Japanese sail training ships in WW2 service

Ed,

I also cannot supply you with photo material, but regarding the models I can tell you
that after IMAI went out of business, for a short time the Nippon Maru (and maybe
Kaiwo Maru too) were produced by a chinese company LEE both in 1:350 and 1:150 scale
(I have the 1:150 scale model unbuilt on the shelf). I am not sure whether they used the real IMAI molds, or whether they were copies, but the model showed the same numbers on the trees. Later Minicraft issued some of the 1:350 models of this series (I guess only the full-hull versions, not the waterline versions) and finally most ( if not all) tools went to AOSHIMA,
so the models will be available from time to time.

Hope this helps for your future projects.

Axel 

Interesting, I didn't realise Aoshima had actually reissued the kit as a wartime cargo ship, my 1970s-vintage issue just mentions it briefly in the instructions. Thanks for the link!
I did a search for the kit and found this site: http://www.114gundam.co.kr/goodsDtl.htm?psGoods_no=5989 with a few more photos, including photos of the kit parts. It looks like the kit is identical to the original issue - no extra parts, other than PE shrouds + railings - but moulded in grey. The only modifications to the ship depicted in the kit appear to be the removal of the yards and most of the rigging - but I suspect the real ship had other changes and additions, probably some light armament (single 25mm and 13mm mounts most likely), cargo handling cranes, possibly changes to the boat layout.

Woxel59 wrote:

Ed, I also cannot supply you with photo material, but regarding the models I can tell you that after IMAI went out of business, for a short time the Nippon Maru (and maybe Kaiwo Maru too) were produced by a chinese company LEE both in 1:350 and 1:150 scale (I have the 1:150 scale model unbuilt on the shelf). I am not sure whether they used the real IMAI molds, or whether they were copies, but the model showed the same numbers on the trees. Later Minicraft issued some of the 1:350 models of this series (I guess only the full-hull versions, not the waterline versions) and finally most ( if not all) tools went to AOSHIMA, so the models will be available from time to time. Hope this helps for your future projects. Axel

Actually I've managed to acquire one of the Lee reissues/copies of the 1/150 scale Aoshima Nippon Maru only this week (from eBay), this is what prompted me to write my post (I've had the 1/350 kit for a while). The 1/150 kit is very detailed + nicely moulded, as usual with Imai (my only complaint is that, like the 1/350 kit, a lot of the parts are moulded in a horrible translucent orange plastic, which might be tricky to paint over). As to whether the Lee kits (I also have their 1/100 Spanish Galleon) are copies or reissues of the original Imai, I really don't know the answer, but the high quality + sharpness of the mouldings suggests to me that they used the original moulds. Compare this to the Trumpeter "Minihobby" copies of Tamiya 1/350 and 1/72 kits with blurred and simplified detail, sink marks etc. The Lee kits do have significantly more flash and mould lines, but this could be due to less careful use of the moulds.


I'm definitely planning to convert my 1/350 Kaiwo Maru to the wartime version, but haven't decided about the larger one yet.  

Thank you for the link to the interesting korean website.
I didn´t know that AOSHIMA released this new version of the ship, it must be brandnew.

The tools of the 1:350 IMAI series must have been circulated a while, or the set has
been split and sold to different manufacturers. IMAI issued this series of training sailships
in 1976 with "operation sail" stickers. I remember this tall ships meeting to commemorate
the bicentennial of the USA. Later some more models were issued, both in full hull and
waterline versions. Seems that after IMAI went out of business, no other owner of the
tools has reissued the waterline models, but the lower part of the hull is separate, so
one still can make a waterline model, using styrene a sheet to create a flat
bottom of the hull.

I also guess, that LEE used the original tools, because there is no difference to the IMAI
models, normally copies have more soft details or are somewhat crude.

A lot of the 1:350 scale training ships are issued by MINICRAFT, Revell offers the
german "Gorch Fock" and italian "Amerigo Vespucci", but I was told, they have only
rented the tools. So maybe AOSHIMA only kept the tools for both japanese
sailing ships and sold the other tools. Sometimes older modelling tools and moulds from
long gone manufacturers were not purchased by real kit manufacturers, but by investment companies which lease the tools to the manufacturers or produce models for them.

Maybe anyone of you has more information, whether MINICRAFT and GLENCOE
are owners  of the tools or only let produce kits under their brand name ?

For me it´s always interesting and fun trying to trace back the origins of the tools
and follow their odyssee.....  

I'm not sure how much this will help, but I found the Nippon Maru Memorial Park website in Yokohama. The second link details her history and has a few photos. I haven't run any of pages through babel fish yet, but it might be worth checking.

http://www.nippon-maru.or.jp/

http://www.nippon-maru.or.jp/nipponmaru/data.html

Here's one of my photos of Nippon Maru from our trip last August.

Hi,

I have found a kit-description of the original IMAI kit here:

http://modelingmadness.com/scotts/misc/ships/b704.htm

HTH

Woxel

i just picked up the IRONCLAD 1/350 Kaiwo Maru. LHS had a model contest and sale. got it for half price. looks interesting. isn't armed and the photoetch doesn't show have any deck house railings, just lower ratlines and hull railings. it's waterline or full hull. the kit thread for rigging the stays is probably too thick. the photoetch has a lot of stuff that isn't in the instructions. not sure what they are for. will get some general 1/350 railings for the deck houses.

Unfortunately, the new Aoshima "IJN transport" reissue is just the original Imai kit with the parts moulded in grey and additional PE. Any changes made to the real ship (whatever they were) aren't represented in the kit.

This is my conversion of the Imai kit, based purely on guesswork! - http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/misc/ijn/kaiwo-350-ep/ep-index.html

So this is another case of "box engineering"....
Old models are sold on newer boxes. The original issue of these ships
was in 1976, when IMAI offered a whole fleet of "Tall ships", participating
in "OPERATION SAIL" celebrating the bicentennial. I have some of these
original issues and they all came with a "operation sail" decal for the hulls.
The kits came two ways: Waterline and full hull.

Most of the kits of this series are offered by MINICRAFT now,
Revell of Germany had the Amerigo Vespucci and Gorch Fock
and Aoshima seems only to have the molds of Kaiwo Maru and Nippon Maru. 

It just occurred to me to look in Underhill's "Sail Training and Cadet Ships", not for the drawing but for whatever text may be offered.  I guess the most important caveat is that this book was originally written in 1956, while WWII was still VERY close in the rearview mirror.  So Ed's facts may be based on more correct knowledge than mine, even though this is from a book I love dearly.

First,  Underhill says the ships were launched in 1930 and 1931.  Then to paraphrase: He had no real knowledge of the ships during the 1939-45 War, but he believed they continued training, at least for a time, in local waters, as full-powered motorships with all their yards sent ashore, although the masts remained fully rigged.  They may have acted as depot ships at times.  Immediately after the war, they were used to repatriate Japanese troops and civilians.

And that's all Mr. Underhill offers for these ships during the wartime period.

Rick

I have tried to find more information here in Germany.
The only facts I found are: Both ships belonged to the japanese
national institute for sea training. In 1943 they were handed over
to the ministry of postal services. The yards have been removed, but
the masts still were present. Both ships were used as auxiliary transport
ships in domestic waters, probably repainted in japanes navy grey.
After ther war they were used for repatriation service, so the NIPPON MARU
is said to have transported approx. 25.000 people during 29 voyages.
I cant believe this number because that would mean that this was an
average passenger number of approx. 860 people. How sould they have been
accomodated on such relatively small ships ?
Around 1952 the normal sailing configuration was reconstructed and the
sisters went into training ship service again, until 1989.

To my opion AOSHIMA did a logical thing: As there are probably much more
warship modelers than sailing ship modelers around, and the ex IMAI models
perfectly fit in the rapidly growing 1:350 scale warship series, the Aoshima
marketing experts discovered a new field of customers to be attracted by these models.
So they can sell sailing ship models to warship modelers as well.
(We know this from military airplane models transfomed in civilian versions as well....).