CLAA De Grasse (C610)
French Navy Anti-Aircraft Cruiser 

Doggy Models, 1/700th Scale Cast Resin.

Reviewed by Devin Poore, August 2023
Designed during the inter-war years, the French cruiser De Grasse was part of a three-ship class, designed to be follow-ups to the preceding La Galissonnière class of light cruisers. Of the planned three ships, only De Grasse would be laid down, in 1938. With the outbreak of WWII and the fall of France, De Grasse was captured by the Germans while still on the ways in 1940. Just over one-quarter complete, the Germans ordered her to be completed as an aircraft carrier in December of '42, but work was cancelled only a few months later due to lack of resources and the German's move away from naval operations that didn't entail submarines.

Recovered after the war, De Grasse was finally launched in 1946. Initially, construction resumed along the lines of her pre-war plan, but work was stopped to reevaluate the usefulness of such a ship. Redesigned as an anti-aircraft cruiser, work finally recommenced on her in the early 1950s; she was finally completed and commissioned in 1956, 18 years after her keel laying.

De Grasse served in her role as anti-aircraft cruiser and the flagship of the French Mediterranean fleet until 1964, when she was sent to the yards for modification. Over the next two years a large number of her guns were removed -- missiles had taken over as the preferred anti-aircraft weapons -- as she was converted to a nuclear test monitoring command ship. With a new expanded bridge, electronics suite, and communications array, she monitored six nuclear tests between 1966 and 1972, before being decommissioned in 1973. She was sold for scrap in 1974, and scrapped at La Spezia during 1975.

The kit depicts De Grasse in her anti-aircraft fit, prior to the 1964 modification and modernization program.

 
HULL 
The kit's hull is an impressive piece of resin. Cast in light grey, the hull sides are straight and clean, with finely modeled detail. There's just a bit of overpour on the bottom which should mostly sand away easily enough. There's more overpour at the very stern that will have to be worked a little more carefully, as mere flush-sanding likely won't remove it all, but it shouldn't be an issue. For those who'll place the ship in a seascape, any added wake detail will hide it. In some of the photos one can just make out some artifacts from the master hull that was obviously 3D printed. While this is normally a huge pet-peeve of mine, it's so slight here that it's barely noticeable with the naked eye; primer and paint will likely completely erase it.

The decks and superstructures are extremely sharp and flat, with boat cradles, bitts, fairwater, and other small details extremely sharp. The various platforms that jut out from the superstructure and hull are suitably thin, sharp, and show no warping. The splinter shields around the bridge are thin and straight. All along the decks are holes for the gun mounts and various deck fittings, a nice addition to aid in the placement of the small resin parts. There are no cracked or broken parts on the hull, and not a single air bubble or casting defect.

Based upon a few online sources, the actual De Grasse was 617 ft. 9 in (188.3 m) in length. Overall length of the Doggy kit comes in at 10.6" (26.9cm), which is spot-on.
CAST RESIN PARTS and BRASS BARRELS
Resin casing blocks contain the bulk of the parts of the kit. They come in a few small plastic bags, which keeps them together, but doesn't prevent breakage. Fortunately the only breakage I found comes from the small ship's boats and a couple of spotlights separating from the casting runner, but with no apparent damage to the part itself. (Again, I wish all kit manufacturers would take a lesson from Black Cat Models and tape their parts into plastic blisters). De Grasse mounted a ton of guns, evidenced here in the eight 127mm turrets and ten 57mm turrets. All are sharply cast. The 127mm turrets have locator holes for the provided brass barrels, the 57mm turrets do not. More on that later. The ship's stack and small boats occupy a casting block of their own, and are all well rendered, with sharp demarcations where they join the gate, which should make removal easy enough. Other items such as directors, spotlights, and the rest of the deck chatter, all appear finely cast, sharp, and, again, no instances of short-casting or air bubbles. A single helicopter is included, resin for the fuselage, with brass for the rotors and tail skid. Components to make up the multi-section mast are included in resin, but to maintain rigidity, that assembly may be better produced with brass rod, or tapered turned masts from aftermarket sources.
BRASS PHOTO ETCH
Photo etch comes on a single small sheet, which is very thin at .010" (.25mm) thick, but rigid enough to easily work with. The basics such as lifelines, ladders, cable reels and the like are included, along with the platforms for the mast levels, and other nice details such as rigged boat booms, with dropped ladders. The 57mm turret gun "barrels" are included here, which, while it should make for an easy install, flat gun barrels have never really worked for me, even in 1/700 scale. I'll likely test a thick coat of paint on them to see if that rounds them out any; failing that I'll likely print my own replacements, which would likely be over-scale, but what isn't over scale on a 1/700 scale ship? 

More brass is included by way of a small bag with turned barrels for the 127mm turrets. These are nicely tapered with a locator nub on the end which will hopefully slip right into the locator hole on the resin turrets.
INSTRUCTIONS
Instructions consist of 4 sheets of 8.5" x 11", printed in color, front and back on two sheets of paper. The instructions remind me of the old school resin kit instructions, in that there are no written directions, only close-up photos of a built model with leader lines that annotate which piece of resin or brass is being shown. This works most of the time, but there are instances, such as a item 12 on the PE fret that indicates it needs to be folded, but it doesn't say how, and the photo doesn't really clear up much other than to say "it goes here". I'm sure careful study will reveal how it goes together, and honestly that's one of the few parts that aren't clearly shown. Due to all of the resin parts and PE bits being labeled on the fret/runner, its easy enough to find each piece and sort out where it goes. If you've built a resin kit before, the instructions won't give you much trouble.
DECALS
A small sheet of waterslide decals is included, which included the hull numbers, the ship's name, and two flags.
CONCLUSIONS
Cleanly cast and highly detailed, De Grasse will make a beautiful model. The subject matter is unique and appealing, and the quality of the kit's components will help with the challenges that come from building in 1/700th scale. Even so, due to the fine parts and the complex nature of the photo etch, it's not for a first-time resin kit builder. I would have liked to see a little more detail in the instructions, and I'm not sold that the flat PE barrels for the 57mm turrets will pass muster, but those are minor issues with what appears to be an overall excellent kit.

The kit is currently listed on Doggy Industries' eBay page for $105, linked via the logo to the right.

Highly recommended. Thank you to Doggy Industries for the review sample.

 

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