“Marti” – the USSR minelayer

In October 1928 it was decided to turn the former royal yacht "Standard" at first into a submarine base, then into a torpedo boat ship, and finally into a minelayer. It was decided to upgrade the equipment at the Kronstadt Marine Plant, then Project 200 was transferred to the Leningrad Marti plant. According to the project, the ship could carry 545 mines, had four 130 mm guns and could reach a speed of up to 18 knots. In 1936 December 25 the ship was officially accepted into the Red Flag Baltic Fleet. Being one of the first guard ships "Marti" played a significant role in the battles in the Baltic Sea in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War. Due to constant heavy air raids, minelayer until 1941 winter carried out mining operations in the Gulf of Finland. He also participated in the evacuation of defenders of island Hanko, where it was damaged by a mine explosion. In blocked Leningrad the ship underwent repairs and most of the crew went to defend the approaches to the city as part of the Marine Corps. After completing the repair, in 1943 August the ship took part in the artillery duel against the German batteries. Then, after a few practice sessions, he started to remounted it again. After the war "Marti" served for several more years. In 1948 it was renamed to minelayer "Oka". At the end of the 50s “Oka” was removed from the fleet and turned into a floating barracks, a guard flag and one of the guns was transferred to a museum. Then the naval command, after using the hull for a while as a target for a new missile weapon, gave the ship up for scrap.

The “Marti” minelayer model is quite complex due to the large number of deck details, well-designed and richly detailed, for intermediate and experienced modelers. There are sheets with double-sided printing.