by Rainer Michalek
1/700 Gangut (Kombrig)
Manufacturer: Kombrig Catalog number 70004
Scale: 1/700
PE sets : Tom’s Modelworks: Set 704 railing, WEM: PE 610 Ladders & Walkways
Figures: Gold Medal Models (GMM) Nr.70017 1/600 + 1/700
Mast and platforms: BMK models (one-off production)
Gangut was laid down in 1889. After two years of construction in the Admiralty yard at Petersburg the hull was launched. The ship was thereafter completed at a different yard. Three years later then, the 84.7m long ship was finally completed on 3 July 1893 and set sail for her trials.
The crew of 583 men tested all aspects of the ship including her 12in Krupp guns. Various shortcomings were established and so the ship again was back in dockyard hands.
12 September 1895 saw Gangut leave port ready for a renewed set of trials - which were absolved successfully.
Later that year, whilst on passage headed for Kronstadt, Gangut lost control of her rudder and struck an underwater rock. Fortunately the crew and assisting ships were able to stem the water ingress temporarily and the ship was towed to the dockyard for repairs.
By the spring of 1897 the damage was repaired and Gangut resumed normal service.
Misfortune was to strike again. On June 12 the ship made contact with another underwater rock off Finland and after skidding across the top of the obstruction resumed her course and speed. The ship however started making water at an ever-increasing rate until, after a valiant six-hour battle by the crew, the pump’s capacity was finally overcome and the ship sank in 30 meters of water.
The entire crew was rescued with no loss of life by attending vessels.
In 1898 the Swedish salvage firm Neptune started work on raising the ship, the initial work undertaken successfully was to turn the ship, settled on her side, back into an upright position. For reasons unknown the work was suspended and never continued and so Gangut remained on the bottom.
During Russia’s tumultuous post-revolutionary years following the Great War the fate of the ship receded from people’s memory. The wreck site was within a military prohibited zone, which subsequently became Finnish Territorial waters.
In 1988 a joint Polish-Russian diving expedition re-discovered the final resting place of the ill-fated Gangut.
I acquired the Kombrig kit at the annual model show at Kassel. After a cursory inspection of the box contents I knew it would build into an unusual and striking model. Ever since building my model of Mikasa I have been a fan of the view through the boat deck down onto the main deck; in my view this feature is visually more engaging in models than later types of ships.
Having seen a built model of Gangut on the internet, I was much taken by the black, white and yellow colour scheme. The instructions were not very specific in this area…. Upon enquiring with various model friends, Jim Baumann sent me a link to a photo showing Gangut frozen in the ice at St. Petersburg, with most of her crew standing around the ship, boats covered with wooden boards and gun barrels encased in Timber. I knew immediately this would be the scene I wanted to recreate. This provided the impetus to start building!
The model can actually be built out of the box quite quickly and satisfactorily but masts should be replaced with metal masts as resin masts are prone to movement and distortion. I obtained a one-off mast and platform unit from BMK. The ships boats wooden coverings were made using Evergreen strips. The main gun barrel timber protective cases were made of scrap resin casting blocks, a side effect being the saving of purchasing brass barrels!
Railings, companionways and ladders are a combination of Tom’s Modelworks and WEM items.
The ship was set into her scene on a board surrounded by a small picture frame. The (fictional) port buildings were scratch-built of styrene sheet. The quayside was constructed using various gauges of Evergreen strip stock. The base was painted white and liberally covered with Bicarbonate of Soda to produce a simulation of snow and ice. After painting of the base was completed the crew figures were affixed with white glue.
Despite appearing to be a daunting project at first it proceeded quickly and smoothly.
At the recent Gatow Modelshow in Berlin the diorama was well received by the visiting public. Children in particular liked it - with comments heard like: ’’Look mamma, the crew is ice-skating….”
Others thought the small people were actually Penguins….(!!)
It certainly made a change building this small diorama!
