¹⁄700

Building the Admiral Nahkimov, 1889

According to the plans and photos, there was a skylight underneath, which is not present on the kit casting...this was made of styrene strip and a brass PE ( ex radar!)
photo 1

Creating the curved, but flat anchor crane track(race) on the foredeck was a bit of a challenge...I elected to form some very thin solder-wire into a circle, and then flattening it by clamping between two steel plates in a small vice. After cutting to shape the effect was pretty good!
photo 2

The turrets were a model in themselves; the parts as supplied in the kit, give the impression of an enclosed turret; in actual fact, these were effectively open barbettes, which were surrounded by a metal frame, within which were stowed hammocks as splinter protection. The 'roof' was also made of canvas tensioned over a frame. Around the perimeter of the roof were rolled up drop screens of canvas.
I elected to simulate the rolled up hammocks, by forming circles of slightly irregularly squashed lead solder, painted white, and then and shaded with pencil, surrounding them by 1/600 handrail.
photo 3

The nicely shaped domed turret roofs required massively thinning down...I lost my fingerprints on the sandpaper! They had the tapered cast vents removed, and these were later replaced with a parallel styrene rod, with a flared lid formed by placing the square cut end onto a pre-heated knife blade...this gave a regular and repeatable overhang.
The domed 'roofs' required cutouts at their forward edge to allow the guns to train to maximum elevation. These were made by cutting an aperture, then framing with thin copper wire, and backfilling with white glue.
photo 4