ICEBREAKER: A Gift for My Father
by Matt Stein
--Originally Posted 5/707--
CCCP YAMAL
Nuclear Icebreaker
Heller 1:400, modified
by Matt Stein
Click on Image to Enlarge
This is my depiction of the Soviet (now Russian Federation) nuclear
icebreaker Yamal, built as a present for my father, Irwin J. Stein - as
finally completed and mounted on a beautiful red walnut board (Thank You,
Gus Hager!). This model was more than a whole year in building -
actually, almost 2 years since first taking the hobby knife to her;
archives of each progressive step of her construction (in excruciating
detail (lol)), are appended as "replies", at the bottom. Also
background giving the origins of this project (my dad was not a Russian
sailor, but an American civilian architect) - as well as all reader
comments/feedback.
Click on Image to Enlarge
The last four months of work on this project, in particular, saw
practically every weekend consumed by niggling little details and
re-dos. When touchup painting drags on - so that one mistake after
another demands touchups on the touchups - I figure a build is saying:
"Play with me some more before you're through…". But when detail parts
start breaking in the process, then the ship is saying "Don't f---- with me any more; you're done!" (lol)
That was the point, reached finally this last weekend, especially regarding the little helicopters:
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So - after the last repair (to the tail of the hovering Mi-8 "Hip") yesterday, I declared her finished at last.
Although carrying not a single gun, torpedo tube nor missile launcher,
this "non-military" icebreaker (no doubt a significant asset to support
Soviet SSBNs operating under the polar ice) was nevertheless one of the
most intricate and complex builds I've done so far. She is just loaded
with odd and intricate lights, radars, cranes, latticework platforms
and railings:
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And just about all of it I scratchbuilt.
I took over 50 pics of all her intricate nooks and crannies - far more
than can be presented in a single "breath" here - so below I broke the
full presentation into sections, each focusing on related detail shots
and descriptions. I hope you will enjoy them.
LIGHTS in the Polar Night
When looking at this ship, especially from the front, one's impression
is of a floating mountain, festooned seemingly everywhere with lights:
searchlights, floodlights - even radars (which are, after all, just
rotating floodlights and beacons shining in a different wavelength,
eh?).
Of all these, the hardest to photograph have been the square floodlight
arrays (just like at night baseball games) located behind the bridge.
The above and the following pics are my best showing these so far:
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These 24-element arrays are difficult for the camera to focus on, being
surrounded everywhere by higher-contrast lattices, railings, etc.. In
person they are quite striking and were a kick to make; out of arrays
of tiny pulley wheels from the Gold Medal Models (GMM) 1/350 Jeremiah
O'Brien (Liberty Ship) fret. Each of the tiny faces got a tiny dab of
silver paint (left). The backings are ECM lattices (unfolded, of
course) from the GMM 1/540 Midway/Forrestal/Essex fret.
The GMM Midway/Forrestal/Essex PE set figured very prominently in this
build; contributing virtually all the railings, vertical ladders and
many other PE snippets - despite the fact that its scale of 1/540
should be 26% too small for this (nominally) 1/400 model. But the
1/540 parts simply don't look that far out of scale. And in many
instances - for example, most of the inclined ladder installations -
parts larger by the nominal 35% simply would not have fit. (Many of
the inclined ladders used are in fact from 1/600 scale White Ensign Models [WEM] sets!)
On the foremast (which was entirely scratchbuilt), the two
curved-eliptical radars (gray) are also from the GMM
Midway/Forrestal/Essex fret, while the larger bar radar is one of the
few kit parts used here:
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The "X"-pattern ratlines under the yard arms are from the WEM 1/600 Moskva fret.
Where beefier lattices were needed - supporting the floodlight arrays
and the large radome behind them - the GMM 1/500 "IJN Battleship" and
1/240 "Buckley/Bligh" frets provided easily adapted parts,
respectively. Likewise, 1/240 vertical railing from the latter proved
ideal for the window framing of the observation station (facing aft).
I learned afterward that GMM makes a fret specifically for this Arktika
kit, but all the above items - in fact 90% of everything in these pics
- is unique to Yamal anyway, so I didn't research the Arktika fret any
further.
The observation windows - and in fact all the window openings, which
come fully pierced OOB - were filled with "canopy glue" (basically a
type of white glue) which dries clear and quite tough.
Although I have almost zero research material on these ships, clearly
the huge, trough-shaped lamp above the bridge is also some sort of
flood light:
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Its struck me as resembling nothing so much as the reflector of a giant heat lamp - and I realized this is just exactly
what it might be: something to take the chill (or even ice) off of
anyone working on the bridge and the foredeck! Its distinctive, ribbed
backing and support was folded up from a depth charge rack (IIRC),
again from the GMM 1/240 Buckley/Bligh fret.
Everywhere you see a white ball - large or small - that's a radome (or
housing for some other radio-frequency device); they were all bashed up
from tips of spare airplane bombs and/or copious blobs of putty.
And then of course there were good old-fashioned searchlights - a ton
of them, as you can see. For which the only kit parts - and even then
making up less than 50% of each - were used for the large foredeck
searchlight and the smallest bridge units. They were a lot of work to
"correct" and even so don't look the greatest.
The nicest are the two largest bridge units - from the Revell 1/426
Arizona kit (heh, Frank!); with their faces hollowed out. The single,
second-largest bridge searchlight was from the Airfix 1/600 Graf Spee,
IIRC. Again, note the aparent suitability of parts from much smaller
scale kits than 1/400.
You'll see many more such substitutions - including yet more lights,
lattices and radars - on other parts of the ship. But in the above
area you have definitely seen the bulk of these.
I can only imagine that standing out on the ice in the black polar
night - just like being in outer space - with the bow of this ship, and
all its floodlights and giant red superstructure reflecting off the
glittering snow, must be a truly surreal experience…
MAC & CRANES
Now that you've had a good look at the searchlights and foremast atop
the bridge, take a gander here at the rest of the searchlights,
clustering around the mainmast (also largely scratchbuilt) - and an
oddly-shaped mainmast, at that; clearly it looks like a "mac" - a
combined mast-&-stack - as adopted on most modern ships since the
'60s. However a nuclear vessel doesn't need any kind of funnel - and also I could not find any evidence of vents or louvers in Yamal's mainmast.
I conclude it was a design feature included to preserve the option
to equip these ships with conventional engines, if the nuclear plants
had been unavailable or unfeasible. And likewise I assume the
black-painted tops - a conventional practice to hide soot stains from
the funnel gasses of oil-fired ships - was retained (both here and on
the foremast) simply out of tradition. Otherwise I am completely
stumped.
In any case note the odd, angular shapes - and the various platforms and PE railings conforming to them:
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This whole assembly - the structures and PE detailing on them - were a
real kick to create. Again, railings and inclined ladders are all from
the GMM 1/540 Midway/Essex/Forrestal fret - and again, anything larger
would look distinctly overscale, IMHO. The strange, heavy lattice at
the top was bashed (none too expertly, I'm afraid) from the GMM 1/500
IJN Battleship fret.
And once again the searchlights are all from the parts box in 1/600
scale: the small ones from the Airfix King George V and the large one
from the Airfix Graf Spee kits, IIRC.
Abaft the mainmast starboard is one of the ship's three large cranes:
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I don't usually rig anything - not even cranes - at all, but in this
case I sort of half-rigged these large cranes. I can't tell you
exactly why.
It might have been because the PE was getting distinctly out of hand by
that time. In this picture alone, going from the lifeboat all the way
up the mast, you can count no less than seven
levels of railing! Much of it following odd angles and curves as well.
And that's not even counting the lowest (green) deck, which also should
have had some, too. Don't get me wrong: I greatly enjoyed snipping and
fitting all this oddball PE, but by the time I also finished the
inclined ladders and tiny pulleys on the crane, I think I'd just had
enough. (lol)
I still think the net effect for the cranes was good enough:
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Here at right you can see the two aft cranes (stop staring at the
choppers! (lol)) as well, looking almost identical to the one
amidships. They were all three made using only the kit arms - and even
those modified (though still too heavy-looking, IMHO) - with all the
rest scratched/improvised. The cabs, in particular, were quite fun to
make - out of RN 4.7" gun turrets from the Airfix 1/600 and Revell
1/570 King George V kits. Plus some PE framing for the cab windows and
gorgeous little PE pulleys - from the GMM 1/350 Liberty Ship fret - to
really make them "pop".
Will you stop staring at the helicopter?!! (lol)
Allright, I give up - who want to see some cool Rooskie choppers next…?
Sharpened CHOPPERS
The back of this ship is "chopper country", no doubt about it:
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Again, I have next to nothing for references on this build, but the
little Kamov Ka-32 (or similar; on the landing pad) - NATO code name
"Helix" - derives from an airframe originally designed to searching out
and attack submarines (ASW), as well as to provide mid-course guidance
for anti-ship missiles. In the following pics, note the prominent
chin-mounted radome:
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No doubt Yamal uses hers for ice reconnaissance out ahead of the ship - and also for search-and-rescue (SAR), if required.
The PE heli-netting parts around the fantail are bashed from those on
the Gold Medal Models "1/500 US Naval Ship" set; these particular items
designed for the Revell Hope/Haven/Repose hospital ship, which is
actually closer to 1/400 scale, IIRC. In any case, they didn't really
want to fit at all; the added "realism" of the warped and twisted
netting (not to mention the copious, attendant swearing) was not
intended during installation! (lol) Still, there really is no
substitute for PE here, especially at this scale, IMHO.
The other chopper (hovering) is a Mil Mi-8 "Hip"; a heavy-lift transport beast:
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Accordingly, I have her delivering something (call it the mail) onto
Yamal's after deck here. Of course, the "cargo" cable is actually the
mounting rod supporting the chopper. (If you think about it, the only
type of chopper you can show hovering is one delivering
something! (lol) And you're right, Donny, some figures really would
enhance this build quite a bit.)
In any case, both of these are custom-built, as described earlier;
the OOB kit chopper being a ridiculous little bug of a thing resembling
no helicopter ever made, AFAIK. Just as well; the choppers are the opportunity on this buld to display some real eye-catching pieces.
And I made molds of them because - just as expected - some of you already want some for your own projects!
Here are some "beauty shots" of the Mi-8:
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Somehow, I neglected to take some similar pics of the Ka-32; I'll shoot some to add here, later.
So hang on - and there are still a few more custom details to show you yet …
Winding Up: REELS & ANCHOR CHAIN
The foredeck of this ship is another opportunity to show off many a little gem - far more so than what I was able to do here.
Still, I did greatly enjoy making all these little details, not least among them the cable reels:
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These pics are the best I was able to take (though still over-exposed)
showing the (gray) reels on which I left bare copper windings
unpainted. They look far better in person (lol)!
Actually I think most of these didn't hold cable but fire hose; their
windings appeared very thick in my pictures, and painted deck green -
as depicted here - and doubtless such hoses would be common; for
spraying steam to clear rime ice from the foredeck, etc. The thick,
hose-like effect of my 0.015" wire is especially apparent in this
extreme closeup:
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Again, the frames/wheels for the cable reels were nicely provided from spares on the Gold Medal Models 1/350 Liberty Ship fret.
Note also the tiny searchlight - barely larger than a pinhead in
actuality - mounted on the side of the crane cab. This part (and an
identical one on the port crane) came from a boneyard Airfix 1/600 KGV;
quite possibly the nicest tiny searchlight part I've ever seen. (Sorry
for the lousy pics - I think the camera had a real problem with the
livid red color everywhere - I'll try to get some better ones under
better lighting conditions sometime.)
Here are some more pics showing the foredeck cranes:
Click on Image to Enlarge
The crane cabs were also bashed from Airfix 1/600 parts - cabs from
their HMS Hood, IIRC - and my depiction of their windows is a
combination of success and failure; on the front using PE framing but
on the sides just painted-on. Makes a big difference, huh?
But one of the tastiest patches on the whole ship, without question IMHO, is the anchor deck:
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The twin-cylindrical, stepped deckhouse - another of many scratchbuilt foredeck items
- sits above the probable location of the anchor chain locker, and is
surely a housing for a pair of vertical spindles winding up the chains.
But in any case, with its interesting shape, paint job and tiny custom
railing and ladder it was quite satisfying to make. As were the little
railings around the horseshoe-shaped hawse guides.
The anchors, though not very visible here, looked a lot better once the
kit parts were replaced with these units from the Imex 1/400 Bahrain
freighter kit. It occurs to me that, between the Imex and Heller lines
- plus even a few from among the classic Revells and Nichimos, etc. - a
modeler could really get quite involved in modeling 1/400 scale
commercial shipping.
I'm not quite at that point, after this build, but I will say it was quite fun and satisfyin - one of the best 2 years I ever spent workin' on something! (lol)
ABOUT THE BUILD
If this particular angle and composition has a familiar look, it's
because in this portrait I tried to recreate as well as possible the
original travel brochure picture of Yamal:
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This was the picture, you may recall, that my dad gave to me years ago and which inspired me to build Yamal for him, once I recognized it as the same class of ship as depicted by this kit:
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Of course, the toylike, cartoon-ish box art doesn't look much like the
above picture of the real thing - but you may also have noticed that,
even though the model (above) was shot from an angle at a near-perfect
match to the brochure pic, it still doesn't look quite identical,
either.
That's because it really isn't. The bridge superstructure - about the
most prominent feature of the entire mold - is 21% taller, for its
width, than on the real thing.
Here I've squashed the model picture (left) so that the bridge heights matche exactly; for a side-by-side comparison:
Click on Image to Enlarge
Note that the model's hull now appears to flare out more at the bow,
suggesting that its original (unsquashed) dimensions were probably
correct. Of course, the model's masts now look too short; their
original heights were definitely accurate, per other pics which I had.
But note the various angles of the model's bridge are still not
right. Either the model is just plain inaccurate here - or possibly
the superstructure of the Yamal had been modified from that of the
original Arktika. The latter, seems unlikely though, given that both
have exactly the same number of deck levels and layout, etc.
This is an old mold - originally issued by Heller, IIRC - so a major inaccuracy such as the above is to be expected.
In any case, I hope you enjoyed watching this build as much as I
enjoyed showing it to you - and I know my dad is going to enjoy
receiving it. Despite its faults, this build is still a recognizeable
depiction of Yamal - just with some notable disagreement between them.
Actually, that's appropriate to the relationship between my dad and me, too! (lol)
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