The Ship Model Forum

Buying anything second hand from Russia is a bad idea. The delays in India are not out of line for carrier that size.

Looks like India's carrier program is in deep do do. Blowing the boilers out of the x Russian Carrier and delays in their own builds in India.

Great stuff Dave, thanks.

I did build Vikrant with Ski-jump from the l'Arsenal kit and I think this would be a good follow-up to her.

Cheers,

Rob

I'm glad you enjoyed them Charles.

Dave.

Dave,

As a retired Naval officer, who has spent his fair share of time in shipyards, doing just such work, I found this a fascinating view of the makeover, thank you for sharing the link.

Charles

I found this series of images recently, an interesting look at the rebuilding of the old Admiral Gorshkov.
http://www.defence.pk/forums/military-photos-multimedia/54402-extreme-makeover-gorshkov-vikramaditya.html

Pretty interesting topic considering the Asian Nations are in a Carrier Arms Race. (India, China and it seems Japan and South Korea)
The design of the x Kiev Class Russian Helo Carrier into a regular Carrier is very interesting and as well as India building their first home built Carrier. Believed to be done in a couple years. It is sad in a way though. Building three Carriers (One in Russia and two in India) and they each might hold 40 planes apiece. Seems to be a waist.

[quote="Rob"]Would you know where i can find good references for INS Vikrant?

Cheers,

Rob[/quote]

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[quote="space_moose"]If you want to make the Vikrant you can use the hull from any Majestic or Colossus Class Aircraft carrier kit, Heller makes a good one in 1/400. Then just google all the images from Vikrant then HMS Hercules, the RN reincarnation of the Vikrant and figure it out from there.

The Indian high commissioner to the United Kingdom, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, commissioned her as INS Vikrant on March 4, 1961 while she was still at Belfast, Northern Ireland. The name Vikrant was taken from Sanskrit vikrānta = "stepped beyond", i.e. "courageous", "victorious". Captain Pritam Singh was the first commanding officer of the carrier. She formally joined the Indian fleet at Bombay on November 3, 1961, when she was received at Ballard Pier by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and other high-ranking dignitaries.

The Vikrant's initial airwing consisted of British Hawker Sea Hawk fighter-bombers and a French Alize anti-submarine aircraft. On May 18, 1961, the first jet landed on board, piloted by Lieutenant (later Admiral) R H Tahiliani.

In 1965, Pakistan claimed that it had sunk the Vikrant. At the time, however, the ship was under refit in dry dock.

Despite a crack in a boiler, she saw real combat against Pakistan in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. She was considered important enough by the Pakistan Navy that they sent the submarine Ghazi all the way to the Bay of Bengal to mine the Visakhapatnam harbor in an unsuccessful attempt to sink the Vikrant; the Ghazi itself was lost during the mission. The Vikrant played an instrumental role in sinking several Pakistani patrol boats and other naval vessels. During the war the crew of Vikrant earned two Mahavir Chakras and 12 Vir Chakras.

Vikrant was given an extensive refit, including new engines and modernization between 1979 and January 3, 1982. Between December 1982 and February 1983 she was refitted again to enable her to operate Sea Harriers. After the retirement of the Breguet Alizé from carrier service in 1989, she received a 'ski jump' for more efficient use of her Sea Harriers.

Vikrant was India's only carrier for over twenty years, but by the early 1990s she was effectively out of service because of her poor condition. Even following major overhauls she was rarely put to sea. She was formally decommissioned January 31, 1997 and is preserved as a museum at Mumbai.

[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/INS_Vikrant.jpg/800px-INS_Vikrant.jpg[/img]
[/quote]

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[quote="Rob"]That is pretty much what I have in mind, albeit in 1/700 and the L'Arsenal kit.

What I was wondering is if there are any books with good info on Vikrant in there.

Cheers,

Rob[/quote]

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[quote="kalkurap"]Rob,
Information and picture of Vikrant, if you already haven't seen this site:
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/NAVY/Majestic.html

A beautiful line diagram of the ship, on the same site:
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/NAVY/Galleries/Art/Grotnik/Vikrant.jpg.html

You can download a larger version too. In general http://www.bharat-rakshak.com is a good reference for Indian armed forces.

Regards,
Prasanna.[/quote]

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[quote="Avery Boyer"]I was delighted to discover today that Vikrant is preserved as a museum! There was all that @#$% about HMS Vengeance/Minas Gerais becoming a museum, they acted like (and maybe even claimed) that she was the last surviving member of her class, but happily Vikrant/Hercules is preserved in Mumbai :jump_1:

I want to build her as she appears now, and am looking for a site that has lots of pics. I'm going the route of scratchbuilding, and want lots of detail pics. I'm building big (think 1/350) and want to add as much detail as possible. I may not start this project until mid-winter, but the more research I can get done now the better. TIA for any info.[/quote]

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[quote="kalkurap"]Avery,

Yes, you are right, it is being converted into a museum in Mumbai. But I didn't find many pictures of it online. Could be because the museum is not open to the public yet. The only time when one gets to visit the ship is during Navy week, which is going to be in the first week of december.

Given the lack of photos and reference material on this ship, I am wondering if it is worth hiring a photographer in Mumbai to take some good photos of the ship (if the navy allows it). I don't expect it to cost a lot. I had seen some models of this ship when I was in high school and always wanted to build one. I am very interested to know if you have collected any information about this ship. It will be very interesting when you start the build.[/quote]

These two nations are the future superpowers of the 21st century, both will have more money to spend on their navies then the USN in 2059 and 2018 estimated (and probably spend it more responsibly and cairfully) and they will have to deal with both patrolling an entire ocean named after them and stopping the USN from walking all over them. Would love to be able to get and share information on past present and future projects for these two nice pieces of action that first possess the unbeatable know-how of the RN way of doing things (like the IJN did) and second have developed amazingly pure originality in their strategic and tactical thinking.

INS Ensign

[img]http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/i/in%5Envclr.gif[/img]

PLAN Ensign

[img]http://world-flags-symbols.com/_img_nations2/chinanavalensign250w.png[/img]

INS Vikramaditya

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/india/images/vikramaditya-line.gif

INS Mig-29k

[img]http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1358/1275530765_c3ee2a31ed_o.jpg[/img]

PLAN Su-33

[img]http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1049/1276396920_f3692ea609_o.gif[/img]

There are a couple of designer models of the future Indian Air Defense Ship at the links below:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... ia/ads.htm

http://www.defenseworld.net/html/featur ... ndia_s.htm

Then there is my own model of the ADS at this link:

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

Only use my model as a last resort reference of a reference.

At the moment I am working on a model of the PLAN Shi Lang carrier that might be built out of the Varyag 60% complete Kuznetsov class carrier that was bought as a floating casino a few years ago. I am sctatching my head as to what electronics and weapons systems it will have installed as none were installed in the Varyag when it was delivered, so I decided that it would be installed with the same off the shelf Russian equipment mostly that the Kuznetsov is. I did decided to exclude the whip antenna for no reason except they would break too easily and the Chinese can find something better for sure, and the massive Cake Stand homing beacon at the top of the island because its as big as a house and would have to be designed built from scratcch either in China or made to order as far away as Russia since none have been built since the Kuznetsov in the 1980s, and its not that important.