About 2 years ago I built Tamiya’s 1/350 scale Destroyer Yukikaze, and really enjoyed it, it’s such a nice kit. I recently acquired two more Japanese tin cans in the same scale. A Hasegawa Shimakaze and a Wave Akizuki.

I thought this might fit in with this group build.

I chose the Akizuki to build first . It’s a beautiful ship , designed to provide anti-aircraft protection for larger ships such as aircraft carriers and merchant ships.

I think there was about 12 built in it’s class , although many more had been planned. The deteriorating war situation caused the building of the planned ships to be cancelled. This ship was completed in June 1942 and , like many other Japanese ships, was destroyed by US Navy carrier aircraft in October 1944.

I’ve never built a model by Wave before. It seems like a pretty detailed kit.

I started out last night by putting together the gun turrets and torpedo tubes, and using some liquid masking fluid to mask certain areas in preparation for painting.

I invested in some Tamiya spray paint that was especially formulated for Japanese warships. I’ve always considered Tamiya spray paints to be the “ Champaign of paints”. It’s certainly priced like Champaign .

Generally I’m a OOB builder and don’t buy aftermarket detail sets and try to stay away from PE as much as possible . This kit has a fair amount of PE. I chose to make the 1942 version of this ship rather then the 1944 version partly because it has less PE required. My vision and clumsy fingers do better if I keep things as simple as possible . However, I may try adding some rigging to this one.

Thank you Spiros @fiveten ! , I’m glad to be a member in good standing in this group.

Hi John @johnb, I’ve got the deck and lower portion of the hull masked off and ready to be painted as soon as the spirit hits me to do it. The liquid mask makes things easier .

Not many ships being built on this GB, I for one am very glad seeing your seemingly pretty detailed destroyer taking shape. I’ve never heard about Wave, is it a Japanese maker?

Jay, @ssgt
This is a very interesting subject and I look forward to seeing what you do next. Like Pedro, I have never heard of this company before either. Judging by the pictures you posted, this looks like it is a very detailed model. Thanks for starting this journal.

Nice progress, my friend @ssgt!

Nice steps done, Jay @ssgt
Those instructions look very clear with colored examples as well.

Today I did some more masking & painting on the deck. For the little details and touch up work, I’ll need to use a brush. Probably spray some out of the can in to a airbrush bottle for that chore. The raised lines on the brown linoleum portion of the deck are very pronounced, much more so then on the Tamiya kit. Scale sailors would probably have to be careful not to trip over those.

I also attached the rudder and propeller shafts to the hull. I’ll let them dry for a day and then mask the hull to have its bottom painted . The prop shafts are very spindly and could be easy broken. There are several such thin pieces in this kit. Need to be extra extra careful.

I placed the completed Tamiya Yukikaze next to the Akizuki. The Akizuki was a bit longer. I suppose because it had 2 main gun turrets up front, rather then the one forward turret on Yukikaze .