Update on 1/350 scale battleship Bretagne from online auction site
Posted by Robert Apfelzweig on May 3, 2024, 20:06:27
Several months ago I ordered this new SSModel 3D-printed kit, only to cancel the order when the seller could not ship it after 6 weeks. I found the same model listed again, this time stating that multiple kits were ready for sale and shipping (from China), so I ordered it once more, and in less than 3 weeks it arrived (today) in the US postal mail. I was surprised that the hull was in two sections (upper and lower, presumably for waterline builds) and in traditional, though very crisply cast, solid light beige resin. Unfortunately, the two halves do not match very well -- overlap at the stern, and some lateral warping so that the rear third of the hulls do not align well. The superstructure parts are all 3D and seem to be very well detailed, assuming I can successfully remove the dozens of casting sprues; the main battery gun barrels (13.4-in./34 cm) are in both orange resin and brass, but look undersized (compared with the same size guns on my model of the Dunkerque), as are the brass secondary guns (5.5-in./13.8 cm). The 3D-printed turrets have cast-on blastbags. What surprises me further is that there is no wood planking on the decks; only a raised grid of rectangles as might be used for linoleum, but quite overscale. For those experts on the first generation of French dreadnoughts, did they still have linoleum, or steel, decks by 1940? Photos taken at Mers El Kebir in July 1940, when the Bretagne was sunk, seem to show dark colored main decks (compared to the light grey hull).
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