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There are two versions available, HMS Queen Elizabeth
(Academy) and Warspite (Trumpeter). Although Warspite has the
more illustrious career, I went for the Academy version of Queen
Elizabeth as she was in 1941. She had been considerably altered
since her commissioning with a single trunked funnel and distinctive
bridge that was found later in the KGV group of battleships.SevaStopol
The Imperial Russian navy was represented by the Gangut series
of battleships (Cangut, Petropavlovsk, Sevastopol and Poltava).
The offering is Sevastopol, once again by Zvezda. This clearlyKronprinz
This was a typical example of a post Dreadnought ship,
sometimes known as super dreadnoughts. She was one of four
Konig class battleships (Konig, Grosser Kurfurst, Markgraf,
Kronprinz ) and was commissioned for the Imperial German Navy in
1914 at the start of the Great War. She possessed the same 10 x
12 inch guns as Dreadnought but now they were all on the midline.
The beam turrets were no longer fitted being replaced by fore and
aft super-firing turrets which had been pioneered by the Americans.
She was also fitted with a mid-turret, placed between the funnels.
The Konig class were the last to be fitted with 12 inch guns that
had been the standard since the early days of battleships.
She was 575 ft long and tipped the scales at 28,000 tons fully
loaded and had a speed of 21 knots. She was significantly smaller
and less heavily armed than her American counterparts. This speed
was about the average for fleet battleships of the period. Her
displacement was nearly 10,000 tons heavier than Dreadnought.
Battleships were getting becoming progressively longer and heavier.
The Konig class is represented by ICM and like all modern marine
kits produces a fine model. Again lacking any photo etched parts
which are now readily available. Her sister ship Markgraf has also
been described within these pages.Queen elizabeth
The British equivalent of Super-Dreadnought was the Queen
Elizabeth class (Queen Elizabeth, Warspite, Barham, Malaya,
Agincourt). They were a development of the previous Iron Duke
class and were commissioned in the 1912 building programme.
She was 645 ft long and tipped the scales at an impressive 36,000
tons full load and had a designed speed of 24 knots; a significant
increase on the then standard fleet speed of 21 knots. She was by
far the largest of the current crop of Super Dreadnoughts.
Her biggest innovation was that the customary Q turret, fitted
mid-ships, was omitted. This would allow the fitting of larger 15 inch
guns in twin super-firing turrets fore and aft. This was something of
a gamble as the 15 inch gun had not yet been tested. The Admiralty
had realised that by omitting the ‘Q’ turret and using 15 inch guns a
larger weight of shot could still be delivered. This was the first time
such guns were fitted and were an increase on the previous largest
guns of 13.5 inch. The gamble paid off and the arrangement was
copied in other classes. The guns turned out to be very accurate,
in fact scoring a direct hit at over 22,000 yards. With upgrades in
shell and charge they were to remain competitive throughout their
service career.
Some of the ships were consistently refitted and upgraded but
some were not and proved vulnerable as was indicated with the
sinking of HMS Barham.APRIL 2015 http://www.marinemodelmagazine.comQueen Elizabeth. Casements have now been totally abandoned in favour of beam mounted turrets. The arrangement of them clustered
around the superstructure would be followed by all newer battleshipsGermany and Britain were not the only country building super
dreadnoughts. Sevastopol was the Russian answer to them.
It differs significantly from other European designs in that she
sports 12 inch guns in triple turrets; all at deck level. This design
precluded any provision for observation aeroplanes that was
becoming standard on other battleships. Zvezda are responsible
for this modelSevastopol and Arizona together to clearly show the differences
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