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Le Richelieu, September 1943.

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French Battleship

Le Richelieu September 1943

The Setting…
I wanted to portray the ship in a diorama in a New York Navy Yard before leaving for Europe to join the home fleet at Scapa Flow after an extensive refit and trials in the East Coast.

The battleship was painted in a Soft Edge MS-3X Camouflage utilizing USN Colors.

The Model…

The ship came from Trumpeter. The hull was sawn off to make the kit a waterline model. Several Corrections had to be made in the superstructure, especially the top bridge, the radar and range finder equipment and additional extensive detail added to achieve the required result of the battleship. Motor boats were scratchbuilt, Bofors guns were correctly altered, Anchor chains were added and all piping and trunking on the superstructure was scratchbuilt from telephone wire. All the detail in the lower superstructure was scratchbuilt from bits and pieces of evergreen plastic rods.

L’Arsenal Upagrading Set was used and this was as well further detailed to enhance the model even further. The rigging was not an easy task and very fine straightened fuse wire was used. Additional boats were added on the forward deck. Figures came from a mixture of L’Arsenal and Fujimi Offerings.

The model was airbrushed in White Ensign Colourcoats enamels which I always use, and I will recommend them to any marine modeler. . Of course a lot of masking had to be done to get the many camouflage patterns throughout the whole ship. Shadows and highlights were laid on using acrylics and the intermediate color was blended in using a combination of drybrushing and sponging the paint always in a downward motion. The model was finally weathered in oils and I tried to be as subtle as possible to achieve the correct medium, the half way road, not too heavy ,not too insignificant. It is pertinent to note that although the Ship had still just been painted it still had to be weathered as it spent a full month in the Atlantic Ocean for extensive Trials. A final coat of matt varnish was sprayed on the ship

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About the Author

About louis carabott (loucar)
FROM: MALTA

I am 61 and have been doing scale modelling since I was 12 years old. I had a go at practically everything in this beautiful hobby, namely aviation, figurines, AFV 's ,aviation dioramas in 1/72 scale always with wartime Malta as a setting and finally Shipbuilding which has given me the most enjoym...


Comments

Great Dio!!!
SEP 09, 2010 - 11:38 AM
Hi Louis Congratulations on a very impressive dio! Full of action (even if it's peaceful action!) with a very busy pier, as usually they are! Also think you have made an excellent job with the Richelieu!! The camo is simply amazing! You are a resourceful modeler Cheers, Rui
SEP 10, 2010 - 04:28 AM
Very nice Louis.(talk about an understatement!!) Worth the wait and the extra effort. Very good painting and shading .Lots of action.Everything, from the seascape to the pier instalments has an air of extra realism.Almost makes it as a 3D picture of the real thing.
SEP 10, 2010 - 05:33 AM
Excellent work! I bet it's even more inpressive in real life! BZ! Guido
SEP 10, 2010 - 05:39 AM
Nice job on researching this and digging out the photo you used for reference. I think you've set the definitive high bar to-date for the 1/350 model. Magnifique!
SEP 11, 2010 - 03:02 PM
A stunning model indeed....!
SEP 11, 2010 - 09:41 PM
Simply magnificent. Love the paint job with colour fade and. Your builds have a distinct style in painting (loved your illustrious!), with artfully done highlights that show off the dimensions of the model very very well. Like modelling the impressionst style
SEP 12, 2010 - 02:54 AM
Another masterpiece Louis!
SEP 15, 2010 - 11:54 AM
Gentleman ...just came back from Holiday and just read all your kind comments about my model. I thank you all. I enjoyed this project very much and like Kostas said it was well worth the wait:):).... The Richelieu is such a beautiful and unusual ship. Karl I also thought like wise about the number of boats on a ship during wartime....but I came across an overhead shot of the ship sailing out of New York and it had 3 additional boats behind Turret number 2...so I just stuck them on:):) Thanks once again and best regards from the little island of Malta Louis
SEP 15, 2010 - 08:59 PM
My favourite build of the year so far - wonderful, Louis, the camo blending couldn't be any better than that, and the composition is superb. Peter F
SEP 16, 2010 - 08:18 PM