The Ship Model Forum

Kit presentation / review of Russian WW-1 battleship „Sewastopol“ – Zvezda 1/350

After crushing defeat of Russia in the war with Japan, Russian navy need several years for reconstruction of his Navy. This was also because of the change in battleship design with introduction of the “all big gun – one caliber” battleship in meantime (keyword: HMS Dreadnought), which declassed previous designs.
Result after long time of development was the Gangut class with her 4 ships, which had a special, but not uncommon design. Second ship of this class was the Sewastopol which enteredservice in November 1914.
Zvezda brought some time ago this ship as 1/350 plastic kit. The price in Germany is about 50-60 EUR, depending of which shop sells.
The kit is well and safe packed in a carton box with fine artwork as usual. This artwork is interesting too, because it shows the correct place of torpedo net on freeboard of the ship. Kit itself represents Sewastopol in stage of 1914 / 1915. If kit is as far as correct when comparing to original I can’t rate by myself, because I have no depending sources to do so.
The plastic parts are in light grey color and look all so far very fine with no errors or other usual / often seen problems as disturbing ejector marks and so on.

Let us unpack the kit….

Here the box with artwork and first look inside + front page of instruction.







Both half of the hull



A very fine structure of the underwater hull in my opinion…



The stand of kit, as you can see rocks…. a good idea I think and maybe I will use



Here sprue of deck parts, parts of both funnels and other things….



A close up of the structure …. Very fine made and for me as one who always paints decks and does not use laser cut stuff a dream.



The 2 sprues which contains the turrets and other things (2 x same sprue)



The sprue with turret floors, small boats and other things – also 2 times as content



And the last sprue which contents bridge, masts, anchor chain and other things.



The clear parts for the bridge, packed together with decals…





And finally the flags made of paper … in my opinion better as being decal.




Conclusion:

Zvezda had made a very fine kit of an more unusual ship in history. I can understand that many main manufactures will have same key products, as for example Bismarck, but if someone makes such an outstanding more rare ship it is in my opinion always welcome.
As told I’m not able to rate if there is any mistake or error at ship in term of correct made for named stage in comparison to original. Also I can only tell after starting build if there is any problem given of parts not fitting together and so on. I can only say that the kit makes an awesome good looking from its parts and that they look is same great quality as they are for sure and known at other Zvezda kit – Russian cruiser Varyag.

Who wants to upgrade his kits can of course use the aftermarket. For simple upgrading with some railing are for sure several pure railing-sets of various manufactures useable. Metall guns I did not find at any of the (for me) known manufactures for this ship. Also I found no other set as the in the following named set from Pontos which includes all for the ship.

Who is not afraid by price of about 90.00 USD (as far as I know it will cost) I can recommend the new set from Pontos model for Sewastopol. This set includes all PE Parts, Brass gun tubes for main and secondary artillery, brass masts and sticks for torpedo net, one full toredonet out of silver PE and finally for all who prefer this, a laser-cut wooden deck. You see, everything what is needed for the ship…
Of course I can not finally rate here, simply because this brand new set is still on the way to me, but out of experience with other sets of Pontos and looking on pictures about, it is in my opinion impressive.
Only minus point is maybe for some people to get this set, because for example for Germany I did not find any shop for order … so direct order at Pontos or named shop in Asia is necessary here (if not having Vitamin “C” like Colleague who bought for me in Telford.

Here 2 pictures, of this set as information, I think / hope it is okn to do in my review (unfortunately I got no answer for my request to do, I think because people are all in Telford in moment / on their way back home).





Source Pontos model, full report about this set you find here in forum:

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=110538&p=529038#p529038

Cheers,
Christian

P.S.
I’m in own dispute with me in moment …
Because my Varyag will be ready within next week, as Warspite too and my current USS Essex build is a long time issue for several month, I’m not sure if I build first Sewastopol or if I build first IJN Mikasa + report about in work in progress … both are awesome models + awesome accessories about and will be great fun to build.

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The advantage of wisdom is that you can play dumb; conversely, it is more difficult.

I am going to get this kit for sure. It looks great and thanks for the thorough review. I probably won't be buying the Pontos aftermarket set though. My rule of thumb is i never by an aftermarket set that costs more than the kit itself. One question, Does the kit have a line inside the hull for easy waterline option? The instruction shows a waterline next to the fullhull and was wondering.
Thanks
Paul

_________________
On the Bench
1/350 Independence
1/350 Dunkerque
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Hello Paul,

yes, you can make easy a warterline modell out of it. There is "line" inside the kit which is my opinion about correct high for waterline level. It runs from bow to stern in both half and any other use it has not ... so must be the mark for cutting. Also both parts will be connected with bracings too. Sorry, forgot to tell and to show a photo of it. Here a quick shot made on work bench now.

_________________
The advantage of wisdom is that you can play dumb; conversely, it is more difficult.

I’ve got this one on the shelf, and looking forward to building it. But I have two others in front of it and I had a third one jump the queue (one of those “I gotta build that NOW”). Aftermarket set is a little expensive, but hey in for a penny in for a pound. Some of the kit instructions are in Russian but my wife is a native born Russian so I have a good translator, but from what I have seen translations may not be necessary. Good luck with your build

Bob

The sense of all the aftermarket products is of course a theme for its own. If you have enough money, you can make the biggest "aftermarket-massacre" at any kit, no matter if ship, tank, plane, car or whatever, because there is so much you can buy for the kit.
In general I have also a limit about, for example I will build the IJN MIkasa from Hasegawa too. The kit is expensive, because Hasegawa was never cheap and much more expensive as the rest. But I bought only the gun set from Master and the PE Set from Eduard from astermarket, together 50,00 EUR. I can buy more, brass masts, lasercut wooden deck and so on, but why? These lasercut decks I don't like in general and prefer to make paint job and if a brass mast is better ... I have doubts.
Also I must clear say that some sets or even parts in sets are no improvement. In general, if a part is round and should be replaced by a flat PE part, it is nonsense. Out of this I use for example always 20mm Perlikons form kit and not these flat whatever thing in PE Sets as replacement, only parts like shield, sight, shoulder piece from it. Also, I will never be so mad and buy brass barrels for the 20mm guns, wasted money in my opinion.

The Pontos set here is expensive, sure, but as told, it looks quite awesome and because I know the Pontos set for Warspite (not the current one I build in my yard, another one of special edition I bought too for later to make a sister ship of her when having more experience in ships), I'm sure it will be. The use of Pontos Set is now an exception and not the normality at me ... I have unfortunatelly no gold shitting donkey in basement from fairy tale.

_________________
The advantage of wisdom is that you can play dumb; conversely, it is more difficult.

Addendum:

Because I tried to paint plastic deck with no pleasing result, I will use wooden lasercut deck of Pontos Set.
The qualitiy of the engraving at plastic deck is still awesome, but these many horizontal steel (= grey) beams / bars from side to side each few Milimeters inside wooden deck are for me too hard for making as paintjob ... For sure are modellers for whom this is no big problem to male as paintjob, but my personal abilities are unfortunatelly in moment not good enough to make with clean pleasing result.

Cheers,
Christian

P.S.
Pontos Set is still on the way with DHL or UPS from Switzerland to me and will be delivered within "next days". Building with report / log in "work in progress" will then start soon.

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The advantage of wisdom is that you can play dumb; conversely, it is more difficult.

I Think those are rough waives. Do you have any current photos, I'd be interested to see how it turned out.

Got mine from luckymodels when they had it for sale at $9.99 and also coincides with the $2 flat international shipping promotion, so all up $10 and some change

Promptly put in the savings into a Pontos set. Surprised at the size of the box!

I did the exact same thing
Those torpedo nets are really something!

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On the bench;

-1/200 Arizona

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