French Dilemma

Here is the current pickle I am in. I would really like to build a French ship, with that being said I decided on the Jean Bart BUT!!!! The Ole J.B. has no stern gun which seems to be a must for fast gun battling. I cannot tell you how much this disturbs me 6.5 units and no stern mount!!!!
That is like putting a five horse briggs stratton in a 68 Camaro,.... C'mon man. So I still want to build a French ship. So does anyone have any suggestions for me? Here is my wish list 1: 3.5 units or better 2: Good plans to work with. well thats about it.
I have plenty of time to work on the model which is why I choose to go with a scratch built, Although I am not above buying a ship out right if anyone is interested in selling( just to get in the fights sooner and practice a whole lot before time.)

 

3 guns 3.5 pumps....very survivable.

 

JB is not an easy ship to battle. It's biggest strength are the duel sidemounts. BUT it takes a lot of battles for a new guy to become a good sidemount captain. You'd be trading sidemounts with other ships that are much better than you. If you can take the pounding and sinking at some point you'll become a good sidemount captain. But it will not be an easy ship to learn on.
If you have RC, wood working, electrical... experiance you can start out with a big battleship. If you have none of these a cruiser is best. Check out portpolarbear.com, look in the report section for more info.
The French have many very good cruisers.

 

Dunkirk/Strasbourg would be a good ship to start on if yuo have some RC experience. Smaller than JB, similar layout with a sidemount in each main turret and a stern gun in one of the rear secondaries. Learning sidemounts is harder than stern guns, but at least you'll be in a smaller ship. Also, the French have some great cruisers. The Suffren class is one of the very few with twin rudders, I built one of these for my first ship and it was a real easy build to get into the hobby with.

 

The only thing bad I can say about a Suffren is that she is a french cruiser. She is a really great first ship. That said, you should build the ship you want to but be warned the JB is a big billboard that takes a lot of skill to battle effectively.

 

The Bart and Richy will almost always not turn as well as other ships. The hull form, while sleek and fast, does not lend itself well to turning dynamics (much like the Iowa). Add in a single (albeit large) rudder and the ships will come up lacking in turning compared to smaller ships or big dual rudder ships.

Yet the ships are not hopeless by any means. They just need a different battling style. Over a couple years, I learned to use the Richy like a big cruiser. Slash in to sidemount (and those dual sidemounts can put a hurt on someone) a ship then bug out of town before the better turning ships can swarm the Richy. If it stopped moving for more than a moment, the Richy was dead meat.

The buldged Jean Bart is on my building list. That hull just looks too cool not to build someday. With the lessons learned from the Richelieu, I can make it a respectable ship. Not to mention it will have the cannon technology that the Richelieu didn't have. Heh. One of the ideas I have been contemplating is ditching the solo stern cannon and installing a second pump for more survivability. Usually I would not even think of giving up a cannon for an added pump, yet that single stern cannon is barely a deterent to other ships and might be put to better use as an extra pump.

I'll echo previous posts; if the builder has the skills and wants to build the ship then go for it. Realize that the Bart is not the most competative ship on the water and go with it for the fun and learning expirience. My first ship was the Richelieu and although it was not a world beater, I had immense fun building and battling a unique ship in our hobby.

If looking for a competative French ship in fast gun, the Suffern cruiser is very good. Also, the Verite PDN is a good little ship with great turning and a sting that can frustrate other captains trying to pin it down. Heh. I also wonder if a Bretagne DN might work well with it's oversized single rudder.

 

I would love to see a bulged Jean Bart out on the water.
It is a great looking ship.
As some have already mentioned. It is somewhat challenging to run.
It would certainly be helpful if you can find someone in your region to build with, and even better if you found
a teammate to run with often.
Make sure that it is reliable, and build whatever you like.
Mikey

 

After giving this matter much thought, I have decided to give you some very good advice. Just between Frenchman.
If you are looking to build something French that will be a pretty good ship, but not great, in order to skipper a ship that
will allow you to battle on either team in order to help out the underdog at any given event, and be a good addition to your
team, without totally tipping the balance in your team's favor, then there is only one ship that will totally fit that bill.
It has the following.
Two main turrets forward, so that you can fight offensively
6 inch turrets aft, so that you can mount a stern cannon for defense.
4 shafts, and a single centerline rudder, so it will turn pretty good, but perhaps not great.
A nice simple hull with no belts, bulges, or tumblehome, for ease of building.
How many guesses do you all need?
Mikey

 

Richelieu class.

 

Dunkirk

 

Dunkirk had 5.1" secondaries aft. That was my first guess too.

 

I was talking about the Jeanne D' Arc.
She is a French purpose-built training ship for midshipmen.
She should be able to give pretty much any US, British, German, Japanese, Italian, and even Russian ship a run for it's money.
I was under the impression that the idea was to build something that would give the other team a chance.
Now, if the new guy is looking to dominate the waters, and humiliate his opponents with a Frenchie.
Then yes. A Richelieu class battleship would fit the bill. It wouldn't matter if he is on the allied, or axis team.
Vive la France!
Mikey

 

Heh, wasn't expecting a light cruiser that had only 2 shafts.

 

Yeh. Sorry about the two shafts thing. I overlooked that.
That makes it a little less funny I suppose.
Mikey