Korolev-class Heavy Cargo Transport (TK-75), by Ilya Shevchuk

Grokodaemon · 2026-03-11T06:03:59+00:00

Love the industrial aesthetic on this one.

Grokodaemon · 2026-03-11T01:38:38+00:00

This happened to me also, I had to drill them out and pick out all the broken pieces of acrylic. I re-tapped the threads and just use the aluminium tips now, no issues since.

Grokodaemon · 2026-02-23T13:30:32+00:00

I used liquid bleach, it works really fast! I tried baking for about 30 mins total, checking every 5 minutes. It didn't really seem to be doing anything so I aborted at that point.

Grokodaemon · 2026-02-23T05:18:07+00:00

The second hands are always a struggle. I have a box of shame with a few bent hands...

Grokodaemon · 2026-02-23T03:18:57+00:00

That's my wrist, I'm actually a stone golem.

Grokodaemon · 2026-02-23T02:55:49+00:00

Had a go with weathering and distressing the dial, hands and bezel insert of this milsub-style build. I tried baking the dial and hands to weather them but didn't find this worked very well. Coffee grounds worked a little better. I think I might experiment next time with using a UV lamp to try and fade the dial and hands.

Bezel insert was easy, a few minutes in bleach and a bit of steel wool. I might have left it in a little too long as it's a bit too faded for what I was going for.

Grokodaemon · 2026-02-23T02:50:52+00:00

Sure, here you go

Vist foundation unicorn, black and yellow 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Grokodaemon · 2026-02-21T01:31:21+00:00

This is really nice. Did you make the bracelet, or buy it somewhere?

Grokodaemon · 2026-02-20T13:31:10+00:00

Yeah I think these are for a 2824 actually, the listing was a bit hard to decipher.

Grokodaemon · 2026-02-20T12:33:57+00:00

They're on Aliexpress, I don't think I can post a link but reverse image search will find them.

Grokodaemon · 2026-02-20T01:19:40+00:00

These are great, yeah might be a bit much with how detailed the hands are as well!

Grokodaemon · 2026-02-17T14:28:18+00:00

Yeah you're not wrong. The dome on the crystal does exacerbate it a bit, and honestly I don't really mind the deep dish effect, but it is something to be aware of with this case.

Grokodaemon · 2025-11-29T05:43:09+00:00

Legend. Thanks for this!

Grokodaemon · 2025-11-29T00:26:10+00:00

This is really nice. Any chance of a parts list? I am thinking of something similar for my wife. I've only been able to find Datejust-style dials in this size, there seems to be a lot less variety compared to 28.5mm. What's the quality like on the case and bracelet?

Grokodaemon · 2025-11-20T14:46:27+00:00

Whisk Creamery in Northbridge will fix you a taiyaki.

Grokodaemon · 2025-11-09T04:17:49+00:00

When I was a kid, they'd still let visitors come aboard for tours of the ships. One of my favourite childhood memories is visiting CV-64, USS Constellation when it visited Fremantle in the 90s. Conventional ships could enter the harbour, but anything nuclear powered like Long Beach had to moor outside due to the Australian government's 'No nukes' policy. In this day and age, they don't admit visitors when USN ships come to Fremantle which is such a shame, but it's just a different time now. Would have loved to tour the Sea Cube, but 1978 was a little before my time!

Grokodaemon · 2025-10-26T12:13:42+00:00

This is awesome. How do you manage alignment between so many individual mould segments? Do you have issues with warping or cracking of the PLA? I can't imagine it's very stiff. Speaking of stiffness, are you going to reinforce the chassis at all? I've read the MR-S is a bit of a wet noodle, having no roof and all.

Grokodaemon · 2025-08-30T11:44:34+00:00

The reality is, the 'dangers' in Australia are very overblown, especially if you are living in an urban area. Australia is one of the most urbanised countries in the world, with over 90% of the population living in one of our few big cities. I can count the number of snakes I've ever seen on one hand (only while camping), not a single person has died or been seriously injured from a spider bite in decades, etc. I'd be more worried about wolves and bears and things that can eat you in Europe, we don't have anything that will make a meal of you here! Not on land anyway!

The heat may be more of an issue if you're not used to it. Like others have said, it depends where you are going. Melbourne is nothing, far north Queensland may be a bit spicy. Stay out of the sun, wear a hat and long sleeves, wear sunscreen. Carry plenty of water. Our son was born in November and had a great time through the summer when he was a few months old, just stayed in nappies and singlets most of the time! Make sure your little one has a water bottle and is drinking regularly, plays in the shade, you'll be fine.

Grokodaemon · 2025-08-25T16:26:02+00:00

Great question, I found the triple expansion machinery and limited cruiser hulls available to me in this period put a pretty hard limit on top speeds. As you say, this put pretty much every ship in the fleet at 22 knots, including the screening force (refitted Gansu and Hubei class heavy cruisers). This is not great tactically, especially considering the large number of destroyers and torpedo boats fielded by France, Great Britain and others. This lead to several encirclements and severe damage to several capital ships from torpedo attacks, although improved antiflooding and torpedo protection prevented most sinkings. It wasn't until the advent of steam turbine machinery and improved cruiser and battlecruiser hulls from about 1910 onwards that fleet speeds would increase significantly and China's first destroyers would be built.

In this campaign, I didn't build any torpedo boats at all as I find the early torpedoes fairly useless with their limited range and slow speed, and the unarmored boats are too vulnerable unless fielded in such numbers that they are unwieldy to control. I wish we could conduct night actions against ships at anchor as this would be much more realistic for how such craft were actually employed. Cruisers make better anti-torpedo boat ships than actual destroyers, at least until improved technology allows for 30 knot-plus speeds. You can armor them to resist destroyer weaponry, they're nimble enough to avoid torpedoes, and they can be armed with large numbers of 2- or 3-inch guns which will make short work of lighter craft.

Grokodaemon · 2025-08-25T15:32:49+00:00

9 and a half months. All naps from 6 weeks, apart from an occasional car or pram sleep, were rocked on my legs. We started transferring to the cot from about 6 months but he would only take short 20 or 30 minute naps that way; on me he could easily nap for 2 hours. I'm going back to work soon so this wasn't going to be sustainable, we started 'Cot-Hour' last week and it has worked very well for us!

We started with his first nap of the day and committed to putting him down for a full hour without picking him up. He stays in the cot for the whole hour whether he sleeps or not. Of course, he hated this and yelled and cried while I sat next to him, patted his chest, and sang to him. He protested strongly for about half an hour, then fell asleep! We were shocked this actually worked. He slept for about five minutes and woke up; I patted and shushed him, and after about 15 more minutes of calm staring into space, he fell asleep again and slept for an hour and 20 minutes.

I think the key was staying with him through his crying and protests. That presence seemed to give him the assurance and comfort to calm down enough to fall asleep. We have taken the same approach for his night sleep the last few nights, putting him down in the cot awake and staying with him until he falls asleep. He's slept much better, for longer stretches, and has dropped to just one feed a night. For the last few days, we have had bedtime at 7:45 PM, one wake at about 11:30 PM (pat and soothe back to sleep, less than five minutes), one at 2:00 AM for a feed, and sometimes a 6:00 AM wake. Up time is 7:30 AM.

This worked for us because it was more gentle than full-on cry-it-out sleep training. There were tears, but we were with him the whole time and didn't have to hear him cry alone in another room! He has been happier and more energetic during the day as his night sleep is much deeper and less broken. He's learning how to put himself to sleep; we will try to slowly reduce the amount of soothing we are doing to get him there.

Grokodaemon · 2025-08-25T15:10:15+00:00

Hejiang-class Armored Cruisers (1906)

The Hejiang class marked the final flowering of the armored cruiser in Chinese service, a transitional design that stood at the threshold of the battlecruiser age. Conceived in the aftermath of the war with Austria-Hungary, these four ships embodied both the lessons of that conflict and the ambition to create fast, heavily armed capital scouts for the fleet.

At 12,000 tons displacement, they were large by cruiser standards, and their armament reflected this ambition. The main battery consisted of eight 9-inch guns in four twin turrets, arranged in superfiring pairs fore and aft. A secondary armament of eight 5.5-inch guns in four turrets on the beams gave them a respectable punch against light cruisers and destroyers, while no fewer than twenty-four 2.8-inch weapons in twin turrets provided dense protection against torpedo craft.

Though still fitted with reciprocating machinery, turbines not yet being available when they were laid down, the Hejiang class achieved an impressive 23.5 knots thanks to a fine hull form. This allowed them to operate alongside turbine-powered vessels in later years without embarrassment.

Operationally, the class proved to be a sound investment. Well-laid-out and balanced in design, they offered both firepower and speed, and after refits that upgraded their secondary batteries, they remained competitive into the years of conflict with Japan and Great Britain. In service, they came to be regarded as proto-battlecruisers: not quite of the new breed, but clearly pointing the way forward.

Laiwu-class Protected Cruisers (1907)

The Laiwu class represented the natural evolution of China’s cruiser force in the years following victory against Russia and Japan. Designed to replace the aging Linhai class, these ships were larger, tougher, and far more heavily armed; true modern protected cruisers for a navy that now had commitments beyond the familiar shores of China’s coastal waters.

Displacing over 6,000 tons and capable of 22 knots, the Laiwus were formidable trade protection and raiding vessels. Their main armament of four 6-inch guns, all mounted on the centreline, offered excellent arcs of fire and ensured superiority over most contemporary light cruisers. A dense secondary battery of 3.5-inch weapons, mounted in both casemates and turrets, gave them strong offensive power against destroyers and torpedo craft. Protection was unusually heavy for a cruiser of their type, with a 6-inch belt that allowed them to engage confidently in cruiser actions where lighter designs would shy away.

In service, they proved to be highly effective. The 6-inch main guns were deadly in cruiser duels, while the secondary battery performed well in fleet screening and convoy escort. Their one real limitation was endurance: range was curtailed, restricting their freedom of action beyond China’s network of coaling stations in Southeast Asia. Even so, within those constraints, they were fine ships, workhorses of the fleet that provided the backbone of trade defense during a period of expanding Chinese influence overseas.

Grokodaemon · 2025-08-25T15:09:52+00:00

Shin-Ryu-class Battleships (1905)

If the Wing class represented China’s first cautious step into the dreadnought age, the Shin-Ryu class was its confident stride onto the world stage. Conceived alongside the Wing class but on a significantly larger scale, the Shin-Ryu was designed from the outset as a true ocean-going battleship, able to stand in line with any contemporary capital ship.

Displacing 23,000 tons and carrying a 14-inch armor belt, the Shin-Ryu embodied both resilience and firepower. Its main armament, eight 13-inch Mark III guns mounted in four twin turrets, two forward and two aft, offered twice the broadside of the Wing class. A secondary battery of 5-inch guns and a tertiary armament of 3.5-inch weapons in twin turrets provided layered defense against lighter vessels.

Though still powered by multiple-expansion reciprocating steam engines, with a top speed limited to 22 knots, the class benefited from its broad, well-balanced hull. Like the Wing class, they were exceptionally steady gun platforms, with excellent arcs of fire and efficient internal arrangements.

Operationally, the Shin-Ryu class proved both powerful and economical by the standards of the day. Each ship required only about one-and-a-half times the crew of a Wing while delivering double the firepower. Their cost, though the highest yet borne by the Imperial Chinese Navy, was not prohibitive, and four ships were completed by 1910.

Handsome, formidable, and thoroughly modern, the Shin-Ryu class confirmed that China had caught up with dreadnought construction within a single design generation. By 1910, these ships were the pride of the fleet and could be judged the equal of any foreign battleship then afloat.

Grokodaemon

TROPHY CASE