From all
classes of Japanese cruisers the Takao
class has always been my favorite and I have to say nothing beats its look
in my opinion. Their bridge structures, which almost look like an old Japanese
feudal castle or maybe a futuristic resemblance of the Arleigh
Burke class
destroyer. Its incomparable to other cruisers but the Myoko
class still has its own majestic look and I think this cruiser is the one that
really showed the world that the Japanese were top of things when it came to
anything that have to do with naval power. Had I known all four sisters
would have been released after Myoko,
I would’ve waited a
little longer to get a hold of Haguro,
which I personally like in
her 1944 configuration. Nevertheless, this 1941 Myoko
was a pleasant build. I don’t think I regret having building it because I like
her a lot after her refit when those big wind baffles were added to the
bridge.
The kit
itself is nicely done and a lot better than the class of cruiser before it and
I’m referring to the Takao
class. I began building her 9 months ago and at that time there were no
photo-etch sets specially done for this cruiser, therefore I gathered up a few
P.E leftovers I had from Gold Medal Models, White Ensign Models
and incorporated a super detail P.E., which was Flyhawk’s Takao
set. These 3 sets were my backbone to start building her. L’Arsenal’s
chrysanthemum crest and figurines where used on this model as well. Two of
the boats came from Hasegawa’s boat detail set , unfortunately I didn’t have
another extra two and had to finish up the model using the crude boats that came
with the kit. I did however enhance them with Tamiya decals. The model was
painted with Tamiya’s
Kure
gray, linoleum, and hull red colors. The weathering was done using black water
color and I also used the dried up method using Rust color. As for the
rigging I used black stretched sprue and this was a great Idea because in all my
older models I always had to paint the rigging black. I want to thank all the
guys who helped me on my build and all those who followed it, enjoy the
pictures.
Jose Soca
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