Zvedzda Hotel Class SSBN - "In box review"

[tom dougherty]

[color=#000000]OK, gang, just received my Zvedzda 1]



Edited By Tom Dougherty on 1130816340

[mylo]

Tom,

Love the review. It's

Tom,

Love the review. It's information like this that can really help us make an "educated purchase".

Looking forward to your build thread on this Hotel.

Myles.

[anonymous]

Good concise detailed review. Thanks

Good concise detailed review. Thanks Tom. Can you share here that Hotel in dry dock photo?

Steve Reichmuth

[gerwalk]

Thanks Tom. I'm waiting for

Thanks Tom. I'm waiting for mine to arrive.

[mandrake]

The missile doors atop the

The missile doors atop the sail are modled closed, and look incorrect, as they have deep, angled grooves between the doors that I have not seen in any overhead photos of a Hotel. Also, the forward top of the sail where the masts and cockpit are located should have a slight elevation relative to the missile door area. It doesn't. Looks like a bit of scratchbuilding on the sail will be in order.

I am not sure that the missile doors and sail top are inaccurate. Some of the Hotel photos I have indicate that this configuration may of been present on atleast some Hotel subs.

[tom dougherty]

I have found a drawing

I have found a drawing which shows the deep "grooves" in the sail between the tubes, but can find no photos of that configuration. Where did you obtain these photos? Almost all the photos I have show the doors as curving hatches that follow the tops of the sail, when you can make out any details at all. Most are grainy "SovPhotos" of bygone years. The Hotels were not exactly prime photo material, given all the technical problems.

Steve-the photo of the Hotel in drydock is in my article on the HENs in the SCR about 2 years back.

[mandrake]

I am also familiar with

I am also familiar with that drawing you mention. The photos I refer to are nothing special, all very much in the public domain. Perhaps the most obvious example is the picture below of K-19 pictured after the 1972 incident where a fire broke out onboard.


Save and zoom in

I suspect they are present on other photographed examples but simply not apparent unless viewed almost right angles at a relatively shallow angle.

There is existence is also supported by the fact that they do appear on some Golf subs]http://www.sinodefence.com/navy/sub/golf_2.jpg[/img]



Bear in mind ofcourse that they the Golfs and Hotels share their missile systems to a large degree.

I would also be very interested in the drydock photo you mention however I am not a subscriber as yet and even if I was there does not appear to be any back-issue order service currently available.

[tmsmalley]

Here's that drydock photo from

Here's that drydock photo from Tom's March 04 article.

[mandrake]

Great photo, thanks Tim!

Great photo, thanks Tim!

[tmsmalley]

I was the one who

I was the one who laid out Tom's article for the SubCommittee Report and I still had the image Tom is the sleuth who found it!

[mandrake]

Came across something rather interesting

Came across something rather interesting on Globalsecurity.org

Satelite Imagery of Polyarny Naval Base in 1967 shows a submarine with what appears to be the above described grooves in the sail]http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/images/kh-7_m4037_28may67_polyarnyy_0055.jpg[/img]

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/polyarny9.htm

The caption(s) indicate that it is a Hotel II SSBN, however looking at the relative size and position of the sail I think it is actually a Golf, what do you guys think?

[gerwalk]

Groovy! The grooves are there

Groovy! The grooves are there (I mean]http://www.deepstorm.ru/DeepStorm.files/45-92/nbrs/658/list.files/image001.jpg[/img]

I'm not sure the sub in the photo is a Hotel. The shape of the aft sail looks more like a Golf than a Hotel.

In this photo of the K-19 the grooves are not present]http://submarine.id.ru/galery/t674.jpg[/img]

[gerwalk]

This is from a National

This is from a National Geographic animation of the construction of K-19 (grooves!)]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v393/Gerwalker/Subs/natgeok-19.jpg[/img]

[mandrake]

This is from a National

This is from a National Geographic animation of the construction of K-19 (grooves!)]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v393/Gerwalker/Subs/natgeok-19.jpg[/img]

Note also that the Hotel submarine featured in the movie K-19 also has these grooves. It IS therefore no suprise that the National Geographic programme featured them as it was made in the wake of the film.

Though the real sub used in the film was actually a Juliett it was heavily modified to capture the appearance of Hotel, most notable in the construction of a new sail.

What little evidence that exists tends to lean towards the grroves being a feature of some Hotel II submarines. However at the time of the infamous reactor incident in 1961 K-19 would of still be a Hotel I class sub, the upgrade not being recieved until between 1963-1967, which compromises the accuracy of this feature being present in the movie and documentory.

[gerwalk]

Yesterday night I checked the

[color=#000000]Yesterday night I checked the K-19 book (NatGeo once again) which has a photo (is from the same series of photos were the one posted above comes from) taken from a plane that clearly shows that the grooves weren't there at the time of the accident.

BTW]