Lion Roar

1/700 WWII IJN Aircraft Carrier Flight Deck Netting For any 1/700 IJN aircraft carrier

Stock Number: LE700088

Reviewed By  Luke R. Bucci, IPMS# 33549

MSRP: $14.95 www.dragonmodelsusa.com Photoetch Set Lion Roar sells a large line of 1/700 photoetch accessories for United States, Japanese and German WW2 navies. Lion Roar usually supplies photoetch sets generic to all ships or a class of ships. Lion Roar LE700088 photoetch set is devoted to Aircraft Carrier Flight Deck Netting and Landing Lights. As far as I can tell, there are no equivalent nettings from any plastic or resin IJN carrier kits. I have not seen netting from other photoetch sets for IJN carriers (although my survey may be out of date). Thus, this set fills a void in the world of 1/700 scale IJN carriers. The photoetch set is made from thin brass, and comes with an instruction sheet showing location of nets and lights for Akagi. Obviously, other carriers will have netting in similar places. Two types of netting and five types of landing lights are supplied. There is enough netting and lights for outfitting one large carrier or two small carriers since there are two sets of lights. The retail price would add $11-15 to the cost of building a large carrier kit.

There are eight pieces (89.6 scale feet each for 716 scale feet total) of aircraft netting intended for the rear sections of carriers. There are eight long pieces and four short pieces of "persons" netting, which is a finer mesh and intended for the bow sections of carriers. Each long piece is 103 scale feet, making a total of 824 scale feet. Short pieces are 25 scale feet, for a total of 100 scale feet. According to photographs of Japanese carriers from the Mechanism of Japanese Aircraft Carriers book, I had a hard time finding evidence of netting on any carrier. Photographs showed short stretches of netting between gun mounts for planes, but the mesh was fine like the "persons' netting in this set. I never saw photographs of "persons" netting on forward sections of IJN carriers. Diagrams from this book did show longer stretches of both types of netting, but mostly on mid-size carriers like Soryu, Junyo, Hiyo. Thus, I cannot verify that operational Japanese carriers routinely used netting from photographic evidence. Perhaps they put netting out during inclement weather or flight operations only, conditions with few photographs. If you want to be supremely accurate, take care to consult references. If you want a fantastically detailed carrier, go ahead and use all the pieces. The Build Since I did not have any IJN carriers handy, I used this set for a recently completed Hasegawa Premium Edition Ise battleship-carrier hybrid. In reviewing that kit, I noted that there were no railings for the flight deck. Here was my chance to rectify that shortcoming, so I used both types of netting around the flight deck. First, I washed the fret in warm soapy water and rinsed well. I used Model Masters IJN Kure Grey acrylic to airbrush both sides of the fret (this was the same paint used for the Ise). Pictures show views before and after adding flight deck netting. I did not apply landing lights since planes were not intended to land on Ise's flight deck. One will have to do some research to figure out what color the lights were. The pieces are delicate, and easy to bend when cutting or handling, so take care to use sharp blades to cut the photoetch pieces. Since they are delicate, it is easy to straighten them out if they do get bent. I shortened the connecting supports since the Ise flight deck is close to the AA gun galleries. I had to cut some of the netting pieces to shorten them so they would fit. I applied the plane netting to the flight deck sides and the "persons" netting to the rear of the flight deck that had anti-skid plating. I angled the netting upwards slightly to clear the AA guns and give them a reasonable arc for firing. Thick cyanoacrylate glue worked fine to attach the photoetch pieces.

The added netting gives Ise a fine, detailed look, and solves the problem of no railing or protection on the flight deck. It does enhance the look of this kit, and I am sure this netting set would enhance the look of any IJN carrier. Summary Lion Roar has produced a timely and finely detailed set of netting and landing lights for Japanese carriers in 1/700 scale. Assembly and manipulation are easy, but the instructions only show the locations of netting and lights for one particular carrier (Akagi). This should not be a problem as it is obvious where netting and lights should go. Although I did not find convincing photographic evidence that netting was heavily used by IJN carriers, there is evidence to suggest they were used, so it is up to each modeler to make the decision to use or not use netting. Regardless, this set of netting enhances the look of flight decks, and is impressive-looking. And for the moment, this set appears to be the only one available for 1/700 scale IJN carriers. Recommended for super detailing IJN carriers. References: Mechanism of Japanese Aircraft Carriers. 1999. ISBN 4-7698-0896-8. [Note: This book was purchased by me in a Tokyo bookstore and is entirely in Japanese, so I could not get a full citation.]

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