Shimakaze by Landlubber Mike - FINISHED - Hasegawa - 1:350 - PLASTIC - Japanese WWII Destroyer

[Landlubber Mike]

Seems like most of the action these days on MSW is with the plastic kits, so I decided to join the crew with the Hasegawa Shimakaze kit.  I ended up buying a couple of more advanced plastic kits from a MSW member (noted in my signature), but wanted to start out with something a little easier.  Good timing, as my nine-year old daughter wants to work on a Revell 1:48 F/A-18E kit she picked out a couple of years ago when we were at Michael's.  So, I figured I can learn on the Shimakaze and hopefully impart some experience and skills to her when she builds her model.

 

History.  The Shimakaze is an interesting ship.  She was laid down in August 1941 and completed in May 1943.  She was based on the Yugumo-class, but included a third quintuple torpedo mount -- the largest torpedo broadside of any WWII destroyer (to accommodate, the hull was lengthened an additional 25 feet).  She also had a new boiler and turbine system that provided for very high speeds (40.9 knots) among the fastest of any WWII destroyer, and was also one of the first Japanese destroyers to be outfitted with the newer Type 22 radar.  Fairly unremarkable service though, and she was sunk in Ormoc Bay in November 1944.  She was the only one of its class to be built - known as the Type C destroyer - as part of Japan's 1939 Program.  An additional 16 Type C destroyers had been planned, but were cancelled when the resource strains during the war caused Japan to turn from new or more complicated designs to more established and simple ones.

 

Kit.  The kit is one of the newer Hasegawa kits, and seems to have had pretty favorable reviews.  I bought the Hasegawa PE and linoleum deck add-ons, and also bought the Infini detail pack.  The Hasegawa PE add-on appears like it will be mostly duplicated by the more expansive Infini kit.  I also have some other detail add-on kits like the ones below that I might use.

Resources.  I picked up the following resources that seem to provide quite a lot of detail:

In case anyone is interested in picking up a plastic kit, Scalemates.com is a great resource that consolidates reviews, after market accessories, resources, build logs, etc. for kits.  The one for the Hasegawa Shimakaze kit is here:

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/hasegawa-40029-ijn-destroyer-shimakaze-late-type--995983

[Landlubber Mike]

Nice colorized picture of the Shimakaze:

 

Edited September 4, 2022 by Landlubber Mike

[Landlubber Mike]

I've largely tooled up for plastic parts, including picking up an airbrush.  I'm waiting on a few items of primers, paints, and weathering supplies, but in the meantime will probably start doing some of the assemblies and practicing on the airbrush and with the PE.

 

I spent a few hours yesterday going over the add-on kits, marking up the kit instruction manual where add-ons might come in.  The improvements from the Hasegawa add-on are nicely referenced in the kit instruction manual in the various assembly stages.  As I mentioned before, the Infini add-on set is considerably more detailed than the Hasegawa add-on.  There seemed to only be a few minor areas (mostly hidden) that Infini didn't tackle.  I'm a little annoyed because on another forum, I asked in a thread about the Infini add-on whether it largely duplicated and made buying the Hasegawa add-on irrelevant.  The moderators deleted my post for being off-topic -- say what?  I'm a bit annoyed because it would have saved me some money buying the Hasegawa set, but it is what it is.  If anything, I can practice working on PE with the Hasegawa before trying the Infini set.

 

The Infini set is fantastic by the way.  The parts are incredibly detailed.  I'm glad I bought an Optivisor (thanks again to those who made recommendations on an earlier thread I posted) as it looks like I will need it!

[jwvolz]

Looks like an interesting build Mike. Good luck with your foray into plastic!

 

I've had the itch to build some plastic lately after not having done so for a few years.

[ccoyle]

30 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Seems like most of the action these days on MSW is with the plastic kits

Pfft!!

 

Nevertheless, we like the variety!

[Haliburton]

Look forward to this Mike. I have a few plastic kits in my stash I can’t wait to get going on inspired by others here too. That is great your daughter has interest in a kit, my 12 year old daughter loves horses so we are working on a wooden horse automation kit together. 

[Landlubber Mike]

1 hour ago, jwvolz said:

Looks like an interesting build Mike. Good luck with your foray into plastic!

 

I've had the itch to build some plastic lately after not having done so for a few years.

Hey Joe, thanks for looking in.  I really had no interest in plastic when I thought it was like the models I did as a kid - insert tab A into slot B, paint with testor's enamel, etc.  Now with the PE detail kits, airbrushes, all the weathering products, and books on the subject matter, it's a whole different ballgame.  The detail you can get with PE is amazing relative to the standard plastic parts.

 

35 minutes ago, Haliburton said:

Look forward to this Mike. I have a few plastic kits in my stash I can’t wait to get going on inspired by others here too. That is great your daughter has interest in a kit, my 12 year old daughter loves horses so we are working on a wooden horse automation kit together. 

That's awesome!  It's really rewarding doing something like that together.  

[Landlubber Mike]

I forgot to mention that I'm going to go full bore and model the ship in a diorama setting.  I have the Waterline Dioramas book from Seawatch Books and always wanted to try one.  I've wanted to do a diorama scene with a wooden ship, but it seems tricky to reduce the hull below the waterline (or at least I haven't had the foresight to do so).  I know some reduce the plastic kit hull below the waterline for dioramas, but this particular model has a lower hull of only about an inch, which should make it fairly simple.

[RGL]

Excellent 

[Javlin]

Cool Mike I will be watching also.I wanted to ask what you think of the Vanguard books should be the destroyer book 1939-45? I have three books in the cart at Amazon mainly the IJN light/heavy cruisers but thought of that one for later?  Kevin

[mtdoramike]

Oooooooo, I was wondering when you were going to start a thread on one of these bad boys. Looking forward to you cracking open the box and showing the contents.

 

 

mike

[mtdoramike]

By the way Mike, what is the size of the finished model going to be? they usually list them in millimeters, but since I don't live in millimeter country, inches would be great. 

[Jack12477]

1 hour ago, mtdoramike said:

I don't live in millimeter country, inches would be great. 

2.54 cm equals 1 inch or 25.4 mm equals 1 inch   60 mph equals 88 ft per sec.    Just a couple of math formula I did remember from high school physics classes. 

Edited July 21, 2019 by Jack12477

[popeye the sailor]

there are kits out there that specify if they can be built as waterline models.   some don't,  but divide the bottom and upper hull at the waterline.  I'll be look'in in as well Mike   

[Landlubber Mike]

2 hours ago, Javlin said:

Cool Mike I will be watching also.I wanted to ask what you think of the Vanguard books should be the destroyer book 1939-45? I have three books in the cart at Amazon mainly the IJN light/heavy cruisers but thought of that one for later?  Kevin

Hey Kevin, the Vanguard book is pretty good.  It's not particularly long at 48 pages, but it's organized pretty nicely and goes through each class of destroyers.  I'd say it's a good compendium of a little more detail per ship than you would find on Wikipedia, with background information that ties everything together.  It also has waterline profiles and some overhead profiles of a number of the destroyers covered by the book, so you can quickly flip through and compare ships quickly to see if there was a subject you might be interested in.  It's been interesting flipping through and seeing the differences in design, armament, rigging, etc. in this line of ships.  FYI, Yukikaze is covered in this volume.

 

I'd say if you're looking for general information across the class, with pictures of members of the class, then these books are pretty good.  If you're looking for very detailed information on a particular ship (for example, to build as a model), then the Top Drawings and Super Drawings in 3D would be better.

2 hours ago, mtdoramike said:

Oooooooo, I was wondering when you were going to start a thread on one of these bad boys. Looking forward to you cracking open the box and showing the contents.

 

 

mike

Hey Mike, thanks for looking in.  There are a ton of sprues for this kit - rather than take photos and upload them, a better place to get an idea of them is this review from Modelwarships.com.  The reviewer posts photos of each sprue and gives pros and cons.  Of course, if you'd like specific pictures, I'd be more than happy to take some.

 

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/ships/ijn/dd/shimakaze/350-has/index.htm

 

Seems to have left a pretty favorable impression, part of the reason I went with the kit.  I had been looking at the Yukikaze that Javlin/Kevin is working on, but went with this one based on reviews and the Infini upgrade, as well as the fact that Hasegawa offered a linoleum deck upgrade.

2 hours ago, mtdoramike said:

By the way Mike, what is the size of the finished model going to be? they usually list them in millimeters, but since I don't live in millimeter country, inches would be great. 

It works out to about 14.5 inches.  Pretty reasonable size if you are looking for a small model.  Hence why the PE is so tiny!  I can't imagine doing the ship as a 1:700 model.

1 hour ago, popeye the sailor said:

there are kits out there that specify if they can be built as waterline models.   some don't,  but divide the bottom and upper hull at the waterline.  I'll be look'in in as well Mike   

From what I recall, a bunch of the Hasegawa 1:700 models can be built as waterline models.  This one at 1:350 divides the bottom and upper hull at the waterline.  I'm thinking that I might pre-paint the upper and lower hulls prior to assembling them together.  That would save me from having to mask once assembled.

 

As you can see from the picture, the lower hull is fairly short, so setting it in a waterline diorama shouldn't be too bad.  The sprues are colored so that one can assemble it out of the box without painting.  I plan to paint it once I figure out how to use my airbrush.

Edited July 22, 2019 by Landlubber Mike

[Landlubber Mike]

For those that like 3D views, this is pretty interesting (might be what is used in the World of Warships game):

 

https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/shimakaze-db0b385733e544cd831200879a45ae44

[Landlubber Mike]

Here's a picture of the deck at the bow - the chains are pretty nicely done, but I'm wondering about painting them.  Is it possible to replace them with actual chains, and if so, is it even worth it?  Might be easier to paint/weather chains separately off the model than try to paint them as part of this piece.

 

For reference, this part is probably only 2 inches long  😳

 

[CDW]

This is an ambitious project Mike. You've got your work cut out for you, and just remember, slow and steady wins the race. I like your selection of aftermarket items to detail the Shimy. Those three quintuplet torpedo launchers look formidable.

The Japanese had devastating torpedoes. Warhead, speed and range were remarkable.

[CDW]

15 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Here's a picture of the deck at the bow - the chains are pretty nicely done, but I'm wondering about painting them.  Is it possible to replace them with actual chains, and if so, is it even worth it?  Might be easier to paint/weather chains separately off the model than try to paint them as part of this piece.

 

For reference, this part is probably only 2 inches long  😳

 

 

I would be surprised if the Infini set did not come with pieces to help replace those anchor chains. And yes, you can find replacement chain. You'll need to carefully cut away the molded on chain using an XActo chisel blade or something similar.

[Javlin]

Mike I got chains for mine came with the kit but those look good to me try painting first see if you like the result.I went and looked at the 3D WoW and see she has a few extra AA's on board up front and triples in the towers as opposed to the Yukikaze only has the platform with two doubles.When they say build the life boats be sure to add the little Id's they have for the bows then my instructions did not show that till the end. Kevin

[jeff shreve]

Wow, Good timing Mike. I have this kit and the Tamiya Yukikaze coming. One will get the Infini detail set but not sure which one yet. Have done plastic and resin cars and planes but it's been 40 yrs since I've built a plastic non sail warship. Be definitely following you lead.

[Landlubber Mike]

34 minutes ago, CDW said:

I would be surprised if the Infini set did not come with pieces to help replace those anchor chains. And yes, you can find replacement chain. You'll need to carefully cut away the molded on chain using an XActo chisel blade or something similar.

It doesn't look like the Infini set provided anchor chains.  The look pretty good to me, but I wonder if having actual chains would just look a little better.  Would take some work for sure to replace the kit chains.

 

Another thing I might replace is the bollards.  They seem to be in scale, but don't have a bottom plate.  I got some from Alliance Model Works that might fit the bill.

34 minutes ago, Javlin said:

Mike I got chains for mine came with the kit but those look good to me try painting first see if you like the result.I went and looked at the 3D WoW and see she has a few extra AA's on board up front and triples in the towers as opposed to the Yukikaze only has the platform with two doubles.When they say build the life boats be sure to add the little Id's they have for the bows then my instructions did not show that till the end. Kevin

I might try painting to see if I like them.  I almost feel it would be easier to remove, paint the deck, then add new chains.  Not sure if I'll be able to paint the chain cleanly at such a small scale.

 

Big thank you for the heads up on the life boats!

20 minutes ago, jeff shreve said:

Wow, Good timing Mike. I have this kit and the Tamiya Yukikaze coming. One will get the Infini detail set but not sure which one yet. Have done plastic and resin cars and planes but it's been 40 yrs since I've built a plastic non sail warship. Be definitely following you lead.

Hey Jeff!  With Kevin, you and me, it looks like we will have the IJN Destroyer Club ready to go.  😁  Not sure I'd follow my lead as I haven't done a plastic kit in probably 35 years, aside from a quick snap-together kit with my daughter a year ago.

 

If you're looking to get a detail add-on set for the Shimakaze, the Infini is a really nice one.  I forgot where I ordered it from, but it might have been from a place in the UK as I couldn't locate one here in the US.  As I mentioned above, if you get the Infini, the Hasegawa detail set is pretty much unnecessary.  The Infini is more expensive than the Hasegawa, but also more expansive.  And where Hasegawa uses PE to enhance the already good kit plastic parts, Infini in some cases (like some of the gun platforms and guns themselves) just replaces the kit plastic part with something entirely from PE.

 

Also, when it comes to the linoleum deck, Infini makes the brass bars that can be applied to the kit deck (they prepped each bar individually).  If you're ok with that, you won't need the Hasegawa linoleum deck add-on.  I'll probably go with Hasegawa add-on because it already includes the brass bars and is in the linoleum color (it looks like a appliqué).  Plus, at this stage, I don't know if I'm masochistic enough to glue those tiny Infini bars to the kit deck.

[BobCardone]

On 7/21/2019 at 9:39 PM, Landlubber Mike said:

Here's a picture of the deck at the bow - the chains are pretty nicely done, but I'm wondering about painting them.  Is it possible to replace them with actual chains, and if so, is it even worth it?  Might be easier to paint/weather chains separately off the model than try to paint them as part of this piece.

Mold quality of that part is really nice! I'd suggest paint and detail washes, that will really pop it. I've tried removing molded chains before... didn't work out well...

Excellent start! With the added PE parts she will be a real beauty.

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Bob.  I’m probably going to do just as you suggest.  Seems like removing the chain might be fairly risky for little reward.

 

I’ve put this on hold to get some experience with plastic models, PE, airbrushing, etc. I decided to go with a 1/700 destroyer which I’m close to completing (no build log but might post one on completion if it comes out ok).  Will be nice to move to a larger scale - the PE at 1/700 is insanely small.

[BobCardone]

Hey Mike,

   Here's an example of the front deck of the CSS Palmetto State (Verlinden 1:200 resin kit) I'm just about finished with that's very similar to your deck. I just painted and weathered the existing molding. The casting on your part looks good enough to do the same.

[Landlubber Mike]

That looks fantastic.  I'll go that route, thanks Bob!

[Landlubber Mike]

Almost two years later with my 1/700 "test kit" in the books, I've been working on the Shimakaze.  I have to say, Hasegawa has done a really nice job with this kit.  So far only needed a little filler on one of the back stern pieces, but otherwise, everything is fitting together nice and snug.  The fit is really incredible.

 

I decided that I'm going to build this a bit differently than the instructions would have you.  I don't know if they envision that one would paint the ship, so they leave a lot of the details off the ship until the very end.  Instead, since I'm going to paint it, I'm going to add as much to the hull as possible and then paint all in one go rather than paint the detail pieces and add them separately.  We shall see how all that works.  Obviously I won't be able to do that with with things like the bridge and some other sections which will have to be built off model and painted separately.  I'll have to be very careful not to knock off some of the very small details that I'm starting to add.  

 

I'm still working out what to do with the funnels.  They had white stripes on them, which Hasegawa provides as decals.  Problem is, I'm going to be replacing the rings that circle the funnels with some of the Infini PE - so not sure how the decals fit in with that.  I might just try painting the funnels with the stripes first, then adding the PE rings, and coloring the sections of the rings that should be white or black.  Will be a little tricky.

 

There are a couple of sections of the deck (near the bow and that big section near the stern) that are molded in brown plastic for the linoleum deck sections.  Hasegawa made linoleum deck stickers for this kit that also show the brass cross pieces, so I'm going to try them out.  I'll have to figure out whether it makes sense to add the details, paint the deck, and then add the stickers -- or, paint the deck items separately, and add them after I add the stickers to the deck.  I'm thinking the latter just in case I glue the deck items slightly out of whack and can't get the stickers to fit.

 

The Infini set is very nice and very comprehensive.  I've got a few small bits on the hull, including some of the doors which required scraping off the kit doors and replacing them with doors from the PE set.

 

 

Who's to say that the PE in 1/350 kits is all that much bigger than the PE in 1/700 kits?  These valves were a little bit of a pain to install, and I thought I had lost a set to the dreading tweezer "ping" but somehow managed to find it:

 

 

 

Here's an interesting comparison of the Shimakaze against my Hatsuzakura.  I was a bit surprised at the length of the Shimakaze, which I would have thought would have been around twice the length of the Hatsuzakura, given that they were both destroyers and the Shimakaze is at twice the scale of the Hatsuzakura.  Clearly not the case as you can see in the picture.  Come to find out the Hatsuzakura was 328ft/100m long, while the Shimakaze was 425 ft/129.5m in length.  Significantly longer!  Turns out that the Japanese lengthened the Yugumo-class by an additional 35 feet or so to accommodate an additional quintuple torpedo launcher (the Shimakaze had three quintuple mounts).  

 

 

This kit is a full hull kit, but I think I'm still going to try to put it in a waterline diorama.  It's so long and sleek that I think it would really show off those torpedo-like lines nicely in a water setting.  

 

Thanks for looking in!

Edited March 8, 2021 by Landlubber Mike

[RGL]

The chain detail is really nice. As OCD as I am i wouldn't change it.

[Landlubber Mike]

Yeah, I'm not touching it.  Little chance of improving on it, big chance on ruining the deck details.

[RGL]

Absolutely, you’d be better off with a clean slate. It’s only noticeable as a mold (and a very good one) from close up. You’ve got lots of PE, just like me you obviously don’t know when to stop. The best advice I can give you is use the Tamiya white primer through an airbrush on the PE as it sticks so much better