SMS Novara

One of the more famous Austro-Hungarian cruisers of World War I, the ship of one certain Cpt (later Admiral, and then...) Miklós Horthy, and all that fancy stuff, here in 1/600 scale.

I very much like the sleek design, and working after period photos, it's quite obvious that the ship was built for speed. Like a modern-day sports car with lots of guns and torpedo tubes (the four exhaust pipes match).

One thing I'm not sure about is the blue-grey of the hull, black and white photos do not help with such matters. For now she will stay like this. Building and painting methods followed the usual pattern: the hull is two pieces of 5mm balsa and a 1mm plasticard sheet on the lower parts, the rest is scrap wood and plastic. The main mast is a PSC IS-1 gun barrel. 

While I'm afraid the bow is not as narrow as it should be, in general the shape is represented quite well.

The next ship will be one of the most detailed I have built to date, and while I've had much fun building it, it took four days, and I think more than 12 hours to complete. I am quite sure just sanding the hull to shape took more than an hour. And which ship? It will be a battleship, that's set in concrete.