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Considering the importance of such a ship, models have been thin
on the ground and have only recently started to appear. It was a bit
like waiting for a bus, there had not been a single example then two
came along within a year. The Zvezda version was the first which
is illustrated here. Latterly a version by Trumpeter has appeared
which is superior in that it contains etched parts for details such
as railings. Dreadnought was built with one side of the anti-
torpedo booms (although without nets) to give some idea of the
configuration. The building was relatively straightforward as there
was very little flash and the parts fitted well.Super-DreaDnoughtS
Once Dreadnought had been commissioned we come into the
post-Dreadnought era and the building of Super-Dreadnoughts.
The ships that I have chosen to represent these are the German
Battleship, Kronprinz , the Royal Navy’s, Queen Elizabeth, lead
ship of her class and USS Arizona representing the United States.
Nagato of the IJN is also included in this section. The Russian
Navy is represented by Sevastopol one of the Gangut class of
battleship. Post-Dreadnought ships were considerably larger than
Dreadnought, now tipping the scales at over 30,000 tons, a 50%
increase to Dreadnought but at 21 knots no significant increase in
speed. They possessed an increased number of larger calibre guns,
up to 15 inches was not unusual. A significant addition to some of
them was the provision of reconnaissance aircraft and the loss of
the anti-torpedo netting.For our next examples of pre-Dreadnoughts we still remain in the
Far East where we look at the Japanese Mikasa, and the Russian
Oriel, battleships. These are considered together as they were
contemporaries and fought at the battle of Tsushima in 1905. This
was perhaps a classical example of Hahan’s concept of the decisive
engagement.
Launched in 1902 we have Mikasa, which was the only member
of her class, from the IJN. Oriel was one of the Borodino class
battleships, (Borodino, Imperator Aleksandr111, Oriel, Knyas
Suvorov and Slava). At the time they were some of the most
powerful ships afloat although Oriel definitely had some backward
looking features such as the tumblehome hull.
They were both armed with four 12" guns in turrets on the midline
with heavy secondary armaments mounted in casements on the
broadside. Oriel had some of her secondary armament mounted
in turrets on a higher deck. This was a considerable advancement
as they were now well above the waterline as in heavy weather the
casement mounted guns often became inoperable. It also increased
their range and general capability. However, although this pointed
the way to future development it was still decades before the
casement gun became obsolete.
One of the obvious advances over Ting Yuen was the need to fit
anti torpedo nets. The threat was not so much from submarines
but fast torpedo boats. The nets would be swung out on booms
when at anchor; they would either catch the torpedoes or make
them explode at a distance from the hull that would render them
harmless. The extended nets could also be used at sea when
the fleet could manoeuvre at 6 knots. These nets rapidly became
obsolete with the advent of faster torpedoes and torpedoes fitted
with cutting devices. On older ships they were removed and after
1916 they were no longer fitted to new vessels. Initially anti-torpedo
bulges were fitted that comprised air and water filled compartments
to dissipate the force of the explosion. As the bulges increased
the beam, speeds were reduced so in the 1930s they too were
discarded when the internal arrangements allowed the same
dissipation of the blast.
In model form Mikasa is produced by Hasegawa, and Oriel by the
Russian firm Zvezda. They are both highly detailed kits but without
any etched fittings (these are available as add-ons from other
manufacturers). Their construction has been documented within the
pages of this magazine.DreaDnought
Moving on we come to the pivotal Royal Navy ship, Dreadnought,
which was the brainchild of Admiral Jackie Fisher who pressed for
the adoption of the ‘all big gun’ ship. The idea had been around for
a while, the Japanese had laid down their version in 1904 and the
Americans were planning their own.
However, Dreadnought was the first to be commissioned and
immediately made all previous battleships obsolete. She was built
in just over a year and commissioned in December 1906. She
possessed 10 x 12 inch main guns and a host of secondary guns
against torpedo boat attack. Three of the main turrets were on the
midline; ‘Z’ turret fitting between the funnels. Two turrets were
classed as wing turrets and were placed on the beam; thus she
could fire a broadside of eight 12 inch shells.
The beam turrets were fitted as there was a reluctance to fit fore
and aft super-firing turrets. That is one turret placed above the
other. There were doubts about the stability of such an arrangement
and also concerns about the blast effect of the upper turret on the
lower, especially where range finding was concerned.
She was fitted with twin Parsons direct coupled turbines that gave
her a speed of 21 knots, compared with 16 knots for the average
pre-Dreadnought. She weighed in at about 18,400 tons, up to
2-3000 tons heavier than previous battleships. On commissioning
she sparked a naval arms race as other navies tried to catch up;
the race with Germany being one of the causes of the Great War.
Dreadnought hardly saw any active service as she was being
refitted when Jutland took place and was decommissioned in 1919.APRIL 2015 http://www.marinemodelmagazine.comDreadnought were not represented in kit form until two came
along by Zvezda and Trumpeter. Illustrated is the Zvezda version.
Clearly shown is the arrangement of the main guns. There is no
super-firing at this stage of development but two beam turrets
and a mid ‘Q’ turret was fitted. The only other weapons were
mounted on the turrets. No waterline casements were fittedThis is a close-up of the beam and fore turret with prominent
secondary armament. It also shows the very exposed driving
position although the armoured citadel is just visible beneath
the bridge. In the model one side shows the booms deployed
although no nets have been fitted. The kit does not supply any
etched parts and the railings again were genericp46_MMAPR15_HistoryOfBattleships.indd 48 9/3/15 09:40:59