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MSRP: $24.00 USD
Italeri has again reissued their 1/720 scale Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. This incarnation represents the latest of the
class, U.S.S. Ronald Reagan (CVN-76). The kit comes molded in the expected medium gray plastic, which is somewhat on the soft
side. The flight deck is a mixture of recessed and raised detail for the catapult tracks, arresting gear and tie-down points.
The deck markings are also outlined by fine, raised lines to help position the decals. There are 292 parts on 5 trees, but 107
of those are for earlier ships and not used on this model. There are 40 pieces to make up the air wing, not including some A-6
Intruders and an SH-3 helicopter that are not used. Several new parts are added to cover items unique to the Reagan, such as
a new bow below the waterline and new sponsons for the defensive armament. A completely new island is also included as are
additional FA-18 and SH-60 aircraft and a new model flight-deck crane. There are a couple items unique to the Reagan which
were not addressed, though-at least one new sponsons on the aft port side behind the elevator is not represented. |
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The flight deck does not reflect the changes made from earlier Nimitz-class carriers, either, in that the kit still has four
arresting wires molded into the deck. The Reagan only has three arresting wires. The two in the middle need to be
removed and replaced with a single new one. I carved the molded-in center wires off and added a new one with slivers of sheet
plastic.
Options in the kit consist of waterline or full-hull, building the forward catapult jet blast deflectors (JBDs) in the raised or
lowered positions, and putting the forward and aft starboard elevators in the lowered or raised positions. The JBDs fit
very well closed, but the elevators didn't fit too well raised and left a gap to fill around most of the perimeter.
Construction followed the instructions for the most part, but I left the island, whip antennas, and defensive armament (Sea Sparrow
launchers and Phalanx guns) off until after all painting and decaling was done. Somehow, I managed to neglect putting parts
99B on the aft hull wings, and I didn't notice until after disposing of the sprues. Somewhere down the road I'll make
replacements. Parts fit was, for the most part, poor. A good bit of filler was required between the upper and lower
hulls, the new bow and the hull, and the sections of the island. All the sponsons and hull protrusions needed filler, too.
The exception was the fit of the flight deck to the hull, which was a good fit. I'm not sure the color call-outs for the
main painting instructions are correct; gunship gray for the flight deck and flat gull gray for the main hull and superstructure
didn't look right to me based on photos. I used Tamiya German Gray acrylic for the flight deck and other decks, and
Model Master Neutral Gray for the hull, island, and all the odds and ends. The hull below the waterline was painted Tamiya
Hull Red acrylic and the propellers were painted brass. The black stripe between the upper and lower hull colors is black
decal stripe from my spares box.
The quality of the kit decals is very good. They are rather thin and respond well to the Micro System. I'm not sure that
the foul line decals are correct, though, as pictures of the Reagan seem to show the foul lines as a series of white dashes, not the
red and white alternating segments of the decals. The yellow in the landing area centerline marking seems to be too orange,
also. There are small national insignia included for the air wing, but I chose not to use those on the low-viz tactical
scheme.
This is the first ship I've built in a long time. It isn't a shake and bake kit, but there aren't any really difficult things
to fix either. Some experience with filling and sanding is definitely required though. I'd recommend this to anyone who
wants a model of the latest US aircraft carrier, but the more experienced may want to correct the detail deficiencies with a set of
photo etched metal accessories. While it's not perfect, I enjoyed building the kit and it looks good on my shelf! Thanks
to Italeri for supplying the review kit. |
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