These are pictures of my conversion of the old Heller 1:400 scale kit of the battleship Richelieu into the Clemenceau. The Clemenceau was the third of the Richelieu class, a little modified (new superstructures), and was laid down in January 1939. In April construction was slowed down because finishing the Richelieu became urgent. At the time of the war declaration, the construction was almost stopped. When Metropolitan France fell in June, the ship was only 10% completed. In March 1941, the Germans patched the holes in the hull to make her floatable, and she was launched and towed to Landevennec, because the Germans needed the drydock for Gneisenau and other big ships. The Clemenceau stayed in this condition at Landevennec until the end, and was damaged by allied bombing in 1944. She was scrapped after the war. The conversion of the kit is not so easy as I thought at the beginning because of the new fore superstructures, new AA guns, new seaplane and others small things. Photo-Etch and catapult are from L'Arsenal, other parts are from scratch.

Eric Courtial
France

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