Building the Tamiya Harusame 1/700 Scale Destroyer

Transcript*

Dedicated to Shunsaku Tamiya

This video is dedicated to Mr. Shunsaku Tamiya who sadly passed away earlier this week at the age of 90. Uh the week uh as I’m filming this video. Um and uh yes uh what a what a tragic passing. Um and truly the passing of the greatest of all time in the hobby. uh if you don’t know who he is, he took over his dad’s empire in the 70s and has since prepare uh propelled Tamiya to heights previously unknown.

It was incredible to watch. He made my childhood uh you know when I was in the Philippines, we had many four-wheel drives. That was the craze back then in the early 2000s. It still is a craze in Japan and Asia, but now uh it transformed into using a lot of his products as I do Warhammer and DND and such. And many of you guys enjoy his model kits uh which he has plenty of involvement on, especially kits from the 80s.

Uh so uh what a force of nature, a true uh pioneer. His attention to detail is unmatched. Um and I just want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts here at Sunward. Thank you. uh and thank you for transforming Tamiya into the greatest hobby company of all time. And even if you don’t have uh a Tamiya product in your home, which you have one, uh you have a product that was influenced by Mr. Tamiya. So again, rest in peace, King. Thank you.

Intro

In honor of Mr. Tamiya, I’m starting out my very first ship kit. I’ve never done ships. I’ve always done tanks, mostly in Warhammer, but some real world tanks, but I’ve never done ships. I’ve never done cars. I’ve never done Well, I have done planes a little bit.

Uh mostly Airfix, but yes, this will be my first ship. Uh and I will take it easy. It’s 1/700, one of their older kits from the ‘9s, I believe. Uh so yeah, hopefully things work out. I’ve never done it before, and frankly, I’m a little scared. Oh, and before I open it, this is the um older version of the Harusame. Uh this is from our pre-owned estate section.

Um we are selling the newer version of this box. And you can tell it’s the newer version versus the old because the old only has Japanese in the diagram showing showing where the colours would be. The newer version has the Japanese in the diagram, but also has the paint codes. So believe one of the paint codes is XF2, XF1. it would tell you like that that part right there would be XF1 for example.

Unboxing

So yeah, it would show you uh so anyway, let’s open it. And uh by the way, this is the older designation code right there. So yeah, that’s how you know if you have the older box or the new. Let’s see. Oh, it’s just a single sprue. I was well, technically there’s one two sprues really. So that caught me off guard. Uh, let’s see the manual.

Okay, just one sheet. Most Tamiya kits are really just one sheet instructions. Um, all right. This might be simpler than I thought, but there are a lot of small parts. Who knows? Let’s actually inspect the main sprue here for a sec. And you know what?

Quality is not bad considering this is an old mould from Tamiya . I may have to clean up some of the cannons here, the barrels. Uh, but otherwise looks pretty good. Yeah. All right. Little minimal cleanup just on the cannons. Now, unfortunately, this is a waterline kit. Uh, it would have been nice if this was, you know, the full thing.

Uh, but waterline, if I’m not mistaken, is the most popular ship line for Tamiya. I guess that makes sense even just for like ease of like display. I mean this is infinitely I guess better for display at least for ease of use than a full ship. Unless you have the specific stand, right? You wouldn’t be able to display your ship.

Outils

So I guess that makes sense. So for the building process, we will be using Tamiya’s uh sharp pointed side cutter right here. an excellent product uh by an excellent company. Uh and of course the greatest of all time here, Tamiya Extra Thin Cement. You know as well as I do how effective Tamiya Extra Thin is. And bit of a newcomer to the videos.

We have tweezers if necessary. This is the self-closing one by Excel. And this is just your standard uh 15001 I believe uh hobby knife by Excel. And that’s for trimming.

Start of the Build

The knife is for trimming. These turrets are so small. Now I understand why people need magnifiers. This is so tiny. My goodness. Okay, it’s number one. Uh it’s Oh, come on. Okay. Just have to position them properly facing forwards in a neutral position. Yeah. Yeah. Good.

Chimney Build

Chimney time. And of course, I do realize that uh just watching it step by step is a little boring. Uh and what I’m going to do is if there anything that stands out, I will focus on that particular step. But I will be building uh and then show like and then building it in the back and then showing you the completed piece, but not me actually putting it together.

Okay, we literally have gone nowhere. I’m breaking my own rule essentially. But look how small these pieces are. These are the tops of the chimneys, both of them. Maybe I should have stuck with a 1350 model of a smaller ship. And sorry if I’m, you know, blocking it uh from the bottom. Just trying to catch the pieces from falling. Look at this.

Oh, look at that. They’re like pebbles. Not even like grains of rice. What is that? It’s ridiculous.

Paul’s First Lost Part

So, yeah. Look at that. Um, yeah. See that small part that I was just talking about? I was about to trim it and I accidentally dropped it because it was so small even with a tweezer and I dropped it and I can’t find it. So, mistake number one already happened and I’m 5 minutes into the build. What is going on, man? Oh, but you know what?

Maybe people won’t notice. People, maybe people, will notice. Hopefully. All right. After step four, I believe the greater ship is just uh a bunch of parts that we actually just connect directly onto the hole. These first four parts are just the ones we the tiniest parts of it, but hey, who knows? Okay, I’m using the chimney from A or step to A over here. Not bad. Not bad.

Turret Assembly

All right. Now we move on to the main hole. Uh, now that’s done. And this is going to be probably the easiest yet most time consuming part of the build itself just because there are really very few to small parts remaining besides like the turrets itself. These hook things are or were annoying to put on, but they weren’t the worst.

So, midkit review or mid build review. Uh, so far it’s been interesting. I wouldn’t say it was the worst, but I wouldn’t say it’s the best either, but mostly because my it’s my first time working with such small parts. Uh yeah, these contain the smallest parts I’ve ever worked with. Um maybe it was a mistake for a first time, you know, uh hobbyist who has decent experience under his belt to work with 700 scale.

Who knows? Uh but yes, I’m going to be moving on to step six now. So far, I’m rating the experience about a 7 out of 10. I’m having some sort of fun. Um and it is coming together. So, I’ve installed this entire section here for the rules, right? Installing this and this. Uh, yeah, the chimney doesn’t look too bad. It’s not really that noticeable unless you uh look for it. But obviously, now that we’re looking at it, it looks obvious. But it’s my first time. It’s my first time.

Decals and Weight Bar

So, I was about to throw out the packaging here, but I noticed this had some weight to it. So, there there must be something inside. Looks like a lot of gum. Well, okay. Well, there’s the decal sheet. Very small. Uh, okay.

If you guys didn’t know, this flag is still in use today by the Japanese Navy. uh now officially known as the Japanese Self-Defense Force, right? At least that’s the overall force. Yeah, they still have a navy and they still use this flag. Um and then this in when it like fell out, I’m like actually it is a wad of gum.

No, it’s not a wad of gum at all. This is just a steel bar. Oh, it goes here. Okay. Wait. Oh, wait. What? What’s the purpose of this? Is this magnetized? No, it’s not. So, why is there a steel bar? Just for purely weight purposes. But hey, I’m going to keep it there. It’s telling me to put it there. So, it does feel nice. More a little bit more hefty.

Paul’s Second Lost Part

All right. So, I lost another part update. Uh I lost this a looking thing there. Um and it’s bigger than its brothers or sisters. And I I didn’t lose those. So, I don’t know. I don’t know how I did that. I managed to keep the small uh ones and the one medium-sized one I lost. It goes right here on the ship, by the way. Right there where the two holes are. And it’s supposed to meet it at the top right there. What is it supposed to be? Like the antenna.

Yeah. Like this one. Basically, a smaller version of this where it kind of connects there. Yeah. Yeah. And I’ll show you guys my floor here. Yeah, look at this. It’s uh it’s resin flooring uh with white, grey, and black dots. The perfect camouflage to lose uh a slender gray plastic part. It’s Yeah, I spent 15 minutes trying to look for it. I lost another part. I’m so sorry, Mr. Tamiya.

Progress Overview

Let’s review where we’re at right now in the build. Right now, uh I’m waiting for this super glue to dry. I did use super glue for the met uh the metal part here to attach it to the hull. I don’t know if that’s wise or not, but hey, that’s what I did.

Um and as I already told you, I did lose two parts. So, the part right here and then the part on the chimney right there. The chimney one is less obvious. Um, but yeah, the ant actually even the antenna part is kind of not so obvious either.

So, those are the two parts that I lost currently. Right now, I am trimming um and cleaning up because this is a the pre-owned version. This is not the actual commercial version they’re selling right now. Uh not the more more modern version. So, uh there’s a lot decent amount of cleanup to do on the sculpt here. Was it wise to leave it for last to clean up? No. Terrible idea, actually. Very stupid of me. Choo choo. Wait, that’s a train.

Okay. Okay. I was about to say like it looks good already, but obviously I haven’t connected it yet. So, did I have fun with the kit? As you can see by the noise I just made or attempted to, uh, yes, I had quite a bit of fun with this kit. It’s still a to me a kit at the end of the day despite me fumbling two parts because of how tiny they are.

Uh yes, this is still a very enjoyable kit. It is still putty-free. Um and despite its old age, it has aged incredibly well. Um I didn’t even feel the urge to grab putty for this. Uh there’s no panel gaps or anything. Um quite a simple um job actually.

Build Only

Now, it looks so good from the side, man. It It really does. The one advantage of the Waterline series over its predecessor, it looks really good. Nice. Imagine if the green board was diorama. This would kill, dude. Oh, wow. Thank you guys so much for watching.

Paul’s Conclusion

I had a lot of fun with this kit and hopefully you enjoyed my first foray into Tamiya’s uh, larger stock beyond a couple of tanks. Um, and that was a lot of fun. Uh, and that’s all anyone can really ask for. That’s all Mr. Tamiya can ask for by reputation anyway.

I don’t know the guy, of course. Uh, that although that would be nice. Um, but yeah, reputation wise, that’s all he can ask for as well. And yeah, it was an experience to say the least, and I didn’t expect it from a kit that old. Uh, but it provided me with uh a couple of laughs and an enjoyable time. The paint job will take time.

Um, even beyond the paint job, I have to clean it up a little bit uh because of certain things here and there. Uh, but you know, it comes with the age of the kit. It is expected. Um, but because of the cleanup, I can’t guarantee that it is the next one. Um, but yeah, thank you guys so much for watching. Rest in peace to Mr. Tamiya.

Condolences to his family.

I’ll see you guys next time. Bye-bye.

About the Author:

Paul Catindig As someone who’s been building model kits since he was 8 years old, Paul is very knowledgeable and adept at model kit building! When he’s not building or painting kits, he spends his free time cooking, playing video games with friends, or at a restaurant patio somewhere. Hopes to make his very own movie one day.

*Video by Paul Catindig
Video Edited by Daniela Castellano
Transcript generated by youtube
Edited by Angelo Castellano