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Project Notes

#095 IJN Military Transports

Building the No.1 and No.101 landing ships 輸送艦 from the Tamiya Military Transport set. No electronics or base for this - saving for a future diorama.

Build

Notes

In June 1943, after its defeat in the Guadalcanal Campaign, the IJN realized it needed high-speed military transport vessels, and designed two classes of ship in response. Prior to this, they had lost too many destroyers employed as transporters. These high-speed transport vessels were actually developed by the IJN and IJA in cooperation(!).

No.1-class landing ship (第一号型輸送艦,, Dai 1 Gō-gata Yusōkan)

  • a 1500 ton mothership of the Daihatsu-class landing craft and Kō-hyōteki-class submarines
  • Their primary role was that of a transporter, however since their armaments were strong they were useful as multi-purpose ships at the front, functioning as transporters, as minelayers and as escort ships.
  • Most of these vessels were sent to the Battle of Leyte and transportation duty of the Bonin Islands.

No.101-class landing ship (第百一号型輸送艦,, Dai 101 Gō-gata Yusōkan)

t101

  • a 900-ton amphibious assault ship
  • Most of the Navy vessels took part in the Battle of Leyte, where 18 of them were lost. Most, however, succeeded in landing their tanks and troops.
  • a detailed record of the vessels in the Army service is not known to exist.
  • Some example tabular records of movement:

The Kit

Japanese Military Transport Set Waterline Series Tamiya No. 31501 1:700 was tooled way back in 1979 but is still widely available and is very finely molded.

It includes the two main vessels:

And a range of transported equipment:

Paint Scheme

Feature Color Recommended Paint Used
superstructure   XF-53(2):XF-63(1) H83
Lower hull hull red XF-9 70.985 Hull Red
tank khaki XF-49 H65 + misc Vallejo for camo

Build Log

build01a build01b build01c

No crew or base right now - I’m reserving these for a future diorama.

build02a build02b build02c build02d build02e build02f

Credits and References

About #95 scale modelsCraftIJNIJA

This page is a web-friendly rendering of my project notes shared in the LittleModelArt GitHub repository.

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