Reviewed October 2021
by Martin J Quinn

With the outbreak of war in 1914, she was reactivated, and saw action in the Baltic against the Russians, including the Battle of the Gulf of Riga, in August 1915, where she and her sister SMS Braunschwieg engaged the Russian pre-dreadnought Slava.  In 1916 she was placed in reserve and used as a training ship for the duration.

As one of the few battleship allowed to be retained by the German Navy post-World War I, she was modernized in 1923 and served much as she did at the beginning of her career, conducting training and visiting foreign ports.  In 1930, Elsass was placed in reserve, sold for scrap in 1935, and subsequently broken up in 1936. 

For further information on Elsass, check out her Wikipedia page here, which is where this abridged history came from. 

The Combrig SMS Elsass

Elsass is packaged in a large, sturdy white cardboard box, with a photo of the real vessel on the box top.  Inside the box is an upper hull, three bags with over 270 resin parts, a package of turned brass parts, and 3 photo-etch frets.  The PE is firmly wrapped together and sandwiched between cardboard inserts for protection.  The box was tightly packed with foam to prevent shifting and breakage of the contents.

As this is the waterline version of the kit, only the upper hull is included.  According to the measurements I found for Elsass, the hull scales out pretty much perfectly in both beam and length.   The upper hull is very well cast with lots of good detail, including chocks, bollards, skylights, hatches and the gun port covers on the hull.   The planking - no butt ends - looks good, as does the linoleum on the boat and superstructure decks, though the groves between the linoleum "panels" might be a tad too deep.  There is some over-pour on the bottom of the hull that will need to be removed.  Compared to drawings and photographs, the hull "looks" like a Braunschweig-class battleship. 

On the sides of the hull there are very small holes in various locations.   Looking closely at the instructions, these are locating holes for the individual photo-etch ladder rungs included with the extensive PE set.   You'll find these locating holes on other parts of the kit as well, including on the funnels and on superstructure bulkheads.  

The superstructure parts include two large pieces, which form the base of the forward and aft superstructures.  There's a little bit of a casting wafer on the bottom of each, so you'll have to sand that off to get a good fit with the hull.  Otherwise, nice details abound, with thin splinter shields and other fine detail.   Here too, you'll find the small locating holes for the photo-etch.   The rest of the superstructure parts are on wafers.   There is some terrific detail cast into these parts, like vents and skylights.  

There are a baker's dozen worth of boats in the kit.  Two are powered.   The cutters all come with photo-etch parts to dress them up, the hulls are all just resin shells.   All are up to the usual Combrig standards, which means they are well done.  

The remain resin includes a myriad of part: different types of cranes, bases for the large boat cranes, boat davits, what appear to be coaling davits, gun barrels and several smaller guns, deck and bridge equipment, anchors, upper masts, searchlights and other parts, including the tops and bottoms of the spotting tops.  Everything is well cast.  Some of the parts are very delicate, and you'll need to very careful removing them from their runners.   Also included are the props and rudders, even though this is the waterline version of the kit.   The bases of the military masts are worth highlighting, as it appears that they have stairs cast into the openings at the tops of each mast! 

There are three photo etch frets with the kit.   The list of parts is extensive.  It includes portholes, porthole shutters, decks, gun shields, funnel rings, handrails (for the superstructure bulkheads, boat cradles, the bridge face, inclined ladders, parts for the boats (both decks and thwarts), boat oars and railings.  There is also the bow scroll.   Some of the parts are relief etched.  There are no masts included with the kit, but, as per usual Combrig practice, there are drawings showing dimensions of the masts and yards.   Would love to see Master Model (who supplied the aforementioned turned metal parts) do a mast set for this ship.   

The photo-etch set for this kit is very comprehensive, but also, not for the beginner, as some of the PE is incredibly small.  The ladder rungs will be a challenge just to get off the fret, let along attach to the model. 

The instructions are some of the best I've seen from Combrig. There are 14 sheets of paper, with instructions on each sides.  Along with a plan and profile view of Elsass, there is a parts manifest, a page showing the "self-made" masts, and then an comprehensive set of instructions with exploded views.   For such a complex kit as this one, the improved instructions are good to see.  

There are no color callouts or painting instructions.  

This is an in-box review, your mileage may vary once you commence construction.  Thanks to Combrig Models for the review sample.