The Hatsushima-class minesweeper was Japan's main coastal minesweeper for the 1980's and 90's. Its major advancement over the previous Takami class was a remote control vehicle designed to drop explosives on bottom-dwelling mines so it didn't require divers to do that themselves. This is MMC-661 Takashima, chosen because that's what numbers I have from modern Pit Road decals, the original decals being oversized and cream-colored.
This model comes with the Pit Road Yamagumo-class destroyer and technically it's the first ship model I ever bought, which was an embarrassingly long time ago. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) I also bought issue 74 of the Maru Special at the same time, which was devoted to minesweeping. So I had excellent resources full of pictures before the internet was really a thing. I'd build up some part of the ship, compare it to the book, be disappointed, try again, and repeat that cycle many times which is how I learned shipbuilding. I've taken many breaks building it, but I started again this year for the final time.
Masts are made of stretched sprue, antennas are wire from the crap cable Apple shipped with Ipods, the gun is 3D printed, the line between the masts is Modelkasten, and lifeboat canisters are brass. Basically everything sticking up from the deck except the three smallest cranes is scratchbuilt or extensively modified.
With my universal measurement device.
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