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46 APRIL 2015 http://www.marinemodelmagazine.com

N

ow on to the interesting bit; we shall start our story

by studying the development of the pre-Dreadnought

battleships.

Pre-DreaDnoughts

In model form what do we have available to show the changes

in battleship design before the arrival of HMS Dreadnought? We

can start our history in the 1880s when the first purpose built steel

battleships began to appear. There are very few models available

for this pre-Dreadnought period, but those available are of a very

good quality.

ting Yuen

In 1881 the Chinese battleship Ting Yuen (Yuan) and her sister

ship Zhen Yuan were two of the earliest examples. These were

officially classed as armoured turret ships and were two of the most

advanced ships of their time. Built in Germany by Stettiner A. G.

weighing in at 7670 tons fully loaded and were almost 300 ft long.

It was not unusual in the earliest days for navies to commission

their ships from European yards, for example the Russians used

French and the Japanese, British. Ting Yuen had a formidable array

of guns including the main armament of 12 inch guns in twin turrets.

These had a range of approximately five miles. These were not on

the midline but port and starboard just forward of amidships. This is

a fundamental flaw of early designs as it meant that only two guns

could be brought to bear on the broadside.

The arrangement of beam mounted guns, however, would

persist for another two decades. She did have smaller 6 inch guns

mounted in turrets on the midline, fore and aft. She had an array of

smaller guns and torpedo tubes. Two torpedo boats were carried

that could extend her offensive range.

She was equally well armoured with a belt nearly 12 inches thick.

Weighing in at just over 7000 tons and coupled with a speed of

15 knots she could out-perform anything in either the British or

great britain

An IllustrAted HIstory of

BAttlesHIps In MInIAture -

In thIs second part In the serIes Marcus looks at

Models of battleshIps froM the pre-dreadnoughts

through to the super-dreadnoughts AutHor: Marcus rooks Part 2

Ting Yuen. This is Bronco’s version of the ship and a handsome

ship it was as well. It clearly shows the overall layout of the

guns and the ram bow, which was a hang-over from nearly 2000

years ago

This is a close-up of Ting Yuen showing the main turrets. A major

draw-back was the mounting on the beam, thus at any one time

only two guns could be brought to bear. The Bronco range is

characterised by well-produced kits with included etched parts.

However, some are so small I found them impossible to use!

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