Russian Project 56k Destroyer
Reviewed by Timothy Dike
| If you build Cold War era warships, you will be interested in this Soviet era Destroyer. The Kotlin class was the last of the conventional armed Destroyers as future ships were designed to include missiles as their armament. Instead these ships were armed with a fully automatic twin 5.1" gun in an enclosed mount forward. The Bravy was later refitted with a twin missile launcher on the aft superstructure becoming the first Soviet warship fitted with with a Surface to Air Missile (SAM). Bravy showed the flag around the world until finally being decommissioned in 1987. | ||||||||||
| The hull is well cast with no warpage or defects. This kit is not as nicely detailed as some of the newer ones from Combrig. There is very minimal superstructure detailing and I would recommend a set of photo etch doors to add to the walls. |
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The funnels and bridge parts are pretty well cast in the typical open face mold style. This means you will have to flat sand the over pour on the bottom. But the cleanup should be minimal. The mainmast is cast flat on a thin resin wafer. This part would have been better represented by photo etch as would some of the radar's. Overall the resin parts are pretty well cast.
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| The instructions are more of a general guide than a complete documentation of the model. A plan and elevation view with some history is on the front page. A parts scan and exploded view is on the other. Mine shows a separate main superstructure but my kit has this cast in place. There is room for improvement here as these are barely adequate to build this kit. Combrigs kits have been improving by leaps and bounds but the instructions remain one of the weaknesses. |  |
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| Conclusions:
Thanks to Pacific Front Hobbies for the review sample. Check them out for their complete line of Combrig ships. This kit is listed for $28.00 US. making it very competitive for a destroyer of this size. All that is lacking is a good photo etch set and you have a worthy opponent for your Cold War fleet. I wouldn't recommend this kit for a beginner, but anyone who has tacked a resin kit or two will find this an easy build. |
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