1/350 Aoshima Chokai smokestacks

Don´t worry about the aft smokestack, it is perfectly correct, it is just hardly visible on photos because the bent area is usually obscured by platforms. All the Takaos were built that way and kept the stacks through all stages of modification.

But, if you want to build Chokai (as I want, too), there is one issue with the kit: Chokai did not get the torpedo bulges. The other three kits get them glued on, but the area underneath is devoid of details - no plating, no scuttles or pipes, even though those are featured on the box photos and even in the instructions! So in case of Chokai you will have to detail this area yourself.

Not particularly hard to do, but I find this omission quite a letdown considering how well researched and engineered the kit is in general. Still, the Takaos are great kits and the complicated hull lines are perfectly rendered (I do not want to imagine what a certain Chinese manufacturer would have done to them), but if you want a kit free of pitfalls, you might want to get Takao, Atago or Maya. 

My guess is Maya will be the same as Chokai (just different box art), as it was also not modernized with the additional anti-torpedo bulges.  Looking at the very detailed diagrams in the Takao book (Anatomy of the Ship series), the aft smoke stack should be either straight (when covered with platforms), or actually leaning forward first and then straightening up to join with another smoke outlet for a donkey boiler that looks more like a sort of pylon or supporting mast.....

Well slap my face and call me 'Muggins,' I had a closer look of some photos of Takao under cinstruction, and yes, the aft smokestack DOES lean forward, and then up!  I guess this is one of the reasons I like so many of the Japanese ships; they are just so bizarre in so many ways to the Western eye.  Another thing I 'discovered' was just how thin the armor plate on the turrets was.  Only 25 mm!  Crikey, a .50 cal will almost go through that!  Seems to me a good strafing or two from aircraft with 20mm guns would pretty much open up one of these turrets like a sardine can...I knew 'eggshells armed with hammers' was a design feature of a number of Japanese cruisers (Yubari, etc), but I did not realise that concept included the heavy cruisers as well!

Maya will not be identical to Chokai, she did receive the bulges and the modernized AA armament  likeAtago and Takao but not the completely rearranged superstructure and bridge, so she is some kind of "hybrid".

As it seems the Aoshima model will depict her after losing her 3rd main turret. Instead she carried lots of additional 12,7/2,5cmAA guns in its place. Should be worth while to get Chokai for an early/unmodernized verion, Takao for the modernized appearance and Maya as an in-between stage. OK, with limited shelf space one will have to do....

In the end, I decided on 'Atago,' which is a 1944 version.  It has all the turrets, and all the AA plus the bulges and modified bridge of 'Takao.'  At $100, it was a fair bit cheaper than 'Takao,'  but I will still keep an eye out for a reduced price 'Chokai' in the future, as the ship had such a splendid career.  I recall 'Maya'' lost one of her forward turrets as a result of battle damage, and it was replaced by an AA suite more in desperation than any real choice on the part of the Japanese (though it makes for a very balanced design).... Do you know if 'Chokai' also received the extra bulges in 1941 at the same time as 'Maya?'  I was under the impression that other thna a few extra AA guns, "Chokai' was never significantly modernized (too busy at Guadalcanal!).  If it was, it might interesting to simply swap deck assemblies with hulls to get later versions.

Chokai did never receive the torpedo bulges and never even got her 12,7cm AA guns changed to twin mounts. She also kept her twin torpedo tubes. With some slight changes (such as mast height, some re-positioning of small rangefinders/searchlights, some pipes around the funnel,..), you could theoretically take the Chokai kit to represent any of the four class members in the as-built configuration. The Takao AotS Book should be of help here, the other class members did not differ much afaik.

Yup, I have the Takao book, but I couldn't find any reference to Maya having the bulges put in (though it was planned to do so for both Maya AND Chokai in 1941, along with the superstructure mods as well).  Another book I have is 'Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1869-1945,' which specifically shows a diagram of Maya after her turret was replaced by the AA suite (1944), and no evidence of a bulge (page 84).  This is odd, considering this sort of 'add-on' bulge is certainly depicted in the comparisons of Haguro from 1929 and in 1944....

I also note that although Chokai was never modernized in either hull or bridge structure, she appears to have been the favorite of Japanese senior officers, but whether this was because she retained the higher speed of the unmodernized hull, or the bridge arrangements were more satisfactory to senior officers, I have not been able to determine.  It is also somewhat ironic that all the other sisterships in the class were either sunk or severely damaged by torpedoes, with the exception of Chokai!  Makes you wonder why the Japanese (or many others, for that matter!) even bothered.....