? Battleship Bretagne - France - Design & 3D printing 1:200

[JIM BAUMANN]

Oh my word-- for a 1/700 fellow like me...

that is biiiG!--

well 1/200 scale is ... !

a bit like comparing O gauge model railways to N gauge model railways

[Iceman 29]

Tks all !

Yes, it's a big baby..

Printed and glued section 3 a few days ago, then sanded the joints until I couldn't feel anything with my fingertips at the glued sections.








Printing of the last section N�4. It fits perfectly, it's not glued yet, I have some cleaning to do before and I have to put the Rhodoid of the portholes inside, because it won't be accessible once glued.

I've opened the deck at the level of the gun barbettes to be able to glue the rear 140 mm guns in casemate, not easy but it's ok. �

�

[Devin]

Looks fantastic! I feel your paint on the hull plating: I just had to do a 1/96th scale model of Grand Central Terminal for work, and even though all of the brick lines on that thing are mostly straight-forward, it still took days of work to draw then boolean them out.

Really looking forward to seeing this finished. I love the French warships.

[Iceman 29]

Thanks Devin!

Section 4 was very easy to assemble and glue, little sanding.

It's starting to take a turn in this case...





















The hull weighs 663 grams for the moment. A weight roughly equivalent to what would be its weight in injected plastic.

But much more rigid because of its design and material.

Printing the 2 pillars of the base in the same style as my Bismarck at 1/200. The advantage of 3D is that it fits perfectly the hull.

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=314096

The resin is easily scratched, but this is very superficial in fact, once painted it is not visible.

You can see the links of the sections that have been sanded. I still have to apply a primer to check if everything is perfect. At this level some of the sheet metal lines have been re-engraved with Trumpeter's "engraver" which is usually used for my model aircraft. I will also use it to clean the sheet metal lines loaded with sanding dust.







I didn't do any embedding on this deck. I only made 2 holes for the 140mm barrels at the front to do a test.

With resin I'm a bit wary of precision. You always have to "play" a little. For deck 2, there are some recesses planned, I'll see what it gives visually, I'll decide if I should leave them or not. Deck 2 is easier to reprint than a hull or a section of hull.

As for the linoleum plates, you can see them perfectly without seeing them too much either, just fine, as I like, it's discreet.

Here there is just a micro-coat of spray primer to see what it does to the moir� surface of the deck. I want to know if I need to sand to 1000 again. I have a second coat to put on to see if it covers well, by finger, by not feeling anything..

[Iceman 29]

By the barbettes, with a pliers, it is quite easy, there is a printing platform to put them and glue them.

That's why I opened the deck at this place.

I can even glue them very late in the assembly.

[ModelMonkey]

Brilliant.

[Iceman 29]

Tks!

Printing of a 340 mm prototype turret, there is not much to review, it is rather good. The assembly is well done respecting the tolerances of the resin 0.3 mm.

The printing is very fine thanks to the Photon Ultra, especially the padding and riveting.

I printed with 30 micron layers, but I'll test again at 20 microns.

I chipped the sealing skirt a bit when I was removing the paint, it's very thin there. No problem, it's a test. Otherwise it runs well with the system.

I've primed the hull, and sanding and repairing the little dings is in progress.

About the colors:

Extract from "Les Cuirass�s de 23500 tonnes" Bretagne, Lorraine, Provence:

5. Paintings and particular marks :

51. Paintings :

The hull up to the waterline is painted green (Schweinfurth green), the deadworks and superstructures are bluish-gray, a classic color since its adoption in February 1908. Only the strake on top of the chimneys is black.

From 1915 onwards, i.e. during the test period, the steel of the 340 turrets and their guns was stripped and treated with a "grease plug" to prevent corrosion. These "grease plugs" contained a mixture of grease and lampblack, which gave the main artillery turrets the shiny black color that can be seen in photos from that period.

Towards the end of the war (1918), the upper half of the AR. mast was painted black to avoid the soiling caused by smoke.

In compliance with the Ministerial Circular of November 30, 1920, the waterline is painted black over a height of one meter (0.50 m on either side of the waterline 10).

The boats are painted bluish gray with white interior. The vertical parts of the deckhouses of the launches are kept "clear" or varnished if they are made of wood, otherwise they are painted in the color of the boat. The roofs are painted in grey for the steamers, in white for the launches.

52. Particular marks :

Since 1912, the particular marks of battleships and cruisers consist of white rings painted around one of the stacks. These rings allow, within a squadron, to identify the division to which a ship belongs and its rank in that division. The code used has already been explained during the presentation of the Courbet type battleships.

Between 1916, the year of their entry into service, and their first redesign, the three Britannies frequently changed their particular markings, so the study of the latter is the subject of a table in the appendix, common to all battleships of 23,500 tons."


If anyone has existing paint references for the bluish gray, Schweinfurth green, linoleum red ochre (Here can be the Tamiya XF-59 ("Linoleum Deck Brown")?

http://www.warpaints.net/viewtopic.php? ... 3&start=30

For the 380 and 140 gun turrets, I'm thinking of using two colors, a dark charcoal gray for the turret itself and a semi gloss black for the guns.

We can see on the 1915 photos that the color of the turrets varied according to whether a recent layer of grease plugs had been applied, from shiny black to medium dark gray. It must not have held up well in the sun, sea spray and rain.























Comparison with a Bismarck turret at the same scale.

[Neptune]

Never heard of these ships before, but they sure are gorgeous.

Great work so far!

[bigtodd]

Mmmmmmm..... look at them gorgeous guns!!!!!!!

[DrPR]

Everything about this project is well done.

Phil

[JIM BAUMANN]

It is really taking shape now...!

excellent sanding and scribing!

its a most excellent transcription from 3-D digital into 3-D physical

questions ;-- I note that on many images of the black turret era ( my favourite!! )
( I am paying attention !! ) and in the photos

the ' black' is certainly lighter than one thinks

But there is a lighter stripe section- seems--painted -
I have never noticed this before .

was that a fleet identifier ? -or another purpose?
this is one of your images from BM

[Iceman 29]

Tks Phil, Jim, Bigtodd, Neptune!

@Jim; These lighter lines come from the rather complicated shape of the turret, there are 4 facets on each. The light reflects differently.

Like what we can be misled sometimes by the interpretation of a photo.

The black dye would not last long, like a polished shoe. The bare and grey steel was to reappear as time went by.

[JIM BAUMANN]

Doh !!

had I looked PROPERLY--at the the images of your printed turrets... (!) I would have seen that...( I like to think..!! )
I must say-in defence of my non-observant self...!

that in the photo it did look like a stripe--and you are right-it is sooooo easy to misinterpret BW photos

That will teach me I hope ...

regards
JB

PS--I just looked at some photos of my 1/700 Bretagne ( ignore the wooden deck--arghhh! )
one can almost see the fwd facets...

[Iceman 29]

Yes, you can see them Jim.

I'm going to do some paint tests on the prototype.

The mass production is launched:


� �

[Iceman 29]

The printing work is progressing, and also the precise adjustments of the 3 large elements of deck 2 before they are glued together, that takes a little time. �

Only the front part 1 and 2 of deck 2 are glued together, I just printed the rear part 3, which still needs some adjustments. But it looks very good.

This deck 2 will not be glued to the main deck of the ship right away. There is a further precision to be respected to avoid breakage which is always possible.

[Iceman 29]

Printing the front of deck 3. It fits perfectly.

Deck 2 is fitted and the 3 elements are glued together.

The toilet scuttles have printed well, you can see the small holes.

The front chimney is being printed, result tomorrow morning.

Then I will continue to climb to the bridge.

I'm missing a tap on a scuttle, I'm good to reprint. �

[JIM BAUMANN]

most excellent print on the small holes for the toilet ( heads ) ventilation !
The funnels look like beautiful sculptures to be....

JB

[MartinJQuinn]

Wow! Those mesh vents are very impressive. Well, hell, it's all impressive, but those really caught my eye

[Iceman 29]

Thanks Guys!

Printing of the bridge deck ( Deck 5 ), chart room, bridge "blockhouse". Nothing is glued and not really cleaned of course.

I decided to print the railings, it's not bad at all.

Deck 4 of the superstructures with its railings is being printed.

The other railings will be printed separately, too complex in terms of media to print in one block.

The different elements and the way they are divided to be printed easily. It works well.

[Iceman 29]

The two-piece Deck 4 in place: