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Robert,
Quick note before I go to ZZZZ, what is your email address, so I can send you some useful information for your project.
Best regards from Normandie,
Jacques
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Many thanks (and merci beaucoup) to all of you for your advice and suggestions. I will build my Algerie as the kit intended, for the summer of 1942. Base on the image Jacques sent me of the bridge after her scuttling, I can use the British radars that I have in my spare parts stash to make a facsimile of the radars on the yardarms, though I don't know whether or not the same devices would also be located on the rear bridge (Google AI states that both bridges had the radars as strictly air-search structures). Now all I need to know is where all those light AA guns and a pair of small T-shaped rangefinders (I think) should be located.
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I just received this new kit (made by Gaga, in orange resin) in the mail from China yesterday. Eager to examine it, as I carefully removed the bubblewrap and polyester cotton fluff that covered the casting cages I was struck by the precision with which the various pieces were made, especially in the two-part (full) hull. The detailing was exquisite! I was, though, disappointed to find that the main and secondary gun barrels had no hollowed out muzzles. But as I carefully separated the various parts from their casting trees I found that there was no tripod mainmast, a surprising number of light AA weapons -- and what looked like four radar devices with circular dish antennas. I did a quick check with Google AI, which stated that these features were on the Algerie when it underwent its final upgrades in the summer of 1942 -- before its unfortunate scuttling at Toulon in November of that year. A quick check of War Thunder's video game illustration of this cruiser and, yes, apparently the kit portrays the ship in its final configuration (with a small T-shaped mainmast). OK, but now I have to do even more research to figure out where all these additional parts will go, since most photos of the Algerie show it from the 1930s, with the tripod mainmast and few, if any, light AA guns. I now invite advice from other modelers, especially those familiar with the Vichy Marine Nationale.
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