Tamiya 1/350 I-400
I made this kit a few years ago now; but only now have taken its picture. It's Tamiya's I-400 kit. The I-400/I-401 are fairly famous (I mean I saw a comprehensive documentary on them out of PBS), so I'll skip the info dump this time. Just for context, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) had some exceptionally large submarines, as the expected combat zone was the entirety of the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese warmed up to the aircraft-carrying subs for a few reasons. First, some of their submarine classes were large simply because they were built for trans-pacific operations. Second, for those finding things in the Pacific reasons, the idea of scout aircraft was seen as sensible, regardless of what job the submarine was assigned to. The Japanese were also really good at submarines, and really good at aircraft carriers, so making it practical came much easier. Finally, the Japanese were also the people who made floatplane versions of their fighters to operate air cover in ...