Tamiya 1/700 Japanese Battleship Musashi [DJO]

About the Japanese Battleship Musashi Just prior to the conclusion of WWI, the Japanese Navy was considering to modernize their aging fleet with a very strong and powerful line of new warships, called the Eight-Eight squadron. This concept was to include 8 new battleships and 8 new battle cruisers. In October 1934, under great security, the Japanese Navy started plans for a super battleship, and 22 months later a proposal called A140-F5 was adopted. After several modifications were made final plans were adopted for a 68,200 ton dreadnaught in March 1937, and construction was begun on the famous Yamato in the Kure Naval yard in November 1937. In violation of the London and Washington Treaties, and in the greatest secrecy, the Japanese Navy begun construction of a 2nd Super Battleship, named Musashi on 29 March 1938, at the Nagasaki Naval Shipyards. A curtain of sisal mats 2.7 kilometer long was constructed around the slipway on which the Musashi was built to keep it secret from the public. Housed in three turrets of 3 guns each, they had a range of 41,000 meters and could penetrate 43cm of armour plating at a distance of 30,000 meters. One armour piercing projectile for these type 94 guns, weighed 1.4 tons, and the turret that housed the guns weighed 2,265 tons each. In addition to the 46cm guns, the Musashi carried 12 5 anti-aircraft guns; and 130 25mm AA guns. Displacement at full load was 71,659 tons and she was powered by 4 steam turbine engines with a shaft horsepower of 150,000, which provided a top speed of 27.3kts. During combat operations North-West of the island of Palau on 29 March 1944, the Musashi was torpedoed by the U.S Tubmarine Tunny and suffered some major damage. During Operations South of Luzon, Philippines on 24 October 1944, the Musashi was attacked by several U.S. aircraft from four aircraft carriers, and sustained 20 aerial torpedo and 17 bomb hits, plus 16 damaging near misses. Four and a half hours after this last attack, the proud Musashi sank, almost to be forgotten in later years, while her sistership Yamato went on to be known as the largest battleship ever floated. The kit shows the original armament as she was completed. « less