Aoshima A004473 1/150 Nippon Maru

The Nippon Maru was a Japanese training sailing ship, a twin ship for the Kaiwo Maru, launched in 1930. The length of the ship at the time of launching was 97 m, width 12.95 m, and full displacement - 2,290 tons. The Nippon Maru was unarmed. It was a four-masted ship, but had an additional propulsion in the form of two diesel engines with a capacity of 600 HP each.

The Nippon Maru was built at Kawasaki's Kobe shipyard and originally served as a training unit for Japanese merchant navy officers. When the war in the Pacific began, it was incorporated into the navy, continuing to function as a training unit. It was not until the end of the war, in 1945, that the Nippon Maru was used as a transport unit in a marginal way. The ship survived the war and continued to serve in the fleet until 1984, when it was replaced by a new sailing ship - with the same name, by the way! At present, the Nippon Maru is a museum ship docked in the port of Yokohama.

Aoshima's full-hull kit of the Nippon Maru features vacuformed sails, a display stand, twine for rigging, and cloth flags. At 1/150 scale this beauty will measure 64.7cm long, 15.3cm wide, and 37.5cm tall when completed.

This is an injection-plastic sailing ship model kit.