John's Model Shipyard 1/1200 MN102 Strasbourg a kit to make the French WW2 battlecruiser
Strasbourg is a resin, 3-D printed kit to make a 1/1200 scale model of the French fast battleship. With their eight 340mm (13.4 inch)main guns mounted in two quadruple gun turrets forward of the bridge and high turn of speed, the Strasbourg and Dunkerque are often referred to as battlecruisers. The hull and superstructure are printed in one piece and gun turrets (supplied) and masts and spars (not supplied) need to be fitted and the whole painted to complete the model. This kit is supplied by John's Model Shipyard, No. MN102.
A model of Strasbourg completed from the kit is shown in the larger photograph moored infront of a model of her sistership, Dunkerque, as they were when they were outside the harbour of Mers el Kebir in 1940. The models have been painted in the darker Atlantic grey livery of ships based in western ports of France and they retained this livery when they were tied up in the harbour when the Royal Navy attacked after the France surrendered to Germany and Admiral Darland refused to have his ships interned in British controlled ports.
In 1939 Strasbourg, in company with the French aircraft carrier Bearn, comprised a hunting group searching for the German armoured ship, Graf Spee. The Strasbourg and Dunkerque had been designed to combat the threat to Allied trade from these German commerce raiders and they were faster and more heavily armed than the pocket battleships.
Strasbourg escaped to Toulon during the action with the British but Dunkerque was badly damaged. Both ships were scuttled in Toulon two years later by the French to prevent their use by the Germans when they overan Vichy controlled France.