¹⁄700

IJN Seaplane Tender Chiyoda

"MSW Crew-mate Alec Cap (bigal07) shares another gallery of images of one of his unique subject builds, with Aoshima's IJN seaplane tender Chiyoda the spotlight of this "On Display" feature!"

Model Kit-IJN seaplane tender Chiyoda by Aoshima, 1/700 scale, #4545

I can't honestly see the purpose of the raised platform occupying the centr of this ship, while the instruction and brief write-up that come with the model doesn't say...it's quite possible an overhead crane system was used to raise and lower her mini submarines.

The PE set was from Tom's tender set, plus Lionroar 2 rail, using both Tamiya weathering master and pigments for the rust, dirt and basic unclean look.

From the submarine depot ship, to the oilers, this airplane tender must have been titanic in the real world. A typical battleship in 1-700 scale measures just over 12 inches, this tender comes in at a staggering 11 inches dwarfing the Maru series in the same scale.

This was a model that I feel was missing in parts, and in appearance, just seemingly a lot of empty space..a forerunner of the multi- use surface ship, part supply, light cruiser, aircraft carrier and midget attack submarine carrier.