The Ship Model Forum

Will the upcoming L'Arsenal 1/350 conversion set substantially improve the Trumpeter Richelieu?

Darcy

I would like to know about L'Arsenal 1/350 conversion as well, been waiting a year it seems.

Is the set out yet ? Since last time I heard about it was a couple of months before.

still waiting too !!

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Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! - David Glasgow Farragut

I was just wondering about Richelieu post US refit. I have seen many pictures of the ship with the paint scheme she was given in the US but I have noticed on the internet several models of her with a paint scheme to looks like the US one but with only two colors and no fading off of the edges of the darker color. Was she ever painted this way?

Not according to 'French Battleships 1922-1956' by Jordan and Dumas - she went from her 4-colour US scheme (with feathered edges) to an Admiralty scheme of light grey hull and blue panel, with the superstructures and turrets either light grey or dark grey

Some photos of Richelieu upon arrival in the US for refit, early 1943. Photos from NARA II, courtesy of Roger Torgeson:

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Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

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And a few post-refit. Labeled as "November 1943, Scapa Flow". Again, photos from NARA II, courtesy of Roger Torgeson.

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Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

Ship Model Gallery

Great thanks to "MartinJQuinn!
It is surprising to me that she had camoflage in French status!

Thanks for posting the great photos & thanks to Roger T. for sharing them.

Great photos indeed, thanks for sharing them.

Question re: Jean Bart at Casablanca: the Vichy authorities exerted considerable effort to advance the ship's level of completion. Turret 1 was commissioned, 5 (of 6 planned) twin 90mm AA mounts were shipped, numerous 37mm CAD mounts (and other AA weapons) were fitted, a 14m rangefinder was improvised, etc. My question is: does anyone know if there was a specific goal or design to these efforts? Or was it simply a matter of improvisation after improvisation, using whatever materials came to hand? Clearly, completing Turret 2 and the 152mm secondary armament were beyond the resources available, but did the Vichy Navy plan to complete Jean Bart to a point where she would be at least somewhat functional as a battleship?

Thanks in advance!

Afther some problems with the programing of the new transmitter I finally got the the two maine towers working again.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/5178630 ... 039115134/

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Member of the MMI (Mini Marine International)

I have looked through this entire thread but never found the obvious . . . which kit of Richelieu is better, the Trumpeter 1/350 or the Heller 1/400?

Thanks!

Bill

talk to Steve Larsen aka Model Monkey as I'm pretty certain he made replacement main turrets for Trumpeter's Richelieu because of issues.

I believe it's actually Micro Master not Model Monkey that makes the French BB turrets.

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Our CO prior to flying to the boomer: “Our goals on this patrol is to shoot missiles and torpedoes.”
Junior Nuke Officer (me) : “Captain, don’t we really want to be like Monty Python and ‘Not be seen’?”
CO “You seem to be missing the big picture”
“Oh”

Afaik Trumpeter turrets are about 1/400 , L'Arsenal are a big bigger but still undersized (+ or - 1/380) and the Micro Master are real 1/350 ,here is a picture of the Micro Master vs L'Arsenal ,difference is quite obvious , the good thing of the L'Arsenal turrets is that nothing has to be modified , the MicroMaster need some surgery in the turret bases.

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No Whine Policy
1.- Modify it
2.- Ignore it
3.- Don't build it

My question concerns both the old Heller 1/400 Richelieu kit and the Trumpeter 1/350 kit. Which is better out of the box? I know that , as a general rule, Heller is softer on certain details that are easily correctible, but, given that the Trumpeter kit has so many difficult to rectify errors, can it be that Heller's is the better overall model?

Bill

I have a 15.8meg file containing RICHELIEU 1940 drawings if anybody them.
have a look at this link about comments on the Heller Richelieu. http://www.modelerjoe.net/shipmodellist ... rRichelieu

David,

That is precisely what I wanted to ascertain. Thank you! It seems that there is more to commend in the Heller kits than the Trumpeter.

Bill