Monday, March 5, 2012

Dvienadtsat Apostolov (12 Apostles) - 1/1200 Scratchbuild

Here's a one-off in terms of scale and subject matter. This is one of the older battleships in the Russian Black Sea fleet, the Dvienadtsat Apostolov.  This 8700 ton 2nd Class battleship was launched in 1890, this photo shows her in with the 12" main battery in the original barbette configuration.

Image courtesy of Big Bad Battleships
I have modeled the ship in somewhat later trim ca. 1900 with the barbettes covered with armored shields.  Sorry, no work in progress pictures but it's in my usual composite construction method.  I used the 1/800 plan from "Warships of the Imperial Russian Navy: Volume I - Battleships", an old book published in 1968, written by V.M. Tomitch.  This 102 page paperback is well worth a purchase if you can find it anywhere. The plans are excellent, with a top down and profile view of each ship - all you need really.



I cut the tops of toy figure game tokens to make the turret domes. Other than that, it was a relatively straightforward build process.



9 comments:

  1. Tim

    Absolutely beautiful. You've captured her looks very nicely!

    PD

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  2. Hi Steve,

    To borrow a quote from Sam Gamgee - "If I could grow apples like that I'd call myself a gardener!"

    Absolutely stunning.

    All the best,

    DC

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  3. Peter & David,

    Thanks so much for the very positive feedback, gents. Looks like I bent one of the masts a little, funny how you don't notice stuff like that until you take a picture of it.

    Regards,
    Steve

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  4. You truly are a master at the scratchbuilds. Thanks for sharing!

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  5. A very impressive model!

    It has exactly the right 'look' ... something that it is not always possible to achieve with a model.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  6. Thanks, Aaron. But I'll have to defer on the master title to the Virtual Scratchbuilder. He can build anything, including planes.

    Regards,
    Steve

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  7. Bob,

    Thanks for kind words. I thought this might appeal to your interest in things Russian.

    And props on your pre-dread build as well.

    Regards,
    Steve

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  8. Lovely, lovely model. Mongo want badly!

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  9. Thanks, Red Cardinal. It's really gratifying when people respond to the older posts, a reminder that they are not necessarily old news and therefore forgotten.

    Regards,
    Steve

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