Design
Several preliminary designs were prepared featuring options of nine guns in three turrets and eight guns in four turrets. All these designs approached 91,000tons standard displacement or more, which was deemed too large and expensive to be practical. Smaller iterations were also considered, but again expense and practical considerations such as the lack of time, inadequate construction yards, and insufficient port facilities worked against the designs.

Eventually, a design was chosen that relied heavily on the improved version of the Yamato class battleships. This design featured six 51cm guns mounted in three twin turrets on a Yamato sized and shaped hull of approximately 71,000 tons displacement with a top speed of 27 knots. The secondary battery was drawn from the No. 797 plan and would have likely featured the Type 98 10ccm/65cal twin DP mounts featured on the Akizuki class destroyers. The number of mounts is unknown, but it was likely to have been six enclosed turrets and four to six open mounts. Improved armor arrangements, underwater protection, fire controls and AA were also drawn from the improved Shinano and 797 designs. The new design was given the basic plan number A-150. No names were ever officially selected for the designs. Japanese naming conventions for battleships have suggested “Kii” and “Owari” as possible names, which are drawn from an earlier class of Super Dreadnought battleship projected as part of Japan’s 8-8 Fleet plan of the early 1920’s. 

History
Unlike Shinano and her sister, these 51cm designs were never laid down. The IJN’s emphasis on battleships had begun to fade by the time hostilities commenced in December 1941. Six months later, the debacle at Midway involving the loss of four front line Japanese aircraft carriers shifted warship construction priorities completely away from battleships. So much so that Shinano herself was converted into an aircraft carrier while No. 111 was dismantled, despite it being 30% complete. 

To accommodate the construction of No. 798 while Nos 110 and 111 were under construction, a new naval arsenal and drydock had been nominally established in Oita prefecture on Beppu Bay, Kyushu (where it lay to the southwest from Kure across the Inland Sea.) However, construction had barely started before the war ended. 

The fabrication of two of the 51-centimeter guns as prototypes was ordered in mid-1941 for trials at the Kure Naval Arsenal, along with detailed designs of their turrets. The barrels were finished but never fully assembled into a working prototype. No information exists as to what happened to the remains of these guns. 
 

Just released in August 2025, VeryFire’s new 1/350 Super Yamato kit has a limited-edition run of 1000 units, worldwide. It’s a deluxe version kit with full PE and 3D printed parts based on VeryFire’s own, recently released Yamato kit. Given this new kit’s basis in the Yamato kit, this review will focus on the new parts that differentiate it from the Yamato (and Musashi) kits.

At a guess, approximately 85 to 90% of the styrene portion of the kit is carried over from the Yamato kit. The main points of differentiation are the main (51cm), tertiary (10cm), and quaternary (40mm) armaments. The only substantial structural change is the 01 deck that surrounds the central superstructure and holds new tertiary battery mounts.

Likewise, most of the turned brass is carried over from the Yamato kit, save for the main battery barrels. There is also a greater reliance on 3D printed parts for the smaller armaments, fire controls, signaling equipment and radars. In turn, there are a great many pieces on several Yamato sprues that go unused, which is great for the spares box. There are also some changes to the photoetch frets that come with the kit to accommodate the changes in fit. 

To reference the fundamental styrene injected parts from the original kits, please see Martin Quinn’s November 2024 review of the Veryfire Musashi kit here:

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/ships/ijn/bb/Musashi-350-vf/VeryFire350Musashi.htm

The review sample was missing Sprue E, which carries the aircraft handling deck as well as the unused decks that surround the central superstructure for the late war Yamato. Veryfire was very prompt about acknowledging its absence and in shipping out a replacement piece upon notification. They noted that Sprue E was omitted from the sprue display in the instructions, and their warehouse neglected to include it in our review kit. 

Also worth noting is that there is no Sprue IF, which carries the parts to a F1M1 “Pete” reconnaissance floatplane and catapult. An additional Sprue IG has been included instead. This substitutes one E13A “Jake” floatplane and catapult for the Pete.

Parts on several sprues are meant to be ignored such as the styrene searchlights and the single and triple 25mm barrels for the enclosed AA mounts. These are replaced by new 3D printed parts and weapons. 

At first glance, the decal sheet appears to be the same as those included with the Veryfire Yamato and Musashi kits, but there are differences, particularly the aircraft tail codes.

The color plate page shows Kii in an imaginary two tone green plus gray camouflage scheme that’s vaguely reminiscent of the immobilized Takao and Myoko at Singapore in 1945. It appears to be very similar to the scheme worn by this design in the World of Warships online game. 

Color schemes for the ship’s boats and aircraft occupy the bottom of the page. Colors are keyed to an unidentified paint line which is likely Gunze Sangyo; the color callouts seem correct. The decals are coded by number and laid out accordingly on the illustrations in a straightforward manner. 

One accompanying photo displays the identicality of the Yamato/Musashi parts in the top row, with the Kii parts on the bottom. Two other photos focus on the difference between the 51cm and 46cm barrels of the Kii and Yamato/Musashi kits, respectively. 

For the most part, the frets are very similar to what’s included in the Yamato and Musashi kits, though not completely identical to them. Frets A and C are identical, while at least one half of B, D and E have been altered in layout.

Bridge mounted wind baffles raft
 

150cm searchlights raft
 

12cm binoculars, paravanes, stanchions, windlass raft
 

Type22 radar, 40cm signal lights, single 25mm AA raft
 

Twin 10cm barrel mountings for enclosed turret raft
 

Sandbags (for open triple 25mmAA on deck) raft
 

Twin 40mm AA barrels raft 
 

Twin 10cm barrel mountings for open mount raft
 

10cm open mounts raft
 

15cm blast bags raft
 

51cm blast bags raft
 

Triple 25mm AA barrels raft x 2
 

Triple 25mm AA mounts raft x 2
 

Rangefinders, FC directors, radars
 

Catapult innards and assorted parts raft
 

Enclosed 40mm AA turrets raft x 2
 

Hexagonal 25mm AA bandstands for main turrets raft
 

Enclosed 10cm turrets raft
 

Bases for 10cm turrets raft
 

Support bases for Type 94HA directors
 

Like all photoetch addition sets, it helps to carefully review these instructions in conjunction with the basic instructions, particularly if one is replacing injection pieces with 3D printed ones. 

Highly detailed with an extensive array of sharply molded parts, fans of battleships, what-if designs, and the World of Warships will find this one hard to resist. Assuming they can find it at all, given that it’s a limited-edition run of 1000 units worldwide.

Highly recommended.

This is the Veryfire 1/350 IJN Kii Super Yamato Deluxe Kit # BELBV350908DX?Limited Edition). The official list price for this deluxe kit is US $208.00, with shipping, taxes, duty, etc. as extra. Supplies are very limited, so resellers with inflated prices are to be expected. 

This review sample was sent to us, courtesy of Veryfire, which was most unexpected and very welcome.