IJN I-58 LATE
VERSION
Tamiya - 1/700
By: Mike Quan
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Tamiya has not released an original tool for a waterline submarine in 700th for quite a while so the choice of the I-58, victor over the USS Indianapolis on the night of July 30, 1945 after Indy had delivered material for the A-bomb, was a natural choice.
Unusually, Tamiya already had a release of the I-58 in their catalog; a long
dated release paired with the I-16 submarine. Both these versions were of early
war configuration. The I-58 was depicted in that first release equipped for
its fleet scouting role equipped with an E14Y1 Glen floatplane in an enclosed
hangar and a deck catapult. The latest release depicts the final configuration
of the I-58 as a Kaiten carrier or mother ship. Kaitens were the manned suicide
torpedoes used in the desperate final days of World War II by the Japanese in
an attempt to inflict damage on the Allied shipping massed off Japanese territory.
| This kit consists of a single sprue containing 33 parts crisply molded in the usual Tamiya blue-gray used for all their waterline ships. The detail is very fine and demonstrates the skill of Tamiya mold-makers. Delicate deck plank seams and hatches are featured on the horizontal decking, while the hull and conning tower feature scale vent holes and the first or at least certainly the most crisp and accurate) rendition of a degaussing cable seen in 700th scale. |  |