Russian Cruiser Varyag 011 in 1/350 Scale

Last Update: April 21, 2015 Building the Lower Hull

Introduction - The Varyag:
The Russian guided missile cruiser Varyag, 011, is a Slava Class curser. The Varyag was the thrid and final cruiser of the class to be built.

She was laid down in 1979, launched in 1983, and commissioned into the Soviet Navy in 1989, not long before the Soviet Union fell.


These are large, heavily armed guided missile cruisers, displacing over 12,000 tons. They were built to seek out and destroy adversary nation surface combatants, and particularly US Navy carrier battle groups. They were also built to serve as strong anti-air defense ships for any group they either commanded, or were a part of...for example when working with Soviet, and then later, Russian aircraft carriers.

In order to fulfill these two functions, the Varyag is armed with sixteen large, supersonic anti-ship missiles, sixty-four long range anti-air missiles, forty medium range anti-air missiles, and six Close in weapons systems. She also has a dual 130mm main gun.

Although she became a part of the Russian Pacific fleet in 1990 after her commissioning, due to financial difficulties in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union, though brand new, she only had a care-taker crew for several years up until 2002. After that time she went through a significant overhaul and modernization and in 2008 she re-entered the Russian Pacific Fleet as its flagship.

Since that time she has been very active in Russian maritime activities throughout the Pacfic, including:

2009 - Varyag led a fleet of Russian warships participating in the 60th anniversary of China's Navy. She later made a Port call to Singapore and we visited there by the Russian President Medvedev.

2010 (June) - Varyag made a port call to San Francisco. The visit, the first by a Russian navy surface combatant in 147 years, featured a plaque dedication ceremony to commemorate six Russian Imperial Navy
sailors who died fighting a fire in San Francisco in 1863. This visit coincided with Russian President Medvedev visiting Silicon Valley.

2010 (December) - Varyag visited South Korea for an informal visit. While there, 24-year old Lieutenant Ivan Yegorov committed suicide by hanging himself due to marital problems. There was a police report filed, but no evidence of foul play was found.[4][5]

2011 (November) Varyag, accompanied by the tanker Irkut, made a port visit to Vancouver, British Columbia. The Russian ships escorted into Vancouver by the Royal Canadian Navy destroyer HMCS Algonquin. While there, Varyag?'?s crew engaged in friendly sports matches with their Canadian counterparts.

2014 (November) - Varyag led a deployment of four Russian naval vessels to international waters off Australia. The deployment was in response to the 2014 G-20 Brisbane summit.

Specification details for Varyag:

Displacement: 12,000 tons full load
Length: 611 ft
Width: 68 ft
Draft: 27.5 ft
Speed: 32 knots
Propulsion: 4 CODOG gas turbines, two shafts, 121,000 shp
Compliment: 480
Armament:
01 x twin AK-130 130mm/70 dual purpose gun
16 x P-500 Bazalt (SS-N-12 Sandbox) missiles
64 x S-300PMU Favorit (SA-N-6 Grumble) SAMs in 8 x 8 VLS launchers
40 x OSA-MA (SA-N-4 Gecko) SAMs in 2 x 20 launchers)
06 x AK-630 30mm CIWS
02 x RBU-6000 Anti-submarine Rocket systems
10 x 2 533mm torpedo tubes
Aircraft: Hanger and pad for one KA-27 ASW helicopter

What's in the Box: - April 21, 2015
The Trumpeter 1/350 scale model of the Varyag is a large plastic scale model.

Like most modern Trumpeter 1/350 scale ship models, it is very well done with a lot of details, and parts that have no flash.

The model comes with a complete upper hull in one piece, and a complete lower hull in one piece (not including the shafts, supports, props and rudder...as well as stabilizer fins), which can be used to build either a full hull version, or waterline version of the model. I will build the full hull version.

There are two flat plastic pieces that represent the entire main deck of the vessel.

In addition to the hull and main deck parts, the kit includes eight sprues of gray molded of plastic parts, two sprues of clear molded plastic parts, one sprue of clear and black molded parts for the helicopter, and one sprue of photo etch parts for the sensors and safety netting. The photo etch sprue does not include the railing. I will add railing from other 1/350 scale photo etch sets that I have,

The instructions, as always are very well done, with fourteen pages of very detailed and yet intuitive instructions for the kit.

The decal sheet is relatively small and includes the helicopter landing pad markings, the pennant numbers, and a very few other decals (for example for the Russian Flag).

Here are the pictures of the kit out of the box:

I believe this is going to be a fun and very decent build and look forward to the Varyag joning the Russian carrier Kuznetsov, a Kirov nuclear cruiser, a Udaloy II destroyer , and a Yasen nuclear attack submarine , that represent the rest of my Russian 1/350 scale modern carrier strike group.

The Build - Building the lower hull - April 21, 2015

In this first session I only had time to build the lower hull of the vessel. This involved assembling the struts and shaft to the hull and adding the rudder. This large vessel only has a single large rudder for principle maneuvering.

I then added the four stabilizer fins to the vessel and then painted the lower hull in the brighter hull red used by the Russians. I use model master insignia red for this on all of my Russian ships.

Here's that lower hull:


Next I will paint and build the upper hull and add the main deck to it.[/CENTER]

The Build - Assembling the hull & main deck, main deck fixtures/weapons, main deck houses - April 24, 2015

I began this session by assembling the two hull pieces together, and then adding the main deck. The fit for all three was very good.


I then went through and painted all of the various pieces their respective colors. Using Model Master Gunship grey for the main weather deck, a mixture of Model Master Orange, Brown and Insignia Red for the secondary decks which is a distinctive Russian deck color, Model Master Primer grey for all vertical surfaces, Model Master light grey for the life rafts and upper ships launches, Model Master Light Ghost grey for the various radar domes, black for the windows and smoke stacks, Dark grey for the CIWS guns, etc.

Once this was done, I added the weapons and principle fixtures to the main deck. This included the main gun which is a twin 130mm mount, the 64 VLS cells for the principle long range anti-air missiles, the two medium range anti-air missile mounts, and two twin 30mm auto cannons on the port and starboard side, just aft of amidships. It also included numerous life rafts and other equipment.

Then, I gathered the pieces for the main deck house which included the bridge and main mast, and also gathered the parts for the sixteen larger surface to surface anti-shipping missiles these cruisers carry.

I then assembled the main deck house/bridge.

Then it was time to add the main battery of those sixteen surface to surface missiles and assemble the second deck house which included the smoke stacks/engine exhausts and the main crane. I did this and then added it to the vessel.

Now she's looking like a Russian Slava-Class cruiser alright:


In my next session I will add the hanger deck house, which also houses one of the principle radars, add the rest of the main deck fixtures. Add the numerous auxiliary decks, and begin detailing the superstructures.

These may be older vessels...but they are very potent vessels.

They have VERY strong AAW capabilities and VERY strong ASuW capabilities.

Those are big, massive, nd fast SSMs. They are buiot to allow this vessel to get within range of a CSG and launch.

They are also designed to protect themselves whie doing so, and to be capable protectors of high value Russian ships, like the Kuznetsov.

The do look like relics of the cold war...but that doe snot mean that they remain potent vessels to this day.

My Russian Carrier group in 1/350 scale is going to consist of the Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, the Petr Vilikiy Kirov class nuclear powered cruiser, this Varyag Slava class cruiser, the Charnenko Udaloy II class destroyer, the Yasen class nuclear submarine.

A VERY potent group. The air wing is smaller than a US group...but the armament available for surface strike...if they can get into ranfge...is about as massive as it gets.

In terms of anti-air missiles available for area defense...it is another extremely formidable nut to crack.

Anyone attempting to penetrate through to the three capitol ships, is going to run multiple sorties and air strikes, beginning with multiple SEAD missions using anti-radiation missiles and jammers to take down those long range air defenses of the carrier, Kirov, and Slava.

Once that is accomplished, then they can begin working on penetrating the medium and short range defenses to try and get hits on those big ships.

One of the best books and fictional tales I have ever read of doing just that, is called "The Sixth Ballte."


It pits a US super carrier group against three Soviet groups off of South Africa, soviet subs, and regiments of Soviet naval air.

Read my review at that link.

Hehehe...about every 3-4 years, I take the book back out and read it again.

The Build - Hanger Deck House, all deck details, Photo etch radars, sensors, and railing, completing the model - April 27, 2015

This session was a massive and involved session and I spent about three entire days completing it.

First I started with the aft deck house, which houses the hanger and one of the principle radars. I assembled these pieces, painted the interior floor of the hanger and then assembled them.


Then it was time to begin adding the numerous details to the various decks. Russian vessels include numerous sensors on many auxiliary decks, particularly on the main mast structure. This also included

the rest of the weapons systems like the six 30mm CIEWS, the RBU anti-submarine and torpedo rocket launchers, and a couple of machine guns. There were well over 100 separate items...many of them requiring assembly, which added up to something approaching two hundred parts in all.

I also added the photo etch main radars on the primary and secondary masts during this session.

With all of that completed. the ship was structurally complete and looking good.