My 1942 IJNS Hiei design - working up.

[LouCoatney]

Hiei was the first Japanese battleship - maybe better classed fast battle cruiser - sunk by our U.S. Navy during World War 2, in (or rather the morning after) the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, which was a pointblank shootout and possibly the most desperate and savage naval battle of World War II. Admiral Halsey sent cruisers and destroyers to try to stop battlewagons Hiei and Kirishima from subjecting our Marines on Guadalcanal to another devastating 14" gun naval bombardment.

Both the inexperienced Admiral Daniel Callaghan he put in command and the very experienced Admiral Norman Scott - the victor in the previous Battle of Cape Esperance, where he had demonstrated his mastery of radar - were killed. We lost 4 destroyers and light antiaircraft cruiser USS Atlanta totally wrecked and then scuttled. The morning after, torpedo-crippled USS Juneau was blown up by a Japanese submarine torpedo - only 10 of the 700+ crew surviving after not being rescued for days and all 5 Sullivan brothers dying.

Hiei was heavily damaged by shellfire and possibly a torpedo and was finished off the next morning by every Guadalcanal aviator who could get at her, as well as USAAF B-17s from New Guinea. USS Washington would nail Kirishima a couple nights later.

Both H and K were Kongo class - Kongo herself being built in Britain and then her sisters built in Japan. Hiei had a conning tower different from her sisters and much like later super battleships Yamato's and Musashi's.

Here is my test-build of Hiei at the largest scale possible on an A4/letter-size piece of gray cardstock. I estimate her scale at about 1:1000.

I am designing her for use at 1:1200, since there are very very few plastic kits for WW2 IJN ships at that scale. I now have all the plastic/"kunststoff" Wiking 1:1250 USN ships - 2 each North Carolina class battleships, 2 Augusta class heavy cruisers (which were HARD to get even on German eBay), 2 or 3 Brooklyns, 2 or 3 Atlantas, and 3 or 4 Somer class destroyer leaders and 8 4-stackers ... as well as the Miniships/ESCI/Revell Yorktown class carrierrs. (I even have an absolutely exquisite kit-bashed USS Ranger CV-4, and Ranger was in the Atlantic.) And I have the 1:1200 Pyro Shokaku and Zuikaku carriers, as well as about 6 of the Pyro Essex class. (Yamato and Musashi ... as well as carrier variant Shinano ... have been produced in plastic by Miniships/ESCI/Revell, of course.)

I've already done the IJN light cruiser Jintsu and Shiratsuyu class destroyers, so with time, I'll have a balanced task force for my Wiking USN to chew on ... using my fast, simple Naval Action miniatures rules, of course.

I was anxious about the split-level hull and procrastinated doing the test-build for a year or more, but it went astonishingly well - all the key fits were dead solid perfect - there are only a couple corrections I need to make, before converting the ModelCAD file into PNG and/or jpg and colorizing it and then building that at the desired 1:1200.

With the hull solved, the different conning towers of the rest of the class won't be daunting. The catapult was on that deck extension abaft turret C ... or X, more correctly.

So the Kongos can be added to my book, to face off with the South Dakotas I have designed.

[Desertrat77]

Cant wait to see the finished project, its a beautiful job as always. Hoping to see them on your website when you feel like they're ready.

[LouCoatney]

The PNG/jpg-ing of IJNS Hiei - pronounced Hee-ay ... the latter syllable as in hay - proceeds, and I may have arrived at the final draft. Anyone want to test-build?

Setting the printer at Fit to Page, this should come out at 1:1200. (The Kongos were 700 feet long, so ....)

If I re-organize the pieces, there may be space for a regular Kongo class - Kirishima? - on an A4/letter size sheet too, when I get the bridge (with tripod supports) figured out.


Hmm ... The thumbnail isn't enlarging. I wonder if it's the full file ... for anyone wanting to try it. I'll be putting it up on CoatneyHistory soon.

[LouCoatney]

By the way, the floatplane icon is from one of my boardgames, and its pixel scale matched the Hiei plan's (pixel) scale PERFECTLY ... to use to do the 3-D from.

I credit it to clean living.

[wireandpaper]

THank you very much.
How is your book coming along?
Best regards.

[LouCoatney]

Well, it took me 10 years to finally do a brigade-and-up level game for the Battle of Moscow, w&p, and The Book has been a section in my computers for about 8 years, so ....

Thanks for asking.

Lou

[georgerutherford1861]

Looks great Lou! Glad to see you continuing to make progress. I can barely build models I start, much less design any, so I am grateful for whatever pace you choose to work at.

Doug

[LouCoatney]

So I went ahead and did Kirishima too!, and they are now on the same A4/letter size page under my free models webpage at Free Cardstock Paper Model World War 2/II Warships

I wonder if the gray is dark enough, though.

I am darkening it for a sheet of 8 of my 2010 design of the Shiratsuyu/Shigure class. And with the sheet of them being at 1:1200, the Long Lance torpedo mounts are getting greatly simplified.

[LouCoatney]

I've redone them. Their gray was not dark/evil enough.

[Desertrat77]

I cant wait to build it, after my KGVs and Nelson.. and all the Tribals..