by Christoph Mentzel
1/700 Dunkerque in Mers-El-Kebir, 1940 (Samek)
The Dunkerque was a battlecruiser of the French navy. She and her sistership Strasbourg (built from modified plan), were the French answer to the German "pocket battleships" of the Deutschland class. They were good and powerful ships of their time and the first modern French capital ships. In the first month of the war they saw both several combats, together with their Allied friends of the Royal Navy against the Kriegsmarine in the Atlantic. In 1940 they were both transfered to the Mediterranean and were stationed at Mers-el-Kebir.
The kit is from Samek and overall has a good quality. Today the kit is long out of production. The only kit of this class is now the WSW Strasbourg.
I have built a harbour diorama of Mers-El-Kebir, which I have seen a nice picture of at that time.
To the Samek kit I have added several PE parts from L'Arsenal like the new catapult, parts for the Loire seaplane ( both pre-productions ) and the Valeur-Honneur-Discipline-Patrie logos from the french Navy. At this point i would like to thank by Jaques and Gilbert from L'Arsenal for their support by my questions about this project.!! Thanks a lot:-)
The smaller harbour boats are part of the Loose Cannon set of working boats.
