Fujima Kongo's casements (1/350)

Searat12:

Thank you for your response. I finally understand. I'm still not going to take the time to fix it. I think the supplied brass barrels more than make up for this minor inaccuracy.

 

Sincerely

 

Michael Lacey

 

Yes, that's essentially correct.  It is noticeable when looking at the hull from the side, not from the top....

Searat12:

 

I couldn't link to your picture but I think I understand better now. The sides of the enclosure sort of toe in at the top while they should be vertical from bottom to top? Every time I'd look at pictures of these from the top view I'd wonder what people were talking about. I'll have to take another look at my Kongo to confirm this. This shouldn't be hard to fix with a little Squadron white stuff putty but I'm not going to bother. Once the guns are in place I doubt it'll be noticeable anyway depending on the age of the viewer (speaking from experience I started out using 2.75 magnifying glasses for detail work and now have to use them for the entire model and switch to my Optivisor for the detail work).  Once again thank you for your response.

Best Regards

 

Michael Lacey 

Yeah, I was confused about this at first too!  What we are talking about are the sides of the embrasure (hull cutout) itself.  Where this joins the outer hull, the sides should be vertical, but in the Fujimi kit they slope inwards towards the top (see photo below, with the Aoshima kit above, and the Fujimi kit beneath....

Thank you for your response. I think we're not talking about the same thing or I seem to be confused as to what is the actual discrepancy. I'm posting a link to a picture of the YMK's 1/350 resin Kirishima model (picture for illustration purposes only) taken slightly from the side and overhead. The area where the casement gun would mount definitely does not form vertical sides from the deck that it sits on to the deck above. If viewed directly above this area would not be rectangular shaped. Or are we talking about the sides themselves being towed in or towed out were they join the casement mounting deck? From a practical view point I would think one would want this area shaped this way to provide maximum lateral movement of the gun and increase its effectiveness. If this area was box shaped then the lateral movement would be greatly reduced (perhaps 5 to 10 degrees per side). Was the shape of the Kirishima's casements different than the Kongo's? If they were that would explain it. Please if you can, explain it to me. This is the 1st time I've posted a link to this picture so I hope this works.

Sincerely

Michael Lacey 

P.S. I goofed and mislabeled the photo as Kongo and it is actually the Kirishima 

Definitive?  Not sure, other than the actual blueprints, but certainly all the photographic evidence I have seen (and it's a lot of photos!) all indicate that yes, the casemate embrasures should in fact be parallel, not trapeziodal, sorry!  But I DO think that otherwise, the Fujimi kit is much superior.......

Searat12:

Well, when you actually get right down to i, it really doesn't matter to me as I'm going to leave them as molded anyway. I can also confirm the problem you had with your Aoshima kit in regards to the part of the hull that enclosed the torpedo launchers all the way to where it meets the rest of the hull near the bridge. There were several gaps left after I carefully fitted then joined this section using pro weld and I still had to putty, sand and then repeat this process several times. I just couldn't believe some of the difficulty I had putting this thing together especially in light of the fact of several reviews/postings that extolled its quality. Once again I will never buy another Aoshima kit. Is there a definitive reference on the Kongo such as an Anatomy of the ship series book?

Thank you for your reponse.

 

Michael Lacey 

  

 

I'm not sure about your Maru Special, but all my references, both photographic and drawn all show the Kongo class casemate embrasure edges as being perpendicular, not sloped.  Gakken #21 in particular has any number of photos, drawings, and some 1/100 scale models too, and all show this to be the case.  It could well be a case of Fujimi re-using the plans/designs they made for their 1/450 kit to make the 1/350, and somehow forgot to check back with original references to fix the problem (they may also have been in a rush to get to market, what with Aoshima breathing down their neck with their version!).  It's too bad, but until the problem has been pointed out to you, it is not very not very noticeable (unlike the CAD problems with the Hasegawa Nagato!), as your eyes tend to get drawn to the many excellent qualities found elsewhere on the model.