French Carrier Clemenceau/Foch

[Paul A H]

French Carrier Clemenceau/Foch

1:1750 Revell

The Clemenceau class of carriers provided the French Navy with fixed wing aircraft capability from the early 1960s to 2000. Displacing over 30,000 tonnes full load, each hosted an air wing including F-8 Crusaders, Etendards and Super Etendards, Alize ASW aircraft and helicopters. The lead ship of the class, Clemenceau, was laid down in 1955, launched in 1957 and commissioned in 1961.Following a long career, she was decommissioned in 1997 and dismantled by Able UK on Teeside. Her sister ship, Foch was laid down in 1957, launched in 1960 and commissioned in 1963. She served until 2000 when she was sold to Brazil and entered service as Sao Paolo. She recently underwent a major refit.

Revell’s 1:1750 scale Clemenceau/Foch arrives packed into a tiny end-opening box adorned with a rather nice illustration of the subject. Inside are just 55 parts moulded in grey plastic and spread across three sprues. Many of the parts feature a degree of flash and there are also sink marks and ejector pin marks that will have to be cleaned up, particularly on the superstructure and around the 100mm gun mounts.

The kit is configured as a full hull model, so there is no waterline option. As you might expect, construction is very straightforward. The superstructure is moulded in two halves, onto which are added some additional details including a three-piece mast. The single-piece flight deck features delicate, raised details, with additional markings provided on the decal sheet which, as is always the case with modern Revell sheets, is nicely printed. A decent set of aircraft is included as well, although as you might imagine in this scale they are a little on the crude side. A simple stand is included upon which the finished model can be displayed.

Conclusion

This simple little kit, which I believe this is a re-issue of an old Heller kit, looks like it might be fun project to slap together in an afternoon. The sprues do feature quite a lot of flash and injector pin marks, but there is nothing that can’t be overcome with a little work.

Review sample courtesy of

[Antoine]

That scale!

1/1750!!!