The Udaloy was the successor of the Kresta and Kara anti-submarine cruisers. She was designed in the end of the 70’s and the beginning of the 80’s with a lot of new technology in mind. For the first time a Soviet anti-submarine ship carried two helicopters in addition to its huge set of sonars. The Udaloy carried a new, big sonar pack forward and this gave her a distinctive bulbous bow. In addition to this she carried a variable depth sonar aft.

Her main anti-submarine weapons were the Rastrub (SS-N-14 Silex) torpedo carrying missile. The Rastrub was developed from the Metel (also designated SS-N-14 Silex) which was used on the smaller Krivak anti-submarine frigates.

As a secondary anti-submarine weapon she carries two quadruple 533mm torpedo launchers. For submarine defence she carries two RBU-6000 modules on both sides of the aft Kinzhal launchers.

Apart from this the ship carried two AK-100 100mm guns and 4 AK-630 six barrel close-in weapon systems for short range air defence. Her main air defence battery consisted of 8 vertical launch systems for 8 Kinzhal missiles each. This system was still under development when the first Udaloy entered service and hence this ship did not carry the Kinzhal at first.

The Kinzhal missile has a range of 12km and is guided by two Cross Sword guidance radars. Each radar can guide two missiles and has a back up video system for guidance of the missiles in heavy jamming environments.

With the arrival of new weapon systems the Udaloy was developed into the Udaloy II design. This was a more multi-purpose ship compared to the first version, yet is still designated as a anti-submarine ship in the Russian Navy.

The Udaloy was, strangely, kept secret for a long time. Even after the West achieved access to dry dock pictures of the feared Akula and Typhoon submarines, it remained very difficult to get anywhere near the Udaloy. This was also reflected in the modelbuilding world, where accurate models of the Udaloy were hard to find.

This Arkmodel kit reflects the real ship in the way that it is very big and has a complicated structure.

The hull is made out of fibreglass and has some detail made into it. The anchor spaces are there, as well as the linear stiffener on both sides of the hull.

From recent dry dock pictures of the Udaloy, the underwater part of the hull is also reasonably accurate. Recessed spaces are made for all parts that have to be added straight to the hull, like the propeller shafts, rudder, stabilisers and bilge keels.

Wood bars are supplied with the kit to strengthen the sides of the ship (and in the meanwhile support the main deck) and strengthen the general structure.

Two propeller shafts and one (resin) rudder is provided along with two four bladed propellers The real ship has two five bladed propellers. This small error is probably the result of the difficulty to receive dry dock pictures of these ships. Also the hull part close to the propellers is not 100% accurate as the real ship seems to have some bulbous parts there, which the kit lacks.

This kit is of course optimised for R/C and the necessary parts such as propeller shafts, propellers and rudder are also made for this. Motors and other R/C gear can be purchased from Arkmodel and occasionally Arkmodel also does some actions in which you can receive two motors with the kit for free.

The main deck and superstructure of the model are made from styrene sheets. For this purpose several sheets in different thicknesses are provided with pre-cut parts. In addition to being pre-cut, the parts have some detail cut into them as well as folding lines. In this way you can just cut out a part and fold the different panels to receive a big part of the superstructure. The corners have to be filled with car filler or other filler.

For smaller parts and some of the more detailed things like mooring line leads, liferafts and weapon systems, resin parts are provided. There is a mountain of resin detailed parts of which the quality is acceptable. Some parts are not really perfect, with some traces of bubbles and some parts even have holes in them, yet nothing that is not possible to repair for the skilled modeller. Most of the parts do look good and are of good molded quality. Recently also the Kamov Helix helicopter was added to the kit. The weapons look very accurate and together with the additional PE parts they are real candy for the eye.

For the finer detailed parts, like radars, railings etc. PE parts are provided. The PE is an excellent addition to this model. Several sheets with all necessary parts are provided and they are of good thickness to be strong enough to make an R/C model. They look very accurate and are not complicated at all.

For the main mast several metal stanchions are provided, here you will need some soldering skill to achieve a reasonable result.

The Instruction sheets include a list of the parts/sheets that are provided in this kit and a checklist of the parts with description from the factory.

Furthermore they include 3D views to create the separate parts. Generally the pieces of the ship contain resin as well as styrene or PE parts and the designation of these parts is not always easy to follow. All parts are delivered in separate plastic bags with a tag (sometimes only in Chinese though). However with some imagination and reference material (provided on a CD with the kit) you can find your way through.

This is really a big kit with a lot of parts and only suitable for people with a lot of patience who are in for a long trip.

It is a very complete kit for such a large scale ship. I wouldn’ t recommend it to a beginning modeller, but for any skilled modeller this is a great addition to the collection. I have seen it made by several modellers and this kit can truly be built into an accurate representation of the Udaloy without the addition of a lot of self-made parts. Of course this scale and size allows it easily to be built into a radio controlled ship.

The price of this kit is €720 (with variable shipping costs), which is very reasonable for such a large and complete kit.

I was also highly impressed by the quality of service given by Arkmodel. There is a continuous sort of help desk, via email/messenger supplied by them. If you have any problems with missing or damaged parts they are very quick to react and send those parts and if there is anything unclear they are very helpful to resolve your problems (in English as well).