Original pre build review: 12/18/2016
This is the Revell 1:485 scale Aircraft Carrier USS Yorktown CV5.
It’s one of three kits I’m thinking of building next, the other 2 are the
Nichimo Myoko and the Revell USS Helena.
Of the three, this kit seems to fall in the middle in terms of detail and overall quality. For a Revell kit of its era it looks to be one of the nicer ones. Having not built it, I can’t speak to how well the parts fit together but the detailing looks pretty good especially when compared to the third kit I’m reviewing: the Revell USS Helena.
There’s a Revell Yorktown, Hornet, and Enterprise (1/480) photo etch set by Gold Medal Models available for this kit and I could have sworn I bought it but I can’t seem to locate it… If I find it I’ll update this review.
Kit pictures.
Post build update
I ended up building this kit first and I’m pretty happy with it. Of course it’s not 100% done – they never are…
Outside the box
USS Yorktown was a fast build, about 30 hrs. I regrettably didn’t get the PE set mentioned, it’s over $50 delivered and I wasn’t sure the end result would be worth it. Instead I used bits and pieces of PE: doors, stairs, rails, ladders, etc., left over from previous projects. I didn’t do much modding either, mostly carving off short stubby walls where railings should be. Speaking of rails… I didn’t have enough PE rails to do the whole ship so I also used plastic rails left over from my Lee Graf Spee. I used them along the flight deck and I do appreciate their ability to get slightly manhandled without crumpling! (Not as nice as PE rails though, maybe someday…)
I didn’t do much scratch building, just simple structures made from PE trees: two angled flight deck supports and a boat platform at the stern, some walls and catwalks under the deck at the bow, a few structural supports on the island and additional platforms and supports under the island & flight deck on the starboard side. I did add cross kit scavengings: extra searchlights from a trashed Revell Bismarck, the model’s stands and some small boats from a previously ravaged Revell Missouri kit, and a couple of launches left over from my Kirishima build. But my single favorite scavenge/mod was swapping out Yorktown’s 5 inch guns with deck guns from a partial Revell Arizona kit. They may or may not be accurate but they sure do look better than the ones that came with this model.
References
Finding more than one good photo of CV5 in any single configuration proved to be challenging (and forget about a full color exposé!) so it’s difficult to nail down all the variable configurations with the varying paint schemes. If I’m lucky this is more or less CV5 at some point in 1941.
Inside the box
Part fit was mostly good for a kit of this era but be careful putting the deck on! Mine slants slightly to port at the stern, a little plastic guide nub meant to be next to a wall is probably on top of it, wish I had noticed this before the glue set… Other then that, I did do a ton of flash shaving but no dimple filling -yay! The only dimpled pieces my kit had were on 3 or 4 of the planes – and they ended up in the hanger 🙂
I noted a few quirks while building this kit, It’s been reissued several times. At least once with the tagline: “Can be built as: Yorktown, Enterprise or Hornet” (though this incarnation wasn’t). It still came with two name plates: USS Yorktown & USS Hornet. To me Yorktown & Enterprise would have been better choices, the included bridge resembles those two ships more than Hornet’s. Also the yards attached to the lower platform of the bridge’s tripod mast seem configured as on Wasp. The kit comes with 4 quad AA mounts but the instructions only use 2 (Yorktown’s original configuration). The instructions never mention build variations needed to create anything other then Yorktown. They put the range finder up in the tripod mast so I initially put it there, but I couldn’t find one picture of Yorktown that had it there. If a pic of Yorktown showed it at all, it was in front of the forward gun director above the bridge, so I changed it.
The last quirk I’ll mention is the mast atop the tripod, it has a platform near its top with no horizontal yard. I haven’t seen one picture with that platform and almost all pics show a yard…
To be fair though, most issues with this kit are nit-picky and relatively easy to correct.
Hindsight
If I could build her over again, I’d put walls behind the deck gun platforms to prevent seeing through the ship in those areas when viewed in profile. Another minor regret is not having any machine guns to put along the deck – I may acquire some and fix this later. Finally the plastic rails, while better than the molded on walls, I now think were a mistake – I should have bought the PE set, or at least more PE railings.
All in all this was a fun old kit to build and considering the cost, well worth the time, and effort.
Update: 5/28/2017
P.S. – Just checked eBay and saw two of these kits available, both “By it Now”. One new for $19.00 + $9.00 shipping, the other open & started “As is” for $19.00 delivered.
link test: French Battleship Charles Martel