go that route.

Conclusion

This is a great kit that should appeal to modelers of all skill levels. It can be built waterline or full hull unpainted or painted and has a great level of detail. The kit would be a good starter ship kit for youngsters just starting out in modelling.