The first time my model of the Charles de Gaulle was put in the water was in July 2005. Primarily, I wanted to see how well the anti-roll stabilizers worked and I was quite satisfied with them. As can be seen in pictures 1 to 6, only the hull and superstructure have been given any paint. The next series of pictures, numbers 7 to 11, show the ship in a nearly completed state. This test was made almost two years after the first one at an area of calm water near my home in southern France. A short video (38 seconds) of the CDG in the water can be seen at:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x24rw4.dscn3037.webcam

Picture 13 (above) and pictures 14 to 21 below show the Charles de Gaulle on display at a model festival held every year in Cannes. This is a large and well-attended festival with many wonderful creations on display and is certainly not limited to ships alone. I attended this year’s festival (2010) at Cannes but took no pictures of carriers; however, closer to home this year was the 9th annual display of naval models and I brought both the Foch and the Charles de Gaulle with me. Picture 22 is a newspaper reference to this event and it was very flattering for me (even though the caption was incorrect on the bottom picture – that’s the Foch I am standing beside, not the Charles de Gaulle). Two further videos of features on the Charles de Gaulle can be seen at:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xefz7x_radar-du-cdg-en-rotation-maquette-a_creation and

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdxvug_creation

It took about seven years to begin and complete the Charles de Gaulle, roughly the same time it took to build the Foch. Hopefully, I can compress the time if I choose to build France’s next carrier, known simply as PA2 (the second porte-avions). A few years ago the French government joined with the British in designing two carriers for the Royal Navy and one for the Marine Nationale. Compromises were made (the first and most important was for France to agree to have conventional, rather than nuclear, propulsion) and for over a year teams of engineers worked together. After millions were spent by France, the new French government decided to postpone the decision to build while the British have gone ahead and are constructing their new carriers, the Queen Elizabeth and the Prince of Wales. Economic and budget problems in Britain have threatened the completion of these carriers and similar problems in France led the government to delay any decision on building a second carrier to 2011-2012. Interestingly, if PA2 is built it will most likely have nuclear power for despite all the problems with the Charles de Gaulle, the Marine Nationale is convinced that nuclear power is the best propulsion for the large vessel (65,000-75,000 tons)it wants to have built. So…. if France builds PA2 then so will I. But before that happens, I will provide a photo-essay (not a full series of construction articles) on my completed model of the Foch. I will have it posted before the end of this year.

Merci,

Daniel Gallardo