IJN Kongo

Prior to WWI the Imperial Japanese Navy requested from the Vickers yard in Great Britain a battlecruiser that excelled all other battleships then afloat or building in terms of speed and armor. The very successful design led to the Japanese building three further copies in their own yards. All four of the class were fully modernized during the 1920′s and reclassified as battleships. They were further modernized and lengthened during the 1930′s.

The Kongo class all served the Japanese Navy well into WWII. The Hiei and Kirishima were both sunk by U.S. forces in the battles around Guadalcanal during November 1942. The Kongo was torpedoed and sunk by US submarine Sealion in November 1944. The Haruna was sunk in port by a US air raid early in 1945.

The IJN Kongo class battlecruisers have been popular ships in the R/C Warship Combat hobby for some time. Performance on the water consists of good speed and very decent maneuverability. Four main armament turrets allow for several good options in outfitting the ships for battle.

We are making the IJN Kongo class available as a fiberglass hull shell only. Sometime soon we hope to be have molds made so that we may offer resin molded main turrets as well. As with all of our model kits and hulls, we can outfit a Kongo with all the needed running hardware, BB cannons, CO2 equipment, and bilge pumps.

Model Specifications
Length: 60.75 inches
Beam: 8.58 inches
Ship Speed (original): 27.5 knots

Recommended Accessories
Hardware: HDW-BB
Cannon System: BBSYST-3.5
CO2 Supply: BOTTLE-7.0 or BOTTLE-3.5
Bilge Pump: PUMP-L2 (with Tamiya RS-540 motor)
Radio System: 4+ channels
Battery Supply: (1) 6 volt, 20-25 amp hour Gel Cell

Skills Required
Building: Recommended only for those modelers with intermediate R/C building skills.
Battling: We recommend the Kongo as a good “second ship” or as a first ship only for someone with previous R/C building experience.

Class Sisters
IJN Kongo
IJN Kirishima
IJN Haruna
IJN Hei