At 3060 tons the 361 ft long ship was armed with 6 x 4.7 in , 6 x 1.9 in, 5x 15 in TT as well as 2 x 1.5 in the centrally placed mast’s fighting top.

Crewed by 340 officers and men, the machinery produced 18’000 horsepower, via three shafts this produced an impressive 25 knots; making her one of the fastest ships of her time .

Novik partook in various engagements during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. After the Battle the Yellow Sea ( where the Russian fleet tried to break the Japanese blockade of Port Arthur ) The attempt failed and most of the fleet returned to harbour, however some ships did escape, later to be interned in neutral ports.

Novik along with the battleship Tsessaravitch reached the German port of Tsingtao, however not wishing to be interned Noviks commander Nikloai von Essen decided to use the ships high speed to outrun the Japanese fleet and endeavour to reach Vladivostock.

Pursued by the IJN cruisers Tsushima and Chitose, Novik was cornered coaling in Aniva Bay , Korsakov on the island of Sakhalin.

After an engagement during which Novik sustained a number of hits resulting in considerable damage and being outgunned by the two IJN cruisers; on 07 Aug 1903 her commander ordered the ship to be scuttled so as to render her unsalvageable.

The Japanese Navy , who had been impressed by her power and speed seized the vessel as a prize of war , raised and repaired her.

Renamed Suzuya and re-commissioned the ship served in the IJN until being scrapped in 1913.

The newer Novik kit sadly was in some ways a retrograde step; both in dimensional accuracy and detail features that were present on the earlier kits but missing on the more recent offering.

To achieve a reasonably accurate model many hours were spent puzzling out small details by poring over plans and photos both on-line as well as in printed Russian monographs of the ship

Fortunately ‘North Star Models’ offer a dedicated PE set for Novik—which enabled the kit starting point to be built as a fine model.

Much of the detail is alas overscale –especially portholes and funnel handrails among other things; however the gunshields and platforms are excellent--as is the very lovely PE wheelhouse and under-bridge braces

The kit incorrectly has timber decking on both the bow and the stern which I pared away with a blade. ( A)
There were some oddities such as ‘aztec ‘ steps as well as some mightily overscale rubbing strakes running along the length of the hull. (B)

These were removed with a blade and the area pared flat and faired.

All the deckhouses on the real ship had curved corners, alas not on the kit. Easily rectified as the deck is lino—so any scraping could be carefully rectified using a micro-chisel to pare flat.

The kit guns were not actually that bad in outline aside from a rather over-thick barrel , no aperture in the fwd shield and general thickness. I have successfully reworked shields like this in the past but having very thin and sharp PE items (from the North star fret). I refined the guns past the point intended by North Star ...by removing the base plate of the shield --which clearly is not present in photos of the real gun mounts

(Key to photo)

A - PE shield from North star models with ( easy but incorrect baseplate )
B - PE shield from North star models with base cut away
C - NNT 12 cm WW2 German barrel
D - NNT 12 cm WW2 German barrel with the back cut off to simulate breech block lid...
E - Mounted in North star PE cradle- ( nice--but very fiddly tp gain adhesion)
F - Mounted on L'arsenal PE ( spares box) USN catapult wheel as base plate mount
G - Mounted on L'arsenal PE ( spares box) USN catapult wheel( with nice relief detail)
H - Completed mount ith additional bits and 2 x tiny hand wheels

The hollowing out was done using a mini drill with initially two drill shafts sunk in deep, then a round headed burr cutter--finishing off with a parallel -sided reaming tool and a sharp blade for the top; altogether a fraught business--as one slip could spell disaster!

The vents in the Izumrud kit were poor in that they were all solid…However very much the correct outline shape!

They merely had to be hollowed, a ring of fine wire added, backfilled with CA and sanded to shape.

The single large square-mouthed cowl for the fore-deck was carved and hollowed from a solid block of resin

After some filling and re-drilling I endeavoured to disguise any minor anomalies with some self-made porthole ‘eyebrows’, as well as to give some plasticity to the plain white hull sides.
( photos of the real ship show the shadows cast by the Rigoles ( eyebrows) )
The North star PE set has some very tempting eyebrow-and-Porthole-built-in-combine PE pieces included.

HOWEVER--

I tried a few and to my eye they looked a bit clunky and overscale.

so I did it the hard way...

1) Copper wire from an earphone speaker cable stripped,

2) form a spiral of copper wire on a drill shank

3)cut into circles and...

4) cut again just under halfway across

5) apply with thinned matt enamel varnish

At this stage I also added better proportioned rubbing strakes made of copper wire to replace the coarse cast on versions removed earlier.

With the major surgery completed I was able to turn attention to the finer details such as the myriad of small vents everywhere.

With the addition of the PE pierced davits and ships boats from a variety of my spares box sources the ship was nearing completion. The model was painted using Humbrol enamel paints, the deck being Matt 70 but lightened; the funnels being painted in Revell Matt 15. The ship was set in a sea made of watercolour paper, the exact methodology of which can be read here. Despite the mediocre starting point I enjoyed the build of Novik. Her slim lines and almost Yacht-like appearance make a welcome addition to my collection .