by Kieran Griffith
1/350 INS Vikrant Air Defense Ship (Scratchbuilt)
The Indian navy is working on their first domestic carrier building project, known as the Air Defense Ship and to be named the INS Vikrant or "Courageous" after thier first carrier. The ship will be about 32,000 tons and by some reports carry the Mig-29K fighter. The model itself was fun to build and since online references were not exactly the same I was able to fill in the contractidory details or missing details with my own choice and imagination. I have to recommend the 1/350 Trumpeter Mig-29K's for being super kits. The Trumpeter Seakings were not bad. I used the hull of a USN Supercarrier in 1/500 scale and also used the tractors from the same kit though in 1/350 scale they are about the size of ride on lawnmowers. The Seakings were painted similar to the ones used at present on the INS Viraat carrier and I found a super reference for the Indian Navy Mig-29K that I include with these photos. The Indian Sea Harrier has the saime paint job as the RN Sea Harrier and I it seems that the Migs will have roughly the same paint layout, Therefore you can see how Migs would look if they ever fly from the RN Future Carrier FCV. The ships is painted roughly as the INS Viraat is painted and I include all the badges that were associated with Indian navy, INS squadrons, INS Commandos flags and roundells on the base. The keel was laid in 2005 and it will be interesting to see how close I was to the real thing when it gets launched around 2009 and comissioned in 2012.
