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Blyskawica
Hi;
Many years ago, I had a friend who used to trade with a guy in Poland. Whenever something ship related came along, he would give it to me. One of the acquisitions was Maty Modelarz 2-3/87, October Revolution. Building it turned from fun to sheer endurance, but it did get built.
Here are some suggestions intended to save you a lot of frustration. The card in the kit has a high acid content, is brittle and very absorbent. It yellows quickly and begins to disintegrate very fast. It also tends to swallow adhesives. The parts fit will give you nightmares. So, scan every page of the kit into a computer and save it in a folder. This gives you two advantages. First, if you cannot get a part to fit, just print another page on good quality acid free paper. It would be wise to print out the entire kit that way before you start construction. Maybe your construction isn't so far along that you can still save most of it. The second advantage is that you can put the saved pages into Microsoft paint, and redraw or recolor them when you get into trouble.
Another advantage is that the dyes in modern western ink are a great deal more durable than those of the original kit. When I got October Revolution the pages had a lot of red and orange color, which had faded badly. The deck planking was lemon yellow, bearing no resemblance to teak. Controlling glue absorption was achieved by using a Shish Kebab skewer to limit the amount of glue entering the card.
Build it on a wooden base to avoid the banana effect. Overspray the whole thing when you finish, it will protect the model, hide glue spots, and perhaps slow down the color fade and card deterioration.
Although October Revolution was not a favorite project, it is a unique subject and has a certain amount of appeal. I hope these suggestions will be of some help to you. By all means keep on with it. If you have further questions, just ask.
Regards, Ray Crean
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