This is an interesting ship. She never left the port as Japan surrended before its completion.
Originally intended as a heavy cruiser, a follow up of the modern Mogami class, it was halfway through the war converted into a light, fast carrier. It's interesting because, unlike other small Japanese carriers, this one was designed from the ground up to be fitted with the larger and more powerful planes the IJN was developing (Mitsubishi A7M, Aichi B7A, Kawanishi N1K2 carrier variant...). This means wider elevators, more spacious hangars, etc...
There is an entry on Wikipedia with a couple of pictures, but so far I have not been able to dig up more interesting materials like plans, layouts (before and after the conversion, etcc..) does anybody can point me to some good source. Supposley there are some Japan only books thick with plans and other rare pictures but I haven't been able to locate them.
Any help or idea?
Thanks!
Originally intended as a heavy cruiser, a follow up of the modern Mogami class, it was halfway through the war converted into a light, fast carrier. It's interesting because, unlike other small Japanese carriers, this one was designed from the ground up to be fitted with the larger and more powerful planes the IJN was developing (Mitsubishi A7M, Aichi B7A, Kawanishi N1K2 carrier variant...). This means wider elevators, more spacious hangars, etc...
There is an entry on Wikipedia with a couple of pictures, but so far I have not been able to dig up more interesting materials like plans, layouts (before and after the conversion, etcc..) does anybody can point me to some good source. Supposley there are some Japan only books thick with plans and other rare pictures but I haven't been able to locate them.
Any help or idea?
Thanks!
Do you happen to know if there are some scale models of the Ibuki? I've seen a couple of pictures of a scratch built 'carrier version' using a Mogami kit as a strating point, but I wonder if any Japanese or Taiwanese kit builder thought of doing a proper commercial version.
