Hasegawa
1/350 IJN Light Cruiser Yahagi
Kit Number: Z26
Reviewed by  Bill Kluge, IPMS# 45849

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MSRP: $159.00
Kit courtesy of Dragon USA Website: www.dragonmodelsusa.com

The Ship:

Completed in December 1943, Yahagi was the second of the Agano class of light cruisers. Her relatively light main battery armament of six 6" guns and 8 torpedo tubes reflected the Japanese naval design philosophy of using light cruisers as destroyer and submarine flotilla leaders.

At the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, she led destroyers escorting carriers Taiho, Shokaku and Zuikaku. Four months later at Leyte Gulf, she led destroyers accompanying Admiral Kurita's battleships at Samar. Finally, she sailed with battleship Yamato on the "Last Sortie" in an attempt to engage the U.S. fleet off Okinawa.

"The beautiful weather of our departure day changed completely overnight. Leaden clouds covered the sky and hung low on the sea. Not a beam of sunshine pierced the thick cloud layers. Rain could come at any time. It was a dismal day.

"The clouds lowered, the weather grew worse, and at 0800 it started to drizzle. Our ring formation of ten ships advanced steadily toward their doom, observed constantly by enemy scout planes. I looked up to see twenty, forty, and more planes spilling out of the thick clouds. It was 1232 when I ordered, "open fire!"


~ Capt Tameichi Hara of Yahagi, from his book, Japanese Destroyer Captain.

On April 7, 1945, Yahagi, along with Yamato and four escorting destroyers, was overwhelmed and sunk by aircraft from U.S. Task Force 58 carriers.



The Model:

Having completed three of the best 1/350 kits on the market - Tamiya's Mogami and Mikuma cruisers, and Hasegawa's battleship Mutsu - within the last year, I never really imagined that the level of detail available on these new large scale naval kits would improve so noticeably so soon. But that's the first thing that you see when you start looking over Yahagi's part sprues. The level of fine detail on some of these parts is simply extraordinary - better than just about anything that I've yet seen in plastic. Some of the detail compares favorably with what you see in the corresponding photo etch parts. Good examples of this include the hand and foot holds molded on the stack, the textured steel deck plating that is as subtly detailed as the PE aircraft handling platform in the "Detail Up' set, and the recessed openings in the main 6" gun barrels when compared to the brass barrels in the same detail set.

Included in the kit are halves for a full hull model only, with many internal strengthening bulkheads. There are quite a few "parts not used" which indicate that other vessels of the class are forthcoming. Interestingly, there are several "generic" sprues containing numerous small deck parts and weapons that can and will be used of different Hasegawa kits. This is noticeable by the fact that these sprues are a different texture and color shade of plastic. Of course, once painted no one would ever know the difference. The only down side is that when there are occasions where some of these extra parts are needed, they are molded on multiple sprues, and we end up with identical parts with two or three different part numbers (to Hasegawa's credit, they indicate on the instructions where this happens). It's a little confusing, but not a serious roadblock. Also included are a length of anchor chain, a very nice, thin paper flag sheet, and an excellent decal sheet for the two Aichi E13A1 "Jakes". The aircraft themselves are the best I've seen in this scale, with very petite scribing, and a separate clear piece for the "greenhouse" canopy. This brings to mind the old adage, "be careful what you wish for". Now I have to figure out how to paint the canopy frames. Last but not least is a large 23" x 33" poster of the cover box art. Very impressive!

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Once again, I planned to build this vessel as a waterline model, so the first step was to assemble the hull and cut off the bottom. The internal bulkheads were measured and cut prior to assembly, inserted into place and the hull halves glued together. Knowing that the waterline diorama would show Yahagi during her final voyage in rather heavy seas, the hull cut line was measured along a line somewhat below the waterline, since the undulating water would expose portions of the hull below the waterline. Chartpak tape was used to mark the cutline, and the bottom was sawed off with a Dremel cutting wheel. Once sanded smooth, three scrap pieces of flat plastic were attached to the bottom of the cut hull fore, aft and amidships to aid in attaching the model to the base. The hull assembly process includes attaching long inserts just above the waterline. I'm not clear just what these parts represent, but there must have been some differences in the hull between Yahagi in 1945 and Agano in 1943 (a forthcoming Hasegawa offering) that these parts represent. These parts were just a bit too small, the fit less than perfect and because they're in such a prominent location the gaps will have to be filled. The same is true for the bow deck-to-hull fit, and the ensuing gap will have to be filled. The good news is that these are about the only major areas that will need putty work.

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[review image] All the major and minor subassemblies, including the superstructure, deck houses, turrets, anti-aircraft guns, masts and searchlight tower, were assembled and set aside to be painted as a group along with dozens and dozens of the small parts that will be attached to the deck. Once again, Silly Putty came in handy as a mask for the intricate aft deckhouse and mast, as well as the curved smoke stack. Extra parts are included to model the ship as she appeared prior to the Last Sortie. These include additional ship's boats, extra deck fittings and a second Jake (one aircraft was returned to the Japanese mainland during the last voyage, but according to Capt. Hara, the ship was attacked before the second Jake could be launched), as well as torpedo trolleys and individual torpedoes.

As was the case with the Mutsu, one gets the feeling that some of the assemblies are a bit over-engineered, using several parts where a few would easily do, and on one occasion, Hasegawa has taken one of the very few bad plays from the Tamiya book. The aircraft crane is assembled from left and right halves, creating an ugly seam down the middle with some hard to fill areas (now I know why Tamiya provided a PE top piece for their Mogami crane). The assembly of the foremast is very fiddly for all but the most nimble fingered. In the end, though, these are minor annoyances when you consider the level of detail that is provided. The mast and searchlight tower parts are represented by thin plastic girders which are much more convincing that some of the similar structures seen in earlier models.

[review image] Once the subunits are all painted, the assembly from the main deck level proceeds rather quickly. The main and secondary armament, superstructure, deckhouses, vents, masts and smoke funnel all fit into place very easily. The instructions include plan view placement diagrams for many of the small deck fittings that make it much easier to keep track of what part goes where. The kit catapult, though well detailed, was replaced with the Hasegawa PE version, and is prominently in view. The only tricky assembly sequence comes when the funnel's attached steam pipes are put into place. There are eight of them that snake their way around the stack and in some cases through the legs of the searchlight tower. They must be placed in sequence and there are a confusing number of holes in the deck where these pipes can fit. However, the Hasegawa instructions are well illustrated and give ample indication with diagrams just where these parts go. Pay close attention.

The last of the small deck parts - foremast, boat and ladder derricks and lots of single 25mm AA guns - were put into place after the ship was screwed onto the base. Since this diorama depicts the Yahagi just as she is about to come under air attack, the light AA guns are placed pointing in various directions, and many of the single 25mm guns needed to be modified to be properly elevated. This required cutting the mount at the pivot point and repositioning the gun at a greater elevation. I only wish I had more crewmen to man the many AA guns to give it a more realistic look.

Hasegawa makes a complete series of photo etch sets for the Yahagi and her sisters (four sets in total) and one could opt to use them to finish off the model, but you'd spend more on PE that way than on the kit itself. I chose the more familiar route (for me) of supplementing the "Detail Up" set that accompanied my kit with the Gold Medal Models Takao set. This provided the needed gracefully sloping bow railing as well as superstructure rails, radar and vent screens. The flag lines are made from stretched sprue. Antenna lines of Invisible Thread will be added after photography (shooting outdoors in the summertime Virginia humidity plays havoc with the Invisible Thread nylon). Weathering was done with a combination of dark paint washes on the decks and horizontal surfaces, and a light application of grey, brown and ochre pastel along the vertical surfaces and the hull.

[review image] The base was constructed by supplementing my regular process of spreading a custom color mix of Liquitex Super Heavy Body acrylic paint in the form of small waves on the baseboard. For this diorama, I first built up a series of larger swells with hardware store brand spackling compound. It's easy to spread and form and dries fairly quickly. Any cracks that occur during the drying process can be easily filled. I then followed the same process that was used with the Mikuma and Mogami, spreading the grey and white paint with a pallet knife in a pattern to represent the ship plowing through heavy seas on a cloudy day. Next time I use this method, though, I'll prime the surface prior to adding the acrylic, as it tends not to want to stick to the spackling. Each time is a learning process.

The Hasegawa offering builds up into a beautiful representation of this famous cruiser. I can only hope that this level of superb detailing in maintained or even improved on future releases. This kit was received when Dragon was still the U.S. importer of Hasegawa products, and I wish to thank them for generously providing this review sample.

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