Kagero Russian Protected Cruiser Super Drawings in 3D

[Shar2]

Russian Protected Cruiser

Kagero Super Drawings in 3D

The Imperial Admiralty contracted William Cramp and Sons of Philadelphia to build the ship, and her keel was laid in October 1898. Launched on 31 October 1899, under Captain Vladimir Behr, she was commissioned into the Imperial Russian Navy on 2 January 1901.

During the Battle of Chemulpo Bay at the start of the Russo-Japanese War, Varyag (under the command of Captain of the First Rank Vsevolod Rudnev) accepted a badly unequal battle with the Japanese squadron of Admiral Uriu (one armoured cruiser, five protected cruisers and eight destroyers) in a heroic attempt to break out from Chemulpo (Inchon) harbour 9 February 1904. Chemulpo was in neutral Korean waters. Admiral Uriu gave the Russian ships in harbour a written ultimatum to sail by 12:00 noon or be attacked in the harbour itself. Captain Rudnev sortied, accompanied by the gunboat Koreets; having lost 31 men dead, 191 injured (out of 570) and outgunned, both ships returned to harbour by 1:00 p.m., the crew decided not to surrender, but to sink the ship. The crew was saved by transferring them to the British cruiser Talbot, the French cruiser Pascal, and the Italian cruiser Elba; the captain of the American cruiser Vicksburg declined doing so as a violation of U.S. neutrality.
In 1907, Vsevolod Rudnev (by that time dismissed from Russian naval service in the rank of rear admiral) was decorated with the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun for his heroism in that battle; although he accepted the order, he never wore it in public. Varyag was later salvaged by the Japanese and repaired. She served with the Imperial Japanese Navy as light cruiser Soya.

During World War I, Russia and Japan were allies and several ships were transferred by the Japanese to the Russians. She was returned to the Imperial Russian Navy at Vladivostok on 5 April 1916 and renamed Varyag. In June, she departed for Murmansk via the Indian Ocean, arriving in November 1916. She was sent to Liverpool in Great Britain for an overhaul by Cammell Laird in February 1917, and was due to re-enter service with the Arctic squadron of the Russian Navy. However, following the Russian October Revolution on 7 November 1917 crewmen who had remained onboard hoisted the red flag and refused to set sail. On 8 December 1917 she was seized by a detachment of British soldiers. Assigned to the Royal Navy in February 1918, she ran aground while under tow off of Ireland, but was refloated and used as a hulk until 1919. She was then sold to a German firm in 1920 for scrap, but ran aground on rocks off the Scottish coast in the Firth of Clyde, while being towed to Germany. She was scrapped in place from 1923-1925.

With their series of books in the 3D format Kagero never fails to deliver. This particular publication on the Russian protected cruiser Varyag not onlyprovides a superb history of the ship over the first 15 pages covering the following:-

• Design
• Naming of the ship
• Construction and Commissioning
• Hull Structure
• Armament
• Machinery
• Additional equipment
• Beginning of service
• Battle of Chempulo Bay
• Further fate of the ship

The rest of the thirty nine pages are filled with beautifully rendered 3D drawings covering every part of the ships structure, weapons, boats and sundry equipment. The drawings are really clear and perfect for the maritime modeller to see all the useful details that could help make that masterpiece that we all strive for. Being in full colour also helps with the painting, but they only show the ship as she was when she wore the white and buff uppers and green anti-fouling, whereas at some point in her career she also wore red anti-fouling dark grey upper works; although they do show this scheme in four pictures at the end of the book. Unlike the rest of the series, this book does not come with the large full colour pullouts that complimented the previous releases. Instead you can order them, now rolled rather than folded, can be ordered from the Kagero website. Apparently the folded ones weren’t easy to frame? What you do get though is a nice set of plans on an A3 sheet, with 1:350 scale on one side and 1:700 scale on the other along with 1:100 scale diagrams on the armament and 1:200 scale of the ships boats. There is also an A3 poster with the full colour profiles of the ship in both of its main colour schemes.

Conclusion
Following the now tried and tested formula that Kagero have made their own this book is superbly produced. If you have a kit of the Varyag in your possession then you really need this book to make the very best of it. The plans and diagrams will be most helpful in the sort of areas the modeller rarely sees. Very highly recommended

Review sample courtesy of

[Jockster]

Highly recommended book for anyone building the 'Varyag'!