Varyag 1901 by Valeriy V - FINISHED - scale 1:75 - Russian Cruiser

[Tony Hunt]

Magnificent.

[Valeriy V]

9 hours ago, KeithAug said:

Lovely - do you know why it had a green bottom?

The underwater part of the hull was painted green for a very short period of the ship's life. After the arrival of the Varyag from the USA to Russia, the color was changed to red.

[amateur]

Sometimes I wonder why there are not more model kits of these type of ships. They are so beautiful. Apparently kit makers (and buyers) prefer another victory over a cruiser like this. 

(I know, there is quite a lot out there in the plastic/resin-world, but that is way outside my skillset, as is scratch building one of these beauties)

 

Jan

[AJohnson]

14 hours ago, amateur said:

Sometimes I wonder why there are not more model kits of these type of ships. They are so beautiful. Apparently kit makers (and buyers) prefer another victory over a cruiser like this. 

(I know, there is quite a lot out there in the plastic/resin-world, but that is way outside my skillset, as is scratch building one of these beauties)

 

Jan

Hi Jan, yes agreed, we need more models of beautiful ships like Varyag! (not more Victories, Bismarcks & Titanics, but your right, they sell....) This is an inspirational project. 😲

[Ian_Grant]

Zvezda has kits of many unusual models. They have the "Varyag" and a couple of other pre-dreadnoughts. I have their Roman trireme and am impressed with the mold engraving.

[Roger Pellett]

A well kept secret is that models of steel ships can be hard to build.  First of all the real things are much larger than the usual wooden sailing ships.  This means  that unless you have a huge display area, small scale is required.  Simulation of hull shell plating is a roadblock for many.  There are also a lot of fittings, each of which becomes a separate model in itself.  Valeriy’s model is built to a scale of 1:75, smaller than the customary 1:48 dockyard model scale.  Accurately producing the wealth of metal fittings at this scale would be a daunting challenge for most of us.

 

Roger

[Valeriy V]

Thank you all for your appreciation of my work!  

I continue my work...

 

Production of a naval version of the Maxim machine gun.

 

[Valeriy V]

Machine gun parts and their assembly.

[Valeriy V]

On 7/5/2022 at 1:38 AM, Ian_Grant said:

Zvezda has kits of many unusual models. They have the "Varyag" and a couple of other pre-dreadnoughts. 

Unfortunately, this set of the Varyag model has serious errors in the shape of the ship's hull and so on.

[NavyShooter]

I have in my archive somewhere a picture of a very early Maxim gun in a Naval Reserve Unit here in Canada - it is on display in the unit museum.  It was magnificent - as I recall, the brass-work on it was incredible, but I'd never seen a Maxim Naval Mounting, so I'd assumed it was some kind of prototype - thank-you for sharing this bit of history!  If I can find a picture of the gun in my archive, I'll add it here.

 

NS
 

[Valeriy V]

3 hours ago, NavyShooter said:

It was magnificent - as I recall, the brass-work on it was incredible, but I'd never seen a Maxim Naval Mounting,
 

The details were covered with bronze, probably for anti-corrosion purposes.  

 

[Valeriy V]

4 hours ago, NavyShooter said:

I have in my archive somewhere a picture of a very early Maxim gun in a Naval Reserve Unit here in Canada - it is on display in the unit museum. 
 

Brad, have you seen a model SS " Empress of Japan" with weapons in museums in Canada?

I have only a bad photo of this model and it is signed as if from a Canada Science and Technology Museum  Ottawa.

 

I want to find a good photo of this model, but so far I have not been able to.

Edited July 10, 2022 by Valeriy V

[ccoyle]

On 7/4/2022 at 5:13 PM, AJohnson said:

Hi Jan, yes agreed, we need more models of beautiful ships like Varyag! (not more Victories, Bismarcks & Titanics, but your right, they sell....)

 

Quite a few warships from this era are available as card models, including some from publishers in Ukraine. They are far from easy to build, though. As has been noted elsewhere, steel warships have large numbers of fittings, and in the usual scales of 1/200 or 1/250 for card models the plethora of tiny parts makes such kits suitable only for advanced builders.

 

Valeriy's model is in a different league all together -- a one-off in meticulous detail by a master modeler.

[NavyShooter]

10 hours ago, Valeriy V said:

Brad, have you seen a model SS " Empress of Japan" with weapons in museums in Canada?

I have only a bad photo of this model and it is signed as if from a Canada Science and Technology Museum  Ottawa.

 

I want to find a good photo of this model, but so far I have not been able to.

 

I was actually at the Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa last year with my family, and while we had a great time, I do not recall seeing this ship model.  I'm sorry!

 

[lmagna]

There you go Valeriy, using that giant match again!

 

I do not think I will ever stop being amazed by the craftsmanship of this build or have enough words in English or Ukrainian, (Not that I know any Ukrainian words other than "Cat") that can do your work credit. 

 

My learning of some Ukrainian words may have to improve as it is possible that soon we may have a person and her son from Cherkasy coming to live with us. She is waiting for her passport and trying to decide on the US or Germany where she would be closer to her family. For us, all we can do is wait and see what she chooses.

[Valeriy V]

2 hours ago, lmagna said:

There you go Valeriy, using that giant match again!

 

 

Lou, I use not only a giant match but also the same huge fingers.  

[wefalck]

For use against torpedoboats Maxim also developed a 37 mm version (to replace the mechanical Hotchkiss revolving gun of the same calibre), which was produced by Nordenfeldt in the UK and later by others. Because of its sound it became also known as 'pom-pom' gun.

 

From Wikiwand

 

The cooling sleeve around the barrel was made from brass, because early versions of the 8 mm machine-gun were actually water-cooled, i.e. a rubber tube was connected to each end and cooling water run through. I gather certain parts of the mechanism were made from bronze because the coefficient of friction between this metal and steel is relatively low and no lubrication is needed. Corrosion resistance is indeed another consideration. Respective parts of mechanical guns of the time (Gatling, Hotchkiss, Nordenfelt, Gardner) and used in the navies were also made from bronze and brass. Later, as everything was painted grey all-over corrosion resistance became less relevant (see picture above).

[NavyShooter]

An interesting - not oft spoken of - piece of data about early machine guns such as the Maxim (and Vickers) and other such designs is the oil that was used.

 

It's a type of oil that is no longer available - but gave outstanding lubrication and minimal wear in service.  

 

 

Here's the tale as found 'in the wild' on the internet:

 

"In 1963 in Yorkshire, a class of British Army armorers put one Vickers gun through probably the most strenuous test ever given to an individual gun. The base had a stockpile of approximately 5 million rounds of Mk VII ammunition which was no longer approved for military use. They took a newly rebuilt Vickers gun, and proceeded to fire the entire stock of ammo through it over the course of seven days. They worked in pairs, switching off at 30 minute intervals, with a third man shoveling away spent brass. The gun was fired in 250-round solid bursts, and the worn out barrels were changed every hour and a half. At the end of the five million rounds, the gun was taken back into the shop for inspection. It was found to be within service spec in every dimension."

 

In WW1 and prior there was a special oil used...that being whale oil.

 

Whale oil was a nearly perfect lubricant - natural - unfortunately non-renewable though.

 

The heat aspect was managed by using asbestos gasket material.  

 

So, a week ago, in the UK, a commemoration was held of the 100th anniversary of the end of the Machine Gun Corps, and they fired 16 Vickers guns at once on the ranges in Bisley.  An incredible scene - guns blazing, steam blasting - people in period uniforms - some great video available. 

But, the lost aspect to the legendary mechanical reliability of the Vickers and Maxim guns is the whale oil used as the lubricant. 

 

NS
 

 

[Ian_Grant]

11 hours ago, NavyShooter said:

 

I was actually at the Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa last year with my family, and while we had a great time, I do not recall seeing this ship model.  I'm sorry!

 

The science and tech museum underwent a huge renovation several years ago. Many of the old exhibits were replaced by new stuff. I still like their old bicycle collection, in fact we were there on a day when you could try out a penny-farthing; and they kept their two or three steam locomotives but like many museums nowadays it has been "dumbed down" with interactive displays that convey less information, and many blinking lights e.g. there is a big tunnel with thousands of LEDs that supposedly teaches you about fiber-optic communications. Really just something for the kids to run through.

[Valeriy V]

12 hours ago, NavyShooter said:

 

I was actually at the Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa last year with my family, and while we had a great time, I do not recall seeing this ship model.  I'm sorry!

 

I remembered that I downloaded this photo from the museum's website when there was an announcement that the museum was closed for reconstruction.

Apparently, after the completion of the reconstruction, the model remained standing in the storerooms and was not included in the exposition.  

[Valeriy V]

Details of the machine gun are assembled together.

[Valeriy V]

For those who need a working model of the Maxim machine gun (1: 1), the drawings are posted on the Internet.   

https://forums.airbase.ru/2018/03/t82671_133--detali-vooruzheniya-i-oborudovaniya-3.html#p6137565  

[wefalck]

Thanks, Valeriy, that's a good find. Have to download the drawings.

 

I have just got published an article (in German) about the various early mechanical machine guns in naval use. While preparing the article, I came across this guy on YouTube, who has done nice animations inter alia of the workings of various early machine guns: https://www.youtube.com/user/vbbsmyt

 

[Belugawhaleman]

Amazing work!

[Roger Pellett]

Beautiful Work on the machine gun !

Edited July 15, 2022 by Roger Pellett

[Valeriy V]

Roger was wrong.   

This post should be moved to the Ras Ambrioso thread.

 

It can be done?

[Ras Ambrioso]

Thanks to Roger  for the advise and to Valeriy for the re-tweet.

[Roger Pellett]

Sorry,  I don’t know how this happened.  I’ll delete it

[GrandpaPhil]

Amazing work!

[Valeriy V]

Making a 40 foot steam boat.

Master model for the boat hull.