The Duke's Shipyards Launch Five Ships in February
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2026 7:43 pm
Now that all the excitement and activity from the display are all over; and the collection is packed away again, I was finally able to get a good amount of progress done on some models I've wanted to build for awhile. These are the results. Five new ships and boats have come off the slipways this month, starting with the Hobby Boss British HMS Astute submarine in 1/700 scale:
Next are two modern French Frigates from Freedom Model Kits in 1/700 scale. First is the Aquitaine:
and then the Normandie:
Yes, they look the same except for the pennant number, but one is built to focus on antisubmarine warfare, and the other is a multi-purpose frigate for anti-air and anti-ship warfare. Aquitaine is the multi-purpose ship.
Next to launch is the old Revell 1/131 scale USS Defiance coastal patrol boat:
Finally the last ship is the old Revell 1/500 scale SS United States cruise liner:
These last two ships were Distressed Kit Auction buys and so the decals were not the best. Despite my best efforts using even the Nuclear Option: Solvaset I still had silvering that I could not eliminate. On some of the Defiance decals, I actually used Tamiya Extra Thin cement to try and get them to lay down with some measure of success.
One more thing: the SS United States was rigged with stretched sprue, and the Defiance's railings are also stretched sprue.
Thank you all for looking in at five of the eight models I finished this month, comments are always welcome.
Next are two modern French Frigates from Freedom Model Kits in 1/700 scale. First is the Aquitaine:
and then the Normandie:
Yes, they look the same except for the pennant number, but one is built to focus on antisubmarine warfare, and the other is a multi-purpose frigate for anti-air and anti-ship warfare. Aquitaine is the multi-purpose ship.
Next to launch is the old Revell 1/131 scale USS Defiance coastal patrol boat:
Finally the last ship is the old Revell 1/500 scale SS United States cruise liner:
These last two ships were Distressed Kit Auction buys and so the decals were not the best. Despite my best efforts using even the Nuclear Option: Solvaset I still had silvering that I could not eliminate. On some of the Defiance decals, I actually used Tamiya Extra Thin cement to try and get them to lay down with some measure of success.
One more thing: the SS United States was rigged with stretched sprue, and the Defiance's railings are also stretched sprue.
Thank you all for looking in at five of the eight models I finished this month, comments are always welcome.
What's up next? 