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1/350 Scale La Marseillaise Boats Review
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by Felix Bustelo |
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Back
in February of 2024, Graham Holmes wrote a very thorough review of the
then new 1/350 scale Trumpeter kit of the French cruiser La
Marseillaise,
in which he discussed the pros and cons of the kit. Among the short
comings were the general lack of detail and, based on one of his references,
the layout of the ship’s boats did not match any of the vessels for any
of the time period for the ships in this class. In addition, the number
and size of the boats for the time period depicted are different. Graham
also lamented that the kit would greatly benefit from aftermarket parts,
such as 3D printed upgrades, but as of that time, such items for Marine
Nationale ships were limited or simply not available. Since then, there
have been several new 3D printed accessories and sets made specifically
for the Trumpeter kit and one of those is the La Marseillaise Boat Set
from Belgium based Swordfish Models.
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| 1/350 Scale La Marseillaise Boats | |||||||||||||
| The Swordfish Models set is a direct
replacement for the boats in the Trumpeter kit and not necessarily meant
to be a correction for the apparent inaccuracy pointed out in the kit review.
The Swordfish Models set provides two 8m whaleboats, two 10.5m motor launches,
2 9m motorboats and one 9m captain’s motor launch. The printing is quite
good and with great detail. The whaleboats and launches have wood planking
inside and thwarts. The motorized boats have grab handles and jack and
ensign staffs. The 9m motorboats have realistic looking canopies. For the
boats stowed on deck, the set includes the cradles which actually look
like boat cradles. Compare the photos of the 3D printed boats in this set
to those of the boats in Graham’s review and you will see how the Swordfish
Models versions are light years better.
All of the boats and cradles come on a number of supports attached to a print raft. The attachment points are very thin but care should be taken to remove the items to prevent damage. The entire set comes inside a flip-top box and secured with some very strong double-sided tape. While this kept the set in place during shipping to the New York area, it took some effort for me to remove it from the tape to prevent damage. |
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| CONCLUSIONS | |||||||||||||
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As
you can see when compared to the Trumpeter kit boats, the Swordfish Models
versions are far superior in terms of detail and are a welcome replacement.
Granted, this set does not address the errors in the boat layout in the
kit. However, it does provide an upgrade to the kit parts. Swordfish Models
also has a number of other Marine Nationale boats available on their website
if you wish to build a more correct model. The set runs for €24.95,
which is approximately $25.99 US, and a lot less expensive than buying
the boats separately. Highly recommended.
My thanks to Swordfish Models for providing this review sample. |
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