Panzerschiffe Pre-Dreadnought Ships

Bluebear Jeff had asked some time ago for some pictures of some of my small collection of Panzerschiffe pre-dreadnought ships.  I am finally able to oblige him (and others).  These ships were purchased from another gamer who had the Russian and Japanese fleets for the Tsu-Shima Campaign as well as a number of others.  These pictures are just a sample of the two fleets.  The paint jobs are by the previous owner.  I re-mounted a few of the ships onto metal bases but left almost all on the original cardstock bases.  To a few I've added identification labels, depending on the previous owner's identification data on the bottom of the bases.

Panzerschiffe is an American company that has 1:2400 ships.  Their web site is:  www.panzerschiffe.com/

Please click on the pictures for a larger image.

The first ship is the Russian battleship Pobieda (others in class are Peresviet and Oslyabya).

Number A301 in the Panzerschiffe catalog.

The Russian light/protected cruiser Bogatyr, A303 (others in class are: Oleg, Kagoul, and Merkooria).

Russian light/protected cruiser Pallada, A304 (others in class are Diana and Aurora)

Russian battleship Tsarevitch, L322

Russian battleship Petropavlovsk, L329 (others in class are: Sevastopol and Poltava)

These Russian ships were based either in Vladivostok (Bogatyr) or Port Arthur.

Japanese battleship Mikasa, L323 (sister is: Asahi)

Japanese armored cruiser Nisshin, L325 (sister is: Kasuga)

Japanese armored cruiser Tokiwa, L331 (sister is: Asama)

This Japanese light/protected cruiser is a little mystery.  The previous owner labeled the bottom of the base Otowa. L337.  But according to the Panzerschiffe catalog, the Otowa is L369, while L337 are the Tsushima and Niitaka.  I looked up pictures of both on the Internet but couldn't really tell which was which.  Anyway, this is an example of a Japanese light or protected cruiser.

Japanese light/protected cruiser Kasagi, L339 (sisters are: Chitose and Takasago)

These Japanese ships were all in Admiral Togo's fleet at Tsu-Shima.

The Chinese battleship Chen-Yuan, L360.  She was captured in the Sino-Japanese War and taken into Japanese service, being renamed Chin-Yen (which is the Japanese equivalent of her Chinese name).

A couple of "little boys."  The rather crudely written labels on the bottom of each ship indicate the larger (gray) one may be the Spanish Furor class destroyer, D307, while the smaller (white) one may be the American Ericcson class torpedo boat, D302.  But that identification is not certain.  They are however examples of torpedo boat destroyers and torpedo boats of the period.

Finally a merchant ship, painted as the Russian hospital ship Orel which accompanied the Russian Baltic Fleet on its long cruise to oblivion in 1905.  Actually she is the American cargo ship Zafiro, L313, from the Spanish American War, but serves as an example of Panzerschiffe's merchant ships.

You can see examples of these and other Panzerschiffe ships in actual wargames at the following links.  The ships belong to either me or my wargaming buddy, Lord Sterling.

Remember the Maine and to He** with Spain!

Play Test of Sides of Steel Rules