Takom's new 35th scale Battleship Yamato 3rd year Type 60-caliber 15.5cm gun turret

Takom's recent Yamato main gun turret in 72nd scale was a hit with modellers, so when the opportunity came for them to upscale - but go downsize to the 3rd year Type 60-caliber 15.5cm gun turret on that class battleship the question was "Why not?" We look at the use of the turret & what's coming in the kit in our short preview...

Takom's new 35th scale Battleship Yamato 3rd year Type 60-caliber 15.5cm gun turret

Battleship Yamato 3rd year Type 60-caliber 15.5cm gun turret

From Takom

1/35th scale

Plastic and photo-etched kit.

Available in August 

The Subject:Battleship Yamato 3rd year Type 60-caliber 15.5cm gun turret
The 15.5 cm/60 3rd Year Type 60 was a dual-purpose naval gun used by the Imperial Japanese Navy on the Yamato-class battleships as secondary armament in four triple turrets, the Mogami-class cruisers in five triple turrets, the Tone-class cruisers in five triple turrets.

Triple 15.5 cm Mounting. Sketch from "US Naval Technical Mission to Japan report O-47(N)-1: Japanese Naval Guns and Mounts-Article 1, Mounts Under 18".

Developed as a Dual Purpose gun for the "B" class cruisers of the Mogami and Tone classes, these guns were later removed from the former class and replaced with 20 cm (8") No. 2 guns when they were reconstructed in the late 1930s. The turrets were then reused on the Yamato class battleships and the Ôyodo class light cruisers as well as in coastal batteries.

The red arrow pointing to the 15.5cm gun turret on the Yamato. these were of course used on the Musashi also...

The slow rate of fire and limited elevation of these guns made them unsuitable for the AA role, but they were an excellent anti-ship weapon.

A digital image showing where these guns were placed on the Musashi class battleships

A triple turret was mounted at Kure and another at Sasebo for AA purposes and two guns on single mountings were used for coastal defense in the Tokyo area.Construction was of the monobloc type with auto fretting and used a Welin breech-block mechanism which could be operated either hydraulically or by hand. A total of approximately 80 guns were manufactured at Kure.

This kit from Takom

This gun turret is made from injection moulded plastic in 1/35th scale, so it will be pretty big at 40cm long! There ae parts inside for the No1 and No 4 gun turret types of the mount with the associated parts. The guns can of course be posed raised or lowered or a combination of both. We are not sure about the markings yet, but one would think they would be just colours and camouflage...

That is all we know about this release for now. You can see more about Takom's kits on their website or on their Facebook page