1/700 Russian Fleet cancelled

[Neptune]

Ok, I'm back at it.

I see I didn't give you the full progress I made back then.
I've restarted now, with some small jobs, although it seems my skills have deteriorated (and not just a little...). However I also found my paint dried and so i'll need a new supply of paint. Finally get that black for the rubbing tyre in front and new white. I already painted the blue streak on top of the red one on the funnels, but I'll need some white for some touch-ups.
I'm currently cutting the upper part of the davits and I'll work on the second lifeboat too.
In the meanwhile my two big boats have arrived and are of course continuously begging for my attention.

[Neptune]

Finally the pictures.
Still got a styrene shortage for next project and paint shortage for this one. Everything's on hold for a while again. Although I'm looking for a solution soon. (my regular modelshop got moved without any new adress, so I'm affraid it went bancrupt).
Next to her is the Marshal Ustinov in same scale. In front are the two lifeboats. One normal, the other upside down. They look ok for me, although I'll try to add the small windows as I did with my LNG Excel. I've also added the open lifeboat aft of the bridge level, that one's not finished yet, but on the real thing it's mainly covered with some canvas (and so I will do the same).

[Pieter]

Looking very nice. And which belgian hobby shop has disappeared? Belgium used to have much more and better hobby shops than the Netherlands but It seems there's a lot of hobby shops disappearing recently. I know Gent has only one left which survives on architectural supplies but you're not based in Gent, right?

[Neptune]

Yep, Ghent is quite close and that's where I checked. Verborgh was the one that dissappeared now. A different way to get styrene is indeed the Schleiper in Ghent, that's for architects and artists and there they sell styrene too, although at a higher price. In Antwerp however they have better stores.
Still didn't get my problem solved today, I'll start with a write-up of the Udaloy from Arkmodel though.

[Dave Wooley]

Hi Neptune Tug build almost competed. Now for the Udaloy
Dave Wooley

[Pieter]

I meant Model Batallion, Nederkouter 73 (http://www.modelbattalion.be/). I had a chat with the owner last april and he mentioned the other shop disappearing.

Yep, Ghent is quite close and that's where I checked. Verborgh was the one that dissappeared now. A different way to get styrene is indeed the Schleiper in Ghent, that's for architects and artists and there they sell styrene too, although at a higher price. In Antwerp however they have better stores.
Still didn't get my problem solved today, I'll start with a write-up of the Udaloy from Arkmodel though.

[Neptune]

Paint problem is solved. I'm continuing with the painting and creation of the towing equipment. I won't be adding any bollards on this ship since I don't really know the location of them. I found only a few and I think it's better not to put those in place if I don't know the position of all of them. Only the huge towing bollard will be there.

Dave, I said write-up on the Udaloy, not building of it. The Song class submarine has priority for now. Just have to figure out how to smoothen the ABS hull since there is are sort of cloth marks all over the hull, don't know how it got there, but I do know I don't want them there. I'd like to have a smooth hull. The PE is extremely nice though! And so is the shape of the hull, only the texture is a little disappointing.

[Neptune]

Finally some new pics. Painted a little on the funnels. And the rubbing tires in front and aft. Furthermore I've continued on the towing arrangement. I'm quite sure of the bollard (which has received the T bar in the middle now), but I'm far from sure of the support aft of it. To me it seems to be a towing winch, to help get the mooring ropes over the bollard, however, in certain pictures the warping heads, which is the brown stuff sticking out of mine, seem to be square, so no warping heads at all. So I'm still in a little doubt about that. Can't however keep waiting for pictures, so I'll finish her with winches there. There will be a small roof on top of that with a big towing hook.

[Neptune]

Well, again some progress. Nearing the end now! Not sure if I'll proceed straight away with the Song and not start anything else, or whether I'll just start with the Chilikin class replenisher and build the Song simultanuously.

Here are the pics so far.


I noticed that most of the time these ships carry these huge fenders with them. The big "blob" of plastic you see on the aft deck is the first piece of such a fender. I still have to improve it though.
The towing gear is now nearly complete. The bollard is there, now I'm working on the towing hook, which looks huge in real size, but of course extremely tiny on the model...
This is my towing hook.


Here you see it installed, the entire towing hook installation actually consists of four parts up till now. The tiny towing hook is flanked on both sides by a small piece and those are supported on the other end by another piece of styrene. I'll have to add a few more parts before it's finished.


The lifeboats have been put on the ship too now. Practically I just drill two tiny holes (one forward and one aft) with a needle. Then I insert more or less long pieces of stretched styrene which act as wire. Then I just stick those pieces of styrene to the davits and once it's fixed I cut off the excess pieces of stretched styrene.

The aft part of the ship:


Overall view:


Sharp eyed people among you might have noticed that the platform on top has lost some supports. I installed the forward radar, but I was getting excessively annoyed by the sloped supports. Some of them were too short, so they were angled. I tried to cut out one, but hit the other one too. So practically I think I'll just remove the small platform and put new struts below it. I'll also have to add the waveguide in the middle for the radar on top of that small platform.
Then I'll have to continue finishing those funnels, attach the bridge level to the rest of the boat and add the main crane. And then it's finished I guess. (except for some finishing touches in the paint and the masts)

[Pieter]

Love the towing hook, looks very realistic to me. When are we going to see her in a diorama setting?

[Neptune]

Be patient. There's still lots of work to do.
I've already completed the Pyotr Velikiy cruiser, but that's about it. Others are still under construction, so there's no real talk of a diorama yet. Of course if I put the cruiser and the tugboat in the gel then at least there's already some sign of a dio. I'll do that once the tug is finished.

[Neptune]

Well I'm actually working on it.
Hope to finish her tomorrow, I started the acrylic base two days back. One bigger problem I encountered is that Pyotr Velikiy has lost its (already problematic) decals. The numbers just came off. It was like that before, but they were at least still attached, now they just flew off. So I'll have to find a way to replace them before I can put Pyotr in the Dio. I wanted to display these two together for now... I'll see what I can do. Otherwise she'll be a small seascape on her own.

[Pieter]

If you still have the decals and they have not somehow disappeared you can try to re attach them using clear varnish to keep them in place.

Well I'm actually working on it.
The numbers just came off. It was like that before, but they were at least still attached, now they just flew off. So I'll have to find a way to replace them before I can put Pyotr in the Dio. I wanted to display these two together for now... I'll see what I can do. Otherwise she'll be a small seascape on her own.

[Neptune]

Lost the decals unfortunately. Either I have to search for other ones, or I'll have to find another solution.

Here is the finished SB-406. I only noticed I didn't give the forward crane cabin windows, so i'll have to do that. That crane is also very tilted so maybe I'll remove it entirely and put it upright. I'll see. I'm quite happy with the result for now, so possibly I won't touch it anymore either.

I detailed the mast slightly more and I also added the last, white, open lifeboat with the canvas cover over it.








Note the small tunnel around the "propellor" of the open white lifeboat.

My first (and only) two fully scratchbuilt models up till now together.

[Pieter]

Nice subject and good effort, and much more colorful than I thought.

[Nektarios]

Both your scratchbuilt ships look great Neptune.

[Neptune]

Well, I've started building the Sergey Osipov two days ago. Just to let you guys know. Pictures will be coming soon.
I discovered why no company wanted to make a kit of this class. These damn things are impossible! I wouldn't want to give it a try either if she wasn't in that fleet! Complicated like hell, that's what I discovered so far!
However it's going pretty smoothly up till now. I'm using a more or less similar technique to create the hull as I did with my Excel build. Now however, I'm using less frames and I'll be using more milliput. I have no idea of the real frames, so I'm guessing anyway, more sanding will make it more realistic to get the shape. The frames would be wrong and in the way I think.
Of course that middle part of the Chilikin class is a real annoyance and that's why that hull is taking me several days!
Here are some pics of that class. As you'll see it actually has two tanks with space between below the main deck. In between these two tanks/holds there is a five line manifold.
Again I'm mainly using Google Earth and some estimation to get a good idea of the measurements. And this time, I'm lucky, I have a lot of pictures to help me with the build. Nothing like the SB-406 tug, of which there are hardly any pictures around.

[Neptune]

Here we go then. Composed of the last few days together. Got a little more involved in my Song class sub though. Hope to continue this one this evening or tomorrow.
Photobucket is not really cooperating so I'll upload them here for now.

[Neptune]

Some explanation with previous pics.
First I cut out the main deck and "waterline" area. Then I place a longtudinal section of 2mm styrene in the middle to match the sideview. Afterwards I added the parallel body, which I had to estimate and measure from pictures.
After that I add frames forward and aft of the parallel body and some between the parallel body. I don't really cut in the longtudinal section to avoid warping (I noticed before that my waterline was already warped before I actually glued anything to it). Anyway, up till now it's straight.
And this picture is where I am for this moment. The deck below the main deck in the middle is put in place.
I also put the two tanks/holds in there (I suppose they are the tanks for the liquid cargo since the main fuel rigs are mounted on top of them). In between there is space for the manifold. I'm not sure what is in front or aft of them, so I'll have to improvise a bit or study my pictures a little more. I'll have to do that in order to proceed since I have to finish that deck before I can mount the main deck and I have to mount the main deck before I can start using the milliput to finish the bow and stern shape. Lots of work to do and the Song is of course continuously bothering me. But I hope to finish at least the hull before I'm leaving.

[Pieter]

Looking good so far. And no, I'm not going to do a rival build on this one.