1/700 French Destroyer L'Adroit (Scratchbuilt)

Here’s another example of my fascination by the French school of shipbuilding from the 30ies, the destroyer (le torpilleur d’escadre) l’Adroit, ex. l’Epée of the le Hardi class.

In the second half of the 30ies the French Navy realized that they don’t have any destroyers that could be used for escorting the latest fast battleships, Dunkerque, Strasbourg, Richelieu. The existing destroyers of the Bourrasque/Simoun class, with their max. speed below 30 knts. were simply too slow. That’s how le Hardi was designed.

The new ships could easily reach 37 knts at full load, carried 6 130 mm (3xII) guns and had 7 torpedo tubes (2xII and 1xIII).

The AA defense was rather weak and consisted of 2 37 mm (1xII) guns and 4 13.2 mm Hotchkiss MGs.

My model depicts l’Adroit (the name was used for the second time to commemorate the destroyer lost earlier in the war) in 1942, as she appeared just before being scuttled in Toulon on Nov 27th, 1942.

Her AA armament was reinforced by introducing the new 25 mm Hotchkiss guns in front and relocating the 13.2 mm MGs to the quarterdeck. The 8mm Browning MGs were placed on special platforms on both the sides of the X turret, or, as it was called by the French “pseudo-tourelle”.

The tricolour identification bands were applied at the A and Y turrets.

The model is entirely scratch-built, inclusive of the decals, with the Eduard PE railings. The Bill of Materials includes also my wife’s hair for rigging and my cat’s whiskers for arms on the artillery dials

Gallery updated 3/22/2023

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