1/350 Marshal Shaposhnikov
Hi everybody,
When I started this project, I thought all I had to do was cut off part of the Panteleyev 548 decal to make 543 and leave off the extra building on the roof. That turned out to be wishful thinking. Thankfully, most of the hard parts were on the masts so all that's left now is to move some of the little stuff and remove some things. Trumpeter must have used a number of ships of the class for their references. Some of the parts of the kit don't appear to belong on Panteleyev even, let alone on Posh.
I've been building sub assemblies to try and cut down the number of times that I have to use each color.
I didn't want this big of an assembly but as I was working on getting the parts to fit and stay together and try to get rid of some seams, this is what I ended up with. I don't trust my masking ability on the windows, so I've drilled and filed all of them out.
Since it's the most self-contained, I hope to finish this rear section first. Besides the usual stuff, I still have to add a missing wall and assorted support poles. So far I've left off the extra roof structure, rearranged the life preservers, and removed the center platform between the side mounted whip antennas. (Ladder to platform still needs to be removed). Drilled out the windows in the rear control room too. The refueling equipment that would attach to the deck near the front of the hanger has also been left off. It appears to have been removed from Posh in the early 2000's. I also added the rear sonar door which turned out to be a good thing. I had planned to put the white waterline stripe at the bottom of the upper hull. Thanks to this sonar door, I see it has to be at the top of the lower hull instead.
A general idea of how it'll look. Although I've left off the masts in order to keep them safe.
Thanks for looking.
Dan.