From Combrig
1/700 Battleship Tsessaravitch (Combrig)
Tsesarevich was of French design featuring a long forecastle, heavily canted sides and two fully armoured strakes. She was the first Russian battleship to sport two armoured decks and an anti-torpedo bulkhead stretched along ¾ of the hull. The arrangement of her 152-mm guns in their turrets ensured their efficient fields of fire and the all-weather capability. The ship was laid down at the Toulon-based Forge and Chantier shipyard on 26 June 1899, launched on 10 February 1901 and entered service on 21 March 1903. Following the completion of her acceptance tests, she arrived at Port-Arthur accompanied by the cruiser Bayan. In the night over 27 January 1904, she was blown up by a Japanese torpedo and had been repaired till 25 May. The repairs over, the flag of the Commander of the 1st Pacific Squadron was hoisted on her masthead. During the combat on 28 July 1904 she suffered heavy damage inflicted by hits of 13 large-calibre rounds on the light sections of the hull. She also lost 12 personnel including the whole HQ of the squadron, which led to a disarray in the squadron’s formation and retreat. However, the ship herself managed to get to Quingdao where she was disarmed for the rest of the war. In 1905, the battleship returned to the Baltic Sea where she was engaged in 1906 in suppressing the Sveaborg Fortress rebellion. During WWI, she was assigned to the 2nd battleship detachment. In March 1917, she was re-designated as Grazhdanin and took part in the Battle of Moonsound in October as well as the Ice Cruise of February 1918. In the Kronschtadt harbour she was heavily damaged by artillery fire when taking part in clamping down on the rebellion there. She was never repaired and ended up as scrap metal in 1923.
In 1903, she arrived to Port-Arthur from Toulon sporting the following
paint job: sides, turrets, deckhouses, masts, fans – white; smokestack
aprons – black; smokestacks – yellow; decking – natural wood; bridge coating
– red-and-brown linoleum; gun barrels – blued steel; bow and stern decorations,
stern name – gilded. When the war broke out, the battleship was painted
in the combat pattern of the 1st Pacific Sqn, with all above-water metal
parts (except smokestack aprons and gun barrels) being dark olive-green.
More info can be found on the Combrig website at:
www.Modelships.info/Combrig
