SkyWave kit by Pit Road.

• Shiretoko Class, completed as oiler, 10 August 1920; converted to seaplane carrier, 1924; re-converted to oiler in 1942; damaged in 1943 and 1944; used as floating fuel storage in Singapore; broken up at Singapore in 1947.
• Speed: 12 knots.
• Armament: 2 x 3in 40-cal HA guns, 10 float planes.¹

This nifty unit of the pre-war Imperial Navy is the last in my recent series of ship subjects. If you are a modeler you may understand what it’s like when you finally take a particular kit down from the shelf and start in on it after staring at the box for years — then to discover that it wasn’t as hard to make as you thought it might be, which then sets you on a jag of sorts. I bought this model the last time I was in Japan, over ten years ago now. Unlocking this one first led to three others getting done in fairly quick succession. Most satisfying.

As far as technique is concerned, I tried something new for these photos. Usually I have a piece of lightly textured paper as my water surface. I recently realized that in order to create a wavier surface some folks must be putting a layer of cellophane over whatever blue material they have. I left the most of the white powder I use for a wake on the paper but then covered it with cellophane I had crinkled up beforehand. I’m not sure if I’ll be doing that every time, but I like it here.

¹Jentschura, Hansgeorg, Dieter Jung, and Peter Mickel. Antony Preston, J.D. Brown, Tr. Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1977. (Pp. 63, 250)