1/700 IJN BB Yamato

All-new tooling of the largest battleship ever built. Tamiya has fully exploited all of the recent research into the vessel to correct the numerous inaccuracies of their previous rendition from a quarter century ago. This new kit presents the ship in its final form.

Perhaps the change that attracts the most attention is the move away from those toy-like main gun barrels that could elevate, generally found on nearly all the battleship and cruiser kits ever made. Elevation is nice, but it leaves huge gaps between the barrels and turret. Instead, this kit's barrels don't move, but accurately duplicate the canvas covers at the bases of the barrels.

Other changes are too numerous to mention, but in general, detail is much better all around, particularly on the superstructure, stacks, etc. In fact, the basic shape of the entire bow of the ship is different, now a more elegant (and accurate), slim design as compared to the previous rendering (see photo below; the older kit is in the foreground).

The Battleship Yamato has got to be up there with the Zero as the "item with the most model kits of it ever produced." Still, Tamiya's new state-of-the-art offering is quite welcome.