Soviet Navy Pacific Fleet Flagship——1/700 Minsk Heavy Aircraft Cruiser Project 1143.2

[haneto]

Hi mates!

 

Today 1st August is my birthday, so I prepared myself a memorable birthday present: the 1/700 Minsk heavy aircraft cruiser.

This is a joint work by my friend Yang Liu and myself, which Yang made most of the built while I added more details/modification later.

 

Back to 30 years ago, when I was still an elemental school boy I read a fictional military novel by a Japanese author Takio Kurushima called <Minsk Strikes Out> from a series of novels “World War III", I have been so fascinated by this mysterious ship, the mighty flagship of Soviet navy pacific fleet.

It was indeed a threat to far east countries such as China and Japan, at the time being.

 

In November 2007, I had a chance to visit Shenzhen before going to Hong Kong with some friends so finally I boarded the famous Minsk.

Unfortuantely it was not in a well stored condition, with lots of equipment damaged and stupid aircrafts lay out...

But it brings back the old good memories.

 

In last year, I asked my friend to build one 1/700 Minsk for me.

The base kit is the 2001 released Trumpeter one, by using donated parts from Hobbyboss Baku which is relased in 2013 with better quality.

AKA Model Baku PE set and spray sheet, his own customized PE parts were also added.

In addition, I also specially drew/printed the customized decals for 1/700 Minsk ship and aircrafts.

 

After I got it, I made some improvements and optimizations, including: adding carrier-based aircraft (Yuegao's Ka-25 and Youfeng's Ka-27), adding deck auxiliary vehicles (3D printing + etching), adding figures (Northstar 3D printing ones), adding signal flags/navy flags, remaking the top antenna, resetting the naval aviation badge at the bow, correcting the color of the details, adding spoilers and other details, etc.

 

 

[haneto]

Some overall looking pictures.

[haneto]

Some shots for details.

[haneto]

Comparison with OOB Trumpeter kit.

[haneto]

Let's take a look at the side numbers of the Minsk.

As we all know, in order to confuse NATO and anti-spyware, the number of Soviet warships will often change, so Minsk also used various numbers at different stages of its life.

The following is my own summary.

All photos are collected from Internet and copyrights below to their orignal authors.

 

The hull number was 130 when it entered service in 1978:

 

The hull number was changed to 042 in 1979:

 

The hull number was changed to 117 in 1981:

 

The hull number was changed to 011 in 1982, officially becoming the flagship of the Pacific Fleet

By 1983, the front side of the flight deck was equipped with a fairing, and 5 spoilers were installed on the left side of the front deck to reduce the impact of airflow on the take-off and landing of aircrafts.

During this period, the Minsk left the most photos, many of which were taken by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and the US troops stationed in Japan.

 

The hull number was changed to 025 in 1983.

025 has been used for the longest time, until 1991.

At the same time, you can see from the photo that there are Ka-27 parked on the deck, indicating that Minsk has mixed 3 types of carrier-based aircraft: Yak-38, Ka-25 and Ka-27 during this period.

The last time the Minsk voyage was observed by the open sea was in April 1986 (the following June visited Wonsan, North Korea, but strictly speaking, it is not an open sea voyage)

Since then, she has never served normally.

This built is to repliace the 025 period in 1986.

 

In 1991, the hull number was changed to 038:

 

The hull number was changed to 015 in 1992, which is the hull number that Minsk has been using to this day.

She is still floating alone under the Sutong Bridge in Nantong, Jiangsu Province nowadays...poor old lady.

 

This is a precious photo of Minsk and Novorossiysk before they were sold to Koreans

It can be seen in the photo that the spherical radar on the top of the Minsk bridge has been dismantled, so the "white ball" seen in Shenzhen and Nantong was made by Chinese themselves and must not be used as a reference for textual research! (This time I was fooled because of this, I finally remade the top antenna myself and replaced it with dark gray).

[haneto]

Finally, the acknowledgment part:

Thanks to my friend Yang Liu for his meticulous built.

Thanks to Mr. Yanwu Deng, CEO of Orange Hobby, for the laser-cutting of the ship's name and the number spray plate for me.

Thanks to the boss of AKA Model for giving me a set of Baku PE set for free.

Thank you for the deck auxiliary vehicle presented by the "no research" brand.

 

So far, the feelings have fallen, and there will be no regrets in this life.

Thanks for watching!

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Haneto, this is an extremely detailed model, and the photos of the actual ship very interesting. Very well done. Regards, Jeff.

[bianfuxia]

An incredible model and a super interesting thread. I regret not getting to visit this in Shenzhen and also not getting to see the one in Tianjin harbour as well. I did make it up to the naval museum at Qingdao but of course there's no a/c there! 

 

Your work is really amazing!

[Terry1954]

Absolutely stunning modelling. On of the best I have seen in this scale.

 

Terry

[robgizlu]

Super model, Super presentation and flawless all round execution 

Rob

[Dancona]

Yet again you have not only "raised the bar" you have flown off with it (with a helicopter the size of a large mosquito), beautiful work !

 

[Adm Lord De Univers]

5 hours ago, Dancona said:

Yet again you have not only "raised the bar" you have flown off with it

The bar is so high, it looks like a dot! Simply outstanding work here, I'd need a thesaurus to find all the superlatives necessary to describe this.

 

I thought you'd made a mistake on the name for a second, until I scrolled down to see the actual photos, as i thought the M in Minsk should just be a М - so in addition to improving my modelling, I'm going to need to brush up on Cyrillic too.

 

David

[Bertie McBoatface]

Brilliant modelling. Superb.

[haneto]

Thank you all for your encouraging comments!

It cost my friend around 1 year to build it, and 1 month for me to finish up.

But after all it well worth the time and effort.

 

And only after building it, you can understand why Russian categorize it as a cruiser instead of a carrier——the massive weapons on the deck, combined with the busy flight deck, makes it looking so extinguish and unique, far more interesting than normal aircraft carriers.

 

On 8/3/2021 at 5:02 AM, Adm Lord De Univers said:

The bar is so high, it looks like a dot! Simply outstanding work here, I'd need a thesaurus to find all the superlatives necessary to describe this.

 

I thought you'd made a mistake on the name for a second, until I scrolled down to see the actual photos, as i thought the M in Minsk should just be a М - so in addition to improving my modelling, I'm going to need to brush up on Cyrillic too.

 

David

 

Now you talked about the name plate——yes actually it was 0.05mm laser cut brass plate, customized made by CEO of Orange Hobby.

It is a pity there are still no good kits or accessories for Kiev/Minsk at current stage.

I do hope any one could consider to renew those 2 ships(both in China now!) in 350 or 700 scale.

 

By the way, Kiev in Tianjin has much much better condition than Minsk, since it is very good maintenance by China retired former military staff.

So photos of Kiev has much higher accurate reference value than Minsk, if you want to build the ships.

 

Yufei

[johndon]

Absolutely stunning.

 

John

[Andrew J]

Wow Haneto, you and your colleague are truly the 'King Neptunes' or 1/700 ship modelling!

 

I remember these ships from my childhood too.  Such a bewildering range of weapons, I can't work out if this is an assault ship or an anti-submarine carrier or what it was supposed to do?

 

Regards

 

Andrew

[MRMRL]

What a stunning model, the detail for 1/700 is incredible. I love the subject as well, one of the more iconic ships produced since WW2 - wish someone would produce one of this class in 1/350 scale so I could justify adding it to my stash  

[kiseca]

Beautiful detail and fascinating history. Thanks for taking the time to post all of that!

[GrzeM]

It is stunning model, really!

And the original ship - I found it!!! https://goo.gl/maps/p31eF1iH32V3vm5w5

[F-32]

I think that's the best model ship I've seen!

[Marcello Rosa]

I wish one day I can build 1/700 as good as this. Consider posting a detailed build report with your friend, so we can learn from the techniques used.

[haneto]

Thank you all again for the bump up.

It does worth the time and effort invested for her.

 

On 8/12/2021 at 5:41 PM, Andrew J said:

Wow Haneto, you and your colleague are truly the 'King Neptunes' or 1/700 ship modelling!

 

I remember these ships from my childhood too.  Such a bewildering range of weapons, I can't work out if this is an assault ship or an anti-submarine carrier or what it was supposed to do?

 

Regards

 

Andrew

Hi Andrew

Same as you I believe these massive Russian monsters did leave so strong impression in one's childhood that it become some kind of complex to collect them afterwards.

Although this kind of design may not be so "successful" according to Western side evaluation, but the looking of this weapon is simply un-comparabled by any Western ships.

 

I do hope 1/350 scale new tool kit will be released in near future.

 

On 8/22/2021 at 12:21 PM, Marcello Rosa said:

I wish one day I can build 1/700 as good as this. Consider posting a detailed build report with your friend, so we can learn from the techniques used.

Will try to combine some of them but it may take some time, after all the built is a bit too long(1 year)...

 

Thanks again!

[Wouter1981]

I've never had any interest in modelships... but now I'm even tempted to give it a go myself! Superb build en very detailed and lovely pictures!

[Bobby No Mac]

Truly outstanding skills to build a fascinating Cold War curio. Tremendous effort, sir! 👏

[haneto]

On 8/23/2021 at 2:18 PM, Wouter1981 said:

I've never had any interest in modelships... but now I'm even tempted to give it a go myself! Superb build en very detailed and lovely pictures!

 

On 8/24/2021 at 8:42 PM, Bobby No Mac said:

Truly outstanding skills to build a fascinating Cold War curio. Tremendous effort, sir! 👏

Thank you both!

I understand people usually prefer WW2 ships since they look much more complicated especially with the background stories behind, make them even more charming.

But at least Russian ships could offer you very similar "complicated look" as well.  

And they do look quite "evil"...which is so charming to me.

Unfortunately with more and more "stealth" design in place, even modern Russian ships look so boring today...