by Peter O'Donnell
1/400 FN Richelieu (Heller)
After a century of building the world's most ugly warships the French produced four of the most handsome capital ships of the era. Worried by German construction of the pocket battleships and Scharnhorst class battlecruisers the French sought British help to speed the design and construction of the 2 Dunkerque class battlecruisers (hence the forward main armament as in the British Nelson class battleships).
When the Germans started work on the Bismarck class of battleship the French responded by scaling up the design of the Dunkerque to produce the 2 Richelieu class battleships.
Finished just at the time of the fall of France the Richelieu was shelled by the Royal Navy to prevent it falling under German control. Eventually it was refitted in New York where the catapults and aircraft were removed and numerous anti-aircrft guns fitted as in the American fashion post Pearl Harbor, somewhat spoiling her clean lines. There is a story that because of the unavailability of French 380mm shells the barrels were bored out slightly so that British 15inch shells could be fired!
By the end of the war she was arguably the finest capital ship in Europe.
Model built using generic 1/400 railings in PE. She is depicted as she was immediatley post-war.
