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In 1904, the Admiralty set up a committee, chaired by the First
Sea Lord, Admiral Sir John Fisher, to produce designs for two
new warships. The first, for a battleship, resulted in the revolutionary
HMS Dreadnought in 1906. The second was for an armoured cruiser,
among whose specifications were that she should be capable of
25 knots and be armed only with 12" guns and anti-torpedo-craft
guns. The resulting design, based on Fisher's earlier "HMS
Unapproachable" concept, produced HMS Invincible and her
two sisters, HMS Indomitable and HMS Inflexible, the first battlecruisers.
The ships would be sufficiently powerful to overwhelm fast armoured
cruisers and could also finish off damaged battleships. Their
design was kept secret until the last moment with the result that
Germany, then vying for supremacy with the Royal Navy, thought
that the new ship would not be so heavily armed and responded
with SMS Blücher whose serious lack of firepower would be
her undoing at the battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915.
To an Edwardian public stunned by the appearance of HMS Dreadnought
in 1906, the sight of the new HMS Invincible, which was 40' longer
and 4 knots faster, must have been quite overwhelming. At 17,250
tons, she displaced slightly less than the Dreadnought's 17,900
tons but still represented one of the largest weapons ever built.
However, the larger size and lower displacement pointed to a deficiency
in armour which was to become tragically apparent.
Launched in April 1906, she was commissioned in March 1909. In
August 1914, she took part in the Battle of Heligoland Bight,
as a consequence of which the Kaiser restricted the operations
of the German fleet. Following the disaster at Coronel on 1st.
November 1914, HMS Invincible and HMS Inflexible were dispatched
to the South Atlantic to avenge the defeat. Encountering the German
squadron under Graf von Spee at the Falkland Islands, the British
gave chase in which the superior speed of the battlecruisers was
a decisive factor. The German flagship, SMS Scharnhorst, and her
sister, SMS Gneisenau, were both sunk as were the cruisers Leipzig
and Nürnberg.
On return to home waters, HMS Invincible became flagship of the
2nd. Battlecruiser Squadron and subsequently transferred to the
3rd. Battlecruiser Squadron, flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Hood.
At 1834 hrs on 31st. May 1916 at Jutland, she was hit in Q turret,
when the magazine blew up and she sunk in two halves. Out of a
crew of 1,031, two officers and three men survived.
The battlecruisers enjoyed a high reputation with the general
public, being known as the "Greyhounds of the Sea",
but perhaps Churchill's phrase, "eggshells armed with sledgehammers",
is closer to reality. Of the 13 battlecruisers which were built
for the Royal Navy, three blew up at Jutland and a further one,
HMS Hood, went the same way in 1941. By comparison, of the 46
British dreadnoughts built, five were sunk, none by gunfire.
The JSC kit is designed on computer and comprises 14 sheets of
A4 card. The printed detail on the kit is excellent.
Over the years, JSC have been quite ready to experiment with hull
construction and this kit is no exception. The basis of the hull
is a prismatic spar which extends for most of the length of the
waterline and on which the hull frames are threaded. Next are
applied the hull sides which are glued to the frames, after which
the deck was laid on. I had some difficulty here as the sides
seemed to be too long. So, I did the wrong thing and cut them
back a bit. This had the effect of making the ship look lopsided
and I had to replace the pieces which I had removed with strips
cut from the spare printed card provided. I also found that the
deck seemed to overlap the sides quite considerably and I cured
this by easing the sides off the frames and reglueing to the deck
edges. On reflection, I would have preferred the more usual construction
order of decking before sides to the one adopted by JSC. Once
the hull was completed, the hawse pipes, main armament barbettes
and deck house were built. A printing error became apparent here
as the barbette for P-turret is printed on the hull side in line
with that for Q-turret on the opposite side, whereas these two
turrets are offset. The first six of the 4" guns were then
built and fitted to the main superstructure, plastic tube and
rod serving for the barrels.. Further work on the superstructure
ensued, after which the forward two funnels were assembled and
located on deck, thereby giving the model some character.
The forward superstructure was then completed right up to the
rangefinder platform atop the tripod mast. This was fairly straightforward
although I found the positioning of support brackets, parts 125
& 126, was unclear and I left these until I was ready to attach
the flag platform, parts 138/9, which made things easier. The
level of printed detail is impressive with even an open map on
the map table! In similar fashion, the after citadel was constructed
and the deck was then finished off with such furniture as ventilators,
breakwater and skylights.
It was now time to construct the four main armament turrets. While
the construction and positioning of the gun barrels was conventional,
building the turret was somewhat less straightforward. The turret
is all constructed from one piece of card and the turret floor
with guns affixed is placed inside. At the first attempt, I made
the turret top completely and then had difficulty in fitting in
the turret interior. The trick, I found, was to make only the
front part of the turret top, so that the floor could be slid
inside after which the back part of the turret can be closed up.
The model is then finished off with anchors, torpedo netting shelves
and boats. Some of the latter can be suspended from the davits
with small pulleys to enhance the ropes. Although elaborate rigging
is indicated on the diagrams, I just applied sufficient to look
decent and provide halyards for the flags.
I have spent about five months working on the model and I would
estimate that it has taken me about 150-200 hours to build. Despite
the problems I have described above, I found it an enjoyable kit
to make and am pleased with the end result. To sum up, don't be
inflexible, strive indomitably and your model will be Invincible!