I recently ordered the Agano light cruiser hull from our new vendor, Strike Models to put in the grab bag at the Treaty conference this year, and got it in today. It's a very nice class two cruiser hull, which should be good for both small gun and biggun applications. There are four ships in the class (Agano, Yahagi, Noshiro and Sakawa) and all of them have interesting histories if that is of interest to captains. Agano fought a surface action at Empress Augusta Bay. Both Noshiro and Yahagi were present in the action against Taffy 3 at Leyte Gulf, and Yahagi went on to accompany Yamato on her death ride. Sakawa was turned over to the US, where conditions were so bad, some of her American crew mutinied. She was finally expended as a target in Operation Crossroad. If you're battling at the Treaty conference, you could have the chance to win this nice little hull. While I have too many projects on my plate, I may end up ordering another one of these for myself at a later date. Hull The hull itself, is fairly simple in shape which will lend itself to easy sheeting. Four shafts, single rudder...fairly par for the course among crusiers. She's pretty short at 572 feet long which should enable her to turn fairly well in comparison with most of the standard 10k ton "treaty cruiser". The hull is faily shallow, and narrow so care will need to be given to using small, light compnents. A light deck and subdeck should also be recommended. The hull is finished in white, with pink interior. Sides appear to be a slightly thicker then old swampy hulls (compared to my Swampy Brooklyn and Invincible hulls) and slightly thinner then my BC Des Moines hull. Rib reinforcement may or may not be necessary depending on your club. There are more leftovers from the mold edges that need to be sanded/filed off then I am used to, but I don't consider this a major drawback since we need to sand the things anyways. She has fairly nice lines and is a solid looking Japanese ship, which we can always use more of. Performance The Agano class light cruiser on paper looks as if it compares very well with the other cruisers presently used in the hobby in all formats. As a 2.5 unit ship in small gun, she should be able to mount the same twin sterns that are found on most class 3 cruisers in the small gun community. She'll only have a half unit pump, but with today's technology that's not a serious drawback. You probably shouldnt be taking a ton of damage with this ship anyways, unless you make some mistakes. She also has a slight speed advantage over the class three cruisers...and thus the 24 second capital ships. Three twin turrets mounted on the centerline, give the captain plenty of options to arm the ship, including the always popular twin sterns. For biggun, she carries 4 twin torpedo tubes, which should give her a respectible punch as a torpedo cruiser. Her 35 knot speed makes her among the fastest ships on the pond for both Biggun and Treaty combat. Her small size makes her an excellent ship for travelling, as she should easily fit into containers to be checked into luggage on airplanes and helps enhance manueverability. This looks like a sweet little cruiser with very little to not like. Service Stephen and Strike Models was very pleasant to work with. Communication was via emails, and he was quick to respond with any questions I had. He accepted payment via paypal (a big plus to me) and got the hull to me in about a week's time...while having none in stock when I initially inquired about making my order. All in all, I recommend both the product, and the company. If you haven't looked at their product line up yet, you should definitely take a look because they have many ships classes like the Agano which aren't available anywhere else.
Thanks for the good review. Defenitly an interesting ship, after I fight Allied for a few years I might be tempted to buy one of these and go over to the dark side. Although I'd probably buy a IJN Hiei as well and use Sakawa as a secondary.
You're right about the ship Michael. She and her sisters were beautiful. I have always liked the upturned bows on the japanese navy ships. I might do one as a torpedo ship too. Steve :-D
Thanks Mikey. The more I look at that hull, the more I like it's potential really. The aft section is relatively flat just below the waterline, which should allow it to "skid" through turns fairly easily. She also reaches her full beam quickly and stays at her full beam from most of her length and has a relatively flat bottom (when compared with my American cruisers) so she's really got a deceptively large amount of hull volume. The other thing that really impresses me is the amount of flare at the bow. I imagine she will be a fairly dry ship forward, even with a bit of wind kicking up some waves. If nothing else, she's going to have a dead sexy bow wave at speed.
Very nice Write up. I got to speak with Stephen of Strike Models out at the MWc nats this last week and saw a Arizona hull. I must say the Quality is up there and very much on Par with the BC hulls. Some day in the Future they will have my business in a few hulls I want..
The hulls that Strike Models make are even thicker then BC hulls. (I have built four of BC's.which are great) Yet, with the thicker hull, you don't have to reinforce the ribs against 1/4 bearings as much. I have ordered the Agano for a big gun torpedo boat project for the fall.Both Stephen and Keri are great people and the Arizona hull you spoke of is a real beauty! Steve
I saw the Arizona hull at Nats which looked great, but it was not thicker than a BC hull, in fact I pointed it out to Stephen, that a few places around the rear casemate's where it was very thin. One shot would of broken the hull. Stephen is a great guy, and he has some interesting products coming out very soon.
I got an email from Stephen after he returned from NABGO, and he offered to replace my Agano hull with one that had thicker sides based on the feedback received from the BG guys. I imagine the feedback from the MWC was similar. I don't think you can beat that for service. Keri also posted to the treaty site that based on feedback, that future hulls will be manufactured with two layers of glass on the sides and one on the bottom, so it looks like Strike is really listening to their customers to make sure that they are putting out a solid product. It's good that we will have two solid manufacturers supporting the hobby.
Apparently the Arizona hull I saw was the newer, thicker one as Stephen was gone to Texas and then NATS. They have the Aganos in thinner hulls, but I am waiting for a thicker one. I ordered it and should be able to pick it up during the August battle. Seeing them every month at the club's event may be a bad thing for me as I love to build! (smiles) Steve ;-D PS...they are great people and do a bang up job on the customer service end!
I got my Agano hull from Strike Models today at our club's event. It is a great looking hull and I got a set of plans that are top notch and very well detailed. It should be a fun build and a good ship to run! Everything in hawks write up is too true. Steve
I happened to be the LUCKY WINNER of the Agano hull at last weeks Treaty Conference. We had a number of hulls in the grab bag. Along with the hull I got a great set of plans in 1/144 scale that Eric Noble donated to the grab bag. Like Mike mentioned earlier the hull is great. I am going to work on it this fall and winter. I plan to use the Agano when I don't feel like dealing with sidemount damage. I also plan to work on a Japanese heavy hitter to play the sidemount game. I will set both ships up for Treaty and MWC action. Thanks Mike DeMarco for putting the hull in the grab bag and thanks to Eric Noble for the plans.
