¹⁄700

Soviet Ropucha Class Landing Ship

The latest unique commission from my favorite patron is YG’s kit for the Soviet Ropucha class landing ship.

The Ropucha-class (toad), or Project 775 landing ships are classified in the Russian Navy as "large landing craft" (Bol'shoy Desantnyy Korabl). They were built in Poland in the Stocznia Północna shipyards, in Gdańsk. They are designed for beach landings and can carry a 450-ton cargo. The ships have both bow and stern doors for loading and unloading vehicles, and the 630 m² of vehicle deck stretches the length of the hull. Up to 25 armored personnel carriers can be embarked.

This particular kit was a pleasure to work on. Well designed and executed, the kit comes with everything you need for a great result. Full PE for all radar, railings and such. While the instructions were acceptable, they only showed piece numbers on one side of the ship leading the builder to have to go back and forth in building or back and forth in the instructions trying to find the part number when the other side of the ship is built.

Overall, an outstanding kit for a relatively unknown class of ships from the Soviet past.