L'Arsenal Review

Reviewed by Martin J Quinn
January 2019

L'Arsenal has released a set of replacement main battery turrets for the French Battleship Richelieu, set AC 350 218, Tourelles principales du Richelieu 1/350. The set includes enough parts to build two main battery turrets.

Click to enlarge images

RICHELIEU REPLACEMENT TURRETS

This upgrade set includes two resin main battery turrets, eight turned brass barrels, nine resin blast bags, four resin platforms for the sides of the turrets (2 for each turret), two small resin guns that sit on the aforementioned platforms, and a small piece of photo-etch railing. The casting on the resin parts is good, but not great. There is a bit of flash that needs to be cleaned up, especially on the turrets, and a few pin holes that will need to be filled and sanded. The molded on ladders on the faces of both turrets and on the sides of turret two are better than the kit ladders, but I think I'd shave them off and replace them with photo-etch.

The brass barrels look very good, and capture the unique shape of the these guns, especially without the blast bags. For those using the blast bags, you'll have to cut the barrel down to size to fit into the resin blast bag. These brass barrels also correct the odd step that Trumpeter depicted on the muzzles of it's plastic barrels.

For those building the post-1943 refit version of Richelieu, you'll have to use the kit supplied 20mm gun tubs on top of the resin turret two.

Close ups of some of the parts details.





Here are some photos comparing the kit turrets to the L'Arsenal resin replacements. The resin turrets look more like the drawings of the Richelieu's main battery turrets, found in both "French Battleships, 1922-1956", by John Jordan & Robert Dumas, and "Allied Battleships in World War II", by William Garzke & Robert Dulin, than do the Trumpeter turrets.

PHOTO-ETCH

There is one small piece of photo-etch included in this upgrade set. It is a fret of railings, which are placed outside the small platforms on either sides of the turrets.

INSTRUCTIONS

The instructions are one page. They are very simple, but easy enough to follow. Mine look like they were folded before the ink was dry.

CONCLUSIONS

For modelers wanting to add the Français de la marine battleship Richelieu to their fleet, these turrets are a nice upgrade over the kit turrets. The resin turrets seem to do a better job of capturing the shape of the turrets, plus they eliminate the nasty ejector pin marks and seams that are prominent on the Trumpeter turrets. The resin blast bags and brass barrels are a huge improvement over the kit parts as well. This upgrade set is also less expensive than comparable 3D printed turrets currently available.

This is set L'Arsenal set AC 350 218, Tourelles principales du Richelieu 1/350. They retail for around $35.00 USD, and are available directly from L'Arsenal. Thanks to L'Arsenal for the review sample. Recommended.