Nuclear Icebreaker ARKTIKA 1/400 (COMPLETED - for now)

Love the paintwork and the weathering.....Cheers mark

Thanks for the comments.

One frustrating snag I hit today (other than airbrush issues that I think I resolved), is some of these reel details for the deck. There were supposed to be 8 of these pieces but only one was fully formed. The rest were a mess. I might have to leave them off the model, leaving some unfortunate holes on the deck which I had already painted.

Aww, come on - I know this is additional, unnecessary work - but you can scratchbuild those babies easily! Look - those outer wheels are exactly the diameter of the sprue - so you slice some sprue and you already got those outer rings. For the shaft you will have to find some thinner rod - or in a pinch go with toothpick or stretch some sprue - also not really a big deal here. And take some styrene sheet for the bases - you could go for more correct triangular bases perpendicular to the shaft. If you don't have styrene sheet (why not?), you could always try some old credit card, or some ice cream box - this stuff also usually lays around and gets dumped.

So I hope you can not only save the day here, but even improve those winches! Good luck with it and have a nice day

Paweł

OK, I gave it a shot. I had some sprue from an Airfix set, and the diameter of it was similar, and it had a little bit of sheet where the sprue information/manufacturer numbers were on. It’s pretty basic, and somewhat big, but it might be OK once I paint them black. Here’s the result next to one of the mutant winches. 

Here’s the winches I made on the model itself. Yes these ships had green decks. The colors will tone down once I weather it.

Well done!  Curious why the green decks?

I’m not sure. If you look at some tourist photos on the ships it almost looks like they’re on a mini-putt green while watching icebergs. By the way I looked into how much an Icebreaker tour to the North Pole is: the first figure that popped up is $30k. So, I don’t think this is the cards for me.

Do many ship models require you to glue on the doors? Look at all these doors! 5 were too deformed to be usable, but there’s so many I don’t think anyone will notice. I attached 2 tonight and gave up in order to spray on some clear to protect the paint because it’s going to take a lot of manhandling to attach these doors.

Oh wow.  I was thinking of buying this kit, inspired by your build and learning about this ships accomplishments.   But not sure I want to deal with these issues as I am not a ship builder.   Looking forward to your progress and finished subject.

Uh Oh !

 When you do these , don't forget to close them .It's gets cold up there !

Well, I knew this old kit would come with challenges, and I could learn from them. To paraphrase Yakov Smirnoff, in Soviet Russia model builds you.

I glued the pedestal, hull and first deck on. The deck was a challenge as it was a little warped, and didn’t want to stick to the little pins on the inside. Unfortunately some glue splatted out and got on the deck and some on the hull, doing some damage. The hull paint damage was easily concealed with some oil paint and faked some weathering. It looks fine. The damage on the deck wasn’t too bad and should be OK. The sub assembly that goes on top is a little warped as well, so I need to be extra careful when I assemble it. There’s going to be no easy way to do it as there’s really no pins to fit things in place. Scary! 

Hello!

Lookn' good! Nice save with the winches. I hope you can manage the warp as long as there's something strong to glue the warped parts to, it should straighten the parts up. Tack 'em in spots with CA, this should do the trick of holding the parts. You could also install some wire pins if you think those are really necessary. Good luck with your build, it's something special! Have a nice day

Paweł

Can't wait to see that giant super structure build up!  Looking good.

Thanks, all.

No progress on the ship this week as I’ve been out of town on business. BUT, when I returned last night I had something waiting for me: a little Soviet era badge pin commerating the 1977 polar expedition to add to my Arktika collection.

Also, here’s an old NYT article on the Arktika reaching the North Pole: https://www.nytimes.com/1977/08/18/archives/soviet-nuclear-ship-reaches-north-pole-through-arctic-ice.html

Some progress this week with one of the deck subassemblies. The doors in this set still mystify me: there are other parts of the model where the doors are nicely formed onto larger pieces, but I keep gluing these tiny doors on over and over. Thankfully I read ahead in the instructions and realized there was a need to chop off a bit of one of these doors.

It’s very rare that things “fit” in the kit, just a slight indication that pieces sort of float together. The worst bits are the little staircases. They have no fit whatsoever. 

You can see how warped the deck I have is. Luckily the warped bit is a section that will be concealed by other parts of the model. I have placed the tower of the superstructure on the deck to make sure I glue the three pieces together in roughly the right spot. I’ll have some filling and sanding to do to make things more seamless.

These boats, according to the instructions, are just one solid color. One boat has so much detail that I think it would look odd for it to have a solid color, but I can’t find a good reference photo to see what color it should be.

The worst bit was the helipad. it should’ve been a decal, instead it’s a weird raised bit of detail. The correct color is the pad is green with the red center, but I tried using green on the grid and the result looked kind of unnatural, so I settled on black.

Hi,

Your build is looking great.  Especially the hull weathering. 

PF

really liking this build darkhorse , looking forward to the next installment

steve5

I really like the way she is progreesing. Very nive Build indeed.....Cheers Mark

Thanks for the comments. I’ve been prepping a lot of parts lately for a big airbrush session. A lot of the windows on the tower/bridge were quite poorly formed, and needed a lot of work and some filling here and there. Pre-fitting a lot of these parts seems to be a wise thing to do given the nature of the kit.

On another related note: I ended up not being able to resist an Arktika postcard I saw online, and it arrived from Russia today. Cute kitschy celebratory cultural art/propaganda. A great piece for the collection.

The superstructure rises along with some cranes and lifeboats. What a pain. Nothing in this set fits together nicely - that’s OK, I’m learning from this experience. Especially when it comes to masking tape. I’m doing it a lot in this build with these weird decks. I cannot make that tower flush with the ship, and I’ll have to fill in some of the light cracks through the bottom. I did a dry fit of the next deck - not happening. I had to shave down the sides of it a bit to make it slide in.

On the plus side I’m done with any significant airbrushing. But you can see how many decks I have yet to go through.

One mistake I’ve made was spraying on primer from too far of a distance, which gave some parts an ultimately more rough finish... oh well.  

I used glazing medium to fill in the little windows. It’s easier for me to apply it from behind the piece rather than the front, still it’s a messy business.

They certainly make things difficult and colourful. Very nice look you have going with her.....Cheers mark

Thanks.

I actually tried to make a decal for the ship name last week. I have access to good graphics programs and printers that use fuser oil. The colors turned out kind of anemic on the dark hull, and the decal quite thick. Still unsure how to tackle this. Someone suggested rub-down letters but I feel like that would be something super easy to muck up.

Hello!

IF you have some fitting dry transfers, you can go per Archer instructions and rub them down on some clear decal film, and then apply like any other decal. Or you can send your digital design to some professionals - printing them right takes some know how, but the pros can print decals that are very opaque and very thin, too.

Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel

Hello!

IF you have some fitting dry transfers, you can go per Archer instructions and rub them down on some clear decal film, and then apply like any other decal. Or you can send your digital design to some professionals - printing them right takes some know how, but the pros can print decals that are very opaque and very thin, too.

Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

 

I think I may like the pros to handle this. It’s quite a simple decal all in all. Any recommendation on who I should contact?

Well, things progressed pretty quickly. I perhaps rushed it a little bit, but given the shortcomings of the set I decided against spending more time on it. The fit issues and inaccuracies are just so glaring. Besides, I have another interest I want to persue and focus much more time on (relearning the guitar). Some instructions made zero sense: the large searchlights were suposed to be balanced somehow on other parts that can’t possibly fit where they were supposed to. There was another step with attaching some poles to the fascade of thr ship, but they added nothing visually, even detracting as they’d look like spikes. BUT, all in all, I think it looks cool, and I’m still a fan of the ship.

Hi,

Your build turned out great.  It looks like you have just enough wash and salt to bring out the details without looking over done.  I can only wish that when I get around to building my copy of this kit it turns out 1/2 as nice as your build. 

PF

That looks awesome.   What a fun pallet.  Great job on a trying kit.  

Thanks, all.

Here’s one more pic strategically snapped outside.

Lovely work.....Cheers Mark

Wow! She turned out great! I love the weathering.

Looks great!  Love the weathering.