I mentioned in a previous post that I am building the Arii 1/800 USS Dwight D. Eisenhower with my 9 year-old grandson. I noticed a prominent detail flaw on the island, two apparent Aegis panels on each side. That prompted me to look at the rest of my collection of small-scale carrier kits, and I noticed an interesting trend. The Arii, Academy, and KiTech, 1/800 series of carriers have fairly decent models of the early super carriers of the Midway, Forrestal, Kitty Hawk, and Enterprise classes. Their America is inaccurate, being simply a reboxing of the Kitty Hawk. Monogram and Academy offered the JFK in this scale that also was reasonably accurate. The 1/800 Nimitz class kits suffer from the flaw mentioned above. Italeri 1/720 kits offer fairly accurate models of the Nimitz class carriers but they can stand better detailing. They do offer an excellent USS America. However, their Forrestal and Kitty Hawk kits are horrible. Revell offers a decent USS Enterprise with the “Beehive”. In 1/700, Dragon and Trumpeter offer excellent Essex and Nimitz class kits, but nothing in between. It is a shame that the manufacturers cannot seem to offer consistent detail between the classes within the same line and scale of ships. Has anyone else noticed the trends I have? Bill
It’s a big problem. Italeri 1/720 carriers are not very detailed but accurate. There are many aftermarket photoetch and resin replacement parts available to spruce them up. The best of the Nimitz classes in 1/700 are the Trumpeter kits. Now if you want a 1/700 Kitty Hawk class you’ll need to track down the Fijumi 1/700 USS Kitty Hawk, 1/700 USS Constellation. Their detail and accuracy are very close to the Trumpeter Nimitz class. The scale on the Arii kits is suspect. Their USS Midway is to long, and the island on their USS Enterprise is out of scale and to big. In fact in another forum I’ve read its very close to 1/720 and can be swapped out for the beehive island on the Revell Enterprise if you want to model her post-1982.
Here is my super carrier collection highlights. (I have a revell 1/720 Enterprise that looks awful, and a Italeri 1/720 Forrestal that I’m back dating to the middle 1950s from the early 1980s One day I’ll get back to it and finish it.)
Fijumi 1/700 USS Kitty Hawk (1998)
Trumpeter 1/700 USS Stennis (2007)
HP Models Charles DeGaulle CVN in 1/700 (Resin)
Trumpeter 1/700 Admiral Kuznetsov
Italeri runs hot and cold. Their USS America is outstanding, while they simply reboxed America to represent Kitty Hawk and Constellation. Neither of those ships look like America. Their Forrestal class kits are not very good, either. For example, one of the catapults runs out onto the port side elevator and there is a huge bulge on the starboard side of the island that does not belong on the real ships. I’m not sure that they pay attention to individual ship differences within a given class, certainly not the Forrestals. Their Nimitz class seems accurate but plain. However, they can be detailed with aftermarket products.
The 1/800 kits are the opposite of the 1/720 kits in that the Forrestals and Kitty Hawks are quite good except for the Ranger missing the forward side sponsons. But, their Nimitz class ships have those troubling Aegis panels on both sides of the island.
The Trumpeter 1/700 Nimitz class are quite good, but they have not extended their range to all ships of the class (as has Italeri), nor do they model any other class of the supercarriers.
It is a shame that, where one company does a nice job for some classes in one scale, and another does a good job for the rest of the classes in another scale, nobody is consistent in their quality through all classes Midway through Nimitz.
Bill
I just sanded the aegis panels off my Academy Eisenhower kit. Nice and flat now. Also moved the top row of windows forward on the island. Looks good enough not to notice the whole top island part is moved forward. Worked out well. Also, Academy, at least with my Ike and Kitty Hawk kits, have 4 rudders each. Little bit boo boo there. Only super carrier to have 4 rudders was CVN-65 Enterprise lol.
I tried sanding the panels off but I did a horrible job of it. Therefore, I replaced mine with the Monogram USS Nimitz sides. I have also noticed the rudder problem and have filled the holes. A problem with the Revell CVAN-65 is that the forward pair of rudders are set vertically when they should be angled outboard, which is an easy enough fix. I also replaced the Revell CVAN-65 island with the Arii island, which is better detailed and of the same scale.
Bill
I want to get my dad a model kit of the USS America. He served on it in late 70’s-early 80’s. Which brand kit would you recommend? I’m hoping to order it this week. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Well, availability in your time frame is a facrtor. It looks like the Italeri 1/720- Testors-Revell kit isn’t hard to find.
I just want to make sure that it looks the same. I’ve read some reviews that say some models don’t really look like the ship did but I can’t determine which brand is closest