Rumors have been circulating over the past several months that Fine Molds would enter the 1/350 ship model market with a new offering of a Fubuki class destroyer. These appear to be confirmed by the fact that several on-line retailers now offer pre-orders on the Fubuki class DD Ayanami. If potential buyers are curious as to what the quality of this new vessel will be like, they need only take a look at either of these new accessory sets now offered by Fine Molds.

The Fine Molds Boat and Davit box contains two separate grey plastic sprue trees that each include two 7.5m motor launches, with a couple of post-mounted life buoys and a canvas cover and left and right davits for one boat, one 7m cutter with a set of oars, as well as two depth charge loading and two torpedo loading davits. The parts are finely detailed with very crisp planking and motor detail within the boat hulls, and good definition on the upper surface of the motor launch. One of the nicest attributes about these boats is that there are no ejector pin marks on the planking inside the hull. The marks that are visible are either in strategic locations that will be covered by other parts, or in areas where they can be easily repaired. The davits also have very finely indicated structural details and block and tackles. A comparison of the Fine Molds boats to other manufacturer’s boats can be seen in the accompanying photos.

The Searchlight Set contains four separate clear plastic sprue trees that each include one 90cm light with separate searchlight and louvered signal light lenses, two 30cm signal lights, two signal lanterns and two sidelights (one each to be painter port side red and starboard side green). The detailing on the large searchlight and its lenses, as well as the smaller 30cm lights is particularly well done. One can compare the detail of the Fine Molds 90cm light to a similar part from the Hasegawa Yukikaze.

These small detail parts are exceptionally nice, and bode well for the quality of upcoming Fine Molds releases. They will add an extra level of detail and quality to any vessel that they’re used with. I look forward to using them on either of my upcoming IJN destroyer builds.

Thanks to Dragon Models USA for supplying the review sample.