Answer Models IJN Kiji Torpedoboat 1/200 Scale

Hello Everyone,

After going through a number of the fine and amazing ship model threads here, I have decided to throw my hat into the ring as it were. While this is a relatively simple ship model with just three pages of actual parts plus the stand which resides on the back cover, it does offer an appropriately detailed model in this scale. There is a set of photo etched brass parts that I am hoping to find yet, I will be using some laser cut railings on it that I do have in hand. I do like Answer Models offerings, they usually fit pretty well without any really big surprises.

As the title suggests this is about the Answer Models 1/200 scale Imperial Japanese Otori Class Fast Torpedoboat Kiji. The ship was laid down 10/25/1935 launched two years later 1/26/1937 and completed 7/31/1937 by Mitsu Engineering & Shipbuilding. She was one of eight 840 ton torpedoboats ordered in 1934 and completed between 1936 and 1937. She had a powerplant consisting of 2 Kampon water tube boilers and 2 Kampon Impulse Turbines driving two shafts outputting 19,000 SHP for a turn of speed of 30.5 Knots or 56.5 KM/H. She was armed with 3 12CM main guns in single mounts, 1 forward and 2 aft; 1 Vickers 40mm Gun; and 1-3 tube 53CM torpedo launcher. She also did one amazing thing that most of her sisters failed to do, she survived the war and became a War Reparation Vessel to the USSR further sailing under their colors until finally stricken from the Naval List in 1957. You can read about her Tabular Record of Movement and learn of her wartime service here at her Long Lancers Page by Allyn Nevitt.

http://www.combinedfleet.com/kiji_t.htm

This is what you see on the cover pages:

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The actual parts consist of one paper page with the hull formers and templates sharing one of the instruction pages:

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Also two pages of card in full color make up the remaining two pages of parts. These are all printed in register with nice bright colors.

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There is one final page of instructions included on the reverse of the other instructional page.

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They do suggest that you laminate some parts to .5mm and others to 1.0mm according to the usual callouts of Single and Double asterisks. The rest of the Polish language instructions are pretty much like every other card model ship, pretty basic stuff once you have a few kits under your belt. I will admit to copying and pasting blocks of text for translations when I first started modeling in card until it became pretty apparent that these directions were about as basic as the instructions that you receive with styrene kits. I have started cutting parts for the hull form and once I have a complete set of them ready I will laminate them to a couple of layers of 110 pound cardstock using 3M 77 Spray Adhesive to come up to the required thickness.

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Hello Everyone,

After a weekend spent with very little accomplished card model wise, I did get a chance to cut out the rest of the bulkhead formers and laminated every thing with two layers of 110 Pound (199 gm/m2) card stock. So now I get to start slicing up the slots to fit it all together. I do like the way the author of this little ship kit has laid out the formers for the hull, it is more of an interlocking design than any of the other ship models that I have built so far. Not being able to read Polish means that I have to study the instruction steps a little more closely, locate the parts on the sheets and try to discern how best to fit things together. Study the Templates section to see what little mysteries lie there, and there are a few.

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The stowage racks that go along the base of the stack apparently house tail sections for the towed mine clearing fish. There are 6 small ones and 2 larger ones, racks that is, relative to the sizes of the towed fish that are stowed in these racks. Each of the racks holds 6. This of course, means that I will have to make 36 small ones and 12 of the larger ones if I wish to fill the racks to capacity. That is an awful big decision to show some empty spaces in those little racks. I am still working my way through the drawings that make up the instructions and that little section of templates and I can't help but wonder what other little compromises may be looming with in those 2 pages and that little but rather packed full section. This does not mean that I am concerned about building this kit, it is all part of the fun of working out how best to build it up, what sort of problems that may come up and how best to deal with them.

Having spent most of my hobby modeling years working with styrene and then other media as I added detailing to kits has been great fun. Getting to delve into card modeling is an entirely new way for me to go and I am still learning as I complete each kit. Reading and studying the construction reports of the kits that ya'll build on this forum is a learning experience for me, a rather pleasant one at that. Shoot, the first card model kit that I was exposed to wound up getting built out of styrene, Digital Navys' Admirable Class Minesweeper kit.

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I'll be back after I get some more construction work done on the Kiji.

HI Cris,

Thanks for the welcome. I would have been in earlier today, unfortunately one of the other drivers at my job decided that he needed his Friday off more than I needed my Saturday so I had to go in and work. But now that I am free, I get to come in and play a bit as it were.

I got all my laminating done, finished trimming everything up and then started gluing things together. In short order I had a nice hull framework assembled. As I said before in my previous posting, I did like the way that the parts interlocked with this kit to form the framework. Once you have the bulkhead formers glued to the vertical lengthwise part adding the two horizontal side parts by inserting them into the bulkhead cutouts and gluing the inside length to the vertical form everything locks together nicely.

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Now comes the fun part for me. I add sections of card board cut from Tennis Shoe boxes to the individual sections all along the bottom of the hull. I tend to like to handle my model as I work on it and if I just glue the strips of card provided to reinforce the bottom plates, this leaves a hollow in between each bulkhead former. As I work along, compare one side to the other, fiddle around with the hull, un-reinforced hulls tend to get dented in or "oil can" on me. The very first ship model that I tried to build, Answer Models IJN Akizuki, one of my favorite IJN Destroyer designs got its' hull dented in and I keep it sitting up high on one of my bookcases to remind me of why I do what I do with ships' hulls.

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to have a place to store my hull in between work sessions so I decided to build up a base of sorts. Not wanting to destroy the covers of the booklet that it comes in, I used print outs from one of my other GreMir Models ship kits to provide the necessary parts. Using some balsa wood to glue the card parts to gave it a little substance. I did scan and then print out two sets of the Kiji nameplates from the back cover. Gluing them to sections of balsa wood and then in turn gluing the made up nameplates to the base assembly allowed me to come up with this.

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I used watercolors to change the overall color to something less like the original GreMir Model bases. It also served to cover up any white edges here and there. This will also make my IJN Kiji different from all the others out there by way of having a different base, one that is more in keeping with the other bases I have for ships in my collection.

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