1/400 MN B�arn

[StevenVD]

Because I can't begin my intended CVN65 project after the Dunkerques, I will remain in a French connection.









MN B�arn was a repurposed "Normandie"-class battleship from the WW1-era. She was launched in 1920. This French battleship provenance caused problems in performance as a carrier, reducing speed and dimensions. On the wl she measured 175 meters and overall 182 x 35 meters with a 22 501 tonnage and a performance of 29 000 kw. The max speed of 21 knots caused her to lag behind her own escort. The three elevators were very peculiar in their operation and had a reduced speed. The front lift had an extra deck level to facilitate airplane launching during descent. The middle and rear lifts had giant trap doors opening outward to the deck, taking to 5 minutes to operate one cycle. A massive island and funnel ventilation structure extended to the starboard side with one airplane/aquaplane crane. Parts of the deck could not be used due to an excessive angle. This part was later changed. Armament was 8 155mm cannons in casemates, like some other early carriers. AA-weapons included 6x 75mm, 8 x 37mm and a dozen Browning guns. Torpedo tubes were provided.



An airwing of up to 32 was used. L'Ars�nal includes planes for 1939, I think I even got some extras.

Vought 156 F (French version of Vindicator)





Loire Nieuport LN 40





Dewoitine D373 (marine version of D371), Levasseur PL7, Levasseur PL101









B�arn was stationed in Toulon and would have to shadow Graf Spee with Dunkerque, being a non-event. Then she had to bring 147 tons of French payment in gold to the VS via Canada, along with airplanes. This was delivered in Canada. After this the ship was interned at Martinique, a French Caribbean island. Her grounded airplane cargo was scavenged for the armament that was installed on deck and it got totally derelict.



After the armistice the carrier was refurbished in the USA, exchanging guns and AA-weapons, getting radar and a shorter flight deck and it lost the middle elevator. A disruptive camo scheme was added. It would not be intended as an escort carrier, but rather an airplane transport. It was commissioned in French-Indochina operations and was later used as a sub crew tender, until it was decommisssioned in the sixties and scrapped.



In 2002 this L'Ars�nal multimedia kit sported a polystyrene hull and flight deck with basic detail, resin parts and planes and three PE sheets. This looks as follows.





Some people have planked the deck, but this will have to be scratchbuilt.







PE looks quite sturdy and should be straightened out.







Resin parts like casemates with guns, bridge structure, funnel exhaust, boats, rear elevator doors and crane. There are also props and shafts.



Quite a collection of deck and plane decals. A decent looking A5 manual booklet.









The kit got quite rare soon after production halted. I hope it can spur some interest in this undebated topic. Some reference can be found in French literature, I bought a nice book.



It also deviates to B�arn's part-time hydroplane-carrying escort Commandant Teste. Their history, construction info and plane types used are illustrated with a lot of pictures and pften true to scale plans. I was amazed about the amount of crashed and recovered crews, or about the failed autogyro test due to wind strength.









A long time before starting this build I had been observing some interesting objects on Ebay related to the topic, like the book I bought last year. But some items would be useful in the showcase I was obliged to provide with a full-hull version of the model. One is an embroidered scarf described as dating from the WW2 period. Another is a deahorse-styled badge from Escadrille de Chasse 7C1 with slight crackling of the clear enamel. Let's hope these arrive safely next week. Because of the resin prop and shaft detail and none personnel provided I think again full hull is preferred here, and it can be shown close to the Dunkerques. The only downside is the scale difference.

[Timmy C]

Oh wow, had no idea this kit existed! Wonder who did the moulds for L'Arsenal?

Looking forward to the build.

[steviecee]

I'll be following this with interest as I have a 1/700 3d printed Bearn that I plan on building this year.
I'll see if I can find the book you show as a referance

[FFG-7]

I have the 1927 French naval plans of that ship from the French site before it got hacked a number of years ago. is 69 files at 96mb.

[StevenVD]

Thanks for the interest. @Timmy: On the Heller forum some point out it looks like Heller plastic, and there is the scale of course. The PE has a "made in Czech" inscription, so that could be Eduard.
@steviecee: I saw it only yesterday on Ebay.fr.
@FFG: thanks. I believe after you showed them last year we had concluded that these plans are identical to the ones in my book. The overall plan is 1/500 and the sections are 1/400.

[Yuth]

An interesting subject, and the history of production of the kit itself is quite interesting...

[MartinJQuinn]

Oh wow, had no idea this kit existed! Wonder who did the moulds for L'Arsenal?

Looking forward to the build.

I bought this kit when it first came out, but eventually sold it. I understand why they did it in 1/400, but that's one of the reasons I finally disposed of it. I wanted 1/350.

I don't think I've ever seen one of these built up, looking forward to this.

[pascalemod]

Id love to see a well built Bearn!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Good Day

great subject-I look forwarsd to your build of that interesting ship!

- I nealy bought one @ Telford in early 2000's -- but spent money other stuff and then had no funds left!!

here is a built model-right here at MW.com
cheers

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html
Jim Baumann

[marijn van gils]

Oh, I'm looking forward to this one! A very interesting subject indeed!

[StevenVD]

Thanks all for the contributions, the hull has been started. The halves give some trouble to fit, so some clamps are needed.



These galleries could have been drilled out, now I have to do this.



The corners are drilled first.



With the holes made, the hull can be closed.



The center seam is filled with CA and sanded.





Strangely, my first attempts to check for scale correctness are failing. The focsle doesn't line up with the 1/400 section drawing. Also the stern has the position of the 155mm guns different. The (oa) length of the flight deck of the kit is about 46 cm, that can be multiplied to 185m. But the book has the top drawing interrupted in the centerfold, it can't be compared.



In the rear hangar wall, aeration holes are missing.



These are drilled and cut open.

[Pieter]

Hi Steven,
nice to see you speeding up again. The plans fro Bearn can also be found in low res on this link. Printing & enlarging them means you can measure them without running into centerfold problems.
https://naval-encyclopedia.com/ww2/fran ... -bearn.php

[StevenVD]

Thanks for the plans, Pieter, I will print them but I think there will not be much of a correction possible if the overall proportions are multiplied.

I changed my method to replicate the hull openings at the rear hanger wall. I used some spare PE of an 1/35 kit.





Like that the resemblance is better and it could be filled and filed. I got an order from Toulon today.







This is a reproduction of the insignia of the B�arn fighter wing, from the jeweller Arthus Bertrand. There is also the ribbon with the ships name on it.

I added the improved hangar wall to the stern, but the gun deck needs to be carefully measured and some of the hull sanded down to get it level.



The 155mm casemates in resin have slightly warped barrels with no counterweight and excessive tapering. I found some remaining barrels of the Dunkerque project, at first the plastic ones.



I even found that the Shipyard brass barrels for Dunkerque were a perfect match, be it a bit too long.



I only had to drill in the resin to introduce the barrel a few mm.



Then the casemates could be cut loose.



The locating pin needs to be shoretend or these will float above the deck. This front deck part should be pre-assembled with the part fitting on top before completing the foredeck.



It makes the part sit a bit further in front.



Then the rear casemates are a repeat.



This piece of plastic was missing.



Two resin galleries are added.



This etching error cost me some effort to separate the steps.



If the steps are posed flush with the resin, they are a bit short.



I probably replace these sarchlights with Eduard US lights.

[StevenVD]

I started the assembly of the rear flight deck support frame with the PE pillars. These fit on locator pins. I first put these as per the manual. They are difficult to bend because the perforations border on continuous bend lines. A folding tool is a must here.



But the plastic frame shows that the rear pillars should be reversed.



Only then the framework girders should be added.



There apears to be a fourth elevator to B�arn, a retractable island that was a primitive feature found on contemporary ships. After some tests it was not continued. These sections show the multiple levels it had.



I wanted to incorporate th windows it featured, so I wanted to replace the resin part wit some Greenstuff styrene. It did not react to Tamiya glue, so I used CA.



These flashy pillars for the front flight deck ware replaced with 2mm brass tubes.



These had to be located with plastic rods. The rear tubes interfered with the hangar walls, so these were cut shorter.



Some L'Ars�nal details are unacceptable when compared to the ref pics. The front panama vault in resin is replaced.



Also, the breakwater looks rather like a castle wall and should be interrupted for the ship's anchor chains. Parts of it are replaced with Veryfire capstans. The starboard capstan base was mirrored in the L'Ars�nal model, I can't change this anymore in this phase.



This walkway is in 2mm thick plastic, so I searched for a spare PE fret that could win some space.



Only after installing this part, I found evidence that there likely was no bridge between the deck edge walkways.



I installed the girders, these are very fiddly and a simplification of the real construction that was multi-layered.



Strangely, L'Ars�nal uses 3-bar railing over the whole of the model, while most areas show 2-bar. I found some 3-bar on the side gallery ref pics.





At the stern sponsons, railing is added too, but strangely none is featured at the poop deck.





The side gallery walkways are so overscale in thickness I wanted to replace this with styrene foil. I only have to replicate the ribbing, which was commendable.

[StevenVD]

I found some sets of support ribs to detail the two large catwalk parts.



The so-called "Cul de lampe" aeration ducts were quite rudimentary on the model. The only reason for this might be the option to build the ship before 1936, when the front half of these hole were still absent. But for me it is unacceptable.



I had some generic fine gauze sets, but that would be problematic as the plastic is 1.2mm thick and the gauze would have to be cut in fine parts if it had to sit on top of the hull. If only I had an existing PE-grille with partitions in the mesh that would fit on the holes... Would this 1/350 Zuikaku windscreen fit?



I calculated the number of needed screens and it couldn't fit better than if I had designed it for this purpose. But only if I cut up the windscreen in 38 equal parts. The only differences are missing borders, but that would not be obvious due to the repetition of the parts.



Now I could make the necessary perforations.



The holes were perforated with varying drill diameters and then cut out, filed and covered with Tamiya glue to soften them.





The mesh parts are added with minimal glue quantities. The lower row is bent with an X-acto handle to follow the curvature.







Some hatch holes were added from the pictures.



I closed down the inside of this venting hole, adding two floors and a partition wall. This was painted grey. I did not detail the uptakes, the mesh is not that translucid.



Some partitions had to be painted before assembly.



I did the same with the port gallery. At right the catwalk parts had to be clipped, causing me to lose some of the support ribs added.



Apparenty L'Arsenal has simplified the port catwalk construction, removing the level difference they show on their own painting instructions. I noticed it because I would be covering portholes if I put it like they say in the assembly instructions. I alos noticed that they leave out inclined ladders, therefore closing down the catwalks with railings where you would have the ladders. A good thing I have some spare ladders from the Essex project.



The starboard catwalk can retain its single level, though it misses the ladders too. The deck edge is here aligned with the island sponson, showing the warping of the hull because no bulkheads are installed.



So I added one myself.



Assembling the deck will now be much easier, but the sponson still has fitting problems.

[FFG-7]

is that an anchor just above the vents you had just put in?

[StevenVD]

I found a description of the ship's anchors, there are two of 8 tons, one of 9 tons and one of 3 tons that is probably shown here. Later this is changing a few times.

[StevenVD]

The flight deck is cast in one part with closed elevator shafts. You do get the resin hatch parts for the middle elevator, with some kind of halfhearted option to put these on the flight deck with the elevator floor on deck level.



Let's make this more intriguing by opening up two of the shafts and adding a bit of hangar deck interior. No more than a few centimeters are needed, because of the scant insight only from flight deck level.



On the hanger floor plan, the sidewalls are taken in by work offices. I can close these down.



The interior for the middle lift can be attached to the flight deck, this makes connections easy. I later had to make a cutout at the front for the sprue bulkhead I made last time. Therefore the deck now only fits with a slide to the front.



From flight deck level, a continuous floor is seen and the lower hangar deck is obscured.



The elevator floor is inscribed with a middle line and floor edge, but the resin parts are blank on top.



Because there is a ceiling fixed to the front elevator, the only relevant position here is almost at flight deck level. The ceiling will rise about one centimeter above deck level. In the book, four offices are built around the elevator, with a corridor between them running after the elevator. I have to attach these interior parts to the hull, because a transverse bulkhead is present here, and the deck is now sliding. This bulkhead can be used to attach the office walls.



Because of that moving ceiling and any plane in the elevator, looking into the shaft will be restricted.



The island of this kit is the most impressive assembly, with PE floors sandwiching the resin superstructure blocks. Some sawing is required and the smoke stack needed repair.



A tool is necessary to fold this PE. It seems correct with the island detail plans.



I will probably replace two of the resin bridge parts to get some interior view. I don't like the offset windows on them. The stack will not be opend up like the "Cul de Lampe" though, the mesh detail is commendable.

[marijn van gils]

This kit looks like a lot of work... Perfect for you!

Great work Steven!

[StevenVD]

Grey paint is applied to the finished deck parts fore and aft.





There is one picture where the middle elevator floor is visible through the doors, and it is a lot lighter than the deck. I assumed it was a steel floor and painted it grey too.



The ship will be supported by the same brass struts as the Dunkerques.



Some 12 millimeter holes will have to be drilled, but this time on a composite hull.



Some cracking was heared at the last hole, but the hull held.



These holes have almost the required diameter.



One polishing stone has the perfect dimension to finish the holes.



There the supports need to be fixed.





After dragging out some leftover sprues with round channels (I have a large hoard of these in a backside corner of my hobby room) I created these housings for the supports. They are reinforced with the intention not to break up inside the closed hull.