Opened the box at the last playday but didn't do anything other than unpack the contents.
First a bit about the ship. Built in Italy for thr Soviet Navy, it was the only one of it's kind,
more were planned but never built.
At 458 ft long, it's big for a Destroyer, in fact a touch longer than a British C class cruiser.
Design speed was to be 39 knots, she achieved 44 knots on trials although her armament wasn't yet
fitted, with armament fitted, this dropped to 43 knots.
She was delivered to the Russians painted Cobalt blue and became known as the "Blue Beauty"by the
Russian sailors.
The Russians fitted their own armament and probably repainted her in a different. colour.
Information is a bit sketchy on her carreer but she was damaged twice by bomb attack, and had some
modifications done during repairs but nothing dramatic. The only noticable difference being an extra twin
AA mount aft of the Y turret.
She was sunk in June 1942 and refloated in 1944 but scrapped as being beyond repair.
The kit is the usual Trumpeter fare, very nicely moulded, just the odd swipe of a sanding stick to get a good
fit.
Trumpy would have you paint her a very pale blue, but looking at old photo's. her final appearance was quite
dark. I like the look of the box art so I'm throwing caution to the wind and using it as a guide. It looks like the hull
and superstructure were different colours. See what happens.
As usual, Trumpy don't supply any railings for the weather decks, and, unusually, no anchor chain.
The pics show progress to date, some stuff just tacked in place with Maskol.
Haddock