This page will be dedicated to the 1/700 Waterline Series

When I started modelling, i also discovered the 1/700 waterline series.

My first build ship back in the seventies was Tamiya's Heavy Cruiser Suzuya (WL-C003)

I stll had this old kit and decided to upgrade / rebuild it

The results can be seen here (in progress and under construction)

Of course I had no idea about the Imperial Japanese Navy and the large ammount of ships they had.

It was years later that i found out about the cooperation of Tamiya, Aoshima, Hasegawa and Fujimi and their
intention to make most of the Japanese fleet in 1/700 scale.

Unfortunately only the Tamiya ships were (partly) available in the Netherlands
so i was only able to buy the Tamiya ships.

Of course now with the internet i am able to get most models from all the firms so I will show some of them here.

First of all, i was very impressed by the box art so the first thing i want to make is a list of the initial Waterline series with the box art.

Things i'd like to show here :

List of the ships available
 

Imperial Japanese Navy

-- Original Waterline Series --  (IJN finished)

-- Pit-Road / Skywave Series --

New Waterline Series

Fujimi Sea Way Model

Japanese Marine Self Defence Force

-- Waterline JMSDF Series -- (not finished yet)

-- Pit-Road / Skywave JMSDF Series -- (not finished yet)

Other firms (Tomytec, Kamizukuri,  Fivestar Models etc)

Kure Harbor in 1/700 scale (a huge, huge project !!)

Reviews of kits

• Pit-Road JGSDF Vehicle Sets (MI-01, 03 and 04)

Builds

•  Tamiya JMSDF Ohsumi / Shimokita build

etc. etc.

A little bit of history (taken from a japanese site)

When Tamiya's president went on a business trip to Europe in 1967, he was strongly impressed
by a group of 1/1250 models of marine ships displayed at a model shop in Hamburg. |
Tamiya's suggestion, "Isn't it possible to do the same thing with Japanese warships?'' led to
the start of the 1/700 scale model ship genre, created through the cooperation of four companies .

In May 1971, four companies, Aoshima Bunka Kyozai Co., Ltd., Tamiya Model, Hasegawa Seisakusho, and Fujimi Model,
jointly developed and manufactured a 1/700 scale model ship.

Since then a lot of ships have been released and although the quality isn't what we are used to today, it was a big hit.

(Page from the Tamiya catalog from 1972 which show the first ships in the Waterline series.)

The intentions of the companies were shown in this folder which shows the Ships they were planning to make

Until the 80's most of the Japanese major Battleships, Aircraft carriers, Heavy and Light Cruisers and Destroyers were made

(Page from the Hasegawa catalog from 1981)

It was also somewhere in the 80's that another firm surfaced; Green Max / Skywave.

My local hobby shop ordered a few models because they knew i was into 1/700 and even the importer who knew i loved this scale send me a Catalog.

Very thoughtfull and it shows how customeres were treated in that time ;)

The nice thing about these kits was that you were able to build 1/700 diorama's

later Greenmax / Skywave was taken over by Pit-Road and they were releasing the ships that the other firms probably didn't find that interesting (like Escort Vessels etc. etc.)

In 1992, Fujimi left the "Waterline Consortium" and started their own series listed as "Sea Way Model" and the other firms started redeveloping the ships that were produced by Fujimi.

The three firms also changed the Waterline Series logo a bit, and renumbered the Series.

Since then a lot of new ships have been released by both Fujimi, and the rest of the consortium (Aoshima, Tamiya and Hasegawa)

Also, Pit-road released a lot of new ships and accesories.