Waterline: Tamiya's IJN Fubuki

Mido
1 hour ago
7 min read

For years, I had a soft spot for Tamiya’s 1/700 waterline ships without ever actually building one. As a kid, I used to stare at them in the catalogues and plan the most impressive budget-friendly fleet, only to back out every time. Armor always won. Tanks had tracks, heft, and familiarity.

Fast forward to now and I am bogged down with a Panzer IV, no dedicated hobby space, hand painting only, and hobby time squeezed into whatever energy is left at night. I needed something low fuss. It was finally time for waterline, and that meant Tamiya's IJN Fubuki.

My 1/700 Fubuki at night — Couldn't resist placing my completed 1/700 *Fubuki* in an AI generated "harbor at night" background. What do you think?

IJN Fubuki and the ***Fubuki*-class destroyers**

The Fubuki-class destroyers were conceived after the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 left Japan disadvantaged in capital-ship tonnage. To compensate, the Imperial Japanese Navy pursued superiority in unrestricted categories like destroyers. The result was the Special Type: twenty-four ships built between 1926 and 1933 that combined speed, range, enclosed gun mounts, and heavy torpedo armament in a way that made them feel strikingly modern for their time.

The lead ship, IJN Fubuki, was commissioned in 1928. She embodied the class’s defining features: six 127 mm guns in three enclosed dual mounts, nine 610 mm torpedo tubes in three triple mounts, 36 depth charges, 38‑knot speed, and a 5,000‑nautical‑mile range. These capabilities allowed Fubuki‑class ships to operate aggressively across the vast Pacific, supporting Japan’s surface force doctrine.

The Fubuki-class originally carried Type A mounts with limited elevation, but later ships and refits introduced Type B mounts, which allowed independent gun elevation and significantly higher maximum angles, thus improving anti‑aircraft capability and overall flexibility in combat. The class also saw upgrades to fire‑control equipment, rangefinders and enclosed fire‑control spaces. This reflected Japan’s emphasis on night‑fighting and long‑range gunnery accuracy.

In service, the Fubuki‑class filled multiple critical roles: carrier and cruiser escort, night‑battle specialists, troop‑transport escorts, and long‑range strike platforms. Their heavy torpedo armament made them especially dangerous in night actions, where the IJN excelled early in the war.

Ultimately, 22 of the 24 Fubuki-class ships were lost, 21 in action. IJN Fubuki met her demise at the Battle of Cape Esperance via naval gunfire on October 11, 1942. 109 of her approximate 220 crew were rescued. Her captain, Lieutenant Commander Shizuo Yamashita went down with the ship.

1/700 Waterline kits

The 1/700 Waterline Series is one of the most enduring and influential product lines in modeling. It started as a collaborative effort in 1971 when Tamiya, Aoshima, Hasegawa, and Fujimi agreed to produce warships in a unified scale. Their goal was practical and forward‑thinking: create detailed, affordable kits that allowed hobbyists to build entire fleets. By standardizing on 1/700 and focusing on waterline‑only subjects, the consortium made naval modeling accessible to anyone with a desk or bookshelf.

The series initially centered on Imperial Japanese Navy ships, but quickly expanded to include U.S., Australian, British, German, and later modern JMSDF vessels. This breadth attracted historians, diorama builders, wargamers, and collectors. More than fifty years on, the 1/700 Waterline Series remains the backbone of small‑scale naval modeling.

Waterline kits at the Tamiya HQ
Waterline kits at the Tamiya HQ

Tamiya's 1/700 IJN Fubuki

I didn't realize it, but according to scalemates.com, this Tamiya IJN Fubuki was tooled in 1972, with this release coming in 1992. I knew the kit wasn't modern, but I'm surprised by how old it really is. Primarily because, spoiler, it went together so well!

Looking at the box contents, I'll assume that these waterline kits often contain a core set of parts to build a generic ship of the class, a few ship-specific parts, and in this case, a generic sprue for armament and accessories.

I'm not going to lie, surface detail is not the most...detailed. But in some ways I think that misses the point. After all, this ship doesn't have a full hull! In my eyes, these waterline kits are meant to be representations, not replicas.

Tamiya Fubuki box contents — Lots of small parts, but it looks exciting, and somehow manageable!

Other things worth mentioning:

I believe this kit represents a pre-war IJN Fubuki, but I am not sure of a specific year.
One of the halves to a smoke stack looked like a short-shot.
I do not see the linoleum decking common on many IJN ships, and the kit suggests a uniform naval grey paint scheme. There is debate about the accuracy of this, and I will leave it at that.
Yamashita Hobby's Fubuki-class 2015-tooled 1/700 series look extremely nice. It is oh-so tempting to build one of those as a comparison point.

The build

I’ve built several ships in 1/700 before, so I know how unforgiving this scale is. The most tiny and delicate parts are the name of the game. So is build cleanliness. An errant blob of glue or melted plastic translates to meter-long errors at scale. Ditto for gaps and seams. Sanding sponges to preserve compound curves and sanding sticks are a must. It is important to take breaks and stay within your own focus-endurance limit.

Small parts
Sanding sponges and sticks
Built Fubuki hull

The other concern with ships is the build/paint order. Because this ship was a uniform grey, that was not a large concern. However, the ship did have several masts and davits which could easily snap off or interfere with the painting process. Those were left off until after primary painting.

Quick note about the large metal object you'll notice in several photos: it's a Dspiae Ball Vice, and it's amazing! I used double-sided tape to secure the ship, thus eliminating the need for awkwardly holding the ship, makeshift jigs, and contorting my body throughout the project. It is pricey, but I highly recommend checking it out if you are looking to boost productivity or ease of build!

Painting

As mentioned, the box calls for a uniform naval grey and does not suggest any of the linoleum/brass decking that I have seen on many IJN ships. The instruction sheet's paint guide even suggests it wasn't used on destroyers. Whether that is a product of 1970s research, or modeler simplifications, I do not know. The point is, I wanted a simple, low fuss build, and gladly hopped over that rabbit hole and proceeded to hand paint a uniform grey finish! But what grey?

I didn't want to use Tamiya acrylics for this build because I was hand painting. I absolutely, love Tamiya acrylics with an airbrush, but they are simply too hard to brush paint smooth enough for the unforgiving 1/700 scale. Instructions call out Neutral Grey (XF-53). However, I know the ship was built at Maizuru Arsenal and Tamiya now has a location-specific paint that was not available when the instructions were first created. I don't know what the real ship color should be, but I matched Vallejo's Dark Sea Grey (70.991) to Tamiya's Maizuru Arsenal (XF-87) and sailed along.

Painting Fubuki
Painting Fubuki

I used a wet palette, tap water, and a drop of Vallejo's Retarder Medium (70.597). Several coats were applied using the the mantra:

Multiple thin layers!

I painted the red waterline freehand because I thought masking would lift the grey Vallejo paint off the hull (it does not adhere the best). A few corrective passes with grey were all it took to get everything looking ship-shape!

Decals

Five decals, and a flag. The decals went on fine, but have the usual Tamiya thickness that I don't love. The flag was a surprising one-shot! Definitely thought I would screw that up!

Caution: If you don't read Japanese, double check you don't put the lettering on backwards or upside down! I did have a scare!

Fubuki with decals — Decals on the *Fubuki.* Still looks like a toy without the weathering.

Weathering

Weathering is where this little kit really came alive. I do not think I am boasting when I say the difference was dramatic: after decals it looked a little toy-like, but after a wash, filters, and rust touches, it looked like a scale model.

I started with a house-brewed dark grey sloppy pin wash using Winsor & Newton's Winton Colours and Gamblin's Gamsol Odorless Mineral Spirits. A crummy paint brush and Tamiya Craft Cotton Swabs dampened with Gamsol removed the excess wash, and spread it to other areas as needed. Then I used white as a dot filter, stipple, and/or drybrush to add highlights. Whatever worked, worked. The goal was to add depth.

The final step involved adding subtle rust effects with AK Interactive's water-based Weathering Pencils. I used two rust shades, applying them primarily with a gentle tapping technique (shaky hands are your friend!). The hull's sides were given some streaking, and a mostly dry paintbrush was used to blend the effects.

Sloppy pin wash
After the pin wash
Dot filter
After the dot filter

Rigging and Railing

Low-fuss build, remember! Therefore, no PE railing was installed, and only one bow-to-stern rigging line was placed. For that I used AK's Hyper-Thin line and Gorilla Super Glue Gel with a sophisticated wooden cocktail stick applicator.

It was very tempting to add a few more horizontal and vertical lines, but...low-fuss!

Final thoughts

The first thing that comes to mind is appreciation. After finally taking the plunge, I understand why the 1/700 Waterline Series has endured for more than 50 years. This 1/700 Tamiya IJN Fubuki was exactly the reset I needed: approachable, satisfying, and packed with just enough detail to reward careful work without turning into another stalled project. It was definitely low fuss! I'm totally hooked on the series and if you haven't already, I hope you'll give it a shot!