Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Tatsuta and Tenryu


From
Hasegawa Hobby Kits' Water Line Series comes two Japanese Navy Light Cruisers at 1:700 Scale.

The Tatsuta (The Iron Lance) and the Tenryu (The Swift Spear) were sister ships commissioned after WWI and fought at Wake Island, Guadalcanal and around New Guinea during WWII.

Both ships were long and thin and extremely fast.  Unfortunately the Tatsuta suffered a deadly torpedo strike while the Tenyru continued to fight through the war. 

Both were new designs intended to lead destroyer flotillas.

The hobby kits (even in small scale) manage to capture the details of the larger ship.  Every tower, smoke stack, deck weapon, bridge and surface and deck railing, equipment and window are easily recognizable and completely to scale and detail.

Lifeboats, anchors, hull portholes, crane and lower hull detail are present.

Assembly, paint and decal instructions are easy to understand and each kit includes two sets of decals.

Despite their small scale, the parts detach easily from part tree, with no flashing or misfit and historical information of both ships are included with their instructions.