Orel's Retvisan at 1/250

[RonC]

I decided to build a model of the 1902 Russian battleship Retvisan because I was initially attracted by the three tall upright funnels that seemed to characterise the pre-dreadnought era. http://www.papermodelers.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=7430
I had hoped for a build in the white and buff peacetime colour scheme illustrated and was disappointed to find that Orel, the publishers, actually supply the kit in dark olive grey with bright yellow decks
http://www.papermodelers.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=7431
On researching the ship’s history, however, I found many points of interest – firstly, this Russian battleship was actually built in the USA, by William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia, which makes it an interesting example of the US naval architecture of the period.
During the Russo-Japanese war, the Retvisan played significant roles in the (unsuccesssful) defence of Port Arthur, beating off Japanese torpedo attacks and at one point when the Russian flagship had been damaged and the admiral killed, charging the Japanese battle line single-handed in a gallant action that forced the Japanese to turn away.
The ship evidently had great structural integrity. It survived a torpedo hit and the subsequent grounding, and sustained 7 hits from Japanese 4.7” artillery while at anchor, but still sailed with the Russian fleet to the Battle of the Yellow Sea where, in playing the key role outlined above it was hit 18 times by 8” and 12” shells. Returning to anchorage Retvisan was eventually sunk by 13 hits from 11” howitzers but subsequently raised and repaired by the Japanese, sailing with their navy under the name Hizen until 1922.
Inspired by my research results, I set about scanning and reprinting the kit, toning down the deck colour and re-scaling from 1:200 down to 1:250 to match the rest of my collection. I some trouble to maintain the correct tone of grey, as my scanner tends to magnify any small colour differences and this kit has colour printing variations between pages and sometimes within a page. I had to use photo shop software to impose a uniform shade of red across all the parts of the underwater hull. However, beware matching colours under night lighting. The grey hull that looked OK in my work room turned out to be pale green in daylight! Maybe OK for the Austrian fleet, but no good for the Russian one.
http://www.papermodelers.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=7432
I also had some nasty white gaps here and there due to a combination of my inaccuracy and the zero tolerance in the kit design. I usually rely upon a small overlap being provided between underwater hull and the longitudinal hull sides, but in this case there was none. I added a narrow strip of dark grey at the waterline to hide this – it improves the appearance, anyway – but I couldn’t hide the areas where a white rectangle marking the position of a part was incompletely covered by that part. This was due to my own inaccuracy, of course, but an error of only a couple of thousanths of an inch out shows up as a white line on a dark grey hull. Faced with this situation, most would simply have given the hull a coat of paint. I prefer to maintain the original printed card finish, so I started over again.
The second time around, I got a better colour match with the grey, and carefully drew in a black edge inside each of the white rectangles representing hatches and gun-deck shutters. This time I was watching out for certain inconsistencies in frames and deck and corrected these and gradually got the main superstructures into place.
http://www.papermodelers.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=7435
The superstructure involves a series of flying bridges and platforms supported on fine pillars. Despite doubling the card and stiffening it with nail polish I’m still not happy with the pillars that support the decks. However I’m not going to start again, again. I am hoping the addition of railings and other fittings will distract attention. I even designed my own turret turntables for the main armament (this kit supplies turrets that don’t turn!). No white lines showing this time I proudly thought – until I examined my photographs and saw some under the forward gun turret and superstructure!
http://www.papermodelers.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=7433
This has been fixed by printing out a block of battleship grey colour on fine white paper so that I could glue a narrow strip around the turret turntable and an even narrower strip along the base of the forward superstructure. Invisible mending - almost.
http://www.papermodelers.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=7434
I have provided these details in the hope of encouraging others like me who, while aspiring to reach the standard of many of the fine models featured in these threads, actually battle through our own processes of trial and error. Whilst it can be troublesome to scan the kit and print your own version, it does provide an endless supply of spare parts when things go wrong and items have to be rebuilt.
Also, I think Retvisan represents an early Orel kit. I have built Orel’s Lavoisier and the colours were subtle and all the parts fitted perfectly. I have several more of their kits waiting in my build queue.
From here I must proceed to manufacture endless numbers of ships boats and anti-torpedo boat gunnery. Build time is in inverse proportion to the size of the feature! Photo-etched parts are not for me – I will make my own railings from stiffened cotton thread. I’ll let you know when I finish.
Regards to all,
RonC

[Leif Ohlsson]

Hello Ron, and may I say welcome here! Could I give you a bit of a hand in publishing photos? You did well to first make an album on the site. Very thoughtful!

Having done that you can copy the url given there ("Linked thumbnail") and paste that into the text where you want the photo. I imagine that is what you aimed for:

I decided to build a model of the 1902 Russian battleship Retvisan because I was initially attracted by the three tall upright funnels that seemed to characterise the pre-dreadnought era.



I had hoped for a build in the white and buff peacetime colour scheme illustrated and was disappointed to find that Orel, the publishers, actually supply the kit in dark olive grey with bright yellow decks



On researching the ship’s history, however, I found many points of interest – firstly, this Russian battleship was actually built in the USA, by William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia, which makes it an interesting example of the US naval architecture of the period.

You can also copy the url of the photo in your album, place the marker in the text where you want to place the photo, choose the picture postcard symbol in the menu above, and paste the copied url there. The same section would then look like this:

I decided to build a model of the 1902 Russian battleship Retvisan because I was initially attracted by the three tall upright funnels that seemed to characterise the pre-dreadnought era.



I had hoped for a build in the white and buff peacetime colour scheme illustrated and was disappointed to find that Orel, the publishers, actually supply the kit in dark olive grey with bright yellow decks



On researching the ship’s history, however, I found many points of interest – firstly, this Russian battleship was actually built in the USA, by William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia, which makes it an interesting example of the US naval architecture of the period.

You copy the url of the photo in your album by right-clicking on it (or something like that).

This way you don't get the full-size photos. But perhaps you could just add an extra link to your album. (Copy the url of the first page of your album, mark the text in your post you wish to have linked, choose the link symbol in the menu above, and paste the copied link in the box appearing.)

Leif

[RonC]

Leif,

Many thanks for the tips on publishing photos. I'll re-post using the correct URLs for thumbnails,
Thanks again,

Ron C

[RonC]

My initial attraction to the 1902 Russian battleship Retvisan was based on its three tall upright funnels that seem to characterise the pre-dreadnought era. The kit is supplied by Ukrainian publisher, Orel.

I had hoped for a build in the white and buff peacetime colour scheme illustrated and was disappointed to find that Orel, the publishers, actually supply the kit in dark olive grey with bright yellow decks

On researching the ship’s history, however, I found many points of interest – firstly, this Russian battleship was actually built in the USA, by William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia, which makes it an interesting example of the US naval architecture of the period.
During the Russo-Japanese war, the Retvisan played significant roles in the (unsuccessful) defence of Port Arthur, beating off Japanese torpedo attacks and at one point when the Russian flagship had been damaged and the admiral killed, charging the Japanese battle line single-handed in a gallant action that forced the Japanese to turn away.
The ship evidently had great structural integrity. It survived a torpedo hit and the subsequent grounding, and sustained 7 hits from Japanese 4.7” artillery while at anchor, but still sailed with the Russian fleet to the Battle of the Yellow Sea where, in playing the key role outlined above it was hit 18 times by 8” and 12” shells. Returning to anchorage Retvisan was eventually sunk by 13 hits from 11” howitzers but subsequently raised and repaired by the Japanese, sailing with their navy under the name Hizen until 1922.
Inspired by my research results, I set about scanning and reprinting the kit, toning down the deck colour and re-scaling from 1:200 down to 1:250 to match the rest of my collection. I had some trouble to maintain the correct tone of grey, as my scanner tends to magnify any small colour differences and this kit has colour printing variations between pages and sometimes within a page. I had to use photo shop software to impose a uniform shade of red across all the parts of the underwater hull. However, beware matching colours under night lighting. The grey hull that looked OK in my work room turned out to be pale green in daylight! Maybe OK for the Austrian fleet, but no good for the Russian one.

I also had some nasty white gaps here and there due to a combination of my inaccuracy and the zero tolerance in the kit design. I usually rely upon a small overlap being provided between underwater hull and the longitudinal hull sides, but in this case there was none. I added a narrow strip of dark grey at the waterline to hide this – it improves the appearance, anyway – but I couldn’t hide the areas where a white rectangle marking the position of a part was incompletely covered by that part. This was due to my own inaccuracy, of course, but an error of only a couple of thousanths of an inch out shows up as a white line on a dark grey hull. Faced with this situation, most would simply have given the hull a coat of paint. I prefer to maintain the original printed card finish, so I started over again.
The second time around, I got a better colour match with the grey, and carefully drew in a black edge inside each of the white rectangles representing hatches and gun-deck shutters. This time I was watching out for certain inconsistencies in frames and deck and corrected these and gradually got the main superstructures into place.

The superstructure involves a series of flying bridges and platforms supported on fine pillars. Despite doubling the card and stiffening it with nail polish I’m still not happy with the pillars that support the decks. However I’m not going to start again, again. I expect the addition of railings and other fittings will distract attention. The kit supplies turrets that are to be glued in position, but I designed my own turret turntables for the main armament. No white lines showing this time I proudly thought – until I examined my photographs and saw some under the forward gun turret and superstructure!

This has been fixed by printing out a block of battleship grey colour on fine white paper so that I could glue a narrow strip around the turret turntable and an even narrower strip along the base of the forward superstructure. Invisible mending - almost.

I have provided these details in the hope of encouraging others like me who, while aspiring to reach the standard of many of the fine models featured in these threads, actually battle through our own processes of trial and error. Whilst it can be troublesome to scan the kit and print your own version, it does provide an endless supply of spare parts when things go wrong and items have to be rebuilt.
Also, I think Retvisan represents an early Orel kit. I have built Orel’s Lavoisier and the colours were subtle and all the parts fitted perfectly. I have several more of their kits waiting in my build queue.
From here I must proceed to manufacture endless numbers of ships boats and anti-torpedo boat gunnery. Build time is in inverse proportion to the size of the feature! Photo-etched parts are not for me – I will make my own railings from stiffened cotton thread. I’ll let you know when I finish.

[Wyvern]

She's coming along beautifully! Bravo!

Wyvern

[Michael Mash]

Hello Ron,
And welcome. I enjoyed reading about your project, including some of the interesting history. I look forward to more.
Mike

[GMintz]

Hi Ron,

A very nice build. Does the model come with a copy of the instructions in English?

Looking forward to more photos,

Greg

[RonC]

Thanks, Greg.
The kit has English instructions and they are more complete than some I have read. However Russian translators seem to have trouble with some English words – “Gun Turrets” become “towers” and “dead-woods” turns out to refer to the propeller shaft fairings (which incidentally are completely the wrong shape and have to be scratch built). Part numbering is clear and the diagrams are generally good although there are some small inconsistencies between the plan and elevation drawings.
The aft searchlight platform just in front of the mainmast caused me some concern as there seemed to be a part missing and the diagrams were inconsistent. Period photographs were also unclear. I manufactured a boxed-in splinter shield consistent with those on other parts of the upper decks and mounted the searchlight platforms on that. Later I found photographs of a super detailed model someone else had built, and that builder had used the same solution.
Supports for the flying bridge and part of the forward superstructure were also not detailed in the kit or the instructions, although in this case period photographs show clearly what is required.
I have now added railings to all the upper decks and this provides a better visual balance for the flying bridge, searchlight platforms and walkways. These pictures show how much open space there is in the superstructure. Apparently the US designers of this period worked on the basis that a light open superstructure was likely to allow an enemy shell to pass right through without detonating. The theory was good so long as firing was at close range with a near-horizontal flight path.




Regards,
RonC

[RonC]

I have finally completed the Retvizan after much slow work on ships boats and other fittings. Here are some photos of the finished model. The flags were copied over from a different kit.

[Leif Ohlsson]

That is - as shipmodels in the hands of dedicated builders so often turn out to be - an outstanding and impressive model. Congratulations! - L.