by Marek Targowicz
1/400 V 105 (Mirage)
This is my first build after 15 year break. I chose 1/400 scale V 106 torpedoboat kit from the Polish Mirage range. As an addition I have used dedicated PE set 008-40028 also by Mirage and some scratchbuilding (my big grin goes to Evergreen :) ). I chose this particular model as something small and relatively quick to build. The aim was to accomodate and learn some of the new modelling techniques which appeared during my modelling break.
Apart from above, those four ships (V 105 V 108 ex. Z 1 Z 4) had quite interesting international history. Designed for Dutch Navy (as Z 1 Z 4), commissioned to the Kaiserliche Marine as V 105 V 108. After the Great War, three surviving ships were distributed to different navies. V 105 and V106 went to Brazil and V 108 to Poland (as ORP Kaszub). As the German A 69 torpedoboat destined for Poland was in very bad shape, British authorities had re-bought V 105 from Brazil and supplied her to Poland instead of A69 as ORP Mazur.
The kit itself is quite basic, but it gains a lot from a dedicated PE set. When the build was advanced in ca. 30% I have found very good set of shipyard plans published in Polish magazine Morza, Statki i Okrety 1/2005 (Eng. Seas, Ships and Naval Vessels). This set of plans plus some nice close-up photographs included in this issue showed plenty of inaccuracies of the Mirage kit. I have tried to correct most of them, but a few big remained, eg.: all portholes are way too big, overhanging f'castle deck is too thick and the front of the superstructure supporting the bridge is wrong (the upper part of it). Also the decals with ship's names supplied with the kit are completely wrong (overscale and wrong font), therefore I have used only the flag for the set.
I wanted to build the ship in Kaiserliche Marine guise, but such photos of those ships are pretty much rare. Having only the shipyard plans and a few detail photos from later years, I have decided to name my model V 105 as the first of the series should be quite similar to blueprints. Depicted state is from early 1915.
I am not too happy with rigging (I have used nylon cord, stretched sprue, ultra thin copper wire and human hair for different parts of it) but I have learned a lot during the build. Bridge windows and portholes are made with Microscale's Micro Crystal Clear. Masts are built from medical needles. Canvas on the bridge is made of cigarette wrap paper and coloured with strong tea. Grey paint comes from the WEM range Colour Coat KM07. After painting I have used Van Gogh oils for wash and weathering.
