The French aircraft carrier BEARN was commissioned in 1927.  Built on the hull of a NORMANDIE Class battleship, which was laid down in 1914, the 22,000 ton, 600 foot long ship was slow, and not much larger than the small British HERMES.  She was France's only carrier until the end of World War II.  
 
Utilized in the first few months of the war as part of the French force assigned to hunting down the GRAF SPEE, she subsequently was employed in training and then to carry the French gold reserves to Canada.  After that she went to the U.S. to load up planes for transport to France.  Enroute to France with her aircraft load, the Armistice caused her to divert to Martinique with her escorting  cruisers EMILE BERTIN and JEANNE D'ARC.  There, the ships were effectively interned and demilitarized under pressure from the U.S.  
 
In June 1943, the three ships were turned over to the Free French and refitted in the U.S.  BEARN did not leave Martinique until 1944, and although most of the work was finished by January 1945, her refitting was not fully completed until March 1945.  She emerged as an aircraft transport, with a shortened flight deck. The ship was provided with an unusually heavy armament for a ship not much larger than a standard escort carrier, of four 5/38" guns six quad 1.1" guns and twenty-six 20mm guns.  Why an aircraft transport was given such a heavy armament is unclear, although it is possible that the French convinced the U.S. Navy that it was necessary since the ship was unlikely to be escorted, as U.S. were.  It is also interesting that the ship was supplied with six quad 1.1" guns, a very large allotment.  This was odd because all other French ships refitted in the U.S. were given the more modern 40mm quad and the 1.1" obsolete by 1943, was being replaced on U.S. ships as fast as 40mm mounts were available.  Obviously in 1945, there was a surplus of 1.1" guns, and an obsolete ship like BEARN must have seemed like an ideal candidate for them.  Although a poor comparison to her pre-war contemporaries in the U.S., British and Japanese navies, she survived them all, serving in various capacities until 1967.
 
 
This model of the BEARN circa 1945 was converted from the Neptun model (N 1410) which depicts the ship as she was in the late 1930's.  The attached photos show the progress of this conversion.  A lot of parts had to be removed or altered.  The flight deck had to be cut back by about a half an inch both fore and aft.  Most of the boats had to be removed, the 6.1" guns and barbettes had to be filed off some of the catwalks removed and numerous parts had to be constructed and added on.  The model was then painted in Ms 33:  5L, 5O, and 5N.  
 
This is not a conversion that I would recommend to novices.  There is a great deal of cutting required, and parts to be made. I found it difficult to get good documentation of all the changes, hence I am sure that there are some errors in my work.  I take sole responsibility for that.  But overall, I think that this is a fair representation of an interesting ship.  

 

Neptun NE 1410 

 
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These photographs show the extent to which items must be removed from the ship.  
 
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Large derrick under construction.

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Changes have been made.  White Evergreen plastic can be seen showing various additions made.
 
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The completed model painted in Ms 33 circa 1945.  

 

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