Not being able (yet) to produce modern naval ships herself, Japan shopped in the West, and in 1877 ordered two armoured sail-and-steam corvettes in Great Britain, the Kongo and the Hiei. Armed with 3 6.7" and 6 5.9" breachloaders and an variety of smaller guns, and designed in a revolutionary period of naval engineering, they served the Japanese navy in the closing days of the century but were soon overclassed by the new arrivals of the era: all-steel predreadnought warships.
SealsModels has now released a Two-in-the-box resin kit of these two vessels, and they arrived at my doorstep in the midst of both a case of builders block and my recent interest in ships of this era, in particular my commission scratchbuild of the Peruvian armoured frigate La Independencia. Here's my opinion of the kit.
The kits arrive securely packaged in a largish box. The hulls are wrapped in bubblewrap, the sprues with the parts are glued to carton. A set of brass rods is supplied to create the masts.
