Pre WWI Russian and Japanese Battle Cruisers

There have been a few Russian kits of turn-of-the-century ships that have popped up on evilbay over the years. If you know the names of the ships, check it out to see if they are there. One I do remember was a ship called "Peter the Great", but I don't know much of anything about European ships of that era. Good Luck!

-- John The history of things that didn't happen has never been written. . - - - Henry Kissinger

A lot of the Russian ships have been kitted in resin. I only know this because a Russian expat in our club has built a bunch of them (Rurik, Dmitri Donskoi, at least three different destroyers, and others). Check for kits by Kombrig, HP and/or WSW in 1/700.

Mark Schynert

Steelnavy.com has the best net coverage of plastic (or should I say resin ) ship kits, and there's a lot of ships from this era.

I don't know the names of the Russian ships involved in the battle - but the Russian company of Combrig do a series of 1:700 scale Russian & Soviet warships - including pre-WWI Dreadnoughts.

Check out the list of Combrig ships on the Aviapress website :-

I have purchased a couple of Combrig's submarine kits - and the quality of the resin casting is superb!

I ordered them from Aviapress and they provided an excellent service.

Ken Duffey

rfrankl> Just finished a reading a book about the Great White Fleet, the

In article , rfranklin writes

Just a quick note on nomenclature, which might help if you are to do any searching; there were no "dreadnoughts" in either fleet, as the ship which gave its name to that class of vessel hadn't come into service at the time. The battleships are now referred to as "Pre-dreadnoughts" (obviously, at the time they were just battleships), while battlecruisers are a slightly later concept - their equivalent were "Armoured cruisers". Below these were "protected cruisers", what would later become "light" cruisers were entering service, but the later "heavy cruiser" class hadn't been conceptualised then. Getting the type right is important, as while some names are re-used quite quickly the vessels are radically different - for example, the Russian Armoured cruiser "Rurik" of 1910 is probably the finest (and one of the last, battlecruisers having - just - made the type obsolete) the previous bearer of the name (lost in the Russo-Japanese War) was one of the very first "Armoured Cruisers" having more in common with earlier sailing ironclads than what would become the norm for that type of vessel. The difference between a (Pre-dreadnought) Battleship and an Armoured Cruiser was much less than that between a (Dreadnought or Superdreadnought) battleship and cruisers of later eras - dimensionally the earlier vessels were similar, and the Japanese successfully disguised the loss of two of their six battleships to Russian mines by substituting two armoured cruisers in their premier battle squadron.

Many of the vessels involved which survived were still in service in WW1, (most of the first two Japanese squadrons at Tsushima survived to be lost in WW2!) so don't ignore listings for the later date (the little protected cruiser "Zhemchug" sunk by the "Emden" in WW1 was an escapee from Tsushima). IIRC, there was a kit of the "Aurora", a Russian protected cruiser which also escaped Tsushima and still survives as a museum ship in St. Petersburg. The other vessel which still survives from that battle is the Japanese flagship, the battleship "Mikasa", and I hope one of the major Japanese companies will kit it for the centenary next year. Otherwise ISTR it is kitted in resin in 1:700 scale. (I've also heard the Chinese are building a full-size replica of one of their early battleships, which (IIRC) was captured by the Japanese and served in one of the cruiser squadrons at Tsushima - hopefully this will get a decent kit in due course from someone like Trumpeter)

If you mean the "Borodino" class Pre-dreadnought Battleships, ISTR there are resin/multimedia kits of these from more than one manufacturer, I can't comment on quality. Also a fifth vessel of that class survived to be lost in WW1, having to be scuttled after being badly damaged taking on a couple of German Dreadnoughts.

Finally, they're a bit small, but I've got all the major vessels (except one Japanese protected cruiser squadron) for Tsushima in 1:3000 scale for wargaming. I had to scratchbuild several at the time I did it, but I think they are all now available from various manufacturers, if you fancy a diorama several yards long!

Regards,

Moramarth> Just a quick note on nomenclature, which might help if

No additions to the nomenclature, lots of interesting titbits snipped.

Moramarth> The other vessel which still survives Moramarth> from that battle is the Japanese flagship, the Moramarth> battleship "Mikasa", and I hope one of the major Moramarth> Japanese companies will kit it for the centenary next Moramarth> year. Otherwise ISTR it is kitted in resin in 1:700

Pitroad/Skywave make a plastic version (and a special version with a nice stand) in 1/700.

Moramarth> Also a fifth vessel of that class survived Moramarth> to be lost in WW1, having to be scuttled after being Moramarth> badly damaged taking on a couple of German Moramarth> Dreadnoughts.

Slava showed that firstly, Russian crews were as good as any (noted by the Japanese in any case in 1905 after seeing Russian gunners continuing to return fire until their ships sank beneath the waves), and that the Borodino class was simply a very good design to boot. Taking on a Ko"nig class battlship and I think a battlecruiser was a bit much, but the Slava was lost not due to battle damage, but because due to the flooding she could no longer pass the escape channel and so had to be abandoned. Quite a story.