Well, I’m a big scale addict, so it was only a matter of time until I found the Russian Trumpeter. Or is it the Trumpeter Russian? Anyway, I’m about 80% complete on the 1/350 North Carolina I’ve been working on for at least month now (I’m retired, so I can obsess on these things), swearing that I’ll never buy another Trumpeter kit again (thick attach points on the sprues, mediocre fit with big parts, etc), when my 1/200 search on eBay brings the Sovremenny into my view.
All the kit reviews were encouraging, I found a decent price on line ($90), so it’s on the way. I’ve seen some threads on here about it, some pics included, but no real build commentary. I’m wondering that with 847 parts, what do you folks who have tried this kit think of it?
I’m thinking it’s going to be about 6 months to get this one together, averaging about 4 hours build time a day.
Sovremenny Class Destroyer is my favorite warships. I have one 1:350 and two 1:200 (type 956 & 956E) built (by the same modeler - Niphon) and still have one 1:200 unbuilt. I got the 1:200s some 7 years ago at 1,800.- baht each (at that time it was 40 baht /$1, or $45,; right now it’ll be $56 since baht has got stronger), a true value for money. But $90 is still a good price considering the PE parts provided in the box. These were built OOB:
From what I read about this kit on the net is that it is not for rivet-counters as the hull (along with some other minor stuff - that is minor for me) is not accurate. Other than that, all who have built it sound very happy with the quality.
I don’t really care about this inaccuracy and probably will buy the kit; it will be my winter project.
As for the price; they retail at about USD 70.- here.
They’re going for 4 times that these days on ebay. How many hours do you figure it took for you to finish it? With 800+ parts, I’m guessing I’ll have about 7-800 hours in it by the time I’m finished. I’ve never tried anything like that before. Rivals building and rigging a 1/96 Cutty Sark or U.S.S. Constitution!
Thanks, Rusty! Since I didn’t build them myself, my only advice for you is to take your time, no need to rush. Niphon (who built these beautiful ships) has been working on another ship for over a year and still not finished. It’s Hasegawa’s IJN Battleship Matsu 1:350 w/ full option upgrade kits (3 big PE sheets, brass barrels, resin boats). I think overall parts are over 2,000 (parts).
It was my most expensive plastic model kit (over $300) until I got the IJN Akagi 1:350 recently. With upgrade sets A, B, C and super detail set, it costs more than the Matsu already. I think the 6 big PE sheets scare most modelers.
Looking forward to seeing the progress of your build.
I really like the Soviet Cold-War era ships and I’ve been working on this one off/on for about 5 years now (I did at least get the Admiral Kuznetsov complete in the meantime). I’m about halfway done. I see what you are saying about the sometimes bizarre way in which parts are attached, but it’s been a fun build.
A few words of caution however- there are some inaccuracies, (the Ak-130s are wrong, but WEM has nice replacements) and a few online tutorials that are essentially rebuilds of the kit (try http://www.kipperboxes.co.uk/html/sovremenny.html for starters) . I tried a few of the changes, but it seemed to get past the fun part of putting together a model. I guess it’s one’s choice as to how much they want to tackle.
The 200 scale is s a bit odd, but it works, this builds up to a nice size that has some “sense of the details”
Wow! I checked out the kipper link, and it’s amazing what that fellow is doing to that model! I won’t try most of that, but he makes some good points. R.
I found a Kirov on eBay for $80 with free shipping from WA, so I grabbed it. Not sure which one I’ll build first. Looking for a build review of it but only in box reviews seem to be available. R.
It arrived today in a huge box, no doubt what it was! Lots of sprues! The hull will need some work. The sensor pod on the bow has a large, irregular surface (flat spots, wavey areas) on the port side. Starbord not so bad, but I think I can fill and sand to correct. The main mast is PE, but the two large sensor arrays on top are not; bit of a dissappointment there. Sprue attach points look to be smaller than the North Carolina build I just finished, so some relief there.
All in all looks good; proof will be in the pudding as they say!
