Finnish corvette
by Don McKeand
1/350 FNS Karjala (Scratchbuilt)
Karjala and her sister Turunmaa were built by Wartsila in Helsinki and completed in 1968. Although out of commission both still exist, with Turunmaa owned by Warbird Consulting (which is where the drawings came from) and Karjala as a museum ship at Forum Marinum in Turku.
Generally classified as corvettes, in Finland they were referred to as gunboats. They were early examples of combined diesel and gas turbine propulsion giving a maximum of 35 knots. They were armed with a 120mm Bofors gun, two single 40mm Bofors and two twin 23mm guns - a navalised version of the ZU-23 anti-aircraft weapon. Behind a couple of hatches in the side of the hull is a pair of 5 barrelled anti-submarine launchers.
I visited Karjala in 2008 and took a lot of detail photos which were invaluable during the build. Unfortunately the camouflage scheme was difficult to determine as she is moored close to the quayside with a minelayer moored alongside. Also some areas were being repainted in colours which bore no relation to the original colours. Consequently I decided to use a picture of her in an earlier scheme which appeared to be much browner than the current greenish greys used, but still involved a certain amount of conjecture. The construction was from plasticard using the “egg-box” method with thicker strip used where a curved edge to the hull needed to be shaped. The 40mm Bofors were adapted from L’Arsenal items and the figures and rails came from the same source. Everything else was made from scratch. By sheer good fortune a plastic bead in my wife’s sewing box was the right size to provide the basis of the radome with a bit of Milliput to give it a more egg-shaped look. The sea was made by a combination of Milliput for the wake and acrylic gel. The base and its clear cover are a Raritet cheese box from IKEA with the ends trimmed down.
