I have cracked open the Tamiya 1/700 USS Hornet kit (the one with the B-25’s). I am thinking, however, of going with a more standard aircraft compliment. I see Trumpeter makes clear molded aircraft with a little more detail to them than standard kit aircraft (i.e. more realistic landing gear and propellors as well as the fact they would have clear canopies). So my question is, are these craft worth it? Meaning is the hassle of attatching with the real tiny parts like the props and landing gear worth the effort and extra money?
I bought a 6-pack of Ka-27s because I thought my 1/700 Sovremenny would look cooler with the clear windows. Hmmm…so far I’ve managed to go through half of them without a single success.
We in a/c don’t get the theory there. Clear styrene is brittle, and the canopies are clear into…? Most paint them a dark color; or light blue which IMHO doesn’t work.
You can also get aftermarket PE, so it goes on and on.
The surprisingly modest price does not, presumably, include expenses related to medical and/or psychiatric care you’re likely to need if you actually try to install these things in a full 1/350 air wing.
[Later edit: I should clarify that the aforementioned White Ensign aftermarket parts are for 1/350 aircraft - not 1/700. (Somehow my senile brain got mixed up and thought we were talking about the 1/350 Trumpeter Hornet. Sorry about that.) Even the notorious Mad Pete of White Ensign has not, so far as I know, gone so far Off the Deep End as to advocate detailing the interiors of 1/700 airplanes.]
Not that I’m aware of. It brings up an idea though. What about color digital prints of the real thing, maybe two pieces. Double sided fuse, upper side of wing. I mean good Lord at 1/700 a Devastator is 0.6 inches long and 0.85 wingspan. They’d be a little flat but if you started with a nice color 3-view they’d look real good!
I’ve used Fujimi and Trumpeter clear aircraft with no problems and like the effect of the clear canopies. I first paint the sides and bottom of the fuselage the interior color, then do the exterior scheme. I leave them on the sprue until all paint and PE detail work is done, the clip them off and touch up the clipped area.
I’ll second the positive posts on using the clear aircraft in general. You paint-well, really, it’s the primer coat-them in the interior color, so, for USN yellow-wings, use a silver or aluminum color, and for USN WWII, use your favorite interior green. Then paint the exterior color. You can tape the canopy to preserve the clear part. When you’ve finished, in that scale (and even in 1/350), it really does give the effect of looking into the cockpit of the aircraft.
As to Trumpeter’s little kits, well, they’re well-engineered, and well-detailed, but relatively expensive. I got a box each of F6Fs and TBFs, to replace the air group of the Hasegawa 1/700 Essex, but there are only 6 aircraft in each box. and they were around $9 apiece from Squadron, plus shipping. On top of that, the kits do not include photo-etch for the more delicate parts, so if you want to go that extra mile, or if you consider that level of detail part of your requirements, you’ll have to buy an additional photo-etch pack from someone else. Though, in my case, I think either Tom’s Modelworks or White Ensign, or another of the photo-etch makers, includes propellers, landing gear and interplane struts (for biplanes) on their brass sheets.
But so far, I haven’t found anything else to use. For me, I do want the look of the clear canopy, so I’ll suck it up and pay the price. Though, I have been working on an idea to use clear plastic sprue stock to replace the canopies on the kit aircraft, but haven’t quite gotten it right yet. Otherwise, they’re going to flesh out the views of the hangar deck.