The Russian Pacific Squadron

I finally finished painting and basing the 14 battleships and cruisers of the Russian Pacific Squadron based in Port Arthur in 1904.  These ships were the best trained and commanded of the three Russian fleets (Baltic, Black Sea, and Pacific) and held their own against the Japanese until some unfortunate events during the Battle of the Yellow Sea.  All models are from Panzerschiffe Miniatures (link) 1:2400 scale Russo-Japanese War line.  The number in parentheses after each ship's name is the Panzerschiffe catalog number.

A word of advisement:  These ships are painted in my interpretation of the early war color scheme with dark tan upperworks, rusty brown hulls, and ocher funnels with black bands.  I know others use different schemes but, after all, these are my ships (He says with a big grin.) .  Please click on the pictures for a larger image.

1st Battle Division, consisting of the:

Battleship Petropavlovsk (L-329)

Battleship Poltava (L-329)

Battleship Sebastopol (L-329)

Battleship Tsesarevitch (L-322)

2nd Battle Division, consisting of the:

Battleship Peresviet (A-301)

Battleship Pobieda (A-301)

Battleship Retvizan (L-321)

Long-Distance Scout Division, consisting of the:

Armored cruiser Bayan (A-302)

(yes, I know label has PC for protected cruiser - an error on my part)

Protected cruiser Askold (A-306)

Protected cruiser Diana (A-304)

Protected cruiser Pallada (A-304)

Protected cruiser Varyag (A-305)

Short-Distance Scout Division, consisting of the:

Protected cruiser Novik (A-334)

Protected cruiser Boyarin (A-347)

And the 1st Destroyer Flotilla, which I have not yet painted or based.

 The Russian Pacific fleet also had an independent cruiser squadron based at Vladivostok.  These four cruisers are being painted and pictures will be posted shortly.

For my initial battles, I will have a variant order of battle that will include three possible reinforcement ships which were on their way to the Pacific when war broke out.  The battleship Oslyabya and two destroyers were in the Red Sea and the armored cruiser Dmitri Donskoi, protected cruiser Aurora, and four destroyers were at Djibouti.  This small squadron could have been ordered to proceed to the Far East instead of being recalled to the Baltic, where they later made the long voyage to oblivion with the 2nd and 3rd Pacific Squadrons.  Pictures of them will be forthcoming once they are painted and based (and the Aurora and destroyers are ordered).