The French Navy's newest aircraft carrier, the
Charles de Gaulle, has the distinction of being the only nuclear-powered carrier built in western Europe. Slated to replace the carrier
Foch in 2000,
De Gaulle is 858' long and carries navalized versions of the Rafale, E-2C Hawkeye, and Super Etendard, plus NH 90 and Dauphin helicopters.
Heller's
Charles de Gaulle is molded in 153 light gray parts. The hull is cast as a single piece with no provision for a waterline version. The moldings are thick and heavy, and detail is crisp, but sparse. You get 12 Rafales, two Hawkeyes, eight Super Etendards, and two helicopters. Several deck-handling vehicles are also supplied.
The 17-page, 20-step instructions are clearly illustrated with numbers indicating parts, decals, and paints. The problem, though, is there are no color names, only numbers for Humbrol enamels - if you don't know what number paint each one is, you won't know what colors to use. (If you have the December 1996 FSM, page 73 lists Humbrol paints by number.) Here is a translation: 27 = matt sea gray, 73 = matt white, 85 = coal black, 127 = U.S. Light Ghost Gray, 12 = copper, 24 = yellow, and 19 = red.
The four-color decals are crisp and in register. All the flight-deck markings are supplied, along with French roundels for the aircraft. A nice feature are decal stripes for the black boot-topping for the hull - that sure made painting the hull a snap.
Assembly was straightforward, and the fit was good, but there were a few gaps at the joint between the flight deck and the hull, and at several points on the island. To minimize the flight deck/hull gaps, I cemented and squared each end of the deck, then glued towards the middle section of the hull. Gaps on the flight deck forward and aft were unavoidable, but easily filled and sanded. The island gaps were openings at the corners of joined bulkheads, all easily filled and sanded.
I painted and decaled after completing assembly. I used Polly Scale U.S. Light Ghost Gray overall. The instructions don't indicate, but overhead photos at the French Navy's website (
www-perso.infini.fr/marine/bat/cdg/index.htm) show the island's decks and the catwalks along the flight deck painted in a dark gray. I painted them with Polly Scale Sea Gray. I finished the hull with Tamiya's Hull Red below the waterline. Before I began decaling, I gave the entire kit a coat of Polly Scale clear gloss.
All 24 decals for the flight deck went down beautifully! The main landing strip (close to 12" long) was a bit daunting, so I cut it into four pieces. After an application of Micro Sol for the decals that went over detail, I sprayed on Polly Scale clear flat.
The kit scales well to the information supplied on the French Navy website. This kit should appeal to both beginner and advanced modeler alike. It's a breeze to assemble, building into a good model straight from the box - yet there's room for lots of detailing and the addition of photoetched railings. I spent only about 10 hours on my
de Gaulle.