Moskva/Leningrad set
White Ensign Models - 1/600

By : Mike Dunn

Airfix recently re-released their old Moskva / Leningrad helicopter carrier kit (see here for a review). Peter Hall, not satisfied with the detailing on the old tooling, decided that he could do better, and this is the result.

On opening the envelope, the first thing you notice is that everything is sandwiched between two sheets of stiff card, just to make sure it doesn't get bent in transit. Separating these, you see two sheets of instructions, and the photo-etch sheet itself (within a click-lock bag).

Let's look at the brass first. This is a decent-sized sheet, measuring 5.5" by 4". There are 48 different items on here for detailing. These include (but are not limited to) Top Sail parts; Headlights parts; hanger doors; name plates; helicopter parts; various rails; various ladders; various davits; anchor cables; etc. etc. On closely examining these parts, you can't help but be struck by the level of detailing there is. I'll reproduce one item that struck me - the Great Seal of the USSR. Now, you may be wondering why I've picked this out for praise - this picture is enlarged over 3 times the actual size of 4mm - the detailing is superb! Another example is the extremely fine crosshatching on the Headlight radars. Peter Hall is to be praised for putting so much effort into this detailing! It's touches like this that help set WEM apart from other photo-etch manufacturers.

Dragging myself away from the brass, let's look at the instructions. Taking up three sides of A4 paper, Dave Carter has once more produced a clear set of instructions. The first sheet is a blow-up of the photo-etch, and has each part clearly numbered, with the descriptions appearing on the bottom of the page. Turning over, you get to the actual instructions. This page details six assembly areas - the Top Sail radars, the Headlight radars, the Head Net radars, the vent grills, the inserts for the helicopter elevators (nice touch!), and super-detailing for the Kamov KA-25 "Hormone" helicopters themselves. Turning to the last page, there are six more assemblies here - the boat davits; the stern deck; the Top Sail platform yards; the jib of the crane; the SA-N-3 "Goblet" launcher; and the Mack yardarms. Under the diagrams are several paragraphs of additional instructions specifically for these ships, and under that are the standard photo-etch instructions and guidelines.

Peter Hall and WEM have done us proud again. I just hope that they can be persuaded to look at other Soviet ship kits, e.g. the Krivak, the Nunachku, the Sovremenny, and produce something similar there. This is a fantastic piece of photo-etch, one that will turn the Airfix Moskva into a wonderful model. I can thoroughly recommend this set to anyone wanting to super-detail their Moskva or Leningrad.

Links

White Ensign Models