COBI IJN Akagi Aircraft Carrier Set 4851

COBI's IJN Akagi is a 1:300 model built from 3,573 blocks, 87 cm long. Two aircraft lifts raise and lower, the propellers and rudders turn, the turrets rotate and the barrels elevate. Five printed mini aircraft are included for the flight deck, along with a black display stand and a nameplate.

She was built as a battlecruiser

Akagi began as a hull for a fast capital ship. The Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 capped how many battleships and battlecruisers each navy could have, and half-built ships had to be scrapped — unless they were converted into aircraft carriers, a category the treaty barely restricted because nobody yet knew what carriers were for.

Japan, Britain and the United States all did the same thing with hulls they were about to lose. Akagi, Kaga, Lexington and Saratoga were all born from cancelled battleships. A disarmament agreement produced the ships that dominated the next war.

Her first configuration was stranger still: three stacked flight decks, on the theory that fighters could launch from the short upper decks while bombers used the long one. It did not work, and she was rebuilt in the 1930s with the single full-length deck this model reproduces.

Pearl Harbor and Midway

Akagi was the flagship of the carrier force that attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Six months later, at Midway, American dive bombers caught her with aircraft fuelled and armed on deck. She burned, could not be saved, and was scuttled on 5 June 1942 — one of four Japanese carriers lost in a single day, which ended Japan's ability to take the initiative in the Pacific.

Specifications

Pieces: 3,573 · Scale: 1:300 · Working aircraft lifts · 5 mini aircraft, display stand and nameplate included
Model dimensions: 87 × 20.5 cm (34.3 × 8.0 in)