| The French Anti Aircraft Cruiser Guichen
began life as the Italian Cruiser Scipione Africano in 1939. Active in
the Mediterranean from 1943 until the surrender of Italian forces. She
was taken over by France after the war for reparations and renamed the
Guichen. The ship was modernized several times and actually served well
into the Cold War. She was laid up in 1961 and eventually scrapped in the
mid 70's.
This new Niko Models kit represents the ship in her 1954 fit. |
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| HULL |
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| The Hull on my kit is well cast with a little flash on
the bottom of the hull. This is easy to fix and not a problem. The top
side detailing is very nice, and very sharp and well defined. |
click images
to enlarge
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| Overhanging deck surfaces have cleanly cast undersides
and many of the deck fittings have some amazing details cast on.
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| SUPERSTRUCTURE |
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| Superstructure parts also well detailed. They feature really nice surface
detailing. The windows in the various parts really stand out and have no
flash or resin blobs. The funnels are have grill detail cast on. |
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| Doors and hatches as well as some other equipment detail
is very well cast. Even the ladder up the funnel side is well cast and
detailed enough that you wont have to replace it with photo etch. There
are a few areas that need some minor clean up, but overall these are really
nice parts.
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| SMALL DETAIL ITEMS |
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| A variety of gun turrets, boats, rafts, and fittings are included with
very fine detailing. The gun barrels even appear to be cast to scale. There
is only a light touch of flash on these parts and clean up will be minor. |
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I dry fitted the superstructure to the hull and it looks like this will
be an easy ship to build. |
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| PHOTO ETCH |
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| A relief etch brass photo etch fret is included to add the fine details.
Detailed mast and yardarms, boat davits, and radar assemblies are just
some of the nice items included. |
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| You will have to supply your own railings. But since many
of us have those in abundance, it is not a problem.
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| DECALS |
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| A decal sheet is included with the French flag. Two sizes and styles
along with pennants are included. |
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| BUILDUP PHOTOS |
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Here are some photo's from Niko
Models website showing the completed ship.
The ship is shown built out of the box with only kit include parts.
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| INSTRUCTIONS |
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| The Instructions are two pages with the standard plan and
profile on one pages and exploded views on the other. I would defiantly
like to see more as this is a really nice kit and the instructions don't
do it justice.
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| CONCLUSIONS |
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:
Yet another finely cast kit brought to you by Pacific
Front Hobbies. Available now for $39.00 (US) in the latest Pacific
Front Update, a fantastic price for a ship of this size and detail.
It will make a fine addition to your post war French fleet. If you would
rather build it in her Italian wartime service, then Niko also makes this
kit as the Scipione Africano and many other French and Italian warships. |
