As the title indicates, I'm scratchbuilding a 1/144 Suffren (D602), a French navy guided missile destroyer. She was in service from 01APR69 thru 02APR01, and I think her sister ship Duquesne is still in service. Why French? It's different, and the look of her has grown on me. She's a nice-looking ship. Also, I plan to do a meta-theme with 3 different group builds, showing Suffrens from different eras (pre-dread, WW2, and Cold War). Doing a ship that I actually have plans for all 3 generations is helpful in that regard.



So far, my work has mostly been research; My library is mostly WWI/II stuff. So, with plans and pics in hand, it was time to cut wood! The pics below are the first part of the project: The 100mm gun turrets. Looking at all the angles, I decided to make a plug from wood, then a mold, and to produce the 2 turrets from urethane resin. So far, I've got the shape done, minus the 'trough' where the gun barrel goes, and detail work.

Still quite a bit of sanding to do, but it looks good in person I hope the angles show up better in haze grey! I will be attaching the sliding doors to the turrets after casting; I want crisper lines on them than I've been getting, and I have to glue on the tracks the doors ride on anyway.


In the front view it looks wide, but it measures out correct; I expect it's an optical trick that'll clear up when I get the gun trough cut in. (If anyone knows the technical name for the 'trough' please tell me, I hate to use farm words for it!)

This is a tiny part of the project, but last night I got the frames traced out, and tonite I'm gluing them to the wood for cutting! The assembly jig awaits! Once I have assembled a hull to play with I'll be very excited