S-56, 1/350, AMP

Another addition to my submarines collection.

S-56 is one of the famous Soviet subs.  She was built for Soviet Pacific Fleet, but with the beginning of World War 2 S-56 had to move to the European  waters. On October 5, 1942 S-56 under captain-lieutenant Schedrin command with her sister-ships S-51 and S-54 began her 16700-miles long voyage through the Pacific, Panama Channel, Atlantic Ocean to the Soviet North Fleet. During 1943-1945 S-56 performed 8 patrols and destroyed 4 enemy ships. After the war, in 1953, S-56 passed to Vladivostok and became first Soviet submarine completed round-the-globe voyage. Nowadays S-56 stays at Vladivostok as a museum ship.

The AMP kit is a short-run, but not to hard to work with. I've added some etched parts and made guns by myself. The kit contains etched parts from Eduard, but unfortunately many of them are too big comparing to the photos and drawings. The model is painted with ModelMaster enamels and some oil weathering.

U7, 1/350, Scratchbuild

German U-Boots of WWI are rare subjects in 1/350 scale. This is my scratchbuilded model of U7 – one from the first large series of German submarines (U5-U8). The submarines were equipped with Kerting engines. The next series (U9-U12) was based on the modified project. Eight boats of these two series formed the core of the pre-war German submarine fleet.

The original idea was to build a model of the famous U9, however, it was hard to find acceptable drawings. So I continued with U7. U7 took part in first patrol of the Kaiser's submarines right after the declaration of war against Great Britain. Her service lasted less than one year (August 6, 1914 - March 4, 1915).

Article on building this model was published in Russian M-Hobby magazine.

Minesweeper Project 253L, 1/150, Scratchbuild

Those little minesweepers were built in the city of Leningrad during WW II. Leningrad was blockaded by Germans, so the ships were simplified as much as possible. Even hulls were made of flat metal plates.
The model were build mainly from paper.

           

Publication in “M-Hobby” (U7, 1/350, Scratchbuild)

Good news! My article about building the model of German submarine U7 from scratch was published in Russian magazine M-Hobby 09-2011.

Here is a link to the official publisher’s website http://www.zeughaus.ru/product/m-hobbi-92011/

SCH-303 “Ersh”, 1/350, AMP

 

A new model in my 1/350 submarines collection. Soviet submarine Щ-303 “Ёрш” тип “Щука” (SCH-303 Ruffe, “Pike” type) was laid down in 1930 and joined the Baltic Fleet in 1933. She had a long and hard career. Routing repairs and training didn’t allow her to take part in Soviet-Finland War and first encounters of the Great Patriotic War. Her first patrol – June-July 1942. Captain – Ivan Travkin. At the beginning of that patrol SCH-303 made three crossings of German “Nashorn” mine barrage. She attacked and damaged ship “Aldebaran” (7891t.) and then she suffered heavy attack from German convoy ships. Her nose torpedo tubes and rudders were damaged. On the way back to base SCH-303 made another two crossings of the “Nashorn” barrage and was attacked by German patrol plane. Near “Seeiegel” mine barrage she waited for support for six days and every night German ships made attacks on the submarine, but SCH-303 at last reached Kronshtadt by herself.

Second patrol – October-November 1943. She crossed Nashorn and Seeiegel, and then damaged three ships. SCH-303 ran out of ammo and returned to base through Seeiegel barrage.

Third patrol of SCH-303 became one of most dramatic in history of Soviet Baltic Fleet. Germans improved their defense. Nashorn was filled up with additional 7300 mines and Seeiegel with 2300 mines. Beyond that, in Finnish Gulf were installed two large barrages of anti-submarine nets.

There were period of “White nights” and every hour on the surface was a great risk to SCH-303. She unsuccessfully tried to cross net and mine barrages and nearly get out of electric power and air regeneration supplies. Food were cooked with sea water. On surface she several times met German warships. Conditions for people were very hard and nervous. One night watchman Galkin take submarine on surface, went out and began to made signals with white pillowcase to passing German patrol warships. They opened fire on “Ersh”. Captain Travkin made a decision to leave the traitor (he became prisoner of war) and ordered emergency submerge. Then were more then 70 hours of incessant Germans attacks. SCH-303 survived. Travkin decided to go back to base. Two Soviet cutters (MO-102 and MO-123), which were sent to met the submarine were lost on mines of Seeiegel. On the way to Kronshtadt the convoy with SCH-303 suffered of air attacks – two minesweepers were damaged.

Ivan Travkin was awarded with American Navy Cross. His new submarine was K-52. In 1945 he received the Gold Star of The Hero of the Soviet Union.

Fourth patrol – December 1944 – January 1945. Captain – E. A. Ignatiev. SCH-303 passed the barrages with some damages. She tried to attack German convoy but were intercepted and attacked. Her rudders were damaged, but she successfully returned to base.

It was evident that more then 10 years old submarine became obsolete, but she had another two patrols in February and March 1945. After numerous encounters with German patrol ships SCH-303 performed two attacks and returned to base. The war for “Lucky pike” was over.

In-progress photos:

 

My little subs collection

Ferdinand Max, 1/700 in-progress

Some in-progress pictures of my Ferdinand Max model. It was an easy build, so I think everything is clear and don’t need much comments. I hope some day I will build another model of this ironclad in 1/350.

Deck close view

Ferdinand Max, 1/700, Scratchbuild

 

My one and only model in 1/700 scale – Austro-Hungarian ironclad Ferdinand Max. She was the flagship of Wilhelm von Tegetthoff fleet at the famous battle of Lissa.

The model was build as a souvenir.

La Nina, 1/150, Scratchbuild

A step aside – a kind of model I’ve never build before – a sailing ship. I just wonder – how does it feels to build something from wood? So, this is a kind of another experiment for me.

I decided to go into small scale for wooden shipbuilding – 1/150. I think it is a smallest scale for building something acceptable. My aim for this build is to try different tips&tricks and have fun. Nothing more. Hope that the model will be at least of Mini Mamolli kits level.

Why Nina? She is small, rather simple and there are a lot of models of her that I can take as a guidance.

I took scaled down Shipyard’s 1/96 card model as a base.

U7, 1/350, Scratchbuild (in progress)

Today I made a review of my in-progress projects (it is truly sad, but I have a lot of them) in search in search of one or two of them that I can complete in these last days of 2010.
The first one is a German WW I submarine U7. Scratchbuild, of course.

U-997, 1/350, Flagman

One of my latest models. I build it from Flagman kit. They produce three versions of VII type submarines. In my opinion, they are the best in 1/350 scale. Main disadvantage is unifications of main parts. I had to re-shape nose and stern with Tamiya Epoxy Putty.

Artillery, antennas and railings were made from scratch.


I liked camouflage of U-997. After rather long research I have found a photo of her where camouflage is definitely visible. I painted the model by hand with airbrush and added some weathering.