First Yamato Kit

That is impressive!  Very nice work.

Looks pretty neat!

That's work of art. Yamato, better known as the kamikaze ship that stood alone against a large wave of dive bombers. Not the best odds.

Lots of building!  Good work!  The table top glass design almost looks like waves!

You have done a very nice and neat job on her. Congrats and cheers Mark

Too bad there can't be a reissue of the Nichimo 1/200 scale kit. I saw one built years ago and it was IMPRESSIVE>

Yours looks great Mark I just happen to be a BIG model boat fan.

Looks really great !

When reworked, those old kits still impress.

You did a superb job on it! 

Very nice work Thunder!

what scale?

Felix

The scale is 1:250, somewhat smaller than the Nichimo version but still a good size for it's day(1970).

I ran the model in a local pond and it looked very scale plowing through the water. But the motor and grearing made a bit of a noise, plastic hulls amplify any internal sounds more so than a wood hull. Still the model was a fun build and was "underway" a lot in the early 1970's.

Paramount left a legacy of 1/400 IJN cruisers. UPC/Nichimo had 1/400 IJN battleships.

A very nice model - and the kit seems to have been quite accurate for the times.

I think, though, that at least two Yamato kits were issued in the 1950s.  One was the notoriously awful 1/600 (more or less) version from Aurora.  As a scale model it was something of a joke - but for many years it was the only Japanese warship available to American modelers.  Here's a modern review of it:  http://steelnavy.com/AuroraYamato.htm .  Note the presence of a triple 6" turret on one side of the ship - and not the other.

Then there was the little 1/1200 kit from Pyro.  That company sold some of the ancient and much-lamented Eaglewall German and British ships.  Then Pyro issued four more that, I think, were original to the company: a North Carolina-class battleship, an Essex-class carrier, a Shokaku-class carrier, and a Yamato-class battleship.  I don't know exactly when those kits were originally released - but I think it may have been before 1960.  They knocked around for quite a few years, with different labels - including, in the cases of the American ships, some wildly inaccurate ones.  (I distinctly remember the Essex-class ship appearing in a box labeled "Enterprise.")

Ah, those were the days.  Those Pyro kits cost 50 cents apiece; I think the Aurora Yamato was $2.00.

John,

You are quite right about the prices of those kits. The Pyro Yamato and Musashi also had the same gun configurations as the Aurora kit, and the 5"/38's on the North Carolina, Washington, South Dakota, and Massachussetts were grossly out of scale while the 5"38's on the carriers were a little more in scale. Also, the SD and MA were simply reboxed NC and WA. But, they were fun for a child. We need more such kits.

Bill

Dr Tilley

I did mention in my opening paragraph that there was a Yamato model by Pyro prior to the "big" Yamato I built in 1970.

 But you are correct, the Aurora preceeded the Paramount model by 9 or 10 years(I'm unsure when the Paramount model was actually manufactured, perhaps it was offered in Japan in the mid 60's, I purchased mine at the original Hobbytown in Boston's "combat zone" in 1970).

Anyway I should have read my copy of Greenbergs Aurora model kits a little closer. It stated that the Yamato model was offered in 1960 but was last offered in Holland in 1974, all I saw was 1974, some old guys have trouble reading.....

Mike M