Steven Van Dyck Author
For a review on the aftermarket products shown see shipmodels.info/mws_..p;p=1027734#p1027734

Matti Thomaes
Wauw Steven, already a new mahousive project , looking forward to the build, 👍

Ingmar Stöhr
Oh wow! Following!

Gary Victory
Enjoy the Build Steven.

Treehugger
What is the significance, or the meaning of the name 'Jacobsen' on that coin in photo 13? Anyone know? 'Jacobsen' is a more or less common surname.

Steven Van Dyck Author
Thanks for the interest. For Jacobsen see fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famille_Jacobsen , it's apparently a family of infamous corsairs also related to Jean Bart. It even mentions the medal at the end.

Steven Van Dyck Author
Both medals have now arrived. These will be useful as nameplates on the base. One had the description "paquebot Strasbourg", translated as cargo ship, and would be cast in 1950. I started with sanding the hulls to remove the casting traces, these are apparently broken off the sprue leaving two scabs. I noticed one difference, Strasbourg got a degaussing cable. I removed one breakwater from the front deck, taking care not to remove the detail around it. The drilling locations are not very clear, indicator lines passing multiple holes. I started removing Dunkerques sloop rails as I noticed that in the Strasbourg Woodhunter deck there are some PE ones, but now I notice that Shipyard wasn't planning on replacing the plastic rails in their wooden deck. And these rails are lying on the wooden deck, so they're very thin. I'll have to compare very well.

Steven Van Dyck Author
I wanted to fix Dunkerque's deck. The hull is a bit narrow so I introduced a fitting piece of sprue before I glued the deck in. So there are no unnecessary tensions on the deck. The Shipyard watertight doors are replacing the kit ones, that are actually as detailed as the PE but I saw on pictures that these doors are all placed open. Some drilling is done to open up the doorways. The front of the conning tower should not have much of armour contrary to the rest of it, because only the internal communication channel is armoured. I therefore did not simply glue the PE plating on it, but removed the thick plastic first.

Ingmar Stöhr
You are putting a lot of effort into these! Great work so far!!!

Steven Van Dyck Author
Thanks, Ingmar. Now the deck of Strasbourg is fixed, but the Bigblueboy set has some extra requirements. The doors now have a backside structure, though not the correct one I suspect. I found a rectangular profile in stead of their diamond pattern. They also request to open up the airplane hangar in two levels. Then the atlantic bow deck is completely covered with a large PE plate sporting the correct anti-slip pattern. It's so nice I rue that it won't be available for Dunkerque, that has got a bland chequered pattern from Hobbyboss.

Steven Van Dyck Author
The Strasbourg deck is further elaborated. The front splash guard has 32 triangular teeth, but you get 2 spares for each of the instances. So you can lose an entire set without stalling the project. You also get some 2D bitts that I rather changed to 3D, using PE rings and wire. The front deck house is replaced with PE, but it has 8 windows so I painted the inside black. The airplane hangar is a complicated design but it has a fully functional elevator.

Jörg Schäfer
A real Steven Van Dyck, I'll stay on board. 😁
As always, excellent precision.

Ingmar Stöhr
I always like it, if you get some spares for the tiniest parts! As long as there is space on the fret, it doesn't cost the manufacturer anything and it helps calm your nerves.

Steven Van Dyck Author
Thanks for the attention, today there is much PE work to be seen on Strasbourg. Large anti-skid surfaces are provided, that don't always seem to be carried in reality. This is hard to corroborate because the topside is rarely seen in detail on the pictures, the one I found didn't have it. All doors and bollards for Strasbourg are replaced. I hope to find some for Dunkerque this weekend too when I'm at IPMS Houten, the set for Dunkerque doesn't have these.

Steven Van Dyck Author
The searchlight platform on both ships is getting wire supports in stead of clunky plastic. Then the Dunkerque funnel is upgraded. I decided to cut a hole in the plastic part under the funnel cap, though I think the grid should have been canted like in the diagram from Wikipedia. But this is so schematic that won't try to change that. Lots of footrails are added, I drilled holes for these.

Steven Van Dyck Author
A minor setback, in stead of fret G I got twice fret H in the BBB Strasbourg set. What should have been included are most of the smokestack parts you see on Dunkerque already and a lot of railing. But that can be replaced of course.

Ingmar Stöhr
Coming along nicely! Great work with the support pillars and also all the microscopic PE parts! Sorry to hear that you got the wrong sprue. Hope you can sort this out!

Steven Van Dyck Author
Thanks Ingmar, I was already able to construct most of the Strasbourg smokestack. You can see it in this update together with the Dunkerque conning tower that is growing level by level.

Ingmar Stöhr
You are really keeping up the pace!

Steven Van Dyck Author
Here I am again, with an update on Dunkerque's superstructure. Some complicated railings to shape, the director top with a radio mast and seven searchlights are all improved with Shipyard. But for the bollards and the anti-skid plates I did an order at MB König. It appears the Flyhawk bollards 1 and 3 can be used. But the IJN anti-skid is too fine so I ordered Ace a-002 now, this should be identical to Strasbourg.

Treehugger
Q1: Have you decided on any one paint scheme? (unsure if you pointed this out in the past)
I think a plain gray would look nicer than one with camo, as a plain gray would I think enhance all the details, while a camo will be distracting I think.

Q2: Any idea if MicroMaster big-turret parts for these ships, are old products or if they were created recently? I think I've seen photos of yellow'ish color.

Steven Van Dyck Author
I've bought the paint yesterday, it will be Atlantic scheme. These ships were both plain dark grey in their later career, even after arriving in the Mediterranean. For the turrets there is at least this 4 year old link: britmodeller.com/for..que-hobby-boss-1350/

Steven Van Dyck Author
I scratched a replacement bow plate for Dunkerque, by engraving lots of small lines with a scalpel. Then the piece was hammered and glued to the bow, some holes were filled in. The Flyhawk bollards #2 were a perfect fit, #3 is slightly overscale (test-fit pic 136) so I sunk these in the deck plates for a bit. Now the Strasbourg conning tower is tackled.

Ingmar Stöhr
Wow, nice job on your own makeshift PE!

Steven Van Dyck Author
Thanks, Ingmar. Even more PE is schratched for the sides of the conning tower. The supports for the tower of Strasbourg come from 3 locations, A is from Hobbyboss' own PE set, B is from Bigblueboy and C was apparently forgotten by them and is being retrieved from the pre-1940 platform Shipyard provided for Dunkerque. I also used some wire for the supports.

Ingmar Stöhr
Wow! Great effort and great result!

Steven Van Dyck Author
Now the Strasbourg conning tower received a PE front structure and also the director assembly that Dunkerque had. But the platforms on that are not to be embellished like Shipyard did, so I managed that with some lingering Essex catwalk parts. The searchlights have a nice elevation cogwheel and some steel deck houses are added.

Steven Van Dyck Author
The superstructure is now adorned with lots of small PE particles like ammo lockers, venting tubes and davits. For the rear director a brass plate is rolled in a cylinder. The rear mast got some fine yardarms and a radio antenna. The typical French Marine motto plates are compared and BBB with version B comes out as best, with the octagonal edge correctly shaped. Nevertheless they omit some spacing on the sides. Shipyard (C) has the spacing but the vertical edge is too short and Hobbyboss (A and D) has them almost rectangular with a coarse surface. The Micromaster main turrets are true to the plans of the ships . The top view of these plans shows the guns a lot shorter than the side view, so I cross-checked with pictures. I only noticed that the muzzles of the turret barrels are overscale, so replacing the barrels with brass will improve that. Thr printing was set to medium quality, so I treated the surfaces with a sharp blade to remove the small ridges.

Ingmar Stöhr
You really keep up the high pace and the quality! Looking all great so far!

Steven Van Dyck Author
Thanks, Ingmar. Now both main turrets have their barrels replaced, one with the BBB brass barrels and one with Master Models aluminum ones that have the correct muzzle. Dunkerque's wood deck is coming over the scratched anti-skid plate so that one will have to be trimmed.

Treehugger
Nice work on those turret barrels. 🙂

Hugh CAST.
Your job is really amazing. I've some nice PDFs on these elegant battleships. If you want me to send you these documents, give me your E-Mail adress by private message.

Steven Van Dyck Author
Thanks for the info, Hugh. The update today is mostly about the smaller guns. For the 90mm coaxial guns I decided to add the Shipyard anti-skid platform PE on top of the resin turrets. I had to replicate these parts for Strasbourg out of IJN anti-skid plating. Then the 130mm guns are improved. BBB got the calibre wrong so I used Master Models barrels instead, but its mantlet hatches are the better ones and it has opened and closed versions. I used those for both ships then. Shipyard had the better director PE, but there is none left for Strasbourg. Now the large director on Dunkerque's mast is built like those built earlier, but with only railing in stead of a plate around the lookuout.

Steven Van Dyck Author
The aft director of Dunkerque is built, also with a mast a little different. Now the 37mm guns are built, but only Strasbourg gets brass guns for now. I'm looking for a three-bladed prop for her, while Dunkerque gets the four-bladed kit props like they are showing on a reference pic. They had different engines and thus different propulsion.

Ingmar Stöhr
Great work - as always! In a picture 215 the yard arm on top of the rear range finder??? Seems to be at a strange angle, or is it only the camera and perspective?

Steven Van Dyck Author
Thanks, Ingmar! You should compare with picture 170, the shape is an uneven X.

Ingmar Stöhr
Perspective.... LOL

Steven Van Dyck Author
The boats are now constructed with BBB PE, that brings planking on the otherwise bland plastic deck, together with brass propellers, railing and steering equipment. I painted the interior of the covered boats black. Shipyard PE is without the planking parts, so I will try there too to scratch something. I also ordered 5 sets from Master Models to have some brass 13.2mm guns and a complementary 37mm set for Dunkerque.

Treehugger
Looks like you have proper counter rotating propellers. On the Hobby Boss 1:350 Guam kit, they didn't bother adding counter rotating propellers. I had to saw two of the four propellers, separating the spinner from the prop blades, flipping the prop blades part around, and gluing the spinner back on, on the "other" side. An easy fix.

Steven Van Dyck Author
Eight more boats are done for Strasbourg. Here I forgot to paint the interior...

Steven Van Dyck Author
Today the Dunkerque boats are finished, with plastic superstructures and scratchbuilt wood decks. I need to keep some parts as a dry-fit to paint these, like the decks and the carts.

Steven Van Dyck Author
The catapults are made, with some differences between BBB and Shipyard, but both are an improvement over the kit. I scratched the pressure cylinders. Strasbourg's ship cranes are also built, but suffer from brittleness.

Steven Van Dyck Author
The crane story is continued with Dunkerque's plastic boat cranes and airplane crane and the full metal Strasbourg crane. Two small pieces of railing kept falling off that one. I then removed the superstructures and added the bilge keels and propulsion system. I added the BBB lettering to the stern, choosing the individual lettering. Both sides needed multiple attempts, the starboard letters were all set when it became apparent that the portholes are not symmetrical. I had to move all letters again. For Dunkerque this lettering is not included in the Shipyard set and I dind't find enough generic lettering yet.

Ingmar Stöhr
Wow! The name from individual letters looks very clean and in line! Great work!

Lorraine Lin
Agree with Ingmar, the PE letter looks perfect!

Steven Van Dyck Author
Thanks, guys. For Dunkerque I had no brass lettering left. But for some reason I kept the plastic lettering that I had scraped from the Trumpeter logo under the Essex flight decks. Because I had two of these, each letter featured at least twice in the bag. I could almost spell Dunkerque because it looks like "Trumpeter". Only K and Q had to be scratched. with Tamiya glue they were attached to the hull. It's not as shiny as Strasbourg, but it's a lot better than nothing.

Ingmar Stöhr
Amazing!

Steven Van Dyck Author
Thanks, Ingmar. Now I have the anti-skid plating, I was able to apply this to all Dunkerque's concerned superstructure parts. It's got the same patterning dimension as BBB's Strasbourg set, only a bit coarser. I also got the Master Models AA guns now, these are for the next update.

Steven Van Dyck Author
The boat supports are now added on Dunkerque's new anti-skid plate. Also the superstructure is finally united. To do this, I removed the platform of the conning tower to better fit this to the deck. Then I built the five sets of AA guns from Master. The 13.2 mm set is very easy compared to the other brands, because all PE parts are added to the resin with a fitting frame. I first looked at the BBB and Shipyard PE for these guns. Shipyard seems totally overscale compared to the other two, though I didn't measure overall dimensions. BBB seemed comparable to Master, and at first I tried to combine that PE with the Master barrel block, but parts of the BBB PE are interfering with the cog on the breech block. Eventuelly I used the Master sets exclusively.

Steven Van Dyck Author
Dunkerque is now receiving the last details before painting. Both splash guards, all doors, railing, ladders, munition lockers and even the large mainstays on the conning towers are now added. Next will be the same for Strasbourg and then the painting stage can begin.

Doubtingmango
Just grabbed a seat. Beautiful work and detail!

Guy Rump
Impressive modelling, watching. 👍

Rui S
Impressive, indeed, as always 👍

Steven Van Dyck Author
Thanks guys, today it's Strasbourg stealing the show with the A-turret splash guard and some deck houses that are replaced with PE. I also bought some model ship supports, but these are for wooden ships with a center keel. Therefore they are sunk into the plastic hulls. The diameter is 11mm, so it takes some wriggling to make these holes out of a 10mm drill. A countersunk is used and then the edge is scraped until the support passes.

Steven Van Dyck Author
Strasbourg now got the yardarms to its superstructure. These are even nicer than Dunkerque's. I managed to fix the ship supports to the plank and the ships sink around them with ease. I bought a third commemorative coin for MN Richelieu, though that build lies somewhere in the future. To show these coins, I wanted them to rest in plexiglass supports. I had some trouble at first to drill a fitting hole. I had a broken saw for 51mm but that's too big and very slow to turn by hand. I then bought a new one drilling much better but the hole was only 48mm. I found a way to get to 50mm with the core of the 51mm drill that fit into the 48mm hole, using my Proxxon drill to remove the last mm while turning the support around the core. after some sanding the coin stuck into the support and it will not fall out. Now the second bracket will be made quite soon.

Steven Van Dyck Author
Both coins are now installed on the base in such a manner that both sides remain visible and the names can be read from a side view. The turret guidance rails are added to Strasbourg, it has them for both turrets where Shipyard has only the second one. But BBB doesn't have the railing for the second turret base, I'll have to scratch that.

Steven Van Dyck Author
I made the catwalk around the second Strasbourg turret from Joefix extra fine metal net and a piece of railing from the fret that was delivered double. Then I started the 4 Loire 135 floatplanes. When the blue painted canopies were closed, the two planes for the catapults got BBB PE. It was a good thing I have a reference book for them, the instructions in the PE manual are not very detailed. It's not clear from the wing parts that a bit of dihedral is needed. Because of that, If you fix the spanners for the floats parallel to the wing, the floats are not parallel to the fuselage. The two planes that will be made in stowed condition, will get Shipyard PE. That will probably not be easy.

Steven Van Dyck Author
Both ship hulls are now painted using Gunze H 333 as base, Taniya NATO black as dark tone and a drop of white to tone down. For the hull red is used Gunze russet, Tamiya dark brown and Gunze H 7. The deck is painted NATO brown to eliminate the wood grain and then Vallejo light sand primer was applied until it was tan again. The two planes I have left got the wings clipped and plied back. A lot of components were unmounted to get the planes into the hangar.

Steven Van Dyck Author
The wood decks are fixed with an extra glue layer under the sticker. The boat rails of Strasbourg were a lot of work for something you wont see appearing through the thick wood deck. They have to be applied perfectly along the etchlines but they don't protrude far enough through the deck to show that they are placed on spacers. But I guess the kit rails wouldn't even have appeared at all. In Dunkerque there was no PE for the rails, but there is a transparent film showing up through the slits. I also painted the foredeck and th superstructure decks in Gunze H54 Deck Blue. This will now have to be masked for the final camo paint.