Pit-Road 1/700
IJN Torpedo Cruiser Kitakami
Box Art
Reviewed by Timothy Dike
The Japanese converted a couple of their light cruisers to be used as Torpedo Cruisers. The Kitakami was one such ship with a potent array of 10 torpedo launchers located amidships. With the deadly sucess of the Japanese torpedo, this could have been a formidable weapon, but advances in carrier avaition doomed it's use. The Kitakami was later converted to a transport.
The hull is well detailed with  lots of sharp well defined features. Most of the superstructure is molded to the hull and has little side detailing, so a good set of photo etch doors and hatches is a must. 
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The weapons are the typical sharp Pit-Road quality and even the funnel grills look nice. 

The decal sheet includes flags and ship markings. They are well registed.

The instructions are good, consisting of a little history and several exploded views showing the various subassemblies. It is straight forward and easy to follow.
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Typical of the water line series of kits this one has a painting guide on the back of the box with color numbers for the Pitroad and Guze Sangyo line of paints. The art work is pretty detailed and includes rigging. 
Conclusions:

This is a nice kit for anyone wanting to build an IJN Torpedo Cruiser. It is identical to kit #46 the IJN Oi. Add a some PE rails and rigging and you have a real nice representation of one of Japan's best class of destroyers. This is kit #W47 and has a current retail of  $28.00 US.


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