Kuznetsov
by Paul Helfrich

1/720 Kuznetsov (Zengdefu)

I've always been fascinated by this Russian aircraft carrier, the only one of its type to actually enter service. It's very interesting to consider what type of strategic issues might have developed if the Cold War had continued and the Soviets actually been able to field battle groups built around these aircraft carriers. Certainly it would have added a dynamic the US Navy had not faced since the demise of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Leaving the what-ifs to the alternate historians (the novel "Thunder of Erebus" has an operational Kuznetsov-class carrier as a major part of its story line - highly recommended), the real Admiral Kuznetzov has been tied up for years now in the Russian Northern Fleet. She was part of the fleet exercise that ended with the loss of the submarine Kursk in 2000, but as far as I know, she's been in port ever since.

The Zhengdefu kit is billed as "1/800" on the box, but it's really just a knockoff of the Italieri/Testors 1/720 kit that's been around for over a decade, and it's the same size: 1/720. The only change is Zhengdefu changed the hull from a two part waterline or full hull static model to a single full hull with battery compartment, etc. for motorization. The change was not well handled in that there is a stern piece that fits beautifully on the Italieri kit but not at all on this version. I did the best I could with it. Overall, this kit was pretty rough - some parts were very thick and heavy, others painfully thin. Fit was not real good overall - it took some work even to get to this result, which is hardly a museum piece, I admit. I left all the motorized parts out and built it strictly as a static model.

While actual photos of the Adm Kuznetsov reveal a weathered dark gray flight deck, I opted to paint the Zhengdefu kit in the more colorful manner of the box art (itself cribbed from the initial Italieri release of this ship). I deliberately brightened the colors of the Su-27s and Mig-29s to make them stand out a bit more. It's mostly out of the box, but I did add some antennas with stretched sprue and installed Gold Medal Models railings around all of the catwalks on the island - a highly laborious process for this particular ship.

The decals were just awful - highly disintegration-prone. They fell apart at the slightest touch. I wound up painting most of the deck markings by hand.

So if you're considering this Zhengdefu kit, be warned - there are some issues. I understand Trumpeter is going to be putting out a 1/700 version (as well as their spectacular 1/350 model) and either of those is bound to be much, much better.

What the Zhengdefu kit does have going for it, if you can find it, is it's pretty darn cheap. But knowing what I know now, I'd hold out for Trumpeter.