Lion Roar

1/700 Imperial Japanese Navy Aircraft Carrier Mast Set I For the early war IJN carriers

Stock Number: LE700057

Reviewed By  Luke R. Bucci, PhD, IPMS# 33549

MSRP: $12.00 Thanks to Dragon Models USA for supplying the kit. (www.dragonmodelsusa.com) Bottom Line: This set is a must-have to help finish the early war IJN carriers Akagi, Soryu, Hiryu, Zuikaku, Shokaku, Ryuho, Shoho and Zuiho (but not Kaga - it had three types of radio masts). Photoetch Set Review: Lion Roar is selling a large line of 1/700 photoetch accessories for United States, Japanese and German WW2 navies. Instead of producing a photoetch set for a single ship that includes the gamut of pieces, Lion Roar usually supplies fittings generic to all ships or a class of ships. One of their recent issues is devoted exclusively to Radio Masts for early war carriers. At least three other photoetch sets cover the other IJN carriers of WW2. The photoetch set is made from thin stainless steel, and comes with a two-sided instruction sheet on how to fold the masts and which carriers they belong to. For Set I, Lion Roar has matched two different mast types to their carriers. According to photographs of Japanese carriers from the Mechanism of Japanese Aircraft Carriers book, it looks like the radio masts were accurately matched for early war carriers. There are enough masts for one Akagi (and one mast for Kaga), or three carriers from the other classes. Three circular radio antennas are also included. Thus, it costs about $3.00 more to outfit a carrier with photoetch radio masts, a reasonable value. The masts can be positioned up or lowered for flight ops, and additional pieces to show the proper lowered position are supplied. The detail on the cogs of the semicircular cam is amazing. The masts appear to be close to scale, meaning they are almost fragile. The pieces certainly are very small and require a delicate touch to remove from the fret, fold/bend and glue. Fortunately, stainless steel holds up well to folding, and the masts are easy to fold. Just be patient. Also, make sure you align the spreaders, crossbars and upper mast pieces according to the instructions. Compared to the kit pieces from the original waterline kits from Hasegawa and Aoshima, the photoetch masts are a very large upgrade. Instead of oversized, featureless sticks, or solid, patterned stumps, the photoetch masts are delicate and open. Although I only have one older IJN aircraft carrier photoetch set, it has simply small and large masts, which look fine, but may not be accurate for each carrier. Thus, Lion Roar has accurized radio masts for each IJN carrier, unlike other photoetch sets (although I have not had a thorough look at all other sets yet).

Summary Lion Roar has produced an ultimate set of radio masts for early war Japanese carriers in 1/700 scale. Accuracy and detail are unsurpassed. Assembly and manipulation are easy, and the finished masts look much more realistic than the original kit pieces. The value of this set is good, an important point in the expensive world of aftermarket sets that can cost several times the cost of the kit. Very highly recommended. In fact, you cannot go back to plastic radio masts. References: Mechanism of Japanese Aircraft Carriers. 1999. ISBN 4-7698-0896-8. [Note: This book was purchased in a Japanese bookstore and is entirely in Japanese, so I could not get a full citation.]

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