RGL

The wood deck comes with the pontos upgrade kit, and it is just lovely, just not very adhesive.

A bit of a re think and the deck has to go down so as not to catch on stuff. A simple exercise? No, after laying the thing down painstakingly, after a few hours the thing keeps popping up in sections. Using a sliver of PE and thin CA over the last few days I have been making running repairs to get the thing to sit properly. Still looks good and makes me happy with the guesstimate of the paint colour.
 
I have now down up all the boat deck and funnels but will now not paint or attach anything until I have done up the deck hatches.

A bit of a re think and the deck has to go down so as not to catch on stuff. A simple exercise? No, after laying the thing down painstakingly, after a few hours the thing keeps popping up in sections. Using a sliver of PE and thin CA over the last few days I have been making running repairs to get the thing to sit properly. Still looks good and makes me happy with the guesstimate of the paint colour.
 
I have now down up all the boat deck and funnels but will now not paint or attach anything until I have done up the deck hatches.

The deck has an adhesive backing, so it "should" just stick on. When I placed it on it stuck, then a couple of hours later it popped up in places, which I rubbed down thinking it needed heat, and a few hours after it kept popping up, thus the thin CA as anything else would leave bulges

The wood deck comes with the pontos upgrade kit, and it is just lovely, just not very adhesive.

A bit of a re think and the deck has to go down so as not to catch on stuff. A simple exercise? No, after laying the thing down painstakingly, after a few hours the thing keeps popping up in sections. Using a sliver of PE and thin CA over the last few days I have been making running repairs to get the thing to sit properly. Still looks good and makes me happy with the guesstimate of the paint colour.
 
I have now down up all the boat deck and funnels but will now not paint or attach anything until I have done up the deck hatches.

A bit of a re think and the deck has to go down so as not to catch on stuff. A simple exercise? No, after laying the thing down painstakingly, after a few hours the thing keeps popping up in sections. Using a sliver of PE and thin CA over the last few days I have been making running repairs to get the thing to sit properly. Still looks good and makes me happy with the guesstimate of the paint colour.
 
I have now down up all the boat deck and funnels but will now not paint or attach anything until I have done up the deck hatches.

The wood deck comes with the pontos upgrade kit, and it is just lovely, just not very adhesive.

A bit of a re think and the deck has to go down so as not to catch on stuff. A simple exercise? No, after laying the thing down painstakingly, after a few hours the thing keeps popping up in sections. Using a sliver of PE and thin CA over the last few days I have been making running repairs to get the thing to sit properly. Still looks good and makes me happy with the guesstimate of the paint colour.
 
I have now down up all the boat deck and funnels but will now not paint or attach anything until I have done up the deck hatches.

A bit of a re think and the deck has to go down so as not to catch on stuff. A simple exercise? No, after laying the thing down painstakingly, after a few hours the thing keeps popping up in sections. Using a sliver of PE and thin CA over the last few days I have been making running repairs to get the thing to sit properly. Still looks good and makes me happy with the guesstimate of the paint colour.
 
I have now down up all the boat deck and funnels but will now not paint or attach anything until I have done up the deck hatches.

A bit of a re think and the deck has to go down so as not to catch on stuff. A simple exercise? No, after laying the thing down painstakingly, after a few hours the thing keeps popping up in sections. Using a sliver of PE and thin CA over the last few days I have been making running repairs to get the thing to sit properly. Still looks good and makes me happy with the guesstimate of the paint colour.
 
I have now down up all the boat deck and funnels but will now not paint or attach anything until I have done up the deck hatches.

I'm in. There are a few Russian sites with these builds which is why they invented Google translate. Massive undertaking.

I'm in. There are a few Russian sites with these builds which is why they invented Google translate. Massive undertaking.

Welcome to the start of my latest build.
 
Finally getting back to working on a ship model after a considerable time although during that time I have been working on and off on the Mazur D-350 card vehicle..  I checked my logs and I last worked on the Bismarck over 18 months ago, which has subsequently gone to a new home and it’s also been over 2 ½ years since I have done anything on the Endeavour which is still waiting patiently. So it’s high time I started another ship project. 
 
I poured over a lot of different ships from different publishers and finally settled on the Borodino by publisher Dom Bumagi, which is a Ukrainian company but according to Google Translator dom bumagi translates from Russian to Paper House.  I haven’t come across many builds of the Borodino but one in particular looks really nice so that made my mind up.
 
I chose the Borodino for a number of reasons, primarily because I find pre-dreadnaughts very interesting with regards to hull, gun and structure configurations and the Russian vessels are very well catered for by card model publishers.
 
The Borodino was the lead ship of five Borodino class Battleships and the second finished.  According to Wikipedia she was laid down on the 23rd May 1900, launched on the 8th September 1901and in service by August 1904.  The Borodino was sunk during the Battle of Tsushima against the Japanese on the 27th May 1905.
Here is a link to wikipedia for those interested in finding out more about the ship. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Borodino
 
There are 2 or 3 other Borodino class card models available that I am aware of.  I previously mentioned that Russian ships are well catered as card models and I know of 12 other Russian ships available which were involved in the Battle of Tsushima.  A few of which I would like to do as future builds.  There are some Japanese ships from the battle available also, the Mikasa being one of note.
 
Another decision maker is the size of the pre-dreadnaught ships which at approximately 600mm long are half the length of WWII battleships so build duration should be proportionately shorter.  I also want to get 1 or 2 smaller ships under my belt before tackling the Fuso or similar sized battleship.
 
I ordered the ship kit, laser cut forms, photo-etch detail set and the metal gun barrel set from GPM in Poland (http://gpm.pl/en ) which took 3 1/2 weeks to arrive. This was longer than the usual 2 weeks.  The packaging was to GPMs usual high standard being well protected.  Price wise card models are relatively cheap compared to other mediums and worked out approximately;
 
Borodino kit book – A$24
Laser cut forms – A$20
Photo-etch detail set – A$24
Metal gun barrel set – A$14
 
But postage is crippling to Australia coming in around the A$90 mark.
 
 
 
Okay let’s get started.
 
This is my 1st experience with the publisher Dom Bumagi so will be interesting to compare them with others.  The first major surprise was how the kit is presented.  It came in a plastic sleeve and looked like a usual A3 kit book but on opening it the pages are all loose leaf with no binding.  This isn’t a problem as I usually separate the binding/staples and cut the pages in half to the individual sheets anyway for convenience and ease of handling/finding parts etc.
 
The front cover is stiff card with the picture on the front and the reverse as usual details the history of the ship and as usual is in the publishers native language but easy enough to convert to English.  Also on the reverse of the cover are diagrams for a lot of the ‘ironwork’ such as railings, ladders, stairs etc.  The diagrams show the various shapes to scale and the thicknesses of wire required to form them.
 
There are 6 thin pages for the hull skeleton and structure formwork which get glued to thicker card but these won’t be needed due to getting the laser cut forms.  There are 6 pages of parts and on close inspection appear to be very well printed on the expected quality and thickness of paper although did expect more parts sheets.
 
The assembly diagrams are on 4 double sided glossy pages and these are very nicely detailed being computer renders as opposed to line drawings some publishers use.
Also in the sleeve is a thin strip with more parts on which I think must be an update to replace incorrect parts or additional details.  There was also a small thin plastic cloth material with the various flags printed on to it.  This is quite translucent and the flag colours are strong on one side but a bit light on the reverse.
 





 
 
There are 6 thick A3 sheets of laser cut form parts to replace the kit internal structures, skeleton, ribs etc and 1 thinner sheet for the ships boats, trestles etc. Having used laser cut forms in the past; these are a god send for quickly and accurately building the underlying structures. Previous experience of laser cut forms have been very good, going together perfectly so will see how these compare.
 


 
Card model ships aren’t as well catered for with regards to additional detail sets like the smaller 1:350 scale plastic kits but typically offer at least a set of laser cut card and/or a photo-etch set.  I got the photo-etch detail set as although the same price as the kit book they do sharpen up the model replacing some parts which would otherwise be quite bulky in paper.  The set also includes the nice eagle crest for the bow and the stern balcony. 
 
There are little numbers next to each part which correspond to the equivalent paper part they replace.
 

 
 
The metal gun barrels are a bit of a backup as I intend to at least try to do the larger guns in card as supplied but can fall back to these if that doesn’t work out as planned.  The set contains;
4x 305mm (~12”) in aluminium
12x 152mm (~6”) in brass
20x 75mm (~3”) in brass
20x 47mm (~2”) in brass
 

 
 
Really looking forward to getting back into ship modelling with this one.
 
Cheers
Slog

Nice work

As this part of the kit is fairly well covered up by the boat deck, not a great deal of detail was included. I replaced the search lights, added a front grill, cut off and replaced the winches, added fairleads and ladders.
 
Grey is such a boring colour after the other kits.

Looking Great mate - the detail really stands out, Im so missing doing mine as she is packed away upstairs while I'm decorating the house
 
OC.

Ok, the flybridge (I suppose), does not sit well, and I wanted to join it before I painted. All the molded hatches have been shaved and will be added with etch afterwards. Major step as far as I'm concerned. Primer coat next.

Yes mate, I will be, but it will be a while off yet, I want to work from the centreline outwards. There is a heap of work to go yet. I'm looking forward to the contrast.

You don't muck around with these builds do you Greg!  This will be a great looking model.
 
cheers
 
Pat

As this part of the kit is fairly well covered up by the boat deck, not a great deal of detail was included. I replaced the search lights, added a front grill, cut off and replaced the winches, added fairleads and ladders.
 
Grey is such a boring colour after the other kits.

As this part of the kit is fairly well covered up by the boat deck, not a great deal of detail was included. I replaced the search lights, added a front grill, cut off and replaced the winches, added fairleads and ladders.
 
Grey is such a boring colour after the other kits.

Next is off to the flying bridge  . The first of the guns have to be added, namely 10 12 pounders. The unpainted bits are, from left to right, North Star with the Pontos barrels, then the kit supplied with the Flyhawk barrels (which are 3mm longer, then just the kit one. The kit one is not bad, but just not detailed. The photo shows the real thing and the upper area of the barrel is almost silver, I tried gunmetal but it was just too dark.

As this part of the kit is fairly well covered up by the boat deck, not a great deal of detail was included. I replaced the search lights, added a front grill, cut off and replaced the winches, added fairleads and ladders.
 
Grey is such a boring colour after the other kits.

Next is off to the flying bridge  . The first of the guns have to be added, namely 10 12 pounders. The unpainted bits are, from left to right, North Star with the Pontos barrels, then the kit supplied with the Flyhawk barrels (which are 3mm longer, then just the kit one. The kit one is not bad, but just not detailed. The photo shows the real thing and the upper area of the barrel is almost silver, I tried gunmetal but it was just too dark.