Revell Gorch Fock II 1:350 kit conversion to Tovarishch

[Boatman]

It's time to start a topic, I think. As a relatively quick and straightforward project (in reasonable sense, of course) I decided to take a very simple and low detailed (less changes) Revell kit in 1:350 and convert it to Tovarishch (actually Tovarishch II, Ex. Gorch Fock I). I will try to take into account the differences between the original and sister ships, especially the modifications done in her Soviet and Ukrainian periods. The purpose is to show her in her late years before leaving Kherson, like on the photo below, when she was used as a training ship by Kherson State Maritime Academy. I understand that the kit is not 100% convertible, has fantasy details, and in some cases I will have to accept a compromise. But I will try to make the model recognizable in 1:350 by its specific details and hopefully get it to completion.

PS
Although I got a lot of public info and images, including a German documentary film from 1993, still there are some unclear places (the deck behind the foremast, for instance). I guess among the users of this forum there might be people who had a maritime practice on her or visited as a tourist. If you were there, I would appreciate sharing any information or probably photos of the ship - especially if you were there in 90-s. Thanks in advance for any feedback to this post, anyone is welcome!
PPS
I know about this topic - Gorch Fock I is in shipyard for restauration - "White Lady" is now rusty - thanks a lot, @Uwek! Especially for photos of the decks cleaned to the metal!

 

[Boatman]

The current state of the build is as follows:
- some sanding is done to smooth out the hull lines and remove the details, specific to Gorch Fock 2
- the hull under the waterline is painted green (the paint comes with the kit) with brush
- the temporary stand is in place now

 

[Boatman]

While I am working on the upper part of the hull, I am coming to a first big compromise with the kit as a base - the portholes. Of course, there are differences between Gorch Fock 2 and Tovarishch making the last one recognizable - I marked them with blue. But the portholes.... Revell's version does not correspond to either, Gorch Fock 2 or Gorch Fock 1 - sometimes closer to one, sometimes to another, sometimes is something new Take a look:


After reviewing this, I decided to leave the portholes with a black dot inside and make 6 new ones where you see a black circle. Others will be fixed with putty - and this is the compromise.

The extreme approaches are:
- to remove most of the portholes with putty and carefully reproduce the real porthole positions
- to paint the portholes black as it is, hoping no one will notice
But I am doing a plastic kit conversion, not a scratch build, to make it more recognizable. I don't want it to become an endless and not completed story of changing everything. I know there are and will be much more mistakes from Revell (we will see when it comes to the decks!) so even if the portholes were 100% accurate, the other stuff would not. Therefore I decided to minimize the changes to get it looking as much close to the prototype as possible.

 

[Boatman]

An intermediate point in the process - I think I've made a mistake in the central area of the hull (red and green frame). Unfortunately, I don't have plans for my target period, only much earlier plans for Soviet era, about 70s and I have an existing plastic kit I am trying to adopt. So after checking a lot of drawings, photos of different years and at this moment, as well as applying Revell's deck to my hull, I think I came to final positions of the portholes (in the middle, v2, green):

 

[Boatman]

Still working on the hull, I got quite a surprise when I realized that it is asymmetric: port side and starboard side are different!!! I will put it here if someone decides to follow - just to be aware:

But now I think I am ready to put all of this in place. The black lines, circles, rectangles reflect the changes I am going to apply to Revell's hull. The starboard side (7 portholes on the forecastle, ending 3 on the poop and so on):



The port side (9 on the forecastle, ending 4 on the poop, etc.) - the orange areas have scratches I occasionally made and missed:



The port side is missing an anchor, for instance. Previously, in 1930s, it was on the forecastle's deck like that:

But in modern life there is no place on the deck to put it. Why Revell left it this way, with just one anchor - I don't know.

Going to make a copy of the anchor on starboard side (in process).

PS
If you see a mistake - please, be so kind to let me know now - before it is implemented in plastic & putty!

 

[Boatman]

Probably it looked as if I've abandoned the project, but I did not! These portholes - so many cardboard, plastic and wooden model makers ignored the fact that starboard and port side positions are completely different. It made me pursuing the goal - to do the right positions in my case, at least for once!

A lot of time was spent on research last month, reviewing photos and videos, drawing sketches and honestly - waiting for some ordered goods to come, especially another model of her from Japan, in the same scale 1:350 - as a donor of items and a cross-checking source. Finally, after sorting my photo/video materials by periods of time. I decided to build both, similar - but very different, in early 70-s and 90-s to put together and compare. But it will be a separate story, while this one is progressing...

Please, stay tuned!