by Eugene Drots
1/200 Bouvet (Scratchbuilt)
Here is my 1/200 scratchbuilt French battleship Bouvet. I used Evergreen plastic sheets, brass tubing of various diameter and photoetched GMM 1/200 two bar railing. My model represents Bouvet after modernization but before WW I. All photos and line drawings were used from Luc Feron book “Cuirasse D’Escadre Bouvet 1896.”
Huge thanks to Jim Bauman for giving me opportunity using his materials for this ship.
Additional photos of my models during construction can be found in my BOUVET folder at http://briefcase.yahoo.com/rramzay
She was 122,3m-long, powered by a 48000hp steam engine, with a max. Speed of 17kn; two 305mm guns, plus two 274mm and 46 lesser guns. Four torpedo-launchers.
The Bouvet was a Dreadnought-type French battleship, built during 1896. During the I WW, she tried to force the Dardanelles strait escorted by a British squadron: the Dardanelles were defended by Turkish forces, allied to Germany On March 18, 1915, the Bouvet entered the Dardanelles, but the minefields were so extensive that she couldn't avoid the collision with a floating mine. The battleship was devastated by the explosion, and rapidly sank in the strait. More then 670 men died.
