Trumpeter 1/700 Russian Cruiser Kirov
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History
The Soviet Navy developed their ultimate combatant with the launching
of the cruiser 'Kirov'. While classified a cruiser, at 252 meters long
the Kirov is more like a battleship without the main guns. Instead, the
Kirov-class was armed with a deadly array of anti-ship and air defense
missiles that would have make any naval commander nervous.
While four of these impressive nuclear-powered cruisers were built,
a fifth was under construction at the fall of the Soviet Union and was
never completed. The first-in-class, Kirov, was later renamed 'Admiral
Ushakov'. The other four were Admiral Lazarev, Admiral Nakhimov, and the
Petr Velikiy. Of the four, only the Admiral Nakhimov remained operational
by 1997 due to insufficient funding to conduct necessary maintenace on
these vessels. The status of these vessels today is not immediately known.
The Kit
To my knowledge, this is the first time the Kirov-class has been released
in any scale. The decals are from Pit Road, so there is no-surprise that
Trumpeter, Pit Road and Dragon have all released this kit at the same
time.
The kit is molded in light gray styrene and is presented on eight sprue
trees, plus the three upper and lower hull parts. The upper hull is one
piece, molded down to the waterline. You are provided with your choice
of two bottoms, whether you want to display the Kirov with the lower hull
or with the flat bottom for waterline display. In all, there are 252 parts
in this kit – another typical highly-detailed Trumpeter kit!
Despite the fact that the Kirov uses a similar vertical launching system
that the US employs on its newest combatants, there is still a significant
number of parts that go on to fit out all of the deck, armament, sensor
and lifeboat details. One nice touch is that there was no attempt to mold
the handrails on all of the various decks, so the model will look more
natural without these fine details for the average modeler, and there
is no advanced surgery required to add photo-etched railings for the advanced/AMS
modelers out there. Kudos to Trumpeter!
Assembly is logically laid out with everything coming together in layers
from the bottom up. Given the vast number of tiny details, the less one
needs to work around a previously assembled deck, the better.
The completed superstructure and hull is finally married up with the
lower hull of choice. If you select the full lower hull, you add the prop
shafts, screws and rudders to the underside of the lower hull prior to
final assembly. A display stand is also included for the full-hull option.
Construction concludes with a pair of Ka-27 helicopters for the aft flight
deck.
Markings are provided for all of the various incarnations of the Kirov
including its renamed identity as the Admiral Ushakov.
This is a beautiful rendition of this impressive ship and it is equally
impressive in size just in 1/700 scale! The detailing throughout the ship
is great and the only improvements would be a photo-etched set for handrails,
radars and rotor blades. This kit is definitely recommended!
My sincere thanks to Stevens International for this review sample!
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