Takom – 5023 – IJN Aircraft Carrier Akagi island and flight deck

Description:

IJN Aircraft Carrier Akagi island and flight deck
Pearl Harbor attack 1941

Unassembled plastic model kit in 1/72 scale depicting the “Island” and part of the flight deck of the Akagi, a Japanese aircraft carrier that played a significant role in the early stages of World War II, particularly during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Akagi was originally built as a battleship but was later converted into an aircraft carrier as part of Japan’s naval aviation expansion. During the Battle of Midway in June 1942, the Akagi was heavily damaged by U.S. carrier-based aircrafts and eventually sank.

Originally the Akagi carried an air group of 28 Mitsubishi B1M3 torpedo bombers, 16 Nakajima A1N fighters and 16 Mitsubishi 2MR reconnaissance aircraft. These 1920s aircrafts have little presence in our hobby. For the late 30s the Akagi embarked 12 Mitsubishi A5M Type 96 “Claude” fighters with four disassembled spares, 19 Aichi D1A “Susie” dive bombers with five spares, and 35 Yokosuka B4Y “Jean” horizontal/torpedo bombers with 16 spares. The configuration of the embarked air fleet changed during the years of service when new types were available and for the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Akagi carried B5N2 “Kate”, D3A1 “Val” and A6M2 “Zero”, 18 of each, and similar configuration was present in the Battle of Midway, when the carrier were sunk.

The model, interesting by itself, really becomes a must have as display for one of the aircrafts carried in the Akagi in the two main battles it took part, making this model a must have not only for ships lovers but for aircraft modelers too. with 35 cm width (24 cm for the flight deck area) and 36 cm length, it has space enough to at least display two aircrafts. This dimensions plus the around 28 cm height, makes it a quite big model for 1/72 scale. Parts are flash free and assembly is well engineered.