Udaloy
by Paul Helfrich

1/550 Russian Udaloy (Zhengdefu)

Zhengdefu is a Chinese model company that seems to be like a downscale version of Trumpeter. Much of their catalog appear to be knockoffs of the products of Japanese companies, in the case of their armor models, right down to the cover art.

Most of their ship models are motorized 30CM size models, like the old Nichimo line of motorized ship kits. I picked this kit of a Russian Udaloy class destroyer up on E-bay.

Upon inspection, the kit appears to be an enlarged version of the Skywave 1/700 waterline Udaloy kit. I figured the 30CM size (about 1 foot) to work out to about 1/550 scale. The only difference in the molding, other than the enlarged scale, seems to be a new hull - since the Skyline kit was a waterline model, their hull was discarded in favor of one for a motorized toy, complete with battery compartment. It's not an accurate scale full hull - it's one of those semi-scale hulls that seems to be designed mostly to float well in a swimming pool, like some of the old Revell ships. No scale props, shafts, or rudders are included. Considering all this, I decided to "waterline" the Zhengdefu model, so I performed hull surgery and cut it down to the waterline.

No decals were included in the Zhengdefu kit, so I had to improvise those from my junk box. In the bottom photo, I put the Zhengdefu kit side-by-side with the Skywave, one I built a few years ago, for size comparison.

The kit is cheap and it is what it is, but until someone comes out with a 1/350 Udaloy (Trumpeter?) it's nice to have another Russian ship kit available. Next up for me - Zhengdefu's Adm. Kuznetsov, apparently a knock-off of the Testors/Italieri 1/720 kit.