IJN Seaplanes WW2

Honest opinion- this doesn't seem right.

The ones you got are the right type.

Fujimi made sets of the Zeros and Kates. They are a little hard to find, but they aren't very expensive.

I suspect you'll be working on this thing for a year or so. You might make a list of what you are looking for and just patiently look now and then while you grind through all of those other parts.

Bill

Bocks Suv

So I'm about to start a 1/350 Akagi build. The giant kit came with a giant price tag but only 12 tiny planes, even tho the box art painting suggests 2 or 3 times that. It'll look ridiculous with only 12 planes on the deck so I ordered more. Here's where my question starts...The after-mkt set is all seaplanes; I can chop off the pontoons and floats and replace them with struts and wheels, but I was thinking of keeping 2 of the reconn biplanes as seaplanes and mounting them and 2 catapult ramps by the island or even going really off the deep-end and finding a place to put them on the sub deck, front or back. Does anyone know if the IJN ever had regular flattop carriers with seaplanes? Ive seen the seaplane ships but this Akagi could be "special." Perhaps the seaplanes are launched from the Akagi or other carriers, complete their missions and are then hoisted up by seaplane tenders or crane-equipped cruisers etc in the same flotilla. Ideas and thoughts welcome.     

 

As far as I know, no. The Japanese did convert some of their cruisers, such as the Mogami and even the battleship Ise into hybrid seaplane carriers after the Solomon and New Guinea campaigns as well as the Gilbert, Marshall and Marianas campaigns. 

However, you can find Hasegawa 1/350 Japanese carrier aircraft to add to your air wing. If it were my Akagi, I would go that route, but it’s your model so heck, you could paint it Purple and add B-52s to it if that’s how you want it.

Steve

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hasegawa-1-350-Japanese-Navy-Carrier-Based-Aircraft-Set/233495037580?hash=item365d63868c:g:-8YAAOSwcBpdvwHz

I have that kit with all the PE sets, AM as well as 4 AM aircraft sets. I plan on starting it late next year . Docidle is correct about the seaplane carriers and tenders and like the link he provided, Hase makes the required planes. It depends what your looking to build. For Pearl you will need 4 kits for the proper complement, Zeros and Kates, for Midway you will need 5, Zeros and Vals. I don't know how many for other campains. I would suspect at least 2 sets for between campains would work fine.