Hasegawa 1/450 MUSASHI BATTLESHIP

The Japanese Navy began construction of a Super Battleship, named "Musashi" on 29 March 1938, at the Nagasaki Naval Shipyards. A curtain of sisal mats 2.7 kilometer long was constructed around the slipway on which the Musashi was built to keep it secret from the public. The launching of the Musashi was camouflaged with equal care, and the police units hermetically sealed off the opposite side of Nagasaki city, and the ship was launched in secrecy and without any ceremony early in the morning on 1 November 1940, with a launch weight of 35,737 tons, and commissioned ready for service on August 5th 1942. Being a sistership of the Yamato, the most distinguishing features were the 9 huge 46cm guns, largest ever carried aboard ships. Housed in three turrets of 3 guns each, they had a range of 41,000 meters and could penetrate 43cm of armour plating at a distance of 30,000 meters. One armour piercing projectile for these type 94 guns, weighed 1.4 tons, and the turret that housed the guns weighed 2,265 tons each. In addition to the 46cm guns, the Musashi carried 12 5" anti-aircraft guns; and 130 25mm AA guns. Displacement at full load was 71,659 tons and she was powered by 4 steam turbine engines with a shaft horsepower of 150,000, which provided a top speed of 27.3kts.