Friday, January 25, 2013

From SylvainR: 1:2400 WWII French Naval Force (86 points)


From Sylvain:
This is "La Royale" in 1940, as French sailors affectuously refer to their "Marine Nationale", even centuries after beheading Louis XVI.
I just finished a batch of 14 destroyers, 14 cruisers and 4 battleships. The cruiser category includes 6 light cruisers, 5 heavy cruisers, 2 old battleships (Lorraine and Bretagne) and 1 carrier (Béarn). Note that one of the modern battleships, the "Jean Bart", does not have a B-turret, as it was not completed when she had to flee France for Dakar.
This close-up shows an old WW1 era battleship close to a Dunkerque-class battleship and a Richelieu-class battleship. I decided to have a unified color scheme: the French Navy in 1940, instead of painting the most fancy camouflage scheme for each ship. "Gloire", a light cruiser, had what is probably the most disturbing razzle dazzle camouflage ever seen (see picture 44).


A light cruiser, a heavy cruiser and an aircraft carrier (seen at top of post). The cruisers were built as responses to the Italian vessels of the same type, that were fast and well armed.
Three destroyers and a light cruisers. It is difficult to appreciate how big the destroyers are in reality, and I have no British destroyer handy to make a comparison. The Washington treaty did impose strict weight limitations on battleships and cruisers, but none on destroyers. So the French produced destroyers on steroids that were the size of older light cruisers and were designed to go as fast as 45 knots (in theory).


Excellent work Sylvain! I'm very impressed at your progress with this project, bravo! I also look forward to having you and Peter dream up some scenarios for us to try these models out.

Sylvain's French fleet will garner him a well-earned 86 points. Great job!

9 comments:

  1. wow thats a whole lot of ships and each one a mini piece of art

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  2. Well done Sylvain.
    Is this the fleet that the Brits ending up sinking in port?

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    1. Well, operation Catapult (British attempting to neutralize and/or "subdue" French naval assets after the armistice of 1940) produced various results, including the worst PR ever at the worst possible time, and I would like to explore the events through a few scenarios.

      Cheers,

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  3. Terrific work, Sylvain - I love the steriod-pumped destroyers! All in all a really interesting fleet. I'd love to see it in a few games.

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  4. Excellent work, excellent. I like a lot your models.

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  5. Sylvain

    Very nice paint jobs. I thought that I was nuts painting roundels on my 1:1250 Cap Aero planes and you've gone and painted them on the GHQ 1:2400 seaplanes. I am surprised you didn't try the Gloire in her glory. I look foward to seeing them at Mers-el-Klebir or on the high seas.

    Cheers
    PD

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  6. Beautiful models Sylvain. I've always thought that the French fleet in the 1930s was the most interesting of the European powers. You've done a great job, even down to the rounders on the seaplanes. Very impressive. As Sidney said, looking forward to seeing them in battle.

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  7. These continue to impress, great looking fleet

    Ian

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  8. Excellent painting, very well done that man!

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Thanks for your comment! As long as you're not a spam droid I'll have it up on the blog soon. :)