French Navy Lyon Class Battleship
Reviewed by Timothy Dike
| The Lyon Class were designed as improved
Normandie Class Battleships. They were slightly smaller and lacked one
of the quad 13.4 inch turrets of the former class. This unique ship class
was never started due to the outbreak of World War One.
Imperial Hobby Productions continues their line of "never builts" with this French Battleship. This one will look good alongside your French Battlecruiser Grill, also of the same era. |
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| HULL | ||||||||||||
| The hull is cleanly cast and nicely detailed. The deck is cleanly planked and has a good amount of detailing. The portholes in the hull are fairly deep and probably wont require drilling. | Click images
to enlarge  |
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| SUPERSTRUCTURE PARTS | ||||||||||||
| The superstructure parts are cast on resin runners in a two part mold. That means both the top and bottom are cast with details. The detail on these parts is pretty good with a little bit of flash to be cleaned up. |  |
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The flash look worse than it actually is, most of it falls
off simply from handling the parts. What's left can be scraped away with
the edge of an exacto knife..
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| SHIPS BOATS AND SMALL PARTS | ||||||||||||
| The ships boats and launches are pretty well done. The Admirals launch includes cast on cradles for mounting on the deck. |  |
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| WEAPONS | ||||||||||||
| The main gun turrets are nicely cast with mounting holes for the gun barrels. They are attached to resin sprues for casting and this is the only point that you will have to clean up. Mounting holes are cast in to help locate the turrets. |  |
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| To dress out the turrets are turned brass 13.4 inch barrels. They are
nicely done, but not center drilled. This shouldn't be a problem as most
of the time they would have had tampions inserted in them to protect them
from the salt spray.
Also included are brass rod and metal anchor chain. I appreciate it when a manufacturer included these extra details. |
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| INSTRUCTIONS | ||||||||||||
The instructions are a single page front and back. The
first page includes a plan and elevation as well as some history and specs.
The second page includes several subassembly views that show the ship in
various stages of construction. Adequate for this build, but more information
would be appreciated.
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| CONCLUSIONS | ||||||||||||
This is a special interest kit and it is unlikely to be produced again. This one has already sold out, but is still listed as in stock at many of the online hobby shops that carry this line. The retail price of $130. may sound a bit steep to some, but fans of these "Never Builts" will appreciate this unique class of ship being offered in the waterline scale. Thanks to Imperial Hobby Productions for the review sample. Don't forget to check the website for a complete list of Ship kits in metal and resin. Mike Bartel has many more planned so stay tuned. |
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