Borodino by RGL - FINISHED - Zvezda - 1/350 - PLASTIC

[RGL]

The 75mm gun which were for torpedo boat defence 

[RGL]

So I have to leave the barrels off and mask off the holes 

[RGL]

So the last Zvezda kit I built was the Dreadnought. I forgot how poor the quality of these kits are compared to Tamiya or even Trumpeter. Clunky. The gunnels are 1.5mm on starboard and .5mm Portside. At least the plastic is soft. 
 

making a start on the PE on bits I won’t have easy access to once I start putting the sides on. 
 

the coaling scuttles are from the Pontos set as none were included in either upgrade set, and the bollards will all need replacing. There are buts sticking out which might be bollards or might be windlasses or even vents, I just don’t know 

[CDW]

I like those 75mm guns, they look real nice. Much nicer IMO than the built up guns such as Pontos. Those came from Russia?

[RGL]

The company name is Russian, only available now on Russian sites, and Soga Minatures takes PayPal and is kinda English language friendly. 
 

the kit on the other hand! I thought it was completely malaligned, then I realised the deck has a seam that warps it completely out of alignment. As there is a stick on deck to go this won’t be seen but it really will need a lot of clean up. So I cut the deck at this seam and will have to remove a few mm as the the wing turrets won’t fit 

[RGL]

I’m really hoping this is the worst part of this build, trying to align the un alignable. lots of filler and sanding to go. 

Edited March 24, 2020 by RGL

[Old Collingwood]

Looking great greg.

 

OC.

[RGL]

Another primer coat and no gaps. Can start adding some more things now and do the lower hull. 

[lmagna]

I looks like this one is going to be more of a "Build" than an "assembly" Greg. It looks like you are making it to your normal build areas though and she will soon start having some of that RGL look.

[RGL]

It’s a long way off that look. There is so much detail to pre plan yet. I was going to scratch build a couple of winches but you can’t see them. I can’t work from home so this is going to drag out a bit but my Zara upgrade has just arrived in Oz! I did not realise they stopped all shipping for 3 weeks 

[DmitriyMarkov]

RGL, you set the bar really high with your works - I never stop to admire them 🙂

 

Some historical things:  armor was low in water 'cause ships were overloaded with coal - they had to travel from Camran' to Vladivostok without a chance to replenish the stores - Port-Arthur was lost and Tsindao was a trap and Germans weren't quite happy to let our fleet in.  It wasn't a coastal monitor  - without coal overload  those ships were quite a sea-going vessels. Service of Tsesarevich ( Grazhdanin) and Slava was  definitely adequate. 

 

Concerning low quality of these forms - IIRC  they are from 90's and their developer was  Eastern Express - Zvezda didn't develop  Borodino line - only bought those old forms.

 

It's very touching to see a foreign colleague having an interest and building something from our history ( even so painful one).  Thank You !

[DmitriyMarkov]

To add a bit - in 2-nd Pacific Squadron were in fact ships that were coastal monitors indeed - Admiral Ushakov, General-Admiral Apraksin, Navarin  - our sailors called them "self-sinkers" ( самотопы ).

 

[lmagna]

3 hours ago, DmitriyMarkov said:

It's very touching to see a foreign colleague having an interest and building something from our history ( even so painful one).

There is really plenty to be proud of in this voyage of two fleets halfway around the world with very little or almost no outside support Dmitriy. It was an amazing accomplishment by any standards of the day. Truly the ending was sad after so much effort and accomplishment but Admiral Togo was a formidable and combat experienced admiral, who was equal or superior to any naval tactician in the world at the time. Japan was lucky to have another such man in command of the Japanese navy in 1941 and many other admirals of the world suffered the same fate as Rozhestvensky.

[ccoyle]

5 hours ago, DmitriyMarkov said:

It's very touching to see a foreign colleague having an interest and building something from our history

Dmitriy, I have always liked the appearance of the pre-Dreadnoughts, and of course the Russians had many of them. At one time I had a number of the card model versions from Orel (they have an extensive product line), but I decided that they were beyond my ability to build nicely, so I sold them.

[RGL]

Lots of opportunities to improve on it. The fleet Stopped all around the African coast to get coal, and then throughout Asia. The wear and tear on suck a long trip would have been amazing. 

[RGL]

this is from a Russian language book, but the final trip of the Borodino was from way up north to way down south all around the bottom on South Africa, that the 18,000 miles with 800 guys on this steel oven.

[RGL]

Part 1 of the lower hull, bringing out the panels and fading the paint 

[RGL]

Grunging part 1

[cog]

10 hours ago, RGL said:

Grunging part 1

sponge and light grey paint?

[RGL]

Sponge and Mr Surfacer 1000. Coat 1. I’ll do several coats before colouring it. 

[cog]

if you mix, very sloppy/streak like, the mister surfacer with some darker paint, you could get some depth in it, if you get my drift

[RGL]

Yes, I just got home from work so I’ll have a play with it on a spare hull tomorrow to see what I can achieve. It needs to go Pretty much up to the waterline as witnesses said just before the Final battle they could see see seaweed up alongside the ship. She was laid up for Weeks on  end inMadagascar and other African ports awaiting instructions and a second flotilla so the biofouling would have gotten pretty bad. They were very slow (12kts) anyway so the build up must have been bad. 

[popeye the sailor]

really nice job so far........this one almost gave you a fit,  but got it to work in fine shape    great ..........looks awesome!

[BobCardone]

On 3/14/2020 at 8:51 PM, lmagna said:

Richard Hough's "The Fleet That Had To Die"

I just finished this book, absolutely amazing the second Pacific fleet even made it. Things didn't go well for them after they arrived, tho...🚽

This build encourages me to get one... I've always had a soft spot for pre-dreadnaughts.

Edited March 27, 2020 by BobCardone
wrong fleet

[Landlubber Mike]

Looking fantastic as always Greg.  Very nice job!

[RGL]

Second coat, I think it’s thick enough for scale. It does not mix well with paint so let’s see where we go with the airbrush.....

[RGL]

Barnacles and the beginning of seaweed done. I need to leave a gap for masking and blending of the waterline with salt, rust and more seaweed after the upper hull is done. 

[RGL]

Kinda end point where I’d like to be 

[CDW]

23 minutes ago, RGL said:

Kinda end point where I’d like to be 

 

Wow, she looks like she grew a light beard, with all that menagerie hanging off her hull. You did a great job capturing that look on your model.

[paulsutcliffe]

Fantastic, I wish I knew how to do all that kind of stuff, it really adds to the model, nice work

regards

Paul