by Peter Fulgoney
1/700 Boevoi (Combrig)
I saw Jim Bauman’s version of this kit on the web some time ago, and like all his work, I immediately bought one. This is great in as much as all the research has been done and all you have to do is copy the example. I stopped short of putting on the awnings but the rest of it is pure copy or as near to it as I could manage. Another evocative picture is in the book “Warrior to Dreadnought” by D.K.Brown (Caxton Editions 1997), page 138 , HMS Success which shows the forecastle in some detail not that you could reasonably construct it all at this scale.
To make it slightly different, I’ve painted it in the olive drab, colour recommended by John Snyder, at WEM. I use Colorcoats Hellgrau RLM 63 which looks great, I then dry brushed with MIG copper rust. The PE is my usual HMS Tiger, and the brass rod is from WEM., 1 thou. gauge., their thinnest. The figures are Eduard which I toned down with a mat black wash. The sea is wrapping paper from “Paperchase” which I sprayed with a sea grey and then varnished however it acted like a cross between a sponge and a sieve, and took a number of coats to make half reasonable. I used stretched sprue for rigging.
With the photography I had to generate a number of images to try and get a clear focus because the model is so small. It didn’t help to use a black background but visually this brings out the detail. I also turned off half the lights in the room, and pointed a blue light torchlight at the subject to create a night scene.
Generally it’s a good lesson in scale as all those big ships tend to defy 1:700 whereas such a small kit as Boevoi is a good reality check.
Boevoi, ex Som was involved in the Japanese conflict, and was crippled in action returning to Port Arthur only to be scuttled by the Russians, The Japanese raised the wreck, and broke it up. Surprisingly the ship made 26 knots, and although a very small vessel, carried 60 crew. Like many of these early ships, this one was made in England at Laird 1898-1900.
