There were three groupings, known as the Special Type I, Type II and Type III.

For the first few months of the Pacific war beginning in December, 1941, she and her division supported operations and landings throughout Southeast Asia.  She participated in the Battle of Endau as well as the Battle of Sunda Strait. More escort operations followed, including the accompaniment of the Japanese Main Body during the Battle of Midway.

DesDiv 11 was enroute to the Indian Ocean for a raiding foray when the United States landed troops on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in early August, 1942. By late August, DesDiv 11 was involved in the Guadalcanal campaign; at first, escorting troop convoys between Truk and Rabaul, then finally engaging in gunfire support, interdiction, and troop transport missions to Guadalcanal itself. Fubuki participated in eleven such missions in less than five weeks time.

On October 11-12, 1942, she and sister Hatsuyuki were direct escorts to Cruiser Division 6 heavy cruisers Aoba, Kinugasa, Furutaka, and Kako on a night mission to bombard Henderson Airfield on Guadalcanal.  Enroute, they unexpectedly ran into a USN cruiser-destroyer group that badly battered the Japanese force.  Fubuki was raked at close range by fire from numerous US heavy cruisers and sank quickly.  Only 109 of her crew survived.

Still, both company’s offerings have some significant flaws. Either for reasons of economy, or lack of adequate references, or both, Tamiya chose to utilize the same hull for all three Fubuki Types. While no single hull could have accommodated all three versions, they chose the short forecastle version which represents only some of the Type I ships, and virtually none of the others.   Doing so led to compromises with the appearance of the later Type ship kits.  The aft deckhouse was also incorrect, as were several smaller details, along with an overall lack of fine detailing that was typical of kits at that time.

The Pit-Road kits improved on the hull issues by providing proper hulls for both the short and long forecastle Type I ships as well as the long forecastle hull for the Type II and III ships. Likewise, a proper aft deckhouse was provided for, along with a host of more accurate parts and assemblies, and fine overall detailing. 

Despite their great improvement over the Tamiya kits, Pit-Road’s Fubuki kits still have their share of issues. They compromised on the shape of the funnel intakes to equip the Type II & Type III ships, but with a shape that really serves neither that well. Their deck equipment layouts match the ships as originally built, not as they were refit and appeared during the Pacific War. The bridge bases for the Type III ships are a few millimeters too short.  There are other issues as well, but perhaps most egregious lapse was the complete omission of proper funnels for the Type I ships, something that Tamiya had managed fairly well three decades earlier. 

Into this accuracy gap between the two manufacturers has stepped Yamashita Hobby. Yamashita Hobby is a relatively new, small Japanese model kit manufacturer that occupies a very specialized niche in 1/700 IJN modeling.  Branching out from its start with precision modeling tools, it has broadened its offerings by producing upgraded, high quality, highly detailed versions of select 1/700 IJN ship based weapons and equipment in styrene plastic.  This is not too dissimilar from what FineMolds (NanoDread series) and Pit-Road (NE series) has done as of recent, though Yamashita’s choices have been to either improve on or to fill in where neither of the two larger companies has gone.

It seems clear that Yamashita has chosen to exploit the gap in offerings for an accurate 1/700 Fubuki Type I kit. This kit is a logical step in their growth, offering an entirely new kit to satisfy a poorly executed class of ship. 

Straight out of the box, this kit can be built as Fubuki, Shirayuki, Shinomone, Usugumo, or Shirakumo 
The fit out-of-the-box is immediate pre-war and early war fit through the end of 1942.  Additional modifications would be needed to build it into a late war kit for Usugumo or Shirakumo, the only two sisters to survive long enough to get the full refits of 1943.

The beauty of the kit hull is marred by a couple of issues, one of them significant.

The primary problem is that the hull hogs noticeably; on my kit it was close to 1.5mm in the middle.  On closer examination, with various portions of the hull bottom fitted against a flat edge, it seems the hogging begins where the forecastle breaks down to the main deck (approx. 1/3 way back from bow) and continues back to the stern to a point where the very stern deck is covered by treaded plate. Part of the problem may be that the hull sides are a bit on the thin side when compared to other destroyer kits, so the hull cannot keep its form on its own.  This distressing problem was not limited to my kit. I visually confirmed it with a second kit, and a third kit was so confirmed by another board member. 

The hogging won’t be a big problem for those who affix the hull to a stand or diorama plate. However, it will be for someone like me, who prefers to display the kits in a standalone fashion.  Truthfully, a satisfactory fix is not immediately evident to me. The main deck does not appear to be sturdy enough to remedy the problem on its own when glued together to the hull, even after using weights to hold it down while the glue dries. I suppose that a very stiff bar like a waterline weight might work if glued down with CA cement. Perhaps a better solution will eventually appear after enough folks have built the kit. (Updated 10/25:  1) another board member has reported attempting a fix using a stiff metal plate epoxied to the hull and clamped until dry, with no success; 2) a Japanese modeling website has suggested notching the hull out itself, which seems promising but requires a very delicate touch, particularly given both the thinness of the hull siding and the plate seam details.) 

A secondary issue is that the lower portion of the bow as it approaches the waterline is erroneous in profile. The kit profile line enters the water in near vertical fashion when, in fact, it should show more of a curve as it enters the water.  The profile can be easily corrected with some sanding, but doing so would create a third problem, that of eliminating the raised hull plating lines that wrap around the bow. This would be technically more correct, as the plating at the bow wrapped around either side and showed no seam lines at the bow itself.  However, one would have to show a very carefully delineation between the seams and the area around the bow. 

The hull scales out exceptionally well, excepting for extra length at the waterline due to the profile error. Fubuki’s particulars versus the scale and kit:
 

Overall Length:	118.41m/388.5’	1/700 OA length:	169.16mm	Kit OA length:	169.25mm
Waterline Length:	115.3m/378’	1/700 WL length:	164.7mm	Kit WL length:	165.7mm
Beam:	10.4m/34’1”	1/700 Beam:	14.85mm	Kit Beam:	15mm

 

The forecastle deck is extremely well done, showing the turtleback sides at the decks edge, the spurnwaters running to either side, the base site for # 1 mount, treaded deck plate around the anchor deck, bollards, boat chocks, molded on anchor chain, and linoleum tie-down strips. It appears to be very accurate for a Type I.

Funnel #s 1 and 2 have been molded as part of the air intake housing and torpedo mount platform that sits on the main deck. Unlike the other Fubuki kits, this is a separate assembly from the deck, which will greatly aid the painting of the main deck with minimal effort as no laborious taping off of this structure will be necessary. As with the rest of the kit, the parts are sharply molded with good detail, including the prominent raised seams that cover the air intakes. Similarly, grab rails for the funnels are there, too. 

The great news about the funnels is that they are properly sized and shaped, specifically for the Type I ships. Yamashita even went so far as to include a slightly widened lip band at the top of the funnels, something unique to the Type I versions. It’s a hard to notice detail on the real ships without a close-up of the funnel, so this enhancement is probably a bit overscale on the kit, but it really doesn’t bother me. I see it as a sign of Yamashita’s commitment to detail.

However, what I do find very puzzling, and a bit detracting, is their decision to include the auxiliary funnel piping by molding them onto the funnel itself.  Virtually all other kit makers mold these details separately, and to good effect. In fact, they’ve done so for decades. The piping itself is finely wrought.

The disappointment with this choice becomes more apparent as you view the funnels from above, directly forward, or from directly aft of the funnels, particularly with #2 funnel. The molded on aspect of the piping juts out as a solid block of plastic, at total odds with the detailing of the rest of kit. I suppose that with a steady hand and a good scribing tool, these pipes can be made to appear as if they were kitted separately from the funnel. 
 

Onto the compass bridge deck, where the interior of the compass deck has molded pedestals for binoculars and the compass binnacle, all together on a raised platform. It will greatly aid anyone who looks to detail the interior of the bridge, particularly with open PE framing for bridge windows.  The piece for the roof of this position is molded equally well, with another pedestal for the open observation tub on top. 
 

Again, everything is finely detailed and properly scaled. The torpedo bay access hatches are clearly defined and shaped, a detail that is clearly lacking in all the other Fubuki class kits. The mainmast is incredibly fine, maybe the truest to scale that I’ve seen in 1/700 for a Japanese destroyer, with molded on detail.  It could probably support stretched sprue, but nothing more.   The motor launches are also scaled nicely, though somewhat devoid of detail
 

The deck is a beautiful piece that fits nicely into the hull with two large locator pins.  However, it’s on the thin side and I don’t see it as doing much in the way of helping to maintain a flat hull
 

The breakdown and detail of the torpedo tubes is on a par, if not superior, to the Fubuki class version issued by Pit-Road in its NE07 equipment set. In fact, the relief on the depth charge rack is superior to that of any of Pit-Road’s versions.  However, replacement by a photo etch version is still preferable, in my opinion.

For anyone who ever chiseled off the molded-on deck reels on the waterline kits and then wondered why all the better detailed replacements seemed so much larger, the answer is that no one was willing, or able, to mold them small enough to be in scale with any reasonable detail. The same can be said of the mushroom vents.  That is, until now. These pieces are fantastic, but incredibly tiny.  Be forewarned; the carpet monster is waiting!

I will say that Yamashita did take care to list the sprue number next to every part number, which helps greatly to eliminate confusion. 

Has Yamashita produced a proper Fubuki Type I in 1/700? Almost. The class specific details are there but this is one of those instances where, unfortunately, the sum of the parts doesn’t quite add up to a superior model. I think the hull hogging issue detracts from the overall impact of the model. Again, this won’t be a problem for those who tend to affix their hulls to a flat surface, so, yes, it will prove to be a superior model for them. Perhaps not as much for the rest of us, I think. 

Kit courtesy of my wallet, form Hobbylink Japan. I don’t think these are yet on sale in the US, but the cost at HLJ was approximately US$10.50, plus shipping.