"1/3000th Japanese Ships from Fujimi" Topic

While stationed in Japan (1987-1990), I picked up a lot of plastic kits, especially those that I had never seen in the USA or were very expensive back home. While rummaging thru my stash, I came across 3 boxes of 1/3000th scale Japanese ships! I wondered if they ever made any other nations ships in that same scale. I started a quest to find out and also to see if I had something collectable and if anyone else made ships in that scale. Immediately I checked on Figurehead- No 1/3000th but they did offer 1/6000th! (Too small). I asked Rare Kit Detectives and I got a surprised reply back admitting that they did not even know they existed! (I had sent a photo of the boxes and contents). So I found a new source (to me) in Japan called Hobby Search (1999.co.jp) and I discovered a motherload of 1/3000th ships from Fujimi! Sets that contained all the ships for several WWII Japanese Naval actions each in it's own box. What really blew me away was that the aircraft carriers were molded in the right shade of green (yes, historically correct!) came with flight deck decals link AND..1/3000th scale aircraft = painted on the sprue and even with red balls printed over a white roundel already applied to the planes! link

So I am now looking for opponents for WWII naval battles in the Pacific and turning to the TMP Naval Gurus for help. Does anyone know of any US, British or Aussie ships in this scale?

I might add that there are also modern Task Force boxes that are available with all the assigned ships in the modern day Japanese Task forces! (Any Chinese, Russian, US, etc. in 1/3000th out there also?)

I plan to use the 1/700th scale aircraft on squadron bases to do air attacks. Looks convincing as the planes are bigger than the ships yet look great on a 4x8 table.

Thanks in advance for any helpful leads.

To further explain how detailed these are, see the attached and scroll down where the ships in the Ozawa Task Force sent to Saipan had been modified and molds made for them. 1999.co.jp/eng/10568483

For 1/3000 then Navwar in the UK is your friend.

navwar.co.uk/nav

You just have to work with their 20th century ordering system (letter or fax), but its worth it as their customer service and speed of delivery beats many online sellers

And if you need carriers deck decals…
link

Second Navwar. Older way of doing business, but great guy to work with, and I personally think very affordable. Not entirely sure who these will match up to those plastic kits (and I have always wondered about those!), but if this is useful, here is a blog post from me showing some of my 1/3000 Navwar WWII Italians and Royal Navy…
link

Chalfant

Thanks, All. I did not see where Navwar had any 1/3000th ships! I am very excited to learn of this. I just spent a small fortune getting some of these "New Warship Collection" boxed sets from Fujimi. I REALLY do like them (and I am not a Naval person). If you go to search on that 1999 site I mentioned above for their 401478 (set 12) I found some US ships there snuck into that set. Metal or plastic, they will serve well on the game table. Chalfant's link is wonderful- Thanks, Sir! Dave Manley- I probably should have emailed you first as I now remembered you are one of the US resident experts on model/wargaming ships! Thanks for the link- it was more informative than what I had! Slugbalancer+ So far, every box has come with flight deck decals. Now this is crazy! There are listed PHOTO ETCHED parts available for these kit listed there!!! I just can't see myself bending masts for the Japanese pagota tops at that scale. Whith my fat fingers, I's have a hard time doing such in 1/700th let alone 1/3000th! Thanks to all who responded! Hope you take the time to see the pictures of the kits on that site. Really fine details for such a small scale. Now I am off to do my Plan Orange for raising an American fleet…

David Manley is not a US resident, but I'm sure he won't take it the wrong way

We had a David Manley as a customer (who had lived in the Denver area) at Attactix. Spelled the same way, too. He moved to California over 12 years ago but lost contact with him as I was in Germany for 7.5 of those years. No offense meant to either of the two David Manleys.

@Chalfant. I really like your ships. Great painting.

1/3000 ships from Navwar is for me like stamp collecting. You always think: Shouldnt i get a italian fleet after my atlantic fleets?

Thanks.

So I have a big Italian fleet painted (that blog post is just the bigger part of my Italians) , a very large assortment of Royal Navy for the Med and fighting the Germans painted, a big French Med fleet unpainted, and a sizeable German fleet unpainted. Yes, the price is so nice, its hard to not order more stuff, ha ha.

Chalfant

These have come up before:
TMP link

They do look pretty good, and there's an enjoyable task there in working out which ones to buy so as to acquire the entire IJN at the least price. But the issue as you say is opponents. You do have to go to another manufacturer for most of these. One or two sets include USN adversaries but not a fleet's worth.

I've never fought a WW2 carrier game with miniatures, but as I recall, the usual practice / necessity is to have the fleets on separate tables, because nobody has a table 250 scale miles long. If so, the Fujimi and Navwar carrier models would rarely appear on the same tabletop together so they wouldn't be so obviously from different makers….

+1 Decebalus

I do like your painting style, Chalfant. I've done the Italians in straight block painting with a wash, and I am not sure they look as alive as yours. But oh those red and white stripes …

And ditto Navwar. I'm a big fan: great service, huge list, and there's always one more scenario/fleet/theatre/period to collect!