The Kagero type was an improved version of the preceeding Asashio class destroyer, with slightly more powerful engines, a slightly higher top speed, improved turning radius, and a re-positioning of the forward torpedo reloads bays and torpedo reload equipment for improved reload performance and better overall stability.  In fact, the Kageros benefitted greatly from the early issues that plagued the Asashios, so much so that the Kageros had essentially none.

Aside from the changes to the forward torpedo reloads, they were nearly identical in appearance to their immediate predecessors; mounting the same armament of six 5" guns in Type C turrets, two twin 25mm AA and eight 24" torpedo tubes. Sixteen Type 93 torpedoes were carried, enough for two full salvos. Eighteen depth charges were dispensed off individual roll off racks at the stern, and by a Y gun thrower. The Kageros were 72 tons heavier, with a slightly thicker bridge structure.

At the start of the war, she was assigned to Destroyer Division 18 (Shiranui, Kagero, Kasumi, Arare – a mix of Kagero and Asashio class ships), and that division was assigned to Destroyer Squadron 2. DesDiv 18 accompanied the Kido Butai as part of the escort for the Pearl Harbor Attack Operation. She and her division mates continued to escort the carriers on numerous strikes and forays throughout the South Pacific and into the Indian Ocean for the first six months of the war.  In June, at the Battle of Midway, DesDiv 18 escorted the Midway Troop Convoy. 

In July, after Midway, she and her division mates were all involved in escort duties in the Aleutians. It so happened that on July 5th, 1942, she was on a separate escort mission when all three division mates were torpedoed outside Kiska Harbor by USS Growler. Arare was sunk, and both Shiranui and Kasumi lost a substantial portion of their bows.  With lengthy repair yard visits ahead of those two ships, the integrity of the division was ruptured and Kagero was re-assigned to DesDiv 15 (Kurushio, Oyashio, Hayashio), also of DesRon 2, which had lost sister Natsushio to a torpedoing earlier in the year.

The division soon joined Japanese efforts to retake Guadalcanal. Kagero engaged in several bombardment missions (including that of Henderson Field, twice), and participated in many troop transport and attack missions. Ultimately, Kagero and her division sisters recorded more escort and attack missions to Guadalcanal than any other Japanese destroyer division. Kagero recorded 14 runs, Kurushio and Oyashio 10 trips apiece, and Hayashio embarked on 7 runs before she was sunk by air attack in late November, 1942. 

Kagero also fought as part of the troop convoy escort during Battle of the Eastern Solomons, as part of the Vanguard Battle Force at the Battle of Santa Cruz, the Naval Battles of Guadalcanal (where she and Oyashio attempted an unsuccessful torpedo attack upon USS Washington ), and in the Battle of Tassafaronga.  She also helped cover the subsequent evacuation of Guadalcanal in early February, 1943.

Along with her division mates, Kagero returned to Japan in mid February, 1943 for refit, and the repair of light damage sustained at various times during the Guadalcanal campaign. She gained a new, twin 25mm AA mount on a raised platform in front of her bridge.  Also, while not confirmed, it is likely that she and her division sisters had her twin 25mm AA mounts to either side of number two funnel changed to triple mounts.

Upon their return to the Solomon Islands in early 1943, Kagero, Kurushio and Oyashio participated in several successful troop transport reinforcement missions around Shortland Island, and to a garrison at Vila on Kolambangara. For many of these missions, the division transited east to west through the relatively narrow waters of Blackett Strait for their return to base. The US Navy had learned of these missions and sent a small force of old DDs converted to minelayers to successfully mine the strait on the evening of May 6/7, 1943.

DesDiv 15 reinforced Vila once again, early on May 8th, approaching from the east. After unloading troops and cargo, they again transited to the west through Blackett Strait on the way back to Buin on Bougainville, which lay to the northwest. Within an hour, Oyashio staggered to a halt after hitting a mine. Assuming a submarine attack, Kagero and Kuroshio took up anti-submarine positions around Oyashio. Shortly thereafter, Kagero, and then Kurushio, also struck mines. Kurushio was immediately rent by a number of massive explosions, probably her magazines, and sank immediately. Kagero was rendered immobile. 

Kagero and Oyashio subsequently drifted helplessly to the west and southwest, respectively, throughout the rest of the day, while enduring further attacks from the air by American dive bombers.  Both ultimately succumbed to progressive flooding in the early evening, barely 20 minutes apart. Losses for DesDiv 15 included 18 men on Kagero, 91 on Oyashio, and 83 on Kurushio. It was a tragic loss of men and ships that was likely avoidable, had the Japanese command bothered to vary their tactics. Complacency and obstinance on the part of their higher command, with regard to the deployment and use of assets, would continue to plague the IJN throughout the war, with grievous impact. 

The kit is molded in light grey & red plastic, with both a waterline option plate and the underwater portion of the hull for a full hull option. Details are very sharply molded. All the kit surfaces have a nice matt finish. On my kit, there was neither plastic flash residue nor sinkholes.  All details appear to be properly scaled. This kit reminds me why Tamiya is still, in my eyes, the best of the model ship manufacturers, even with a mold that is predominantly eight years old. 

Straight out of the box, this kit can be built as one of several of the Kagero class destroyers, though not all, given the particular pattern of degaussing cable molded onto the hull (more on that below). The fit of the kit out-of-the-box is immediate pre-war, from late 1941 and early war fit on through to the end of 1942.  Some minor modifications would be required to build the kit in 1943 fit.

Also depicted are properly shaped anchor recesses, recessed portholes with subtle eyebrows, and a degaussing cable with brackets. None of the portholes have sealed covers, as befits an early to mid war fit ship. Booms for the ships small boats have been molded at the stern, close to where the propeller guards would be located.

The forecastle and main decks are molded sharply, with plenty of detail including mooring bits, beautifully scaled treaded deck plating and linoleum tie-down strips, anchor capstan, hatches, some vents, and some skylights. Unfortunately, as typical of many kits just a few years ago, three small hawser reels are molded onto the forecastle deck. The detail is good but, dedicated modelers are likely to want to remove them and replace with PE versions. 

The outer border that rims the linoleum covered portion of the decks has also been molded, with a slightly raised edging (spurnwaters) all the way around. This rim properly marks where the railings go (on the outside edge) and is a good guide for attaching PE railings. Aside from some placement runners, all the deckhouses have been molded separately, which makes for a much easier time in masking off the deck for painting of the linoleum coverings.

The hull scales out exceptionally well.  My overall length measurement of the kit is a partial estimate, because the kit has a separate prow piece that contains the bull nose.  I found it difficult to measure the entire length with this part on the sprue, so I was only able to estimate OAL.

The overall length of the hull without the prow is 337mm; depending on how well the prow fits over its seating will determine its actual length. Admittedly, I’m eyeballing the additional length that the prow adds, and it doesn’t seem that it can be much more than 1mm to 1.5mm.  I could easily be off by .5mm or more. Regardless, it’s pretty close. 

Kagero’s particulars versus the scale and kit:

Actual				Calculated		Measured	(OAL estimated)
Overall Length:		118.5m/388’9”		1/350 OA length: 338.57mm		Kit OA length:	338.5mm
Waterline Length:		116.2m/381’3"		1/350 WL length: 332mm		Kit WL length:	333mm
Beam:		10.8m/35’5”		1/350 Beam: 30.86mm		Kit Beam:	30.75mm

The pattern on this kit is the best known of all of them, as it was worn by Yukikaze, the only Kagero class ship to survive the war. Sisters Nowaki and Akigumo are also known to have carried this pattern. High resolution photographs of Amatsukaze during the attack that sank her in April, 1945, also reveal her stern pattern to be identical to Yukikaze’s. Chances are good that her bow matched as well. Kurushio also was likely to have worn this complete pattern, based on photos of her bow. 

Isokaze had a notably different cable pattern. Tanikaze and Urakaze had patterns that likely matched those of Isokaze. Shiranui carried a third, documented pattern. And, there is a mild chance that Hamakaze carried a pattern that was a mix of Yukikaze’s and Isokaze’s, given the available photo record. 

Unfortunately, no other documentation has surfaced publicly to further identify the pattern for any of the remaining Kageros, including Kagero herself. Tamiya’s re-use of the Yukikaze tooling for this kit is merely an expedient and cost-saving device to enable this kit, and is not an endorsement of Kagero’s actual appearance. That said, with no documentation either way, no modeler can be faulted for using the kit as is to represent Kagero. 

Like-wise, the waterline plate is designed to fit neatly into the upper hull, with the same type locater holes and raised ridges for screws and nuts to attach the plate to a base. 

All details are very sharply molded and scaled. The funnel grills still look pretty good, though better when viewed from the top than the sides. The limitations of injection technology, particularly in a slightly older kit, make this a challenging detail to execute in a fully convincing way. PE versions will certainly produce a more realistic result, but many will be happy with the kit piece just the same.

The forward torpedo bays should have squared apertures in place of the molded-on large access hatches at the forward, outside end of each bay. This is another one of those small accuracy errors that have been carried down over time through various kits, scales and manufacturers, but it is a minor quibble. 

Everything is nicely detailed. The new kit bridge omits the light armor plating surrounding the bridge windows on the Yukikaze kit. The bridge base has four components, and seams, so careful gluing is required. The compass bridge deck has a nicely formed grating forward, with integrated stubs representing the 12cm search binocular stanchions and compass binnacle that were mounted within this area. Some aftermarket pieces like those made by FineMolds or a resin manufacturer would help detail this area. Oddly, Tamiya has provided 12cm binoculars on another sprue for positions outside the bridge enclosure, but has not seen fit to provide additional pieces for the bridge interior. The aft portion of the compass bridge deck has been molded with a space for a deck insert (see notes on PE further down).

The stern deck piece is correct for an early war fit, including six individual depth charge roll- off rack locators, linoleum tie-downs, deck treading, spurnwaters, deck hatches and bases for paravane davits. The aft deck house insert is correct for early war with its base for the superimposed 12.7cm mount. The AA bandstand carries metal treading and 25mm ammo boxes.  Thankfully, and correctly, the platform has been molded without the solid siding that has too often come with this piece. Instead, the area has been left open for easy attachment of PE railings. 

New for the Kagero kit includes propeller guards, six (6) individual roll-off racks for the single depth charges that were carried at the stern, a pair of “claw” grasps mounted on the top of the davits used to hold the paravanes and, most interestingly, a deck insert with linoleum tie-downs meant for the  compass bridge deck.

I find this last detail puzzling. Some photo etch manufacturers, FlyHawk and Rainbow among them, have been issuing metal IJN decking in brass that allows a modeler to spray the entire piece with linoleum colored paint, and then gently scrape the paint off the tie-down strips, supposedly to get an easier/ cleaner result. I suppose that is the intent here, but an insert made of steel means that one still has to paint the tie-done strip afterward in brass or gold color.  So, I see no advantage. Perhaps a brass piece was meant to be used all along, but eliminated due to cost. Or, maybe, it’s been done with an eye for brass versions by various aftermarket PE manufacturers. 

What I do find disappointing is the lack of a PE depth charge rack to replace the athwartship plastic version carried at the stern. No plastic version of a depth charge rack in this scale ever comes close to a decent representation, in my view. That would have been a very welcome addition.

The second sheet is comprised of printed metal foil .  There are four peel-off strips with black lettering, two each in English and Japanese Kanji with Kagero’s name meant to be placed on either side of the black plastic stand as a name plate.

The third sheet is the flag sheet. It’s printed on very thin, fine white paper. The Japanese Naval Ensign is depicted in varying sizes and shapes. It’s not a decal sheet; everything is meant to be carefully cut out and folded over for use, then affixed with glue.

It’s very much all that I had hoped it would be. Its flaws and omissions are few, its detailing, molding and scale remain superb, the fit of the parts from the Yukikaze kit has proven themselves to be first class, the rendering of its new parts are excellent, and it fills a gap in both my line-up of IJN ships, and that of Tamiya’s. 

It’s true that Hasegawa has offered an alternative 1/350 kit for the early war Kagero class for several years but, despite the excellence of its moldings, that kit is both over scale and full hull only. I feel the Tamiya kit a bit more accurate outside of the scale issue, but one really couldn’t go wrong with either choice; it’s just a matter of preferences. 
 

This kit was courtesy of my wallet, via HobbyLink Japan. The cost, less shipping, was $41.66.  The kit is offered on sale in the US from $49.99 and up, shipping not included.