Mosvka AntiSumarine Helicopter Cruiser model

Soviet command ships with heavy ASW armament.
Kombrig has a 1/700 scale resin of the Moskva and Leningrad. Needs a little scratch building and much sanding and scraping. Buy after-market helos for the kit and aftermarket decals if you have trouble painting perfect circles. Both ships of this class have been scrapped. The Russian navy was anxious to get rid of them after the disolution of the Soviet Navy. Moskva was cut up in India, and Leningrad was chopped up in Greece IIRC.

Bob, the Airfix one is the way to go. I had one when I was youger, and it was pretty good. At the moment I am building Trumpeters 350th scale Admiral Kuzenetsov. I am having trouble with the upper and lower hull as the fit is not the best. I should have it rectified soon.

Just to give you an idea of what these kits are like, here are some opics of the ones I built.

The first is the 1/600 scale Airfix Moskva.



It is pretty beat up because I built it more than 22 years ago. I had taken it and repainted it and tried ot refurbish it a little. I also have the old Aurora one, and that is waiting for it's turn in dry dock for it's SLEP.

These are my two Kiev-class carriers. They are 1/700 scale and done by Aoshima. One in the front is the Kiev; the other, the Minsk.



Sorry about the dust. They were also built about 18-20 years ago as well, so they've seen some 'combat'. I also worked on these a bit about five years ago.


Well, I hope this gives you an idea of what you have to look forward to. You may be able to still find them on E-bay. Good luck in finding those kits!

Cheers

My wife who is Russian is in Moscow now so she might be able to bring a couple back.

The Russians sure know how to make the pretty.

Just look at their subs.

I am making a Zvezda Oscar II and the fit is quite good even though a little filling was needed here and there.

I'm aware of two Moskva kits, from Aurora and Airfix. The latter was quite a bit better, though the Aurora one was one of the firm's better efforts. Both of them are long out of production. I have no idea where to find either of them - other than the off-chance of finding them on e-bay. Maybe another forum member who's more up to speed on the modern warship end of things is aware of a source.

I believe Aoshima does a not-bad-but-not-great version of the Kiev on 1/700. There have also been several recent 1/350 Soviet warship kits from Trumpeter; I haven't kept the names straight.

If you're interested in resin kits, take a look at the huge range offered by the Russian company Kombrig. It covers most ships built by both Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union. The company has been around for a few years, and the quality of its kits varies quite a bit. The earlier ones aren't as good as the most recent ones, which are close to the state of the art. The great feature of Combrig kits, though, is that, by the standards of resin kits, they're extremely reasonably priced. (The exchange rate for Russian currency probably has something to do with that.) You can get to the Kombrig online catalog by way of the Steel Navy website, <www.steelnavy.com>. That site also has a lengthy page of kit reviews, which may be able to steer you in the direction of the better kits.

Soviet warships in general make handsome models. I've always thought it ironic that two of the most ethically despicable governments of the twentieth century, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, built some of the best looking warships ever.