Tsarist Navy GANGUT 1888

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hello all--

due to outrageous work commitment this year .... I have done rather less model-making than is usual..

alas I have no leverage against my boss for unfair treatment, difficult clients and extremely long hours...=> as it is my own business !

With my build of the SMS Vulkan

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=154091


having a little rest ( still slowly building the 2 x tugboats)

I thought a short sharp ( easy) build would be in order--in my preferred scale of 1/700--of a suitably unusual subject


Wikipedia gives a potted history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_co ... %281888%29

and Steve Backer did a fine review of the kit and historical round-up at Steelnavy.com back in 2006 of the kit-in-box

http://www.steelnavy.com/CombrigGangut.htm

a pretty much out-of-the-box- build here

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

My German modelchum Rainer Michalek did a pretty good job of portraying the ship in her winter-berth

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




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I seem unable to find any views of the vessel from astern, only one very unhelpful on-deck photo, a plan of seemingly dimensional accuracy but lightly dubious in actual detail when compared to photos

some side on photos-- high quality and high res views of the ship in her winter berth and at Reval--both 3/4 port bow- very useful - but different fits, colouring of vents an so forth in differing era
( within her very short lifespan!)



..

[PetrolGator]

Fantastic! I love following your builds.

[Timmy C]

You've probably seen them, but if not, there are a few more pics on the Navsource.narod site: http://navsource.narod.ru/photos/01/010/index.html

[JIM BAUMANN]

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Therefore much of the actual sub-boatdeck and main weatherdeck layout is extrapolated guess-work from the photos--more of that later.

According to the plans--the side-on stern profile had a light fwd slope--this was built up and carved.

The square hatches in the upper hull were ( too! ) subtly rendered--but somewhat crude in places.

So as to get some regularity I overlaid these with suitable ladderstock cut down.

Large skylight was overlaid with North Star PE small skylight window strip--this sharpened it up.

the aft skylights were created using small PE ( WEM Askold and other mesh)

The midships articulated davits needed slots to be able to operate in real life...

The kit cast boat deck was a chunky affair cast on a thick wafer

I cut out the apertures and started to address the malformed pilothouse and aft control using Norths Star PE Russian doors
this started to look more akin to the bits of photos I could see

A decent PE piece here would have been (an answer to prayers--!)

I could also have built it up in pieces in metal ( I was wary of warping styrene)

but due to the flimsy support for the deck I preferred something that had a degree of athwarthships rigidity

( this; probably ;...wrong decision on my part would come to cause an issue of three later in the build -- ...!)


The deck subsequently had all the edges pared down with a sharp blade to give the appearance of a thinner structure when viewed side-on

The deck supports where spaced and drilled--installing drawn ( for straightness ) brass wire into the holes and snipped off using a height gauge of styrene strip

the upper edges of the main deck bulkhead had a strake added in copper wire

Boat deck, boiler-room vents and ( modified ) funnel installed

next post will deal with some of the platforms...

[JIM BAUMANN]

The vents were thinned at the mouths, and were drilled through up from underneath so as to create the vent tube hole

The distinctive and large platforms were made of brass circles and a brass strip, formed into a circle using a small metal tube on a soft paper pad and simply dropped dropped 'on'

( lots of fiddly trial and error to obtain exact size !!)

The lower platform had the apertures for the QF guns created by adding on top of the lower ' wall'' a piece of suitable PE ladder-stock.
which had the alternate apertures in-filled with white glue--and then painted

The undersides of the platforms had the supporting braces added using bent pieces of thin copper wire, tacked on with matt varnish--backed up with CA and the aperture in-filled with white glue and then painted.

The distinctive white surround portholes were made by countersinking the porthole holes with a larger drill and dropping in a previoulsy painted brass porthole surround ( North Star PE) glued with matt varnish, then a small droplet of CA added afterwards on the end of one of our Cats whiskers ( dropped -not plucked!!!! )

Davits and a couple of boats added--but from here-on the trouble starts.

more report soon as I have solved the issue....

[Fliger747]

So where do you get those huge hands and push pins to use as props?

Impressive!

The anti torpedo booms are an interesting feature of the era, giving the ships a bit of a galley look.

Cheers: T

[PetrolGator]

AH. Why, WHY do I even try to do work in 1/700?

[GazzaS]

It's sooo tiny, yet so beautifully done.

[Dino Carancini]

...a "vile ship" ( cit. Wikipedia ) that in your hands will turn out to be a jewell

[hypno7]

The undersides of the platforms had the supporting braces added using bent pieces of thin copper wire, tacked on with matt varnish--backed up with CA and the aperture in-filled with white glue and then painted.

VERY nice trick! I would have spent hours trying to cut out the braces out of styrene, for them to be completely irregular.

As others have said, impressive first class build!

[marijn van gils]

Wonderfull subject, and amazing finesse! Those portholes look fantastic!

A pity (not really) that Rainer Michalek already made her in that winter-scene, since that is just a great setting.
You can still portray her while slowly sinking, with assisting ships taking of her crew? But those portholes shouldn't be under the water though...

Good luck with solving the problems (you will manage I'm sure), and good to see you back as your models are always a huge inspiration!

Cheers,

Marijn

[MartinJQuinn]

Very nice work, Jim. Glad to see you back in the saddle.

[Pieter]

...You are probably the victim of that ancient Chinese curse :
"May you have control of your own agenda" -:)
Very nice build so far!

Hello all--


alas I have no leverage against my boss for unfair treatment, difficult clients and extremely long hours...=> as it is my own business !


..

[peppe]

i think you have the midel russian book on gangut and navarin, with some davits plans, foto and plans of details and sections of the ship.
if you don'y have i can send you offline some scan.
ciao peppe

[Gordon Bjorklund]

It's always a treat to see what you are going to do next in your tiny builds. I really like the drilled out vents, they look great.

[Santi Caro]

Hi Jim

As always, a superb and amazing build. You keep my eyes glued to the screen looking your models .

Regards,

Santi

[JIM BAUMANN]

Thank you all for your encouraging postings and remarks--and god to see Santi re-appear again!

well....

Combrig rather simplified the boat deck and boat support structure--and much like a lemming I simply followed.. arghh!


==>not having any on deck photos it was rather tricky to decide what really was there--as the plans seemed a bit ambiguous ( at least I thought so...)

Guiseppe ( peppe ) came up trumps --as he has done with past models of mine--thank you again

along with a section and drawing I had not seen --He also has a number of photos of a pretty competent model depicting the wreck of Gangut photographed in a museum

This confirmed my suspicions that I was blindly following the kit contents in error... ( arghh!)


especially the midships davit gantry--which I could ascertain in the plans and guess at only in a square on-side elevation photo...

I carefully started to remove the deck--a fraught business--but ultimately successful..

thereafter I started to experiment with how to make the boat bearing beams...

I started to cut up PE davist to gain the curve,,,

[JIM BAUMANN]

Thank you Darius...

at least now--having removed the entire erroneous boat deck structure...-- I have the re-newed opportunity to make a new more correct large aft skylight
which I made small ( misread the plan arghh! ) ( as it would seem did Kombrig !) ( can now--with benefit of retro-scope--just about see the outline on the plan now--doh!!

this is hitherto the only photo that gave me a clue to how./ where the davit gantry might be and or function...

the helpful model makes it clearer

having said that the wreck model is not without its flaws...

to be used as a guide only...

here is a photo of the same area--clearly showing that the boat skids do not project outboard of the davit slots in the hull

then again the shape of the skid arrangement is not readily apparent in that excerpt of that photos...

more so here...

yet in this photo it appears that the fwd skids may well have been square at their outboard end...?

which throws up further conundrums... the structures underneath-- were they vaulted (in plate? )

Your drawing looks to be a helpful one...

have your more? and/ or other drawings?

oh dear... maybe I should simplify-?-cover the area with boats and run...?


JB

[JIM BAUMANN]

and whilst endlessly asking questions...


what is this?

any ideas

Cheers

JB

[Royaloakmin]

Looks like a mooring boom.