This set is a partial homage to the Japanese brands that started the 1/700 ship model craze: Hasegawa, Tamiya, Aoshima, Fujimi, Pit Road/Skywave. Even now, when rival Chinese manufacturers have come out with many new subjects rendered in high-quality kits, and Revell Germany, for instance, also has numerous creditable naval kits, I find myself remaining for the most part loyal to the Japanese makes. It must be the emotional attachment to my own youth. I first built a waterline-series Japanese battleship back in the ’70s when I must have been 9 or 10. I had built other ship models and happily sailed them in real water, if they would stay upright and not fill up too quickly. I remember very clearly trying a test float of the new flat-bottomed model in my parents’ bathroom sink. I could not understand why it wouldn’t float, and I wondered why, of all things, they would provide you with a weight to put in a ship that was supposed to float… For those that don’t know, a “waterline” model is not meant to float. It lies on a flat surface looking like it is in water.

Then again, maybe my continuing attachment to the made-in-Japan models is due to the fact that I have made Japan itself a life-long study–speaking the language, teaching the language, living there, and traveling there numerous times with family and students.  In any event, here are a handful of my Japanese model ships, some of which I built 30 or more years ago, some just this year.

三日月　（DD Mikazuki)

夕張　（CL Yubari)

大和　（BB Yamato)

妙湖　（CA Myoko)

赤城　（CV Akagi)

阿賀野　（CL Agano)

天竜　（CL Tenryu)

霧島　（BC Kirishima)

赤月　（DD　Akatsuki)

昇格　（CV Shokaku)