The Vessel

The IJN Ise was laid down in 1915 as the third Fuso class battleship. She was changed to her own class due to the lessons learned while constructing the Fuso class ships. She was commissioned December of 1917. She entered service too late to see duty during World War I. She underwent different refits during the 1920’s and 30’s. Her foremast was changed to the pagoda style similar to that of the IJN Huruna.

When World War II started she never saw actual combat against the American Navy. She did take part in the attack on Pearl Harbor and set out after the Doolittle Raiders. She was out of date to be an effective fighting ship. Ise was too slow, had too large of crew, and used too much fuel compared to more contemporary ships. She had been originally outfitted to burn coal, but was switched to liquid fuels during her 1937 overhaul.

After the loss of four Japanese carriers at the Battle of Midway the Ise class ships were slated to be converted to full deck aircraft carriers with 54 aircraft. However the Japanese did not have the resources or the time to pull off the full conversion. Instead she was fitted with a smaller flight deck on the after section of the ship.

Ise was involved in naval action during the Battle of Leyte Gulf and suffered minor damage. After repairs she took part in a supply/rescue to Singapore. After evading American submarines she returned to Japan for repairs due to striking a mine. Ise remained in port with no fuel available for her to sortie against the American navy. She was sunk in port by aircraft from the USS Hancock.

Specifications

Displacement: 35,350tons

Length: 720.5 ft, 219.62m

Beam: 111.0 ft, 31.7m

Draft: 29.6 ft, 9.03m

Shaft Horsepower: 81,360hp

Speed: 25.2 knots

Main Guns: 14”/45 x 8 in 4 turrets

Auxiliary guns: None

DP Guns: 127mm x 16

AA Armament: 31x Type 96 25mm tripe, 11x Type 96 single, 6x 127-mm AA rocket launchers

Armor: waterline 305mm, deck 55 30mm, con 356mm, turrets 305mm

Aircraft: 22 Dive bombers and Recon, 2 Catapults

Crew: 1571

The Kit

The kit come in a larger than normal sized box from Hasegawa. This kit is a Special Edition of the kit. There are 15 sprues, white metal props, PE details, turned brass barrels, decals, and a wooden base. The ship can be built full hull or waterline, the lower hull is molded in red, as with other recent releases. The box features a photo of the model instead of a painting of the ship. This could come in handy during construction.

Sprue A: Has the after section of the main deck along with the port side of the hull. The deck has nicely done wooden and metal decking detail.

Sprue B: Has the starboard side of the hull and the bottom if you choose to make yours a water line. This part is marked do not use on the instructions.

Sprue C: Contains the forward section of the main deck, which just as the aft section has nice wooden decking. There are also some structural sections of the ship along with a couple of the ships boats.

Sprue E: Has the unique aspect of this ship, its flight deck. There are also some other deck section and structural parts to the ship as well. After comparing the flight deck details to that of the AM PE replacement the differences are noticeable. The kits flight deck has raised detail for the aircraft rails, these should be recessed.

Sprue F: Another grouping of decking and structural parts.

Sprue G: These parts make up the interior support system for the hull.

Sprue J: There are two of these and they have the ships main guns. The turrets are nicely done with fine raised details. The barrels are also nicely done. However since there are turned brass barrels included you will be cutting these.

Sprue L: Secondary guns and some of the ships landing craft. Since the Japanese used their capital ships to transport troops these are needed.

Sprue M: The sips dive bombers and reconnaissance float planes. There are two sprues with 2 of each aircraft. These are nicely molded with recessed panel lines.

Sprue N: The hull of the ship molded in red. Everything needed for the lower hull is located on this sprue. The propeller shafts are very nice and thin, giving them a correct look for the scale.

Sprue W: Rounds out the regular parts with more secondary armament, aircraft, and boats for the ship. There are a total of 20 aircraft provided, however, only 8 are needed. These two sprues come in their own bags with their own sets of decals. Only the secondary guns and boats are used from these two sprues.

The Details

Included with this kit are some nice special details parts. Firstly the PE fret is very nicely done. The parts included on the fret are the ships aircraft catapults, funnel caps, aircraft propellers, railings, and many more. Each barrel for the main guns is turned brass and very small. Checking them out with a 10x jewelers loupe shows off a good deal of detail. The ships screws are molded in white metal, brass blades would have been much nicer, but these are still decently done.

Also included is a name plate in Japanese done on heavy duty metal. There is also a wooden base for you to display your full hull beauty when she is done.

Instructions

To me this was the only draw back in this kit. The instructions are printed on one large sheet of paper. The front of the sheet has a picture of the assembled model, a history of the ship, and color codes. The color codes are broken down into Tamiya, Humboldt, and Japanese colors. Some research might be needed to find proper cross references on the Japanese colors.

The back of the sheet included the entire ships construction jammed into too small of a space. There are exploded isometric assembly instructions for sub assemblies. Then these subs are shown assembled on the ship later on. There is just a good deal of information jammed into a small space. During assembly maybe highlight the parts you have already used to avoid confusion.

Impressions

When you first see the box you know there is something special inside. When you open it and start to pull out the bags of parts you know you are in for a good detailed build OOB. The extra details added in the kit for this unique ship are well worth while. This kit will test your skills, if you are a mid level builder but might prove too much for a novice. For those super detailers, this is a great kit to start with.