Tragedy with a large anti-submarine ship brave. The death of the BOD "Brave

An interesting and great article about aircraft modeling, how to paint models correctly, what tools are needed and what needs to be considered when modeling aircraft.

The manufacture and collection of prefabricated aircraft models occupies a very special place among the numerous types of modern technical creativity. Assembling models from ready-made plastic parts requires patience, jewelry precision, accuracy, good knowledge of the history of technology and, along with other types of modeling, is considered a real art. But it was he who was most unlucky. For some reason, many people think that in order to assemble a model, the instructions included in the box are enough. And since in the hands after such work it turns out to be a one-color, smudged glue, dull model, then what kind of creativity is there! Meanwhile, the assembly is only part of the exciting work on the model of a particular historical machine. We still have to try to recreate it. original appearance to make it look like the real thing...

In this article we will try to teach you how to assemble models correctly.
aircraft from sets of finished parts and give several designs of models for self-production. Among them there are flying homemade products for recreation and entertainment.

Collect as accurately and reliably as possible

Imagine for a moment that you have been bought a bright, beautiful box, inside of which is a small miracle - parts made in exact scale, copies of a real aircraft. Of course, you immediately want to get to work. But no matter how great this desire, do not rush!

In order to assemble a copy model as accurately and reliably as possible, you will have to spend a lot of work, and most importantly, learn how to work correctly.

A typical technological scheme for manufacturing a prefabricated model of an aircraft according to the instructions enclosed in the box is shown in Figure 1. However, it is most often not possible to work according to it: not all kits have glue, the correct coloring of the model is far from always shown, not all kits include parts - decals with identification marks. There are no special paints for sale. That's why when working on a model, heed the tips below, they have been repeatedly tested in experience by a wide variety of modellers.

Rice. Fig. 1. Manufacturing technology of prefabricated models from polystyrene: a - painting of small details on sprues; b - cutting parts from the sprue frame; c - piercing a tube with glue; d, e - application of glue; e - tightening the glued knots and parts with an elastic band; g - installation of parts; h - gluing the propeller; and - application of decorative stripes (so-called "invasion stripes"); j - application of spotted camouflage; l - markings for wavy camouflage; m - translation of identification marks.

First of all, never glue the model “tightly” at once. Of course, your desire to see your "brainchild" assembled as soon as possible is understandable, but by hurrying with gluing, you doom yourself to unnecessary trouble, and the model will never have a high-quality look. Glue so that you can disassemble the model without damage or remove the necessary parts without damaging them.

Agree that it is not very convenient to paint the assembled chassis, rocket blocks, the cockpit with the pilot inside, etc. And nothing good will come of it. That is why, in order to paint a small detail, firstly, do not remove it from the sprue, and, secondly, use matches and plasticine to re-attach it, putting the part on them.

In some cases, in order not to stick the part on the painted place later, you can use another method. On the part to be painted, such as an outboard fuel tank, mark where the pylon will be glued. Then glue a small piece of polystyrene to this place, imitating a pylon. After the glue dries, paint the tank, which is very convenient to hold in your hands for this glued piece of polystyrene. Now break off a piece of polystyrene and glue it on the pylon itself, also pre-painted. In this case, the junction will be clean and tidy, and its strength will increase significantly.

In this way, you can paint a variety of details. If you paint the parts without cutting them off the sprues, then protect the gluing points with melted paraffin, or even better with thick gouache: it does not leave greasy stains and is easily washed off with water.

Only after painting small parts, you can start assembling the main elements of the model. It really does not present any special difficulties, but nevertheless a few words should be said about applying glue to polystyrene parts. From a soft polyethylene vial, glue can be squeezed out through a small hole, from a small glass vial - through a capillary tube. It is good to use a thin wire or a needle for this purpose, and for large surfaces to be glued, soft (squirrel) brushes No. 1, 2 and 4 (if the surface is especially large). It is possible to glue the parts only after they have been cleaned of flash, burrs and sprue residues.

If there is no glue in the kit, use commercially available toluene, mecol, "pear essence" (in small quantities for such an important matter in the school chemistry room), nitro paint thinner 647. Separate parts for greater strength can be added “weld” with an electric burner, setting it to the weakest heat.

When assembling, special attention is paid to maintaining the scale of the model and the quality of individual parts in terms of their proportionality. Most often this requirement does not meet the racks and doors of the landing gear, plumage of bombs and missiles, etc. It is not difficult to shorten the racks, but for lengthening you can take pieces of sprue plastic and process them accordingly. Sometimes there are excessively thick landing gear doors. It is easy to get rid of this shortcoming if you rub them with sandpaper or needle files. This should be done with slow movements so that the plastic does not heat up.

Often weapons on models military equipment is shown very conditionally. This deficiency can be corrected with a metal bar or wire of the appropriate diameter. The tip of the rod must be heated and deepen the bed of a cannon or machine gun barrel, giving it a more believable look. You can also imitate the protruding barrels of cannons and machine guns by melting short wires into their stocks. Such a “refinement” of the model often increases its strength, since parts made of polystyrene often fall off when cleaning models. And to clean the models, even if they are protected from dust by caps or are in cabinets behind glass, sooner or later you still have to.

At the ends of the wings and on the fuselage (aircraft body), you can simulate flashing or marker lights or headlights. To do this, you need to make cutouts in the right places and insert “lights” carved from transparent, red or green organic glass into them.

Antennas are usually made from fishing line, but it is better to use a metal winding wire with a diameter of 0.1 mm for this purpose, which can be taken from an old small-sized relay. There is another way, shown in Figure 2 - drawing threads from polystyrene sprues. First, the sprue is heated over the flame of candle 1, then they try the degree of heating 2 and, spreading their arms to the sides 3, pull out the thread, keeping it away from fire 4. True, this method is of little use for thin radio antennas, since the resulting threads are very fragile, but it the easiest and fastest. In addition, this way you can get quite thick rods, which can be very useful when working on models.

You should not make antennas from ordinary threads either: they very quickly become “shaggy” due to dust settling on them.

Often modellers do not put stretch marks on biplanes because of the apparent laboriousness of their implementation. It's actually quite simple. To stretch the extensions, it is necessary to make through holes in the wings with a heated needle or awl at their attachment points, and then stretch the extensions through them, which are best made from wire with a diameter of 0.1 mm. Sometimes they put stretch marks from threads previously impregnated with silver. After they are stretched, in the places of the broach, it is necessary to drop a drop of glue like "Moment-1", BF or another. After the glue dries, it is necessary to cut off the excess threads, then putty the places of the broach, process with fine sandpaper and varnish. If you do all this carefully, then after painting the broach places on the wings will be almost invisible.

Many purchased models have “underfilling”, uneven surfaces and other imperfections caused by the aging of the molds on which they are made. To correct these shortcomings, putty is required. It is almost never on sale, and therefore you have to make it yourself. To do this, finely chopped sprue from the model should be poured into a hermetically sealed glass jar and pour
acetone. In a day, the putty will be ready. It should be borne in mind that it dries for a long time and can dissolve the plastic of the model. Therefore, before use, it is worth checking the putty on the sprue of the model on which it will be applied. By the way, various simple details can be cast from putty in molds.

And here are some tips on how to "revive" the models. Models with open cockpits, bomb bays, movable rudders, etc. look very effective. It is easy to make hinged wings for carrier-based aircraft. The easiest way to do this is on those models in which the wings fold up. Helicopters and transport vehicles are interesting, for example, to make with figures of "paratroopers" at open doors. Models that simulate the operation of the engine look good. For example, ordinary light bulbs from a 2.5 V flashlight can be inserted into the nozzles of jet aircraft, and a Uranus-type battery (1.5 V) can be placed in the fuselage. The light bulb must be powered with reduced voltage so that the nozzles do not melt. In most models of piston aircraft, microelectric motors are freely placed. With their help, you can rotate the propeller. The shaft is metal and is connected to the electric motor using a flexible transmission, such as a rubber tube. In order to avoid its destruction, the shaft should be “passed” into the bow in a tube, for example, from the core of a ballpoint pen. Switches can be of various types. All these improvements are not very time-consuming, and almost everyone can do it.

From almost all models, with the help of small alterations, various modifications of the prototype aircraft and even new ones can be obtained. For example, from the H-60 ​​Gypsy Mot model, you can make a whole series of Soviet A. Yakovlev airplanes - AIR-1, AIR-2, AIR-3, AIR-4. At the same time, new products are almost not inferior to factory ones.

Almost any model has hidden reserves, but in order to successfully find them, you need to familiarize yourself with the necessary drawings and descriptions of aircraft.
In the same way, not only prefabricated models of aircraft are assembled, but also tanks, ships, cars, models of space technology.

Paint clean and neat

The appearance of the prefabricated model depends to a large extent on the coloring. At the same time, for scales of 1:72, 1:100 or 1:144, coloring and finishing acquire decisive role. There can be no trifles in this work, because maximum reliability is the main requirement for a copy model.

So, about the technology of coloring. Each experienced modeler has his own secrets and techniques for this work, but they are all variants of two main methods: painting with a brush and using an airbrush (spray). The first method is relatively simple and accessible to everyone, especially a beginner modeller. The second requires a source of compressed air, an airbrush and much more, which makes it somewhat difficult to distribute it.

When working with a brush, the question arises which paints are suitable for applying to polystyrene, from which aircraft parts are cast. Just not nitro enamels! Nothing good will come of it - the nitro base corrodes the plastic, the paint dries quickly, stretches, the surface turns out to be rough and uneven. For painting with a brush, you need to use alkyd enamels. They have excellent hiding power, give a thin even layer and a shiny surface. Their drying time is 6-12 hours, depending on the temperature and thickness of the coating. You must have five primary colors: red, blue, yellow, white and black. With their help, you can get a variety of colors, as well as any shades. If you managed to find only white alkyd enamel, do not worry - you can use artistic oil paints, which are sold in stationery stores, as dyes.

You can use these oil paints as the main ones - on thinner No. 2 (white spirit or turpentine). After drying, the surface painted by them becomes deeply matte, which is especially important for models-copies of aircraft from the period of the 2nd World War. Art paints dry for one or two days - this is their only drawback.

It is not necessary to specially prepare the surface of the model for painting with brushes, it is enough to wash it in warm water soapy toothbrush. By the way, about the brushes: you need one or two round No. 1-3 for painting parts and two or three flat ones No. 5-9. The size of the brushes depends on the size of the model - the larger the model, the bigger size brushes should be taken. Brushes should be semi-rigid, hairy (better from a column, sable or badger). Bristle ones are not suitable for such fine work. The sequence of applying the paint layer is from lighter to darker.

The airbrush gives rich opportunities for painting models. Of course, working with it is much more difficult than with a brush, but it turns out a perfectly smooth surface, matte or shiny. In addition, the use of an airbrush allows you to transfer different types protective coloring (camouflage), imitate traces of operation, repair, the influence of atmospheric phenomena, etc.

The compressor from a household refrigerator is most often used as a source of compressed air, although it needs to be finalized. First of all, remove the nichrome spiral from the starting box, replacing it with a piece of copper wire (all this, of course, can only be done on a compressor from a refrigerator that has become unusable, after consulting with the parents and with their assistance!). The spiral may not be replaced, but in this case the compressor may stop at the most inopportune moment. It should be remembered that the unit from the refrigerator is not designed for long-term operation, so do not force it to idle.

Often, small droplets of oil fly out of the compressor outlet pipe along with air; their contact with the surface to be painted is highly undesirable. Therefore, an oil filter or a sump should be installed at the outlet, which will also play the role of a receiver - a storage device that smooths out the jerky air flow. It can be done from the camera soccer ball. From a rubber hose with a length of at least 2 m, tightly put on the airbrush fitting, cut off a piece about 0.5 m in size. Put one end of it on the compressor outlet pipe and seal it with a clamp and electrical tape. Insert the other end into the chamber along with the end of the long piece of hose and also seal the connection. Strive to achieve complete tightness to avoid air pressure drops.

But what about those who did not manage to get either an airbrush or a compressor? This is where a regular sprayer can come in handy. Such a sprayer will also help with painting the model, however, unfortunately, it is possible to use a standard device only 1-2 times, after which it is completely clogged with paint.

Simple improvements will help turn it into a reliable "spray gun". To do this, you need to change the bending radii of the outer and inner tubes and shorten the outer shank, as shown in Figure 3, a. The purpose of this upgrade is to enable the development and assembly of the device. The thin inner tube should easily slide out of the outer tube. This will allow you to wash the parts of the spray gun in a solvent after staining.

A little about the methods of using such a sprayer. First of all, it is necessary, by changing the position of the nozzle, to achieve a fine dispersion of the torch. In this case, the length of the latter should be about 0.4 m. Before work, the paint must be filtered. You should always have a bottle of thinner for nitro paints on hand. As soon as the coloring "cloud" becomes inhomogeneous and clots of paint begin to fly from the nozzle, the bottle of paint must be replaced with a bottle of solvent. A few “pumps” with a rubber bulb - and the device is ready for work again.

When finished painting, do not forget to clean up after yourself and thoroughly rinse all parts with a solvent.

A pretty decent airbrush sprayer can also be made on the basis of a microcompressor for supplying air to the aquarium and two empty rods from a ballpoint pen (Fig. 3, b). Remove the balls from the rods, being careful not to deform them with tips, and connect them at right angles to each other using an appropriate device (for example, a tin clip). Then, on one rod, you need to put on a hose from the compressor, and lower the other into a jar of paint. The airbrush is ready to go. The paint supply can be adjusted both by changing the position of the rods and by adjusting the screw on the compressor.

It may happen that you have a real industrial airbrush at your disposal, but without a compressor. An ordinary household siphon for the preparation of carbonated water can be recommended as a pressure source (Fig. 3, c). At the same time, it is not necessary to fill the container with water, but sequentially charge two cartridges with carbon dioxide at once. Connect the “nose” of the siphon to the airbrush with a rubber hose. One such charge is enough for a long time.

But the last recommendation will no doubt be appreciated by those of you who have already taken part in exhibitions and competitions in poster modeling. The fact is that bench models require. treat themselves with a very “delicate” attitude and, it happens, receive unwanted damage during transportation. But if the broken part is easy to glue (there would be glue!), Then it is very difficult to carry an airbrush, compressor or even just a spray gun with you just to tint the peeling paint in some places. Of course, this can also be done with a brush, but on a surface “blown out” by sprayers, such repairs can be immediately noticeable and only worsen the appearance of the model.

“Repair in the field” becomes quite possible if you use the simplest pocket plastic inhaler, which can be converted into an atomizer in a matter of minutes (Fig. 4). Pass a thin tube or donor needle 3 through the lid of the jar, and make a hole in the lid or insert a piece of tube 4 to let the air out. - under glue for prefabricated models and you can get to work.

It should be noted that nitro enamels are most suitable for painting models using all these devices. Before applying them, the surface of the model must be primed using a composition consisting of four parts of acetone and one part of the GF-21 glyptal primer. The components are shaken, after which they must be allowed to settle in a tightly sealed container. The resulting transparent liquid of a pinkish color is applied to the model with an airbrush immediately before painting - thanks to this, the nitro paint is "welded" to the plastic.

Before painting, nitro enamel must be diluted with acetone or solvents (646; 647): the paint must be liquid, but not “transparent”. When working with an airbrush, observe the following rules: press the paint supply key while directing the airbrush away from the model, otherwise the first large splashes-blots may fall on the surface. Hold the airbrush at a distance of 15-20 cm depending on the diameter of the nozzle and what parts are being painted. The hand with the airbrush must be in motion all the time, otherwise streaks may form on the surface. Remember that the time for complete drying of nitro enamels is 1 hour, so each layer must dry properly.

And now a few words about how to solve the problem with silver-like paint, which is indispensable in the manufacture of copy models.

Some plastic model aircraft kits come with excellent silver-look paint. But the trouble is - even if you are lucky enough to purchase such a model, you just have to open the bottle, after a short time the composition thickens and becomes unusable. And this paint is not always enough, while replacing it with other compounds gives, to put it mildly, unsatisfactory results.

But it turns out that even on the basis of available pigments, you can make an excellent paint yourself. To do this, in addition to aluminum powder from the usual kit available for sale in hardware stores, you will need fir varnish (it can be purchased at specialized art stores) and solvent 646. The mixture is prepared in a cylindrical glass vial (for example, from penicillin), into which two volumetric parts of the pigment, and with the help of a pipette pour in one part of the fir varnish and two more of the solvent. The resulting mass is shaken. To lift the pigment settling during storage from the bottom, it is useful to place one or two balls from a bicycle bearing in a vial.

Homemade paint dries 20 ... 25 minutes and appearance practically does not differ after drying from the “standard” paint.

But some modellers prepare this paint from a small amount (20 ... 500 mg) of aluminum paste (not powder!) And solvent 646. Nitro-lacquer is added to the mixture. You can paint with a brush or airbrush. Before spraying, the model is recommended to be painted white.

Removing paint from already painted bench models will help concentrated solution caustic soda (caustic soda), in which the model is immersed for 1-2 days. Before removing the paint, it is necessary to peel off the cockpit lantern, as transparent polystyrene becomes cloudy in this solution. The easiest way to apply clear borders of colors to the model is to “mask” it with wet newsprint or paint individual parts of the model (for example, the upper and lower surfaces of the wings) before they are joined. Self-adhesive adhesive tape such as "scotch tape" has too strong an adhesive ability and often peels off along with the paint, so when using it, its surface should be powdered with talcum powder or tooth powder.

If you want to reproduce blurry camouflage, a mask cut out of thick paper or transparent film is held a few millimeters from the surface of the model, carefully spraying the paint. This technique is quite simple, however, in order not to spoil the model, you need to practice first - “fill your hand” on unnecessary pieces of polystyrene or paper. But with a known skill, camouflage spots can be applied without a mask.

After the model is painted, let it dry properly before transferring the decals onto it. If you need to get a matte surface, blow out the model with a liquid diluted nitro varnish from a long distance, having previously covered the transparent parts with masks - lanterns, headlights, etc. For the same purpose, you can use a colorless matte varnish or paint with nitro paint with tooth powder added to it.

Naturally, when painting a model, a lot will depend on the design of the prototype aircraft itself and the materials from which it was made.

That's how they were, that's how they are

In order for the model-copy of the aircraft you assemble to be really of high quality, it must be as reliable as possible. And for this it is necessary to have a good understanding of the history of the development of aviation, to have an idea about the technology of aviation production, the features of the use of winged equipment, its operation in different conditions. Without this, all the work can go to waste. Therefore, here we will try to briefly acquaint you with what certain aircraft were made of, which ones bore identification marks and emblems. All this will help you in your work.

When assembling models of aircraft from the period, the First World War, you should take into account that the bodies of most of them were made of wood and sheathed with aircraft plywood or canvas impregnated with nitro-lacquer and therefore had a yellowish tint. The structure of the canvas, which covered the aircraft, was indistinguishable even on a real machine (after all, the surface of the aircraft was carefully painted and polished), so you should not try to reproduce it on the model. The biplane model should be painted before final assembly, and then scrape off the paint at the joints, because the glue will not give a strong connection on the paintwork.

When painting, take into account the peculiarities of camouflage of different countries. During the Civil War, Red Army pilots flew both aircraft captured in battles and those produced at domestic factories. The most common fighter planes were Spad and Nieuport, which were painted silver in the Russian and later in the Red Army. It is known that these machines were heavily worn out, and their repair was carried out in the field, therefore, when painting parts that imitate linen and plywood parts, a little matte white or light gray should be added to the aluminum paint. This will give the effect of a faded surface.

English-made aircraft captured from the interventionists and the Whites were usually not repainted, and new identification marks were applied by hand directly onto the blue-white-red English cockades. If desired, you can imitate patches on damaged parts of the fuselage or wing by painting them in the main color of a lighter shade. Usually the patches were in the form of a circle or a quadrangle.
On the aircraft of the period of the First World War, with multi-color camouflage, the border of colors was clearly expressed.

On the aircraft of Kaiser Germany, the fabric covering of the wings and fuselage had the form of multi-colored polygons of the correct geometric shape. It is interesting that the fabric was delivered to aircraft factories already being dyed at a weaving factory. But on the model, this type of camouflage is best imitated with a brush, although this work requires a certain skill. The painting of aircraft of this period was usually semi-matte, although the machines that had just come off the assembly line had a perfectly shiny surface, during operation they quickly lost their appearance.

When finishing and fine-tuning the model of the times of the First World War, it is necessary to remember the following trifles: wooden propellers were carefully polished, therefore, when painting the propeller of the model, it is necessary to imitate the texture of wood and its color. If the model is large enough, then the screw can be made from wood or plywood and not painted. Metal pad on the screw hub - dull gray color. The crankcase and engine cylinders are painted to look like dull metal. To do this, you can add dark gray or brown or both in various proportions to silver paint. Cylinder pushers should be made in a bright silver color, and exhaust pipes should be made to match the rust color that they acquired during long-term operation. Machine guns should be covered with dark gray paint and in some places “aged” with strokes to look like dull metal.

The tires on veteran aircraft wheels had a pronounced gray tint, so before you paint the wheels of the landing gear, you need to add a fair amount of white to the matte black paint, or mix tooth powder into the shiny black paint. To imitate dirt streaks on the wheels, add white to dark brown paint, mix thoroughly and gently apply with a brush in the desired place. The main thing is not to put too much paint. Exhaust smoky streaks are best applied with an airbrush, and the color of the exhaust contaminants on the fuselage can be a dark gray or taupe. This work requires accuracy and thoroughness; in its implementation, one should be guided by the rule “better less than more”.

During the Second World War, they used different kinds camouflage coloring, which can be conditionally divided into three groups: "chopped" - camouflage with a sharp, geometrically broken border of colors; "wavy" - when there is a wavy border of colors; "spotted" - when different color spots are applied to the wings and fuselage of the aircraft. The border between colors could be blurry or clear. For replica models made on a large scale, this is a secondary issue, since in this case the border of colors will look clear in any case, but a scale of 1:24 or 1:32 allows you to simulate the “blurring” of camouflage color borders.

Of great importance is the question of the degree of gloss of the paintwork applied to the model. Both too shiny and too matte coloring of the model make it unreliable. Unlike cars, the aircraft of that time, with rare exceptions, did not have a polished surface, but, on the other hand, one should not forget about the scale effect. A 1:72 scale model from 0.25 m looks (or should look) the same as a real aircraft from a distance of about 18 m. And at this distance, even matte paint acquires some sheen for the observer. Therefore, the most reliable is such a degree of brilliance, which has received the apt name "eggshell". This is a smooth, semi-matte finish, with a sheen reminiscent of the shell of fresh chicken egg, produces the most profit-. new impression.

It should be noted that the exact shade of one color or another, in which the aircraft were painted, is now precisely and cannot be indicated even for those countries where the most stringent instructions existed on this matter. Sun, rain, dew, repairs, the inevitable aging of the paint, and even just not mixing it well enough before use, caused the most bizarre changes in the color of aircraft.

When painting models, you need to know that before the war, most Soviet Air Force aircraft were painted in light gray and silver. Then the main color was dark green with a slight brown tint on the upper and side surfaces. The lower planes were, as a rule, blue. At the beginning of 1941, an instruction was adopted for the camouflage painting of aircraft. They were repainted in the field, due to which the lower surfaces sometimes remained the original light gray color, and large round spots of brown or black were applied to the main green background. Sometimes spots of the original color remained on the upper planes, which created a very rare Soviet aviation tricolor camouflage.

In the coloring of Soviet aircraft during the Great Patriotic War, two stages can be clearly distinguished. The first (initial) was characterized by a wide variety of coloring schemes, which was due both to the lack of sufficient experience in this area and to the surprise attack of Nazi Germany. At first, all the new planes of Yakovlev, Lavochkin and Mikoyan, the production of which was mastered even before the war, were produced in the old protective coloring. From the second half of 1941, all aircraft that left the assembly shops of aircraft factories received camouflage in the form of large spots of brown and green. Moreover, brown paint had a green tint, and green, on the contrary, was brown. Such a scheme was used for both day and night aircraft on almost all fronts. On most aircraft, the bottom surfaces were painted blue.

In the first military winter of 1941-1942. the aircraft had winter camouflage in white-gray or white. The lower surfaces remained blue. Interestingly, in the spring of 1942, as a result of exposure to weather conditions, the so-called "spring" camouflage appeared on the aircraft, when the original colors began to show through the white paint.

While aircraft operating normally during the day had blue undersurfaces (light gray was only used on some multi-engine aircraft), nighttime aircraft had black undersurfaces. These were mainly bombers, transport and communications aircraft flying behind enemy lines, such as Li-2, Po-2, etc. Sometimes these aircraft were painted on top and sides with a special matte dark blue-green paint. Some aircraft were entirely black.

Other paint schemes were also used for painting Soviet aircraft. For example: grassy green and black for areas with rich vegetation; sandy and brown southern sections front; small spots of brown on a green background - mainly in the south of Ukraine and the Caucasus in 1942-1943.

On some machines (usually multi-engine) even a tricolor camouflage was used, where patches of gray, green and brown-green colors (Li-2) or light green, ocher and black-green colors (Yak-6) were combined.

In the second half of the war, that is, from the middle of 1943, the color of Soviet aircraft changed radically. It became more standard and was a combination of two shades of gray - darker and lighter, and at the very end of the war, the aircraft had a solid gray-green color. This applies primarily to such machines as La-5fn, Yak-9, Yak-3, La-7, Tu-2, etc.

Among the aircraft of the Soviet Air Force, one cannot ignore a fairly large group of aircraft, the color of which differed from the standard one for completely different reasons. We are talking about aviation equipment supplied to us by the allies under Lend-Lease (military aid), as a rule, in its original form. So, British-made aircraft had spots of dark green and dark earth (brown) colors, and later - combinations of gray-green and dark gray "marine" colors. The undersides of these machines were either duck-egg or light grey. US aircraft were solid olive (dirty green with a brown tint) color on top and light gray on the bottom. Only gradually these cars were repainted according to Soviet standards. The use of radar equipment and the creation of a fundamentally new jet technology set fundamentally new tasks for military specialists in camouflaging combat aircraft. That is why in the USA, Great Britain, Germany and some other countries engineers, doctors, psychologists, artists are widely involved in this work today, the most modern technology is used.

In the first post-war years, most jet aircraft, especially our Soviet ones, were not painted at all and had a silver-gray color, which was gradually replaced by camouflage. Aircraft such as Tu-16, Tu-20 and Tu-22 remained silver.

An interesting direction in aircraft camouflage was the so-called back-shadow coloring scheme developed in the USA in the early 70s, used on interceptor fighters. Its action is to align with various shades gray color of natural light of individual parts of the aircraft: those areas that usually look lighter are covered with darker paint, and vice versa.

In the late 70s, such a camouflage scheme was tested in the RAF. In 1979, a color scheme with a back-shadow effect (three shades of gray) was adopted for the Phantom-2 air defense fighters, and a little later - for the Lightning and Tornado fighters, and the Hawk light combat training aircraft. Simultaneously with the introduction of a new camouflage coloration, the size of the identification marks was reduced, and instead of bright blue and red, their pastel shades were used. The brightness of various stencil inscriptions was also muted. Although the identification marks and emblems of the squadrons have been temporarily preserved, in case of emergency, they, according to the foreign press, will be painted over.

During the Anglo-Argentine armed conflict over the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands, the aviation of the British Navy also came to grips with the issue of aircraft camouflage. The Sea Harrier carrier-based fighters, which had a gray-white color traditional for naval aviation before being sent to the South Atlantic (and, according to British experts, the white paint on the lower surfaces of the aircraft had too high reflectivity), became monochromatic gray. The white ring was removed from the identification marks. In addition, squadron emblems were painted over, bright inscriptions and designations were removed.

The German Air Force has developed its own camouflage scheme, which uses gray and green colors, as well as broken lines, which is reminiscent of the coloring of Nazi German aircraft.

Work on the creation of new effective camouflage schemes aircraft carried out in various directions. Sometimes they take the most original forms. So, in Canada, an experiment was conducted, during which a mirror image of its upper part (cockpit canopy, keel and other elements) was applied to the lower part of the fuselage of the CF-18 fighter. According to experts, this camouflage method turned out to be very effective, since during the training battles, the pilots of the "enemy" aircraft experienced serious difficulties in determining the spatial position of the CF-18 aircraft painted in this way and, of course, the intentions of their crews. However, from further dissemination Canadian Air Force specialists have so far refrained from this experience in order to "ensure the safety of flights in peacetime."

The most suitable camouflage scheme for European conditions is the alternation of dark green and dark gray spots with zigzag edges. This is how Buccaneer light bombers, Jaguar fighters and some other aircraft are painted. Phantom fighters are camouflaged with lighter colors: light green and dark gray spots on top, and light gray and white with a blue tint on the bottom.

Nimrod base patrol planes and Lightning fighter-interceptors, operating mainly over the sea, are painted so that they cannot be seen from above against the sea surface, and from below - against the background of clouds.

On the contrary, training vehicles should be bright so that they can be seen from afar. However, some of them, on which combat use issues are being worked out, have the same camouflage as combat aircraft.

The camouflage coloring of helicopters is similar to the coloring of aircraft intended for operations against ground targets from low and extremely low altitudes. However, search and rescue helicopters are usually painted bright yellow.

Certain types of aircraft can be painted in other (non-standard) colors. For example, they were painted white with black spots and stripes so that they did not particularly stand out against the background. earth's surface, covered with snow and stones, Harrier vertical takeoff and landing aircraft that participated in flights over Norway.

It is extremely important for modellers-collectors to be able to correctly paint identification marks, especially if they could not get a factory-made decal. Here, the already mentioned stencil masks with a cut-out image should come to the rescue.

When finishing a model, it is important not only to know the history well, but also to observe the measure, the scale of identification marks, digital designations, “scratches” and “chips”. Otherwise, "metal" may appear where there was actually wood or fabric, and identification marks can make even the most unnatural beautiful model. And, of course, a copy of a prototype aircraft cannot look like a car that has been in dozens of air combat, as well as the ace's car should not look like it has just left the assembly shop. That is why painstaking, but very interesting and useful work is required to study the history of aviation, search for photographs and color images of copied aircraft, which will help to complement the coloring of the model with the necessary nuances.

In connection with the rapid development of air defense and anti-aircraft missile systems by the beginning of the 1960s. there was a need for rocket ships of special construction.
The design of the ship began in 1956. According to the operational-tactical task, the functions of the ship included air defense formations of ships from attacks by aircraft and cruise missiles, as well as anti-submarine defense.
After the approval at the beginning of 1957 of the main tactical and technical elements, TsKB-53, headed by B. I. Kupensky, began to develop a draft design. The technical project (project 61) was completed and approved in 1958, after which at the plant. On September 15, 1959, 61 Communards in Nikolaev laid down the lead ship, Komsomolets Ukrainy. On December 31, 1960, it was launched, and on October 15, 1962, it was handed over to the Navy for state trials.
Frame
The ship's hull is welded from steel SHL-4 (10KhSND), smooth-deck, with a characteristic rise of the upper deck to the bow and an inclined stem. To ensure a high speed, it had very sharp contours (the ratio of length to width was 9.5). The main watertight bulkheads divided the hull into 15 compartments. The double bottom occupied about 80% of the ship's length.
The ship had a 90-meter superstructure developed along the length with two masts, two bases for antenna posts of the Yatagan control system and two double chimneys. Exclusively big size pipes lowered the temperature of the exhaust gases, reducing the thermal visibility of the ship, and also made it possible to replace the propulsion system through the hatches located in them. To reduce displacement and improve stability, the superstructure, masts and pipes were made of aluminum-magnesium alloys (for the first time on a ship, aluminum-magnesium alloys of the AMG-5V brand were used in large quantities, including for non-pressure bulkheads, baffles in superstructures and air ducts. The melting temperature of the first batches of alloys was 300-400 ° C, the combustion temperature was 1200 ° C. As it turned out, when extinguishing a fire with sea water, the released hydrogen interacted with magnesium and intensified the fire). Only the areas where the masts, launchers, antenna posts, as well as the navigation post were made of steel.
Propulsion system
From the very beginning, two options for the main power plant were considered - a traditional steam turbine (STU) and a gas turbine (GTU). The latter, due to its lightness and compactness (specific gravity 5.2 kg / hp versus 9 kg / hp), reduced the displacement of the ship from 3600 to 3200 tons and increased efficiency. In addition, starting from a cold state took 5-10 minutes for a gas turbine compared to several hours required for a PTU. For these reasons, a variant with gas turbine engines was adopted.
For the melodic whistle of gas turbines, the ships of the series in the fleet were dubbed "singing frigates".
The bow and stern engine rooms occupied one compartment each. Each housed the all-mode main gas turbine gear unit (GGTZA) M-3 with a capacity of 36,000 hp. manufactured by the Southern Turbine Plant in Nikolaev, two gas turbine generators GTU-6 for 600 kW each and a diesel generator DG-200/P for 200 kW.
Each GTZA consisted of two non-reversible gas turbine engines(GTE) with a capacity of 18,000 hp. with reversible mating gear. Each gas turbine engine had its own gas outlet pipe. Each of the two shafts had a four-blade fixed-pitch propeller.
The compartments between the compartments were occupied by auxiliary mechanisms (roll damper, auxiliary boilers). Fuel was stored in double-bottom tanks with a capacity of 940 tons, 70 tons of fresh water for the crew and 13 tons of water for auxiliary boilers were also stored there.
Armament
The armament of the new ship was innovative. For the first time in Soviet shipbuilding, it was equipped with two anti-aircraft missile systems (M-1 Volna). Each complex was a two-beam launcher ZIF-101, a Yatagan control system and a store with two rotating drums for 8 V-600 missiles each.
Artillery armament consisted of two twin 76-mm AK-726 turrets (rate of fire 90 rds / min, range 13 km, height reach 9 km, ammunition load 2400 unitary rounds) and two Turret fire control systems.
The ship had a five-pipe torpedo tube PTA-53-61 for SET-53 or 53-57 torpedoes with the Buzzer torpedo fire control system, two RBU-6000 and RBU-1000 rocket launchers each (ammunition load 192 RGB-60 and 48 RGB-10 respectively) with the Burya control system.

The ship provided for storage for 6 tons of aviation fuel and ammunition for the Ka-25 anti-submarine helicopter (anti-submarine torpedoes, depth charges, sonar buoys), however, due to the lack of a hangar, it was possible that there was only a temporary base.
The mine rails traditional for Soviet destroyers with slopes in the stern have been preserved. Two F-82-T launchers were envisaged for firing passive radar reflectors. Protection against torpedoes was provided by a towed BOKA-DU guard and a degaussing device.
The hydroacoustic means included the Titan all-round viewing station and the Vychegda fire control station, located in the wing fairing. The detection range of the submarine was 3.5 km.
Ship unsinkability was provided for the most unfavorable case of flooding of any three adjacent compartments when the ship was loaded in the range from standard to full displacement. When three adjacent compartments were flooded, the calculation provided for a steady static list of the ship of about 13 °, a freeboard height of at least 0.6 m at a maximum wind speed of 24 m/s, which the ship can withstand before capsizing.
With a normal displacement in deep water (at least 75 m), with a sea state of up to 3 points inclusive, the ship, moving at full speed, with a raised fairing, could develop a speed of 34 knots. It was planned to increase the speed and cruising range by supplying air to the channels of the propellers.
The crew of the ship according to the state of 1962 consisted of 266 people: 22 officers, 18 midshipmen and chief foremen and 226 foremen and sailors. According to the state, since 1974, 25 officers were provided on the ship.
For the Soviet Navy, 20 ships pr.61 were built.

The lead ship of the BOD series "Komsomolets of Ukraine"
BOD "Brave", to which this story is dedicated, was the seventh in this series (ships pr.61 were built at two shipyards in Nikolaev and Leningrad).
The large anti-submarine ship "Courageous" was included in the lists of ships of the USSR Navy on July 3, 1963 and on August 10, 1963 was laid down at the plant named after 61 Communards in Nikolaev. Launched on October 17, 1964, entered service on December 31, 1964 and was included in the Black Sea Fleet on January 25, 1965.

BOD "Brave"
length - 144 m. width (maximum) - 15.8 m. side height: at the stem - 13.2 m, at the midsection - 8.1 m, at the transom - 8.5 m., draft (at full displacement) - 4.6 m., displacement ( full) - 4510 t.
At the end of August 1974, a naval exercise was conducted in the Black Sea Fleet, headed by the chief of staff of the fleet. The first stage was held on 27 August. Previously, on August 26, a briefing was held for ship commanders in the conference hall of the Black Sea Fleet headquarters. The commander of the "Brave" was instructed by the commander of the 70th brigade
captain 1st rank Makarov and commander of the 41st separate brigade of missile boats (OBRK) captain 1st rank Komar.
It was at this time that the Chief of Staff of the Black Sea Fleet, Rear Admiral Sahakyan, chose the BOD "Valiant" as his flagship and command ship at the second stage of the fleet's exercises, on August 30, during rocket firing by small missile ships (RTOs) of the 41st OB RK and to determine the effectiveness of the air defense system "Wasp" when repelling an air enemy. On August 29, the 70th brigade of the BOD, with the participation of the Brave, was supposed to carry out an anti-submarine mission and actual torpedo firing.
29 august bod"Brave" under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Vinnik went to sea to perform a planned combat exercise with actual torpedo firing. The preparation of the ship for the battle and the campaign was carried out in full according to a two-hour schedule. The readiness of the ship to go to sea was checked by the headquarters of the 70th brigade of anti-submarine ships.
Their last combat exercise - torpedo firing - was successfully completed on the Courageous.
On the evening of August 29 and on the night of August 30, the Otvazhny BOD, together with the Bedovyy BOD and the Komsomolets Ukrainy BOD, took part in the anti-submarine exercise of the 70th brigade under the command of the brigade commander Captain 1st Rank Makarov.
Last trip
August 30, 1974, at about 5.30 am, "Brave" after the end of the night exercises of the search and strike group, consisting of several ships and a submarine, stood on the Streltsy roadstead of Sevastopol.
At 7:45 a.m., Rear Admiral V.Kh., Chief of Staff of the Black Sea Fleet, arrived on the ship. Sahakyan with a group of officers of the fleet headquarters. After that, the "Brave", at 7 hours 52 minutes, again went to sea, on his last trip.
On this day, the ship was supposed to provide anti-aircraft fire from small missile ships at a training ground near Cape Khersones.
258 officers, midshipmen, foremen and sailors, 16 cadets (6 from the Frunze VVMU and 10 from the Kaliningrad VVMU) and 13 seconded went out to sea from the ship's crew. In total, there were 287 people on the ship, along with two admirals and staff officers. The chief of staff of the fleet was the senior at sea and in training by position and rank.
At 9:55 in the morning, the ship arrived at the training ground, and a combat training alert was announced on it.
The personnel took their places on alarm, some last time in life.
The foreman of the launch team, midshipman Shuportyak, arrived at the missile control post in the cellar of ZUR No. 8. Senior sailors Karyakin and Daukshte, sailor Vinclovas also ran there.
Cadets Filippov, Kolyshev, Borisov, Staritsyn, Belousko, Anikeev and Ionov did not leave at the signal of a combat training alarm from cockpit No. 4, which was next to the cellar of ZUR No. 8, presumably they clarified with newly arrived comrades which posts they should go to combat alert, although all those not scheduled for combat alert are required to appear at the ship's GKP.
In total, in the stern of the ship from the 164th frame, in the future emergency zone, there were 78 people, including 3 midshipmen, 13 foremen, 55 sailors and 7 cadets. According to the order given on the ship, the coca and the outfit of those working on the ship remained in the galley.
galley. This time they were cook-instructor foreman of the 1st article Petr Murgu, senior cook sailor Idzhyan Akop and senior baker sailor Sergey Petrukhin, as well as an outfit from BCH-3: senior miner Petr Bedakov, senior electrician-torpedo pilot Petr Goncharuk and torpedo pilot Yaroslav Vorozhbit.
Sailor Vladimir Prochakovsky, who remained in charge of the chief boatswain of the ship, and sailor Abrahamia from the supply service, who delivered admirals and officers to the ship in the morning on a boat and missed breakfast, had a snack in the galley.
Midshipman Shuportyak, who was at the console of the missile control post of the aft cellar No. 8, in which 16 V-601 missiles were stored in 2 vertical drums in combat condition, acting in accordance with the instructions, ordered the sailors on duty at the post to connect external power. After that, he turned the toggle switches on the power supply panel to the “on” position. Immediately after clicking the last toggle switch, at 10:01:15 (this time, and the time of subsequent explosions, was established by the commission during the investigation of the circumstances of the explosion approx.) he saw through the porthole a fairly strong sheaf of flame on the left drum. Then another strong flash followed, illuminating the entire cellar (the starting main engine of the B-601 rocket ignited the starting engine, an increase in temperature and pressure initiated the operation of solid-fuel engines of other missiles). The smoke that appeared began to envelop the glass of the post. As midshipman Shuportyak later stated, he seemed to be trying to report to the battery commander, Senior Lieutenant Kostin, but he did not receive Shuportyak's report - the connection allegedly did not work.
Through the enveloping anti-ship missiles and the smoke quickly filling the cellar, flashes of fire sparkled, noise and rattle grew. It was clear that there was a fire in the cellar, threatening to explode rockets and fire. Shuportyak was frightened, did not, as it should be according to the instructions, manually turn on the missile irrigation system from the anti-ship missiles and, shouting: “Leave the PKS!” - rushed to run (during the experiment, when the entire crew of the "Brave", but already on board the BOD "Resolute" played all the actions of the tragic morning of August 30, Shuportyak could not show where the output of the stock of clinkets flooding his combat post ... approx).
Having jumped out into the cockpit No. 4, he ran past the cadets and the orderly along the cockpit and, without saying anything to them, ran out into the corridor No. 11, where the aft emergency party of midshipman Petrikin was located. Only here he shouted: “Now there will be an explosion!” - and ran further along corridors No. 8 and 9 and further into the bow of the ship.
The commander of the emergency party stood at a loss.
Without informing anyone about the causes of the explosion, Shuportyak hid somewhere on the ship and appeared only two hours later.
The commander of the ship in the navigation post, the admirals on the bridge, the officers on the GKP and in the PEZh did not know anything about the fire that had started in cellar No. 8 - about the flaring fire that would lead the ship to disaster.
In cockpit No. 4 BCh-3, the cadets, who were on the ship without a practice leader, continued to discuss and allocate their places at combat posts during rocket firing.
Noise was heard in adjacent compartments, and cut off in cellar No. 8, paint began to bubble on the bulkheads. Realizing that a dangerous situation had arisen, the sailors began to leave the compartments, but not everyone succeeded.
Columns of smoke emerged from the exhaust hatches on the deck. On the navigation bridge, Rear Admiral Sahakyan, noticing smoke in the area of ​​​​the stern pipe, said:
- Again, the mechanics are smoking the sky ...
Apparently, Sahakyan forgot that gas turbine plants do not produce smoke, which he observed earlier on his destroyer.
In cellar No. 8, where the flames raged and the pressure increased, the exhaust covers should have been triggered by sensors. Did they work? Unknown. The lids are supposed to be open. Then, from an increase in temperature, the inhibitor system was supposed to automatically turn on in order to fill the cellar with an inert gas and prevent air from entering it. One can only speculate whether the system worked or not; if she gave a signal to the Dozor post, then there was no one to take it (due to combat training, duty at the Dozor post was not provided approx.).
The fire in the cellar grew. Auto power on cellar irrigation was taken out of operation (due to the imperfection of the device automatic system extinguishing, it periodically spontaneously fired, flooding the magazines of ammunition, as a result of which the system was transferred from automatic mode to signal, with manual control approx.), midshipman Shuportyak did not turn it on manually from the missile control post (RCC). However, irrigation could still be switched on from corridor No. 11; But nothing was done...
As a result of the operation of the rocket engines, the temperature and pressure in the cellar began to rise rapidly, the fire increased, gases and flames intensively escaped through the exhaust covers. In the cellar, the hull structures melted and partially collapsed.
Petty officers of the 1st article Valery Vershinin and Algirdas Makshtutis were trapped in a fire trap in the assembly room and, apparently, immediately died. Both were only 21 years old.
The foreman of the 2nd article Ivan Volodin, who was on duty there, did not get out of the rampart line and, apparently, died immediately. He was only 19 years old.
At 10:01:30 a.m., the first powerful explosion, the flames burst out.
In the turret compartment of the aft gun mount, apparently, the exit was jammed. The commander of the anti-aircraft commanders department, Alexander Urupa, remained there. He was 21 years old.
In cellar No. 8, the temperature and pressure from the running rocket and fire engines were rapidly increasing, the intensity of the release of flame and gases through the exhaust covers increased. The sloping section of the cellar deck above the baffle in the recess area became hot, and the hull structures adjacent to the cellar began to collapse in the KMO.
4-5 seconds after the first explosion, in the cellar No. 8 there was a similar to the first, but stronger explosion.
The explosion was thrown overboard, the sailors Suleymanov and Tuikin, who were subsequently picked up by a boat. On the navigation bridge, where the admirals and officers of the fleet headquarters were located, they paid attention to the emission of smoke in the stern. Rear Admiral Sahakyan again began to scold the mechanics. At the same moment, the signalman reported: “Flame from the stern pipe!” (the signalman made a mistake, the flame rose above the pipes from cellar No. 8 approx.).
At 10:02:00 a.m., there was a third strong explosion in cellar No. 8.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam Achmiz, who jumped out of the cockpit to the upper deck after the first explosion, immediately after the second explosion rushed to the aft gun mount, apparently to the rescue of his comrade Alexander Urupa who was in it. He had already run up to the tower and grabbed the handrails of the door, opening it, he was thrown onto the deck by the shock wave and did not get up.
Within just one minute, in the stern, in the compartments adjacent directly to cellar No. 8, and on the upper deck, nine sailors died from explosions, burned alive, and a cadet from the Kaliningrad VVMIU Alexander Ionov, two more sailors (except for two of whom he picked up a boat) they were thrown overboard by an explosion, but, not being able to swim (perhaps as a result of a shell shock), they drowned.
After the second explosion, four cadets of VVMU them. Frunze rushed into the water, well prepared at the school, they confidently floated on the water. The hydraulic shock from the third blast hit them just as they thought they had escaped.
The third explosion, having torn off the cover of cellar No. 8, destroyed the longitudinal and transverse bulkheads of the cellar and caused partial destruction of other hull structures and fuel tanks in the cellar area. As a result, hot gases and flames burst into neighboring rooms. A fire broke out in the compartments adjacent to the 8th cellar, including in the KMO, cabins No. 3, 4, 5, corridors No. 11, 10, 9. As it turned out later, during a diving examination, there was a violation of the outer skin in the area of ​​the 3rd the cockpit on the starboard side is about 5 m long, 3.5 m high and with a sag of 0.6 m.


From the combat log of the BOD "Brave" for 08/30/1974:
10.02. Smoke, fire and explosion appeared in the area of ​​the stern pipe. Combat and emergency alerts declared
From the memoirs of the former senior assistant commander of the Courageous BOD, Captain 1st Rank V. V. Balashov:
“At 10:02 there was a strong explosion. The commander gave me the command: "Come out, first mate, look." I went to the upper deck.
In the stern to the stern pipe, the flames raged, and there was a lot of smoke. The metal twisted and melted from the heat.
There was a gaping hole in the area of ​​the aft launcher. There was a trim to the stern, she settled into the water along the transom. There was a list of 12-13 ° to starboard. The ship apparently took 1000-1200 tons of water. The fire approached cellars No. 6, 7 with anti-submarine ammunition. rocket launcher hung overboard. The PJ was out of order ... In front of my eyes, sailor Petrukhin partially climbed out of the galley through the porthole, he was burned, his skin peeled off, and his bones were exposed. I saw how the metal melted ... ".
At the call of Prochakovsky, only one sailor Abrahamia managed to run out of the galley. The third explosion jammed the door to the vestibule, threw the sailors onto the deck, boilers with boiling water overturned on them. Sailor Petrukhin was the first to come to his senses, got out into the 10th corridor, but the door from it also jammed. Choking on smoke and gases, he climbed into the narrow porthole of the galley and stuck in it, screaming in pain. The rest of the sailors, also scalded and slightly alive, got out into the corridors No. stressful situation, not knowing that the doors were jammed, everyone rushed to the doors and near them suffocated from the smoke approx.).
A fire broke out in the stern of the emergency ship. Through the destruction in the outer skin, outboard water began to flow into the cellar compartment No. 8, cellar No. 9 and the KMO. There was a roll to starboard and trim aft. The filtration of water into the cockpit No. 6 has begun.
In the navigation post, the commander of the ship Vinnik, who announced a combat and then an emergency alarm at 10:02, immediately gave the command to stop the vehicles and began to organize a fight for the ship's survivability, trying to find out the situation and the cause of the emergency. Midshipman Shuportyak, who knew the root cause of the explosion and fire in his cellar no. ship Vinnik, on alarm switched to the GKP which was inside the ship, Rear Admiral Sahakyan remained on the navigation bridge approx.).
The team remaining in their places, and the emergency party immediately began to fight for the survivability of the ship.
Meanwhile, on the navigation bridge of the ship, the confused commanders and officers of the fleet headquarters continued to discuss the cause of the fire, which, by the way, was never found out; for some reason, the explosion of the VVD cylinders was considered the main version of the explosion.
Accepted by the command of the ship (unfortunately, as in the case of the battleship Novorossiysk, there were too many commanders on the bridge of the Courageous), the version of the explosion of cylinders in the KMO and the spread of fire from there to other compartments with explosions of missiles and ammunition in them did not allow to correctly assess the nature of the damage, including damage to the fuel tanks due to the burning of the deck by the fire of the operating marching and starting rocket engines in cellar No. 8 and their subsequent destruction by the rocket explosion. The fuel floating up in the compartment from the fuel tanks contributed to the increase in the fire.
What fire fighting equipment did the ship have at that moment?
In the event of a fire in cellar No. 8, it was planned to turn on irrigation from the RCC and corridor No. 11, but, as you know, it was not turned on; in case of fire in KMO - liquid volumetric fire extinguishing from the ZhS system with its inclusion in corridor No. 11 of the water spray system
niya in KMO. In the event of a fire in cellar No. 9, the irrigation of cellar No. 9 from the turret compartment or cockpit No. 5 should have been turned on. However, due to heavy smoke, and then a fire in corridor No. 11, a breakthrough of gases and flames from cellar No. 8 to KMO through the aft bulkhead , which caused a fire in the KMO itself, as well as in the cockpit No. 5, these stern fire-fighting equipment were not put into action. But perhaps the explosion damaged the fire main itself.
It was possible to use only fire nozzles and portable fire fighting equipment: air-foam guns and portable fire extinguishers, but only to localize the fire in rooms bordering on the zone of intense fire.
To pump out the water entering the KMO when extinguishing a fire with outboard water, two sump pumps located in the KMO were to be pumped out. Due to a fire in the KMO itself and corridors No. 9 and 10, they were not put into operation.
It was possible to use the sump pumps in rooms 6, 8 and 10, but this was also not done due to fires in the 11th corridor and the 5th cockpit. However, it is possible that these pumps were also damaged in the explosion.


It was necessary to immediately determine the area and volume of compartment flooding. This could be done according to the indications of the signaling devices on the board of unsinkability of the PES, but due to the smoke and lack of lighting, the personnel left the PES.
PEZH, which is the command post of the BS-5, designed to receive and evaluate information, to directly manage the fight for the ship's survivability, failed, primarily due to its location in a fire hazardous area. In this regard, the state of the aft compartments was not monitored all the time until the death of the ship, and the bow compartments up to the 164th frame - only visually. The GKP only tentatively assessed the area of ​​flooding. Spare PJ (nasal remote control), apparently, was not used.
Means of fighting fire and water were used only from the side of the bow of the ship: the bow bulkhead of the KMO on the 164th frame became the line of defense against fire and water. This
the border remained until the moment the ship was abandoned by personnel. However, from the aft side, the personnel could not localize the fire on their own. Power went out in the stern, leaving the fire main without water. Combat-ready personnel in the stern were left without leadership. It was impossible to pass from the bow to the stern of the ship through the fire zone.
Due to the lack of information and the inability to correctly assess the situation, no measures were taken to restore the watertightness of the ship's hull (in B. Karzhavin's book "The Death of the Courageous" on page 106, the following is written: “Due to the lack of information and the inability to correctly assess the situation, no measures were taken to restore the watertightness of the ship's hull, since they didn’t know anything about the hole in the GKP». This is unlikely, after the third explosion the ship received a list of 12-13 ° to starboard, here, probably, even any housewife would have guessed that water most likely penetrated the ship's hull, i.e. body has a crack or hole approx.).
Meanwhile, the fire in cellar No. 8 and in adjacent compartments intensified, fuel from damaged tanks floated to the surface of the water and supported intense combustion, this was also facilitated by the aluminum-magnesium alloys from which the ship's superstructures were made.
5 - 10 s after a strong third explosion in the area of ​​​​cellar No. 8, a series of successive explosions resembling a cannonade was heard approx.).

I recently helped a friend with a move. In the new place, the former owners left a lot of unnecessary things for them. It took a long time and hard work to rake them up.
Somewhere in the middle of the process of disassembly and removal, a box was found with a demobilization album and a camera, which, probably, took photos for this album.
Here I will publish some photos and drawings from this album.

Consider, then, open the album.

The first drawings are traditionally dedicated to the native ship and the fleet in general.

BOD "Brave".
11/15/1966 was laid down at the plant named after 61 Communards in Nikolaev, launched on 02/06/1968 and 12/20/1968 was added to the lists of ships of the Navy. Entered service on 12/27/1969 and 01/09/1970 included in the Black Sea Fleet.

In 1976 -1977. modernized at Sevmorzavod in Sevastopol under project 61M.

09/17-22/1976 paid a visit to Messina (Italy),
04/08-13/1978 - to Algeria,
April 13-18, 1979 - in Rijeka (Yugoslavia).

In the period from 12/17/1982 to 01/30/1985, a major overhaul took place in Riga, after which it was transferred to the Baltic Fleet.

On January 19, 1988, it was leased to the Polish Navy with the renaming to “Warszawa”.

03/05/1988 expelled from the USSR Navy.

Sevastopol bay. The Moskva helicopter carrier was already on fire, but still strong. Selling it for scrap abroad can only be a nightmare.

Many drawings and poems are designed in the style of "sailor romanticism"...

In general, the girl who waits and waits is a very important part of the album.

A great journey beyond distant seas to maturity has begun...

A sharply felt boundary is the passage under the bridge over the Bosphorus.

The Rubicon has been crossed.

Swimming was far from lonely.

Mediterranean Sea: fresh breeze.

Reception of fuel and lubricants on the go.

Swimming doesn't always impede creativity.

Lyrical digression - amateur performance.

Another lyrical digression. This colorful midshipman could well have been the ship's boatswain.

The lyrics are over - a meeting with the ship of a potential enemy.

The ship is USS Barry.
Destroyer
Enrolled in the fleet - September 7, 1956.
Withdrawn from combat strength Fleet - November 5, 1982
Currently, the ship is a museum.
In 1977, after modernization, she again became part of the US 6th Fleet.
Between January 24 and February 3, 1978, the destroyer monitored a group of ships of the Soviet Navy, which included the Kyiv aircraft carrier and the Moskva anti-submarine cruiser. Then he participated in a series of NATO exercises in the Mediterranean.

Another possible opponent is USS Nimitz.
Commissioned 3 May 1975
Currently, he continues to serve.
September 10, 1979 - the beginning of his third campaign in the Mediterranean.

The image of the enemy for the Soviet sailor was somewhat exotic and naive.

Mediterranean...

Entering the port is a good relaxation after a strenuous trip.

Friendly local people

On the way home.
How can you not take a picture against the backdrop of such printed materials!

Houses!
Boom gates passed. Maul is not there yet. The Konstantinovskaya battery is just beginning to be repaired.

The number of miles traveled is very impressive ...

This long-awaited word is "ORDER".

Waited!

With comrades, in memory.

From viewing the album, there were good impressions - the person passed the tests, gained experience.
In the end, he succeeded, he made his journey on the "Brave" ...

P.S.: I apologize for the incorrect work of photo hosting. I transferred the photo to another resource, I hope this will make viewing more enjoyable.