After almost 20 years of waiting I’m getting ready to build my big “E”. Been doing a lot of research on all the accessories that are out there for this kit. One question…is it worth buying the Trumpeter aircraft or just stick with the kit planes. I have enough of the Tamiya planes to get the job done but I bought all of them before the Trumpeter kits cam out. Not sure if there is much difference other than the clear canopies. What have others done. Needless to say I will be adding PE to the ship and airwing but is it worth getting new aircraft? Also, as for all the Trup F-18 versions…Is there a physical difference that can be noted at this scale? One of the versions must be the Super Hornet I assume that would have the squared off intakes?
TIA, Steve
Also any other advise on building this kit would be great.
It kind of depends on what time frame you are modeling your Big E for - mine was for a 2005 deployment, where I needed EA-6B Prowlers. The clear canopies were worth it to me to get the gold-toned effect they have (which lookes pretty cool from certain angles); plus, I think the Trumpeter aircraft have a little crisper molding and I hand painted all the ones for my build anyway (no canopy masking!). If you’re going to use F/A-18C Hornets, look for the old Fujimi set (cheaper than Trumpeter and has some small deck tractors included).
As far as PE goes, the Gold Medal Models supercarrier set is outstanding; if you want to add 8-bladed props to your Hawkeyes, the 1/700 aircraft bits fret from White Ensign Models can provide the necessary props and some other helpful bits.
Anyone know if the super hornets were ever on board at the same time as the tomcats? I would like to build it with both if that was ever a possibility.
salvine - I’m sorry, I thought you were doing a 1/720 carrier, so, no! What I meant by that comment was, if you were doing the Hawkeyes with the updated 8-bladed props, you could buy the WEM airplane bits PE set and glue two 4-bladed props to each engine nacelle front to get the effect.
That make sense then. I’m gathering all the little detail parts now. looks like some of the trumpeter planes have drop tanks to add so that’s cool. I may do the 8 blades since it looks pretty cool too. I have a set of 8 blades to put on a 1/144th hawk eye at some point.