Anglo-Saxon Warrior and Northumbrian Thegn

A little step aside from 20-th century modelling - a pair of 1/72 figurines I'm working on this Saturday morning.

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.

Curtiss P-40, 1/72, Scratchbuild

My current project. The Curtiss P-40 fighter. I will try to use the same technology as on my previous BOK-5 model and build the model completely from aluminum foil.

Some details

And current progress:

Polikarpov I-5, 1/72, ICM

The history of development of this very nice looking fighter was unusual. The creators of the plane – Polikarpov and Grigorovich were in “Special OGPU Design Bureau”. It means there were in prison because of Stalin’s repressions. The task was simple: “Do the work, and then, if it will be successful, you will be free”. I-5 was successful. The base conception was taken from Polikarpov’s fighter project that was made in 1927. The work was complete in two month. Prototype of the new fighter made its first flight in 1930. There were built 803 planes. They were in service in RKKA’s air force till 1937, but in the beginning of the Great Patriotic war some I-5’s were returned from flight schools to active service.

The ICM kit is the best choice in 1/72. It has very nice detailing, but you should be very careful and accurate, because the use of the putty is almost impossible – it will ruin riveting and fabric imitation.

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/