Jaureguiberry

Well as my first official post I would like to introduce my current project. This is the Yumematu 1/700 Jaureguiberry, a late 19th century/early 20th century French pre-dreadnought battleship. There are very few French pre-dreadnought kits currently in existence in any scale. Three of them, Jaureguiberry, Massena, and Carnot, and currently available in very limited runs from Yumematu, with a fourth, Henri IV, available from Combrig. Rumor has it that Combrig may release a Danton-class vessel in the near future. An even more slight and unsubstantiated rumor whispers about a possible 1/350 Bouvet from a as-of-yet un-named European manufacturer. Only the 1/700 pre-World War I United States Navy comes anywhere near as close to being as neglected as the French Navy of the period. Some basic information about the Jaureguiberry can be found here. Additional excellent photos of the ship as well as other French pre-dreadnoughts can be found at the Tsushima.org.ru website.
I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of Jaureguiberry from a United States naval officer living in Japan with the help of Bob Cicconi here in the States. Currently only Pacific Front Hobbies lists any of the Yumematu kits, Carnot, with the comment that it is now permanently out of production. Massena and Jaureguiberry appear to be gone. Resin kits are almost always limited production pieces and the Jaureguiberry kit certainly fits the stereotype. The kit consists of approximately 40 or so resin parts of average quality along with a length of fine brass rod and two lengths of plastic rod. Uncommon for a 1/700 scale this kit includes an optional lower hull and associated parts for if the modeler chooses to build a full hull model. It is very rare to see a built 1/700 model in any fashion other than waterline and I find it curious that the lower hull was even included. Doubly curious is the fact that the upper hull casting is actually hollow. In keeping with the theme of the ship represented this is quite a bizarre little model kit! Photos of the kit parts can be found here. To see what the kit looks like built almost straight-from-the-box please see Bob Cicconi's wonderful build at SteelNavy.
My primary references for this kit are the previously mentioned Tsushima website photos as well as the online French Naval Archives which took the very impressive move this past year of digitizing and making available for free download several hundred sets of large scale French ship plans. The plans for Jaureguiberry can be found here. Unfortunately the plans are both a blessing and a curse. While they do show in a high degree of detail almost every aspect of the ship they also show that the kit has a few problems here and there. Coupled with the fact that the kit is a bit light on detail you have a recipe for a not-so-quick-and-easy build (then again, mine never are...no wonder I never seem to finish anything!). I will deal with the accuracy issues at a later date once I actually get to fixing them. At the moment the major foreseeable events will be the replacement of the deck, replacement of the deck houses, creation of new military masts, fighting tops, and bridge levels, new small caliber weapons, replacement of the main battery guns with turned brass barrels scrounged from the parts box, a new skin for the hull sides, and the opening of all the square port holes. Just about every media available in naval modeling will probably find it's way in here. While I cannot guarantee this will be worked on continously or even finished in the near future I do hope that some of the information I pass along will help you, the reader, in some way.