French Navy Cassard (F70AA) Class
Large Air-Defense Destroyer 

Doggy Industries, MDW088, 1/700 Scale. Cast and Printed Resin

Reviewed by Devin Poore, June 2025


 
The Cassard class (Type F70AA) were an anti-air variant of the preceding Georges Leygues class of frigates. Originally classified as destroyers, they were later reclassified as frigates, to better coincide with their capabilities. Four ships of the class were planned, but only two were built, due to draw-downs after the end of the cold war. Designed as carrier escorts, the ships mounted the SM-1 Block VI missiles, utilizing a single arm MK 13 launcher and two SPG-51 missile illuminators. Built in the 1980's, the two ships, Cassard and Jean Bart, were commissioned in 1988 and 1991, respectively. During their time in service, both ships participated in surface group deployments with both the French Navy, and several times in joint navy deployments. Both vessels saw service in support of operations against Afghanistan after the September 11th attacks. Cassard decommissioned in 2019, while Jean Bart served until 2021. 

The Seaforces website has many photos of Cassard that will be helpful in building the kit: D-614 Cassard.
Cassard Underway

 
 
HULL 
The hull comes as one-piece cast resin, from a 3D printed master. It comes waterline, with no lower hull provided, typical of Doggy's other offerings. There is very slight flash at the outer edges of the waterline, but otherwise there are no other blemishes, voids, air holes, etc. 

Overall detail is extremely sharp, some of the best I've ever seen in a cast resin hull. As it's from a printed master, under magnification, you can make out very faint layer lines here and there, but nothing that's really visible with the naked eye. My example does have a slight depression/gouge on the aft port quarter, but it's in a area that's devoid of detail and can be filled and sanded easily. Portholes on the hull are slightly filled-in from the casting process, but that's typical of cast resin hulls. These can be quickly remedied by a twist or two from a drill bit and pin vise. Other than the slight gouge previously mentioned, the only real issue I see with the hull are the tie-downs on the helo deck; they're way too prominent to my eye, but an extra coat of primer in that area should knock them back nicely.

Multiple sources state the full-sized ships as 456' in length. Overall length of the model's hull comes in at just over 7.8", which is spot-on for 1/700th scale. 

Note: the close-up shots in this review were taken with a macro lens, so any small defects you might see aren't at all visible to the naked eye.
 
CAST RESIN PARTS 
Cast resin parts are in a plastic bag, with the bridge wings as one separate piece, and four casting blocks with the other items. As can be seen in one photo, four of the smaller pieces broke off of their block, but I found them all, intact, in the plastic bag. There's no parts map in the instructions, but items such as life raft canisters, RHIBs, communication and radar domes, etc. are easily identified. Like the hull, all parts exhibit sharp detail, with no flash, and no air bubbles.
PRINTED RESIN PARTS
The 3D printed resin parts are some of the nicest and most delicate I've ever seen, and come on three print rafts. One has a single piece that I believe is R22 on the instructions, and it looks to be a surface radar or communication antenna. The helicopter is on its own dedicated raft, and is insanely detailed. Very slight layer lines show in a couple of the curved areas under magnification, but that's it. 

The rest of the printed parts are on a single raft, and include the gun mount, missile launcher base, Harpoon canisters, the SPG 51 missile illuminator, and a mesh search radar, plus other pieces. The fidelity of these parts is amazing. I've seen 1/350th scale printed mesh radar screens before that looked like they'd had one too many grilled cheese sandwiches and ended up on the thick side; still nice, but not as fine as one would like. This mesh radar in 1/700 scale looks in-scale and impressively delicate. Even the supports holding the pieces are thinner than any I've seen before, so I have no doubt these will remove easily with no breakage to the parts.
PHOTO ETCHED BRASS AND DECALS
The final bag in the box has the brass and decals. The decal sheet has markings for both Cassard and Jean Bart, along with flight deck markings and various other bits. In the photo the hull numbers look to be jagged, but that's not the case; I assume my photo post-processing introduced some noise and distortion.

There's one plastic bag that I initially thought empty, only to look closer and see a turned brass gun barrel for the main gun mount. Don't lose it! The rest of the brass is photoetched, with a small square one for the helicopter with both deployed and folded rotors, and other parts that you'll have to find references for, as the helo isn't shown at all in the instructions. 

Finally the main photoetch fret has all of the normal stuff you'd expect for a ship model: ladders, railings, flight deck safety nets, cages for the Harpoon canisters, and pieces to make up the main mast assembly. Pieces that need to be folded, such as that mast assembly, various platforms, what look to be flag bags, etc., have relief-etched lines to show exactly where to fold and to ease the process.
 
INSTRUCTIONS
The instructions are four pages color, printed front and back on two sheets of A4 paper. It appears that all parts are shown, except for the aforementioned lack of anything on the helo. A couple of places there are call-outs to pay specific attention to a part or area, but those notes are in Chinese, so I can't tell what they mean. Complicated assemblies such as the mast have exploded-view CAD renderings which should make those assemblies easier to figure out. 

One thing I noticed is that while there are railings provided for and shown for the deck house levels, no railings are shown for the main deck. I think there are enough on the fret to do the entire ship, but only building will tell that tale. 

Overall the instructions should be adequate. They're not Flyhawk or Tamiya by any means, but they show (almost) everything in place. These printouts and some photos of the real thing will get you there.
CONCLUSIONS
I have to admit that I'd never heard of this class of ship before seeing the kit announced last year, which is odd as I was a missile systems tech at the same time they were commissioned, and likely interacted with them during a Med Cruise. Regardless, this is another unique ship of the style that Doggy Industries likes to produce. The cast resin is excellent, and the printed resin is amazing to the point that I'm wondering what printer and resin they're using to get such results.

Due to the delicate brass assembly required for the mast construction, and the sparse directions in the instructions sheet, I wouldn't recommend this as a first resin kit, but for someone that's got one or two 1/700 scale styrene or resin kits in their rear-view, I think this would be a great project.

Highly recommended. Thank you to Doggy Industries for this review sample. You can find their kits on eBay, by searching "Doggy Industries", and view their offerings on Facebook, which is linked via their logo to the right.

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