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Hi All, So never being satisfied with having just three things on the go - largely because of undiagnosed attention issues - I thought i should start the build log for the next in the project of Treaty class battleships, as a reminder these are; Admiral Graf Spee Strasbourg (having built Dunkerque) Littorio Scharnhorst 1940 Richelieu Prince of Wales North Carolina Massachusetts So there is a way to go! Part of the reason to start this one is its sat out on the desk and i keep fiddling with bits for it, the other is she'll be in a light grey and i tend to do airbrush sessions so doing a painting morning on parts for Strasbourg and Graf Spee seems sensible. As some of you know, I built the namesake for this class, Dunkerque, a couple of years ago pre my aircraft carrier saga (still on going), as the idea of the project came up right at the end of the build, and as i love the look of these ships doing Strasbourg was a must. The two ships differed quite markedly in areas, but were near identical in others. The most obvious change was the layout and decks of the forward superstructure. Strasbourg was equipped to act as a fleet flagship and as such has an additional deck above the main bridge as well as further additions to aid this function higher up in the tower, making her taller than her younger sister. Due to the age and compromised designs of the older French warships at the time of the Washington naval treaty, and the loss of one ship, France was in a 'beneficial' position of being able to replace some of her older units earlier than other navies. This is good of course if conflict occurs in that period between the ships completion and the potential opponents upgrading but bad if war comes slightly later. As it happened it turned out to be a bit of both for the French. There was a fast pace of change in the navies of Germany and Italy in the last 1920's/early 30's and the marine nationale saw these countries as their most likely adversaries in any war and so the design went through a series of iterations. Pre the launch of the German panzerschiffe there had been designs as small as 17,500t, others 23,500t. The conditions of the washington treaty, now followed by the London treaty allowed France to use up to 70,000t of displacement. With the launch of the Deutschland, the smaller designs were disregarded as being too lightly armoured but further consideration as given to the larger options with further upgrades. The conception for the design was largely the same of course. These ships were designed with two primary purposes; 1, Counter Germany's Panzerschiffe 2, Counter Italy's older dreadnoughts and modern heavy cruisers in the Mediterranean To fulfil the first role they would need to be able to counter the 11in guns carried on the German ships and be fast enough to catch them. The designs were uprated to increased speed to 30knts or thereabouts and to carry guns greater than 12in. This and the armour deemed required for protection against the new German guns increased displacement to 26,500t, The final design was heavily influenced by the Nelson Class recently commissioned by the Royal Navy. The tower superstructure, inclined armoured belt and all forward main weapons are the most obvious things 'borrowed' from the British ships. The big advantage of having the main weapons forward is it shortens the armoured citadel required, allowing thicker armour to be fitted for the same weight or less armour to reduce overall tonnage if the same thickness is kept. Dunkerque and Strasbourg however took these ideas even further by using quadruple turrets for eight guns but importantly with the turrets effectively built as a conjoined pair of two gun turrets rather than a single gun house with 4 barrels. This allowed further compression of the design and meant that the machine spaces could be located closer amidships, in turn allowing for the secondary turrets to shift forward again reducing the armoured portion of the hull in length. It also allowed for aviation facilities to be fitted to the stern and is a design feature that would carry into the next class of ships, Richelieu and Jean Bart but more on them when i get there. This configuration for the aircraft handling lined up with French naval policy which insisted that the planes fuel be kept outside of the main armoured citadel. France faced an issue in building these new ships though, she didn't have enough facilities available to deliver them as quickly as she needed. The fast pace of the German construction and nascent Italian plans to upgrade her older ships had turned a project that at times had been in no hurry to deliver its output, into one under considerable pressure. Until these ships were delivered, France would not have anything on paper that catch the German vessels. Dunkerque was duly ordered in 1932 and the Marine Nationale pushed hard for a second ship of the class as soon as possible. The proverbial hit the fan though when Mussolini announced that Italy would be building 35,000t ships, ones which Dunkerque and Stasbourg couldn't match. France now faced a dilemma, continue with the project or scrap it and wait for new designs. In the end a compromise was reached as the delay of a year or more for new designs as unacceptable. This meant Dunkerque would be built largely to design but Starsbourg's design would be improved to increase her vertical protection to give her more of a chance if confronted by one of the new Italian ships, if only to run for it! In the end Strasbourg was laid down in Nov 1934 and completed just under 4 years later in Sept 1938. Her key facts and figures are below; Displacement Standard: 27,700 long tons (28,100 t) Full load: 35,500 long tons (36,100 t) Length 214.5 m (703 ft 9 in) (loa) Beam 31.08 m (102 ft) Draft 8.7 m (28 ft 7 in) Speed 29.5 knots (54.6 km/h; 33.9 mph) Range 13,900 km (7,500 nmi; 8,600 mi) Armament 8 × 330mm/50 Modèle 1931 guns 16 × 130mm dual-purpose guns 8 × 37 mm (1.5 in) anti-aircraft (AA) guns 32 × 13.2mm AA machine guns Armor Belt: 283 mm (11.1 in) Deck: 127 mm (5 in) Turrets: 360 mm (14.2 in) Conning tower: 270 mm (10.6 in) Aircraft carried 2 floatplanes A few photos of the real thing, I've run out of time for lunch now so i'll post some in progress shots shortly of the model, thanks Sam
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Hi All, Those who have seen my Strasbourg thread may have noted i mentioned building an escort for her, well with Trumpeters release of the cruiser Marseillaise i can do that. I've become quite enchanted by the Marine Nationale, a force that in my opinion could have been quite influential in the war had not France have fallen quite as quickly, or had Darlan of made a different choice at Mers el Kebir. The Italian navy that was a threat for so long would have been much less so with the French forces working in conjunction with the Royal Navy in the Med, I doubt that the axis forces would have done as well in north Africa, what impact that would have had on Crete's fall is arguable as a result, likewise Greece. That aside i think these are one of the finest looking cruisers of the period, long sleek lines that are elegant and purposeful at the same time. To demonstrate here are a few pictures; These are Trumpys painting instructions, as with all French ships the exact colours are very debatable and as i plan to build a second of the class I've decided to have some fun with the first one. They have released Marseillaise, which to be honest had largely the quietest career of the class so seeing as I'm a little masochistic and to prove to myself that i have learned from the mistakes i am still struggling with on Graf Zeppelin i will modify her to her sister Gloire, literally translating into English as Glory. She like her siters was refitted in America in 1943, there's a bit to do to modify the kit from a 1939/42 fit to a 1943 but it should be doable. As part of this she was given an experimental disruptive camouflage scheme which seems very much more WW1 than WW2. A few photo's to demonstrate; Work will start in earnest tomorrow and run concurrently with Strasbourg. As the kit is so new out there isnt any after market out for it yet but the sprue shots ive seen and slowly increasing amount of PE in Trumpy's kits bode well and i'll look to make improvements where i can. The downside of a Camo scheme like this is it will hide the lines i've just fawned over - but this is merely an excuse to buy another one soon, Thaks Sam
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HI All, So this is my second work in progress entry, the first - ICM's 1/350 Grosser Kurfurst is on hold due to it getting squashed when rearranging the office, the super structure wasn't damaged but the hull looks like its gone 5 rounds with Yamato! I'm slowly sorting the damage out but given I'd put it on hold a bit anyway as its was stopping being enjoyable its likely that I wont get if fixed quickly. I'd already started playing around with this one a bit anyway. To start with I just placed the main parts together to see how they fit - pretty well is the answer, there was nothing deck/hull wise that leapt out as needing sorting. She's an odd looking ship to be sure but elegant with it, With Grosser Kurfurst I was working on the idea of RC conversion, thought about it with this one as well but decided against taking the chance of watching my work sink in the middle of a lake in Gloucestershire. Decided to try drilling the scuttles out to add depth, tried this with a 1/350 Dreadnought and I wasn't sure on the outcome but thought why not try it again. There are about 120 per side, compared to some builds on here this isn't many but it took a while, also opened out the square windows in front of B turret, did that by drilling out then cutting square with a fine point blade - don't know if there is a better way than that? One thing I hadn't realised when I bought the kit was that it includes a decent amount of photoetch, I'll add a pic later of it but there are 5 small sheets, this will be a challenge as I was goig to attempt a bit of etch on Grosser K but never gt that far so this is the first proper go. I'm pretty happy with my first attempt; Ive started a bit of painting as you can see, the steel decks are Humbrol 123, the hull/ss 125 and main deck 71. Hobbyboss' instructions said different but given no one really seems to know what exact colour they were thanks to poor/destroyed records I've allowed myself to go with what I have. For reference i got hold of a copy of 'French Battleships o1922-1956' by Jordan and Dumas. I think its a great book, very interesting explanation of why these ships ended up the way they were. In it Dunkerque is said to still be a dark Atlantic grey 1942 just as she wore on operations with the RN in 1940. the difference between her 42 look is a tricolor on Turret B and no division markings on the funnel. Couldn't resist the tricolor look so as going fr a 1942 appearance just before scuttling. So with a bit more colour on the main parts, I decided to paint the waterline first this time - not sure I like doing it that way, but it's done now; My camera is giving it a blue tint on the superstructure, its not that blue although it does have a hue of it. but you can see from the two photo's above how from a different angle the blue reduces. second attempt at photoetch went well I think,; I promise I wont post a pic of every bit of photoetch - I'm just pleased I've managed to do some! Having read over 'Ship models from kits' by Griffith, I've tried highlighting individula planks on the deck by adding a bit of Humbrol 196 which is very light grey, i'll then do more with a bit more light added then darken a few and see how it looks. What are people thought to running a pin wash for the grooves between the planks? I'm not sure if that would look too much? Last pic - the ill fated Grosser kurfurst in the background; Im hoping to finish Dunkerque quite quickly - by the end of the year as I have a chunk of time off work but we'll see, Further update to come on the weekend, thanks for reading my muddled waffling's,
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DreamModel AS-565 Panther French Navy 100
Dermo245 posted a topic in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft
Hi all, Here's my latest finish, for the French Fancy GB II here on the forum. The short build thread is here but to recap: Kit: DreamModel 1/72 AS-565 Panther Number: DM720008 Build: OOB Paints: Tamiya and Mr Hobby Acrylics. Klear, Homemade wash (a bit chalky) Decals: From kit Extras: P/E and resin bits from kit The build was fairly straightforward but the clear parts needed a good bit of test-fitting and fuselage trimming to make them fit. While there's lovely P/E and resin bits supplied with the kit, they don't include the collectives for the cockpit or the port side searchlight. There's also nothing in the back of the cabin which is a pity and the rotorhead is a bit simplified. The kit-supplied decals were super thin (which helped with putting them on) but had a mad desire to curl up if left too long. But happy how it turned out, it's a cool scheme and looks good from across the room! Dream_Model_1_72_AS_565_Panther_Marine_1 (11) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Dream_Model_1_72_AS_565_Panther_Marine_1 (7) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Dream_Model_1_72_AS_565_Panther_Marine_1 (10) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Dream_Model_1_72_AS_565_Panther_Marine_1 (8) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Dream_Model_1_72_AS_565_Panther_Marine_1 (13) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Dream_Model_1_72_AS_565_Panther_Marine_1 (9) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Thanks for looking and happy modelling. Take care Dermot- 6 replies
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Well... after finishing the Rafale M, I got carried away with the French Navy and decided to try my luck with the Revell F-8E Crusader, no updates just straight out the box! I will, hopefully, recreate a bird from 1987 aboard the Clemenceau! So first pics coming up and thanks for watching! See you soon! Iuri
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Hello, Here is my latest build. It was in fact a "common build" with a friend. I decided to depict the bort number 35 of French Navy. It was the last cruise "Crouze" (its nickmane)catapulted from Foch carrier in 1999 during Operation trident in Kosovo. I added Aires cockpit and the decal a mixed between SMDS, Hasegawa and MDC. Painted in Humbrol 157 and 144, sealed with Microscale gloss varnish. Weathering done with oils: "gris de payne", sepia and black. One more time sealed with Satin/matt Microscale varnish. Metal areas are airbrushed with Humbrol Metacote 27003 then polished with cotton. Complete build process here: http://fighters.forumactif.com/t59829-montage-en-commun-rom1-et-snow-white-f8-crusader-1-48 ..but in froggy language... sorry ;^) Hope you like it! Thanks for passing by! cheers! Rom
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Hi everyone! Today I started my next kit! It's the Revell 1/48 Rafale M! I will try to make posts with the step by step build, I am a rookie so bare with me! Also, kind of a slow builder due to my professional life, so sorry in advance! Let's carry on then! The kit and mandatory bath! My state of the art painting booth (maybe one day my wife will allow me a dedicated space!). Cockpit and ejection seat assembled! That´s all! Thanks for stoping by!