The Ship Model Forum

Thanks for all your replies and tips. If I'd use any scratch material for the deck this would be the cover from wine bottles, but this can only be used for small surfaces. The drilling for the footrails was made possible because these were already present in plastic molding, I used the marks this left to locate the holes. Still you have to prepare each hole with a pin and make them a bit larger than the rails, so you can correct the position a bit while assembling the PE.

The rear director on Dunkerque is now ready. Strangely this has the lowest disk platform completely in PE with support triangles. The front director had one like these too, but doesn't get that PE disc.



The mast on this director is seen different by Shipyard. It has T-shaped yardarms instead of H-shapes. Also the support beams are only etched on one side and are not mirrored. As you see on the picture this shows one featureless side from wherever you look. The yardarms do have some kit antennas added.



Four double 37mm guns are made for each ship. Only BBB included 8 barrels for this, these are finer and longer.



Shipyard only has the gun bearing in PE. This is a bit fiddly and may never be folded the wrong way, even removing it from the sheet will crease it.



As seen on this picture, Dunkerque had four-bladed propellers.



But Strasbourg had different boilers and used a three-bladed type, not found on pictures. Because Hobbyboss neglected that fact, I will now use props from Zuikaku. These are quite rounded.

I think refining the plastic base for the 37s should do the trick. And a nice solution for the propellor problem as well.

No worries for the AA guns, a large order was issued yesterday for 4 sets of 13.2mm guns and one of 37mm, all Master Models. I couldn't stand the thought of all these PE barrels both update sets provided.

These are the sets I ordered:



From these you need 4 for 2 ships. Most stores only keep 2 in stock, only some Polish webshops have more. I bought one of these too:



One of the ships will have these resin carriages, the other will have to do with this PE base from Shipyard.



Now the boats for Strasbourg are built.



These sloops are having the plastic benches removed to allow for PE ones. After milling I use some Tamiya glue to soften.



The PE is now fitting well.





The improvement of the BBB set on the covered boats is enormous. The deck is now planked instead of flat and the deck houses have a roomy interior with a perfect fit because of little pins at the edges.



To avoid a sheen I painted the interior black.



Each boat now also has a tiny brass propeller, railing, rudder and flag pole.



A second group is then done.







The third group of 4 boats is still pending, but Shipyard did not provide the PE so lavishly and there you have no planking. I will remedy this with some wood deck scraps.

if it was me doing this, I would not have used the pe decking on those boats because on the real boats, there are no visible grooves between the planks as it is smooth as tho 1 big sheet of marine plywood instead of individual planks side by side, end to end. also the planking pattern is totally wrong. my father was a boat refinisher back in the day & we had an old 27' all plank chris craft with a ford 1930's v8 engine on it so I know what I am talking about.

Well, in that case you could have used the PE upside down, because otherwise you get a seam where the plastic deck fits in the hull and that would also be flush. But it will be possible to compare with the one I will make for Dunkerque before my scratch deck goes on.

The last boats for Strasbourg are finished.







As expected Dunkerque has the same types of sloops.





But Shipyard has lots of oars instead of rudders or propellers.



Because I stuck PE decks to the Strasbourg boats, I need something comparable for these. I decided to make that from scrap wood deck parts. I will later paint these darker to remove the tree rings.





The superstructure outline is detracted of this.



Some small details are cut out and transferred.



To allow for some grip I added strips to the hulls.



Hereto I connected the plastic cabins.





Now a lot of photo-etch follows:





These are all deposited on wheeled scaffolding.







Two other types of boat are built the same way.

At IPMS Houten I bought this great reference book for the Loire 130.



Strange how there are only hardcover references in the bookstores for this important French navy plane.



This catapult would later be used on Strasbourg and is here tested.



I will have to apply this lettering on the bow from the BBB set.



The Dunkerque emblem on planes.



A special elevator to move planes from the hangar to the catapult.



The colorful 1942 scheme on Strasbourg.





Blueprints for the planes. In total I will make about six of them, counting Richelieu in.



Now back to Dunkerque with the catapult PE from Shipyard.





The platforms are simplified to ease construction. Both sides of the turntable have railing. The frame seems a true copy of the pictures.



It's a clear improvement over the kit PE, there are now rivets and a more sturdy appearance.



Going over to Strasbourg, an addendum for the planes was done to the PE sheet.



In comparison with Shipyard the frame is quite different in the details. The rivets are recessed and the front part seems more correct.



The top view shows larger holes, a stepped "puzzle" edge and it is overall a bit more slender.



Bigblueboy reproduces the pressure system with a wire running on cams and two supports for a cylinder, though to scratch this is not suggested.



The cylinder is visible on this shot, but it also shows an error in the BBB frame. I will not correct this to avoid deformation of the catapult.



Another problem is the absence of a fitting hole. In this case I can line it up with the Dunkerque catapult.



Scratching the cylinders from 1mm Evergreen. A second small cylinder is found at the rear. I introduce these in both catapults.



To glue these catapult PE parts, in hindsight it was a better idea to reduce the gluing to a minimal to keep open the many minuscule fitting holes for the BBB platform supports. BBB uses 18 of these and on each of the 8 platforms are extra brackets that are introduced in these holes. A lot of them had to be drilled because of CA seeping into them.



This small crest was placed on the front.





The BBB catapult only had railing on the starboard side. The port has a lifting device, but you should not rely on the diagram for constructing this, because the photo near it shows the arm reversed with the pulleys out, which makes most sense.



Here some doors were added, but without a hatch like in the kit. I have lots of doors left with turnwheels, but no reference or instructions where these would go.



The boat cranes are next. The arms are easy to bend.



But the base is difficult, the PE parts break after removal and are too brittle. Also the instructions fail again, now the diagram is more logical than the pictures. If these are followed, the back of the crane is glued over some floor texture.



An axle is thrust through the crane arm, but this should be done before adding the little pulley to the base. That can hinder the axle.



These ladders are quite brittle to remove from the sheet.

Speechless Superlative job w catapult and boats. Looking forward to see the Loire seaplane completed!

stunning? but the catepult of Richelieu. is somewhat different from dunkerque. why they were so different?

Thanks for the replies. About the catapult question I can answer only if you meant Strasbourg instead of Richelieu, because I did not yet study that subject in detail; that could be a few years in the future. Differences between the two Dunkerque upgrade sets are explained by a choice for detail as opposed to build simplicity, Bigblueboy is definitely the harder one with more plastic replaced by PE parts and more subparts.

All cranes are now built.



Shipyard's boat cranes are obviously clunkier.



In a later step a ladder is added on top. The kit does have parts for the crane motor that BBB seemed to omit.



The Shipyard airplane crane parts look like this.





They show the starboard cable pulley assembly reversed, I could not find a reason for this in the reference pics so I assumed that was an error.



The BBB crane arm is comparable but here the railing took me more than an hour to fix, it was unwilling to adhere properly. I think it interfered with the crane arm bend connectors.



The cables are RVS and BBB replaces the base too.



The bilge keels still needed to be placed, so I undressed both ships again. After placing one I noticed there is an upside to these keels, but I had gambled myself on the right position.



I added glue to the inside to assure a tight fit.



To add the screw axles there are no fitting holes, a demarcation line is shown on the hull.



The rudders are flat and a bit "sunkholey".



The same with Dunkerque, here I managed to break one axle.



BBB offers the ship's name letters as a whole or individual. I didn't want any seams, so I chose the latter.



On the port side I took the spacing too wide.



Almost good, but the G still needed resetting. Each resetting needs a glue removal operation.



Strangely Shipyard didn't provide this for Dunkerque, and I lack these letters in my generic set, that was used for USS Columbia.



This starboard attempt seemed OK, but the portholes are asymmetrical. All needed to be redone.



Final result, let's see what we dp for Dunkerque now.

For Dunkerque I had no brass lettering left. But for some reason I kept the plastic lettering that I had scraped from the Trumpeter logo under the Essex flight decks. Because I had two of these, each letter featured at least twice in the bag. I could almost spell Dunkerque because it looks like "Trumpeter". Only K and Q had to be scratched. with Tamiya glue they were attached to the hull. It's not as shiny as Strasbourg, but it's a lot better than nothing.

M and O made up for K and Q.







I'll also replace the plastic steps on the stern.

From Ukraine I ordered in November a type of Ace anti-skidplate that has the same pattern dimensioning and only differs in coarseness. The holiday season and probably the political situation caused it to arrive late, but last week it arrived.







A Polish webshop brought the rest of my requirements, and an extra.





One of both plates will be gobbled up by the sloop deck.



The shapes are traced with fineliner and my poor circle cutter is ground to oblivion.



This diagram is used to measure the diameter of this hollow.



The outline is checked on the side without outcroppings.



To finish the cutting work the holes are measured and drilled out.







I should not forget to indicate the removed boat supports.



If only Shipyard had provided the deck houses, now they need a cutout too.



Then the hangar deck is done, the easiest of the anti-skid parts.



The harder parts are the two joining these together. The front one is the most complicated and is wedged between some structures. To make it fit, it has to be curved up.



Some tolerance is allowed because of a large additional deck house.



The curved AA-outcroppings were shifted a bit in my cutout, so these still show a lot of plastic. I later added bits of PE to cover that up. Some railing will partially hide that.



Then there is left this small zone.





That would have been easier before the tower was added. Again some scraps had to be added.



The surplus could be filed at the sides.



Now both ships are at the same level again and can be detailed further.

Now the boat supports are applied to my markings.



The conning tower is fixed too, but the director platforms did not fit to the deck, being added a long time ago to the tower. I was able to remove them, so they can be pressed on the deck.



A bulwark is made inside the tower to block the light from the doors. Later I added pieces of floor too.



Now the directors could return.



The smokestack is also fixed, to minimize filling work before painting. Now I can work on the doors.



The newly added Master sets for the AA guns are then started. The 37mm double installation was needed for the barrels, Shipyard didn't provide these. You have to drill some in the resin, but these are very clear instructions. Even bending angles are indicated.







The 13.2 mm quadruple Hotchkiss guns were needed 4 times, none of these barrels were included in the upgrades. These are a French smaller version of the US Chicago Piano's. Look at the elevation wheels with thick axles, small pedals and visor system. The blueprint shows one seat, probably it's a section.







1 Master set contains:







With 4 sets I had to provide a container for the barrels. It often recuperated the jumpy ones.



The wheels are not centered on the axle like this. The frame fits the resin part easily.



How does it keep up with the upgrades?





BBB has a very nice carriage with a ribbed turntable but very flimsy turnwheel axles. These have individual wheels so these can be centered. The visor also needs to be added, making elevation harder. Master has an etched elevation wheel and has the visor attached, so this is easy to elevate. The pedals are too large but the axles are good. I didn't have measurements to check.





Shipyard seems overscale with its carriage. Details look fine in comparison with Master, and there is some railing.



I wanted to combine the BBB etch with the Master barrel block. Seats would have to be added too.



These barrels are not put in a hole but glued to the block, making the whole more fragile.



This caused some of them to fall off even after this step.



The 8 BBB/Master chimeras.



The Dunkerque guns would be 100% Master Models.



These placement frames on the PE are very handy, no glue problems here.



The cog on the breech block caused a problem in the chimeras, the guns were sitting too high. I decided to stick to all Master Models for both ships.

Very nice brass work.

Thanks, Steve. In this update Dunkerque receives all remaining PE on the superstructure. The splash guards are first completed. Mind the part numbers, there are two different groups taht for some reason both are named A-H. Off cours I switched these and had to start over again. Shipyard does not give you spares like Bigblueboy did, but I only lost one.











The round guard was not fixed, it will come after the wood deck. Now the barbettes are added.



The munition lockers are almost simple boxes now, but they fit better on the galleries.









The upper deck houses are unique to Dunkerque.



Now the watertight doors could be added, I used these open in spite of the missing inner detail.



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A few steps are added, only those that don't apply to the wooden deck below.



The railing on the hangar deck is combined with some ladders.



The impressive yardarms are now built. The segments are placed in order from A to F, though I had to file some of them to fit.









The straightness is checked with a ruler.



When Strasbourg will be done like this one, the painting phase can begin..

Very nice indeed. Looking forward to future updates.

Thanks, Mr. Church. Strasbourg is just getting one. The Bigblueboy round splash guard is a bit different than Shipyard had designed it for Dunkerque. Here the ends are tapering and the ribs are not perforated. Who shall say if they were, it's not seen on pictures?





All deck houses are replaced by PE. Strangely, almost enough spares remain for Dunkerque too.





I'll use these ship model supports, meant for a wooden keel ship. The top part will be sunk into the hulls.



The diameter of these supports is 11mm. I only have a 10mm drill. The location will be defined by the Y-boundary between mould and bilge keels.



First some mechanical drilling is needed.



Then a countersink is added manually.



The thin edge inside is then scraped with a round ExCel until the support passes.



All 4 supports fit in if turned slowly, but this must improve to be able to pose the ship on the fixed supports. Some sanding will ensue.

To constrain these supports, more than a simple borehole would be needed.



A slide mold part of the most numerous sprue fits right around the support if two are combined. Another part makes a key for the slot, stopping the support at a certain height.



These slots can be introduced through the hangar hole and are glued into the hull. But it's still possible to push them loose with the support if force is applied to the deck. A hole is drilled in the key part.



A regular sprue part is pushed through until it hits the deck.



Fixed like this, the locks can't be pushed off.



The frame is now added to a base plank measuring 86x25 cm. This is a different model with a sloping inside, requiring the plank to be elevated 5mm above the cutting mat. With some warp in the frame, the curing of the glue needs to be controlled by various household objects.



Here the frame is completed using the same constraints. The plank was torn from my roof this week due to renovations, but after some minor repair it was in good enough condition to serve as a model base.



I'm also recuperating a rejected showcase of the Essex-project, now I can shape the base according to it. The glass of the short sides is protruding. I'll cut out a piece of foamboard to fill in the empty space. It's oversized for the Dunkerques, but to protect the nameplate medals I will add these inside the showcase. I will look for a way to show both sides of the medals.



Both ships can be compared side to side.