HMS Cressy

Armoured Cruiser 1901

Combrig Models. 1/700th Scale. Cast resin and brass.

Reviewed by Devin Poore, December 2021


 
The armored cruiser concept came about in response to the need for ships to protect the far-flung possessions of the British Empire. HMS Cressy began construction in 1899, as the lead ship of her class. Armed with two 9.1 inch guns in single mount turrets, she and her sisters made approximately 20 knots, with a maximum armor thickness of 6 inches. While not fast enough, or heavily armed or armored enough for battle line duty, at the time of their construction they were more than adequate for protecting overseas interests, and combatting commerce raiders and the armored cruisers of other navies. HMS Cressy was commissioned in 1901, then deployed to protect the British Empire's overseas interests. She spent the first and largest part of her active career on the China Station, followed by a two year stint off of North America and West Indies. With Naval technology advancing at a quick pace, she was decommissioned and laid-up in 1909, but was re-activated at the beginning of World War 1. Assigned to a squadron tasked with protecting the English Channel against surface force raids, she and several other older armored cruisers were on station during the Battle of Heligoland Bight, but remained as reserve and thus saw no action in the battle. Shortly thereafter, on September 22nd, 1914, Cressy, along with her two sisters HMS Aboukir and HMS Hogue, were sunk in a quick action with the German submarine U-9. The loss of three capital ships to a single submarine, over the course of mere hours, lead to a complete restructuring to the British tactics of defense against enemy submarines, and saw the removal of all older and less-capable capital ships from forward deployed and high threat areas.
HMS Cressy, early in her career, via Maritimequest.com website


 
 
HULL
The biggest part of the kit is of course the hull. Waterline only, the hull is perfectly flat, straight, and true. All corners and details are sharp. Combrig continues to be without equal in casting quality of resin ship hulls. 

Deck-edge line chocks are suitably hollow, details on the sides of the hull are sharp, and the portholes are straight and aligned. Those that regularly drill out portholes will likely find these deep enough, with possibly the only thing needed being a few turns of a drill bit to sharpen the edges. Deck planking detail is sharp and consistent, with details amongst it, such as skylights, capstans, barbettes, etc., integrated seamlessly. A very nice feature are the outlines of the forward superstructure to aid in placement, and shallow lines molded into the midship's decks to precisely locate the boat cradle photo etch pieces.

According to Combrig and the ship's Wikipedia entry, Cressy was 472', or 143.9m, in length. I did find another source online that lists the ship's length as 162m, but that is the only instance of that measurement that I can find, all others are in the 143.9m neighborhood. Using 143.9m, the result in 1/700 scale would be just over 8 inches, 8.09" to be precise. My hull measures out at 7.97" overall, which is 1/8" short of the specifications. 
DETAIL COMPONENTS
The remainder of the resin components are supplied on a single cast wafer for bridge decks, stack bases, and a couple of deck structures; a plastic bag holds the remainder of the parts, including the stacks, more deck structures, boats, vents, and the like.

The flat cast wafer is thin enough that a little work with a sharp blade and flush sanding should release the pieces easily. The bridge decks exhibit the same fine planking detail as the hull, while the door details on the deck structures and stack bases are sharp and clearly defined. The stacks are perfectly cylindrical and have decent recesses. All vent structures likewise feature nice recesses, but are not fully hollow; they'll likely look just fine in this scale once a dark wash is applied to their interior. 

The ship's boats are extremely well done: the hulls are smooth and aligned. One would normally expect to see brass inserts to replicate the thwarts and seats, but the seat detail is extremely sharp, so that once the supplied brass oars are added, they'll more than look the part.

Other small bits included are capstans, anchors, winches, gun barrels, gun turrets, searchlights, and all of the other small bits that bring a ship to life. Everything is sharp, flash-free; I didn't find a single air bubble in any parts of this kit.

BRASS
The photo-etched brass sheet is typical of Combrig. Very thin, .1mm/0.004" thick, it contain a plethora of boat davits, ladders, railings, and dozens of oars to outfit the ship's boats. AS with all of Combrig's kits, the brass is very soft and will require extreme care to work with. Besides its softness, the only real issue I have with the brass is the ship's railings. They're depicted accurately in that the rails attach to the deck via individual stanchions, not in a solid rail/rain way as most other model producers supply. Again, this is technically accurate to the full-size prototype, but it results in very little gluing surface to attach the railings. This is easily enough rectified with aftermarket railings, and the rails make up very little of the entire fret, but it's something to be aware of.
INSTRUCTIONS
The instructions are on 10 loose sheets of 8.5" X 11" paper, double-sided. A cover sheet and two parts lists start off the process, and then the rest of the package are step-by step descriptions of construction. The steps show the process with the different types of materials -- cast resin, etched brass, brass wire -- in different colors, to differentiate clearly. Each step is shown in two stages, first with an exploded-view that shows each part required for the step and their approximate location on the model, and then a second photo showing the parts installed. This should help significantly with making sure all parts end up in their correct location. Wire needs to be cut for masts and yards, the lengths of which are specified in the instructions.

Instructions are shown for the ship's masts in both 1903 and 1914 configurations, so make sure to select a version before beginning construction of those assemblies.

There are no painting guidelines included, so the builder is on their own with that. Brief research seems to indicate the 1903 fit can be painted in the black/white/buff scheme, while the 1914 will be in the wartime gray.
   
CONCLUSIONS
This is another impressive kit from Combrig. Their resin casting is second to none. I still wish all of the really fine parts such as gun barrels and other breakage-prone bits would be packaged in something more protective, but since there's no breakage in the kit, maybe I'm just being paranoid. The brass etching is as fine as always, and soft, so I wouldn't recommend the Cressy as a first-time resin kit. For those looking for a beautiful kit of a beautiful kit, though, the HMS Cressy from Combrig should turn out a beautiful finished model.

Highly recommended. Thank you to Combrig for the review sample.

 

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