All-new tooling of the sister ship of the famed Yamato. Tamiya has fully exploited all of the recent research into the Yamato and her sister to correct the numerous inaccuracies of their previous renditions from a quarter century ago. This new kit presents the ship as it was at the time of its launching. Perhaps the change that attracts the most attention is the move away from those toy-like main gun barrels that could elevate, generally found on nearly all the battleship and cruiser kits ever made. Elevation is nice, but it leaves huge gaps between the barrels and turret. Instead, this kit's barrels don't move, but accurately duplicate the canvas covers at the bases of the barrels. Other changes are too numerous to mention, but in general, detail is much better all around, particularly on the superstructure, stacks, etc.. In fact, the basic shape of the entire bow of the ship is different, now a more elegant (and accurate), slim design as compared to the previous rendering. There have been dozens of previous kits of the Musashi, but Tamiya's new state-of-the-art offering is quite welcome.