"Delfin" – the Russian submarine

"Delfin" (Russian: Дельфин, - "dolphin") - the first Russian submarine, suitable for combat operations. Its keel was laid down in July 1901 at the “Baltiskij” plant in St. Petersburg, in September 1902 it was included in the lists of the Imperial Russian Navy, launched in May 1903, in June 1903 sea trials began in the Gulf of Finland. The trials were completed in October of the same year, and the submarine entered service, initially under the codename "Torpedonosiec" - torpedo carrier. During building process, it initially received the number No. 113, which was later changed to No. 150, and on June 13, 1904, it was finally given the name "Delfin". The submarine's armament consisted of two Drzewiecki-type ring (bugel) torpedo tubes on the outside of the submarine, each carrying one torpedo, and one machine gun. It was initially used as a training submarine for new submariners, when the Russian Navy decided to expand its submarine fleet and began training crews before the completion of the building of new ships. Although “Delfin” was considered a successful ship, it suffered two serious accidents early in its career: it sank in June 1904 and a large explosion in 1905. in May, during which the crew members were killed. During the Russo-Japanese War, “Delfin” was sent to the Pacific Ocean and in the first half of 1905 patrolled the coastal zone near Vladivostok, in order to deter Japanese attacks. After the war, submarine was used as a training ship for officers and crew and remained in the Russian Far East until the spring of 1916. The submarine's last assignment was coastal defense in the Kola Bay, transferred to the Arctic Ocean Flotte. She was damaged by a storm and finally stricken from the naval list in August 1917. Delfin was scrapped in 1932.

Two small and not very complex models of the same submarine, recreating its appearance in 1904 and 1909. The models are well designed and well detailed, but simple, as was the prototype. There are small color reserves, several details are printed double-sided. From the textual instructions, only conventional markings in Russian remain, but the graphical ones are simply wonderful and separate for ship models of different periods. You can assemble two full-fledged models from the publication.