Borodino

That's a fun kit. It has it's issues, but it's so unique that it's worth it.

Just to be clear it was sunk in 1904 at the Battle of Tsushima.

There's a good book you'd enjoy called something like "the Tsars Last Armada".

Also take a look at the ship model forum on the subject. You'll see mine plus a couple of better ones.

If the bug sets in, Hasegawa sold a fantastic kit of the Mikasa on the same scale, Admiral Togo's flagship.

Oooo, that is an interesting looking Battleship. I was thinking about doing the San Fransisco next but I think the next couple months are now booked on the bench.

The foundation is laid.

i have one in the shelf queen area and 3 in the stash. the GMM PE  is for her and V ARYAF armoured cruiser. haven't figured out the stack rigging yet.

I replaced the kit stacks with brass tube. Easier than filing away at seams.

For the stack stays I used household paint brush bristles. Not entirely pleased but they look hefty and sit straight.

The instructions call for a black finish but I fell a titanium finish will look better. I don't care if the waterline guns are mobile and don't feel like going through all the grief of trying to finagle them into place with the enclose so enclosure went in first then the bottom of the gun mount was cut off and each unit was fixed in place. I put the aft turret together just to see how well the new gun barrels would work - they work very well and these turrets will retain full mobility.

Artwox deck material in place. Had to break it into segments then lay it down. Really is nice stuff though. Secondary gun turrets are coming along and lots of clamping required to get the upper deck in place. Russian kit of a Russian ship - no quality issues there!

Okay, the foundation of the ship is pretty much done now I'm working on fine detail. Here we have the modification of the blower funnels, the changes in the small arms with plastic armor being replaced with PE and the main stacks being reworked. Here I opened up the caps and installed a series of eye bolts for the rigging attachments.

Nice work.

The PE bases for the Hotchkiss guns are not accurate.

Those bases are kit original, I'm just upgrading the armor plate. Tonight I start painting crew. I hate using PE crew figures in this scale, simply too two dimensional for my liking. I have been dealing with this guy in the Ukraine who does some awesome resin crew and has three sets for the Russian Imperial Navy. I've used his WW2 German stuff before and really liked it so have high hopes for this next batch. He is North Star Models - nice stuff but really, really slow service.

Nice picture.

Notice all the men except the Tsarvich have massive facial hair. Expect to see that on your little Sergeis!

Yeah, you're a funny guy!

Beautiful work Swanny! I really am enjoying your WIP since I have the Knyaz Suvorov in my stash that hopefully I'll get to one of these days.

Steve

If you plan on using any crew figures you'll want to look at the North Star Models sets - simply the best I have found.

I agree, North Star has some awesome resin extras. I have their HMS Dreadnought secondary guns for my Trumpeter kit that are just exquisite.  

I know you said you had to piece out the Artwok deck, was that due to the model or the decking itself not fitting?

Steve

Actually it came from the deck separating at some of the very fine connections around the middle gun turrets. There was so little wood right in those spots that it cold not survive coming off the backing. The fit to the kit deck was perfect.

The colors and the way its painted are giving that model a lot of character.  

2nd and 3rd upper fore decks are complete

Doing a little work on the steam launches.

This is really looking exquisite.  I gotta ask, how did you paint the North Star figures, I have a set and they are TINY!?

Groot

10 power Omni Visor to start. I cut them off the base in strips and sometimes as individuals. For these guys I have a base color of blue then the flesh and the black then back to the blue for touch-up then white for the caps. Of course the white uniform officers are a lot easier. The Russian sailors are the most complex to paint that I have done so far. I did a bunch of German figures for my Z-43 and they where a lot easier. Once all painted I chop the base off flush with the back of the boots then lay the figure flat on its back and chop off the rest of the base. This way I'm not breaking legs - they're really hard to fix at this scale.

Thanks, those really do look awesome!

Groot

That ship almost has a fictional, steampunk vibe to it.  It's going to make a beautiful display piece!  I love the dark iron paint against the natural wood too.

Thanks, these are all the same things that attracted me to this kit. It is looking pretty cool but work has slowed way down while I do the kitchen remodel thing.

Most of my day is spent working on the kitchen but the last couple hours are reserved for modeling. Here we have the aft upper decks complete.

This ship has hoists for handling the anchors, I built hook and pulley for them and rigged them. Also did the anchor chains.

Pretty nice Swanny.