KIT REVIEW
Japanese Light Cruiser Mikuma

Tamiya 1/350 Scale

By Martin J Quinn

Japanese light cruiser Mogami running trials off Sukumo Bay, Shikoku, Japan, 20 Mar 1935
Photo courtesy of ww2bd.com

One of four Mogami-class cruisers, the Mikuma was laid down at Mitsubishi Yard in Nagasaki, Japan in December 1931, launched in May 1934 and commissioned into Imperial Japanese Navy in August 1935.   Named for a river in Oita Prefecture, the ship was originally classified as a light cruiser, carrying fifteen 6" guns in five triple turrets (Light cruisers carried main battery guns no larger than 6 inches and displace no more than 10,000 tons.  Anything with a larger caliber main battery would be classified a heavy cruiser). 

In 1939, the ship was refitted with the replacement of the existing 6 inch gun turrets with five turrets carrying two 8 inch guns each.   Additionally, a torpedo bulge was installed on the hull.   This brought the Mikuma up to heavy cruiser standards and pushed her displacement to over 13,000 tons.   Apparently, the USN was unaware that Mogami and Mikuma had been upgunned until the pair were photographed at the Battle of Midway.

Mikuma had an active, if brief war career.   As part of the First Southern Expeditionary Fleet, she was part of the covering force for the Japanese invasion of Malaya, Borneo, Sumatra and  Java between December and March, 1942.    On February 11, 1942, while escorting a convoy to Sumatra, both Mogami and Mikuma were attacked by the US submarine Searaven, but all four torpedoes missed.

Later that month, Mikuma was part of the force covering the invasion of Java, specifically the landings at Bantam Bay off the Sunda Strait.   On the night of February 28th, the Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth and the American heavy cruiser USS Houston, while trying to escape south of the Java barrier to Australia via the Sunda Strait, stumbled onto the invasion force.   Realizing the had little chance of escape, the Allied cruisers set upon the invasion force, which was screened by nothing more than a pair of destroyers.   

The covering force, including Mikuma, came to the aid of the landing force and engaged the two Allied cruisers.   In the wild melee that followed, both Perth and Houston were eventually sunk by torpedoes and gunfire, but not before Houston scored a hit on Mikuma, briefly knocking out the Japanese cruisers electrical power.  

With the Allied forces routed, Mikuma next participated in the Japanese Navy's raids into the  Indian Ocean, where the cruisers of Cruiser division 7 formed the core of a hunting group that scoured the Bay of Bengal, sinking numerous Allied merchantmen.  

Following the raids, Mikuma was briefly at Singapore, before returning to Japan and a short refit at the Kure Naval Yard.   Once her yard period was complete, she sailed for Guam on May 22, 1942 as part of Cruiser Division 7, where she joined the Midway Invasion Transport Group for Operation MI - the invasion of Midway.

Following the disaster that befell the Kido Butai on June 4th, CruDiv 7 - now some 400 miles distant - was ordered to shell Midway Island.    Accompanied by Destroyer Division 8, the cruisers made a high speed dash for Midway, but due to high seas, the destroyers fell behind and the order to attack was rescinded at around 3 am local time on the morning of June 5th, after the force had closed within about 90 miles of Midway Island.

As the force retired back towards the Japanese fleet, the Kumano spotted the US submarine USS Tambor riding on the surface.    Fearful of a torpedo attack, the Kumano executed an emergency 45° turn and signaled the others to follow suit.   Unfortunately, Mikuma made a 90° turn.   As a result the Mogami - which was next ship in line - rammed Mikuma right under the bridge.   The collision caused Mogami's bow to cave in Mikuma's oil tanks to rupture.   Escorted by two destroyers and Mikuma, Mogami began to limp home, while the rest of CruDiv 7 and DesDiv 8 retired independently.

US search planes found the cruisers, and around 530, they were attacked by B-17s flying at high altitude, but emerge unscathed.   Around 800, a dozen SBD Dauntlesses and SB2U Vindicators from Midway  attacked and again the retiring force was undamaged.

On the morning of June 6th, over 30 SBDs from Enterprise and Hornet attacked the retreating Japanese - the first of three separate bombing attacks.   Each of the escorting destroyers was hit once, and the Mogami was hit by at least six bombs, wrecking the rear turrets and superstructure (the result of this damage was part of the reason to convert her to an aircraft carrying cruiser).

Mikuma was hit with at least five bombs, which cause significant damage to the forecastle, bridge and the amidships area.   The resulting fires set off ammunition and finally some of the torpedoes, which caused fatal damage and numerous casualties.   After destroyers removed as many survivors and wounded as possible, Mikuma rolled over and sank sometime around dusk on June 6, 1942.   There are conflicting sources that state one of the destroyers, or sistership Suzuya came back to remove survivors and then scuttled the ship.

Another destroyer was sent back to search for more survivors, but none were found.    On June 9th, the US submarine Trout found two survivors clinging to wreckage, and took them prisoner after fishing them from the water.

For more information, check out the Mikuma's Tabular Record of Movement (TROM) at the Combined Fleet website, where much of the above information came from.   Other sources include the Naval Historical Center and Wikipedia.

Following the release of the Aircraft Carrying and Heavy cruiser versions of Mogami, Tamiya has released the earlier, "Light Cruiser" version of this class as Mikuma (Tamiya # TAM78022).   Having already had a the aforementioned versions in 1/700 scale, this was the release I was most interested in.

When you open the box, you'll find bagged plastic sprues and the instruction booklet laid upon a cardboard insert.   On one side of the box is a second, higher, cardboard insert with a fret of photo-etch bagged and stapled to the insert.   Lifting the sprues and instructions out reveals a profile drawing of the ship on the cardboard.   Lifting this out reveals the rest of the parts of the, also secured in individual plastic bags.
 

The upper hull is a two piece affair, and is also water lined for those who prefer their ships to look as they do in their natural habitat.   The hull has nice detail, along with some well done horizontal hull plating.   Mikuma was a pretty big ship, the hull is about 22.5" long.  However, according to my calculations, that is still about 1/4 inch short if you scale down the real ship.   The model comes with a one piece lower hull (cast in red) and a water line plate (also cast in red).     Also in the box is a black plastic stand.  At the bottom of all these goodies is a large color plan and profile view of the ship in 350th scale. As previously mentioned, there is a photo-etched fret include in the box - this contains trolleys and bridles for the aircraft, along with parts for the crane.

There are a total of 8 sprues in the bag.  The deck is split into four pieces over Sprues B and L.   The deck parts are the fore deck/fo'clse, the forward part of the main deck on sprue B, wile the aft part of the main deck (aircraft handling deck) and the aft/quarterdeck and on sprue L.   Also included on these sprues are the hull stiffeners (B) and superstructure parts & gun directors

The detail is typical Tamiya quality, but on their 1/700 kits, the main deck is one piece, not two, so it will be interesting to see how these two pieces fit together in this scale.

 Sprue C has the funnel, various superstructure parts and gun tubs.  Sprue M has masts, funnel piping and the crane.   Again, everything is nicely done, with some nice molded on relief detail, especially on the air intakes on the funnel.

There are two each of Sprues H and N.   H has the ships boats, torpedo tubes and searchlight platforms, while N has the main battery gun turrets and gun barrels, aircraft, catapults and anti-aircraft guns.   The main battery turrets have raise rivet detail which is very well done, and the main battery gun barrels not only come in two versions - raised or level - but all the barrels have blast bags.   The barrels themselves are pretty nicely done for plastic - super detailers might want to replace them with brass barrels, as well as use photo-etch for the catapults and searchlight platforms.  The ships boats on sprue N are really nice - with planking detail on the outside of the smaller cutters and the same level of detail on the insides of the boats.

  The instruction booklet is a 23 page affair, done up in the usual Tamiya style with drawings and text in multiple languages.   Very simple and easy to follow. 

As I've said in a previous review of the Hasegawa Yahagi, ship modelers are living in their own "Golden Age of Modeling".   High quality, large scale IJN subjects just keep coming from a variety of manufacturers, with no end in sight.   I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that within the next 3-5 years we'll see just about every major class of IJN warship available in 1/350 in injection molded plastic.  

Tamiya's release of Mikuma fits the current trend - it's a very high quality release of a subject not previously available in injection molded plastic in 1/350 scale.   In the box, the parts appear to be well molded and nicely details.    This will most likely be an impressive build right out of the box, but I intend to wait for an appropriate photo-etch set to be released before tackling her.  Mikuma is available at most major on-line retailers - I'm sure you can find or order one at your favorite hobby shop as well.

If you are an IJN fan, a gun ship or cruiser fan, you'll want to add this to your collection.  Highly Recommended.