I’ve not used it, but I was actually thinking something like this…
I’ve been meaning to try and mix up a batch my self. I assume it’s just a highly concentrated salt solution.
Either way. She’s looking stunning Thomas.
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Don I´ve also not seen Liquid Frost before. To replicate a proper frozen impression of the ship I would need to cover some large areas of the ship´s horizontal and vertical surfaces with frost which need to look in scale, too. It would mean that one have to spraypaint it on. I am afraid this will overstress my humble abilities there. For my mental stability and security I will display here chugging through the ice in a dry day without ice on her. I have seen many videos of the real ship in this condition 
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Are the white stripes reflective tape or paint? Seems to be a good way to find a lifeboat in the dark.
Man that is some beautifully tedious PE work… well done!
Jack
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@BUTA46 : Phil I think you are right with your estimation that this is reflective tape for better visibility in the dark 
@Venko: That liquid frost is looking indeed interesting. Will keep that in mind for a future Diorama with a Opel Blitz Truck with snowplow. Should be working super with that one.
As for the Arktika I really am afraid to mess everything up in the end. I will keep her without frost effect 
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That’s the one you put on the side of the kit facing the wall. Hide it away. Not that I’ve ever done that with any of my kits…. 
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@McRunty: Hehe Rory of course we never did this before 
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Jippie, just finished the four lifeboats 
. I spent again some time with youtube watching russian video reports about the Arktika class to find useful stills or pictures of the lifeboats. I was lucky and found some materiel which let me do the same finish as the real lifeboats do have.
You can see more or less clearly at the bow section here the ships name ARKTIKA with smaller inscription MURMANSK below) and 65 pers.
At all doors there are reflective crosses, also at the rear door. Also there is a bigger rectangle at the rear superstructure and a small one at the lower part
At the rooftop there are the ship´s registration number at the long side (first pic is from SIBIR which I found first; there are some differences at the lifeboat windows and the davits are painted here in dark blue instead of lighter bluegrey at the ARKTIKA)
Crosswise in front of the steering house window there is the Boat Number 1 - 4 in black. Here you can see also three rows of reflective stripes and crosses in the mid.
I did my best to try to replicate the look of the real lifeboats. Sadly ZVESDA didn´t provided any decals for the lifeboats so I had to paint the black letters and numberings with a STAEDLER Pigment liner 0.2 mm and the stripes with a white SAKURA gelly roll 0.5 mm pen. It was not the easiest work here as you will need a steady hand; I painted as they teached me shooting at the army - pull the trigger/pen after you calmly breathed out 
I am very satisfied about the final look of them 
to be continued
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As you should be. They look fantastic!
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What Rory said: “they look fantastic!” 
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Ditto! 
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Amazing attention to details!
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Small update what I did this weekend: I was busy with painting all the decks and all the more or less small armatures, bollards, vents and fairleads on them. I also found time to spray the ships hull with Mr. Hobby H15 Bright Blue and H86 Red Madder. I opted for not to paint the whole lower hull as I will display the ship within an icewater diorama later.
I found a small but important detail at the real ship which was not present at the kit: As ARKTIKA is not just heading ahead of merchant ships in frozen arctic waters, it can also tow ships if necessary. Therefore it will need strong winches. ARKTIKA have two fairlead rollers at the stern compartment as you can see in this video still:
I scratchbuild these two items together with the two fuze boxes (?!) near them. I just painted these fuse boxes too dark, I need to correct this shortly
In the end I finally wanted to have a first glimpse at the dryfitted compartments with the deck and the hull. Slowly it is recognizable but still some way to go
Cheers
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Very very nice Thomas. Those colours are really striking… Will look terrific in the ice Dio you have planned … Lovely work
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I agree. Very nice work. I love following her progress!
—mike
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Ditto!
Mark
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Yippie I finished the ship´s hull today 
Also here were some obstacles to sail round: I decided not to paint the white water pass and give that ZVESDA decals a try. Bad idea… Firstly they did addressed the wrong decal numbers for the shown areas. I discovered this already before I attached the first and placed the correct decals at the correct ship´s location. You can see the real numbers near the strikethrough numbers inside the green circles at the manual.
Then the white decal for the draft were just white rectangles instead of numbers. Additionaly the draft numbers at the bow are wrong and at the wrong location.
This is how the real bow draft numbers go at the ARKTIKA:
At the stern there are warnings attached in english and kyrillic lettering about the propeller blades below. Regrettably ZVESDA also ommitted these letterings like others… (sorry for the unclear picture, didn´t found another one in a reasonable time)
I didn´t wanted to use the plain white rectangles and used my 0.5 mm white gel marker again for all the draft numbers and the small letterings at the bow. And here came the last problem: The decals of the water pass didn´t sticked very good at the hull. I ripped off some of them during painting the ship´s name 
I repaired these missing lines again with the white gel pen. After all decals set for a day and all writings done I sealed everything with a matt primer. This is how everything looks like now:
I will continue with adding the stern railings of the rear lower deck for easier handling before I attach the main deck at the ship´s hull.
Thats it for today; пока́
P.S.: I would not use the etched nameplates again what MICRODESIGN provides in their upgrade set. The real ship´s names are no plates, just painted on letters. Therefore the provided decals in ZVESDA´s decal set would be much less work and clearer letters than those you will need to paint by hand later.
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You would think a Russian model company would get the details correct on a Russian ship that is still in service.
Mark
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