Tsesarevich (Russian: Цесаревич) was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy, built in France at the end of the 19th century. The ship's design formed the basis of the Russian-built Borodino-class battleships. This set represents what she carried prior to an attack in the night of February 9, 1904, in the Russian-Japanese war. She was one of three ships to be struck by Japanese torpedoes and limped back to Port Arthur. There she lost four of her 75mm, two of her 47mm, and two of her 37mm guns to reinforce the port defenses. After the Russian-Japanese war, Tsesarevich, helped suppress the Sveaborg Rebellion. Around 1906, her fighting top was removed and her superstructure was cut down, in the process losing more guns, mainly most of her 75mm guns. In time, ~ 1914, all of her 75mm guns were removed. Maters Model also has a set, SM-350-085, that represents Tsesarevich’s reduced armament of 1917.

Of note is the re-sealable packaging that Master Model uses that makes the parts easy to review and then stuff back into the package securely. That being said, you will want to be careful handling the brass barrels as their small size makes them an easy sacrifice to the carpet monster.

This Master Model set provides you with 58 barrels: Four machined aluminum 305mm/40 (12”) barrels; twelve machined brass 152mm/45 (6”) barrels; eighteen 75mm (3”) barrels, fourteen 47mm (1.9”) Hotchkiss Gun barrels; and ten 37mm (1.5”) Hotchkiss gun barrels and a single page instruction sheet. As you can see in the comparison photo below, the improvements are most noticeable in the smaller barrels due to the limitations of injection plastic molding.

You will need to cut the styrene barrel off and drill a hole in the plastic breach. The directions call out a 1.0 mm bit (~#60) for the 305mm/40 barrels; a 0.6mm (#73) bit for the 152mm/45 barrels; a 0.4mm (#78) bit for the 75mm/55 barrels; and a 0.3mm bit (~#83) for the twenty-four Hotchkiss gun barrels. You will want to be very careful to center your drill bit on both your x-axis and y-axis of the gun.

Be sure to use your favorite CA (super glue) or epoxy, as the normal plastic glues or solvents will not react with the aluminum or brass. You will also want to be careful painting the barrels, especially the brass ones since paint can easily foul the hollowed out muzzles.

I don’t have the Zvezda 1/350 series of Borodino class battleships ( #9026, Knyaz Suvorov; #9027 Borodino; #9029 Oriol; ) but I’m sure these barrels would help spruce them up as well.

Highly recommended! These metal barrels provide a lot of bang for the buck!

Thanks to Master Model and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review this set.