Dajiang
by Chris King

1/700 PLAN Dajiang (Scratchbuilt)

This is a scratch-built model I made of a People's Liberation Army-Navy (PLAN) Dajiang-class submarine support ship. The Dajiang (or 'Changxingdao') class serve a in a variety of roles, including submarine tenders, covert intelligence collection, and salvage/rescue ships. There are 3 ships in the class: No. 121 Changxingdao, No. 302 Chongmingdao, and No. 506 Yongxingdao.

Interestingly, these ships have been making overseas deployments for more than two decades. One vessel even made a scientific voyage to Antarctica.

These ships are well-equipped, with up to two Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicles (DSRVs), a large handling crane forward, dive support facilities, and a helicopter deck with hangar aft for two Z-8 Super Frelon helicopters.

They have a displacement of 10,087 tons full load, and have dimensions of 512 x 67.5 x 22.3 feet.

I have two 1/700 Chinese Navy submarines in my collection: A Type 91 'Han' class SSN from Takara-Pitroad Ships of the World series and a scratch-built 'Xia' class SSBN.