1/350 Gloire 1943

[S-boat 55]

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

Aaagh! It's the migraine ship! I'll keep an eye on this one, just to see the painting, with which I wish you the best of luck.

 

It's very effective, isn't it? Very confusing when glimpsed through clouds or rain for just a few seconds.

[S-boat 55]

17 minutes ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

Aaagh! It's the migraine ship! I'll keep an eye on this one, just to see the painting, with which I wish you the best of luck.

 

It's very effective, isn't it? Very confusing when glimpsed through clouds or rain for just a few seconds.

Thanks Bertie - i may need a drop of lady luck with this

 

It certainly works to mix up her lines, in the end they didn't apply it to any other large vessels but did use it on torpedo and patrol boats etc, 

[bismarck builder]

OMG your out of control GS GZ Strasbourg and now Gloire

wow

[S-boat 55]

22 minutes ago, bismarck builder said:

OMG your out of control GS GZ Strasbourg and now Gloire

wow

Yeah i do sometimes wonder if I'm a little on some spectrum somewhere, but i happy so who cares, 

 

to be fair Graf Zeppelin is essentially on hold again, just cant face it, Graf Spee is about 70% done, i need to update the log thinking about it, and Strasbourg is a very simple kit to build, 40-45% done in 31 hours so far, im wanting to get them and Gloire done for the summer really so no rush, then Littorio towards the back end of the year, 

[Tegethoff]

One man doing a group ship build in camouflage. Time for popcorn (good luck)

[Faraway]

Mmmmm, stripy.

Love it, just stick up on paracetamol.

Jon

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday, yeah good luck with the camo. To convert the model to Gloire do you really have to bash the sides of the kit in? 😁

Regards, Jeff.

[Tim Reynaga]

Yes!

😲

 

Worth it for the camou scheme alone! 

[Christian DAGORN]

Hi,

Very good choise !!! 

[Courageous]

Wow, that's going to test the old eyeballs when finished .

 

Stuart

[S-boat 55]

58 minutes ago, Courageous said:

Wow, that's going to test the old eyeballs when finished .

 

Stuart

Hopefully........we'll see how it goes

[S-boat 55]

Hi All, 

 

The kit arrived today, a few shots of the sprues as there aren't any reviews that i can find yet, 

 

 

Quite nice box art.....better than the kit I think, 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not entirely sure what Trumpeter are thinking with the paravane holey thing, 

 

 

If I'm honest I'm a little torn on what to say about this kit, when i got the box at the door i thought...that's smaller than i expected and when you open it up you can see why. A few of my thoughts in a random order;

 

Cost - I'm not really sure what the reasoning is on the cost of the kit, It barely has more parts than Trumpeters Tribal class kit and cost three times the amount. Most i have seen are the same cost as Dunkerque/Strasbourg but the Marseillaise kit has less than half the parts, less photo etch and significantly less detail. 

 

Detail - what detail is what comes to mind, there isn't very much to be honest, at least very little moulded on, the doors look lazy and generic which is odd given the doors moulded on Dunkerque, whilst not 100% authentic, at least looked the part. Most kits now have at least a hint at the hull plating but the hull is completely smooth. Given there are very clear horizontal join details visible in just about every photo of the ships in the class this must have been a conscious omission. Again its on there for Dunkerque and Strasbourg which granted are hobby boss kits but that appears to be little more than a sub division of Trumpeter or GLOW2B as seems to be in the small print on their kits in several places. The catapult is okay as plastic offerings go, but given it is essentially the same as that fitted to Dunkerque et all, (sorry to say that again), theirs were offered in etch, why not use the same pattern and do so again! The range finders on the main armament are the wrong shape as well incidentally., also mine is the first kit I've had that is covered in release agent. There's no moulded ratlines or anything on the parts, they're just very bland, an opportunity for improvement i guess. 

 

Overall the kit is less detailed, with fewer parts and more expensive than Trumpeters Zara, Cornwall, Belfast and I'd expect their other cruisers too. It leads me to think this hasn't really been thought about much and just thrown out to market as it features in the world of warships game.

 

One final thing i would say is that in about half hour of searching i found digital copies of the builders drawings for the ship so if anyone wants to scratch build one, there is that option made fairly simple, 

 

All this being said, of course for me, this isn't really too much of an issue, as much with Tamiyas Prince of Wales, the basic shape is there and its then a blank canvas and one I'm planning to cut and manipulate a fair bit, its just going to need a chunk more work to bring to a good level than i had hoped.

 

Should i feel disappointed that it isn't a better quality kit that I'm chopping up - seems unfair to think that, but had i of bought this to build one of the class straight out of the box, i certainly would be disappointed by what's in the box and its made me rethink the idea of doing a pre war fit of one of the class to show off the lines as i'd not be paying this kind of money again for what you get, 

 

Either way construction has started, the deck dry fits well, magnets are in to help hold her to the generic stand and the top hats being prepped so i can put her on a pedestal when i properly display her, 

 

More updates when there is something to show, 

 

Sam

 

Edited January 7 by S-boat 55

[robgizlu]

Sorry to hear about some of the shortfalls Sam but it's a terrific scheme and is going to be a real Eye-catcher.

I'm in.

Rob

[S-boat 55]

5 minutes ago, robgizlu said:

Sorry to hear about some of the shortfalls Sam but it's a terrific scheme and is going to be a real Eye-catcher.

I'm in.

Rob

Thanks Rob, I shouldn't complain really, 

 

Going to have to get stuck in to scratch building a few bits which should be fun tbf

[Faraway]

It does seem a bit expensive, for what you get.

Perhaps some aftermarket generic parts might improve the detail.

Jon

[S-boat 55]

2 hours ago, Faraway said:

It does seem a bit expensive, for what you get.

Perhaps some aftermarket generic parts might improve the detail.

Jon

Think they'll definitely be needed, I've started trawling l'arsenal's website 

[Faraway]

8 hours ago, S-boat 55 said:

Think they'll definitely be needed, I've started trawling l'arsenal's website 

Don’t forget Black Cat https://blackcatmodels.eu/en/

and MicroMaster https://micromaster.co.nz/

Jon

[Christian DAGORN]

37 minutes ago, Faraway said:

Don’t forget Black Cat https://blackcatmodels.eu/en/

and MicroMaster https://micromaster.co.nz/

Jon

and Swordfish models, french weapons 'll arrive soon...:

https://www.swordfishmodels.com/store 

[madtatt]

A very interesting project.

I'll stick with it.

[beefy66]

Seems that these days you don't get a lot for your money on anything.

 

Like @robgizlu said should be very eye-catching when painting starts.  

 

Stay Safe and Best Wishes

beefy

[Tegethoff]

Disappointing to see regression by Trumpeter on detail and progression of costs. At least in the camouflage it will be almost impossible to tell any detail if photos are anything to go by.

[S-boat 55]

Morning All, 

 

Bit of progress, I've never really scratch built anything much so started with something simple, even then had two goes at it. When refitted in the USA in 1943 Gloires hanger and aircraft gubbins were removed and her AA suite enhanced. French AA guns weren't great, lagging behind some other Navies. The standard solution was to add Oerlikons and Quad Bofors wherever there was space although not to the extent that they did with some ships (I'm looking at you Richelieu). To facilitate this a new single level structure was built in place of the hangar. Making a rectangle shouldn't be tricky....and in truth it wasn't really but it highlighted another issue with the kit. Different areas of superstructure have different height decks, i.e forward superstructure varies from 8mm to 7mm to 8mm high across three levels. The superstructure in the middle is only 6mm high, there was variation from looking at reference photo's but what Trumpeter appear to have done is then reuce the size of doors etc, net result being moulded on doors that are 25% smaller on the central areas than on the forward. They'll need to be replaced, this is particularly an issue in one part where they appear to have sized adjacent parts to door rather than the door to the structure. 

 

Still wants a bit of tidy up but should be about right, 

 

This is the original replacement i made, too tall unfortunately, 

 

There was an additional structure immediately behind the rear funnel, all the blue needs to come off to make way for it, the red are the parts that seem like Trumpeter have sized incorrectly, cant quite tell from photo's if they are even supposed to be there, 

 

Photo of the structure to be added from just after the war. You'll notice the structure that replaced the hangar has been changed again by this time, being extended further aft at an angle.

 

I started sketching out the build up for the funnel addition, there was a support lattice beneath the overhangs on the structure, can see that being a faff to build, 

 

More later, thanks for stopping by, 

 

Thanks

 

Sam

[zed]

Watching this with interest as I am doing the same conversion. 

 

I have some more detail photos if you need any.  Just let me know.

 

[S-boat 55]

4 hours ago, zed said:

Watching this with interest as I am doing the same conversion. 

 

I have some more detail photos if you need any.  Just let me know.

 

Clearly great minds think alike,

 

Will you also be going with the bonkers paint scheme?

 

Photos would be really helpful if you'd be happy to share, I haven't been able to find many, 

 

thanks

 

sam