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1/700 aircraft carrier help please


gunpowder17

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Im would like to build some 1/700 aircraft carriers from the pacific war. Accuracy is not a real concern to me , and i dont want anything to fiddly. Something thats fairly easy to build and not too espensive would be ideal. Im no expert on ships. I have seen the italeri world of warship kits online , they look quite good , but im always drawn to Tamiya. Any other companies that would  be good?

 

Any help appreciated please

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Look for the old subjects from Tamiya and Hasegawa, the equivalent Fujimi ones are poorer and the Aosima ones worse.  The more recent kits are much more heavily detailed and inevitably more expensive.  It is possible to recognise which are the older kits by the kit numbers, but I can't help there.  Price may well be adequate as a guide.  I suspect that the older kits may not be available from most UK suppliers so try Kingkit or other 2nd hand sellers.  For an idea what is available look to Hobbyboss Japan, but be prepared to be overwhelmed by the choice.  The older kits may still slip in under the £15 VAT free allowance.  Modern kits of the US carriers are available from Dragon and Trumpeter, but the same qualifications apply.

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35 minutes ago, Graham Boak said:

Look for the old subjects from Tamiya and Hasegawa, the equivalent Fujimi ones are poorer and the Aosima ones worse.  

Pay good heed to Graham's words, especially the last 4: if you are after RN WW2 subjects, Aoshima are the one who offered them (Illustrious and Victorious) and, like all Aoshima's old kits, they were pretty crude, in fact very crude, little advance over Airfix 1960s vintage 1/600 stuff.  (IMHO the 1970/80s quality pecking order was Tamiya  by a fair margin, Hasegawa, Fujimi and then Aoshima trailing in a poor last.)  Given your criteria I would go for the Tamiya Enterprise or Hornet (the only 2 non-Japanese carriers they offered): probably available quite cheaply nowadays (£14.99 at Hannants) as they are considered (and are) "old kits", but that doesn't stop them being very nice ones.  And of the two I would go for the Hornet as ISTR Tamiya made some errors in the close-range armament of Enterprise for the late war period depicted.  And Hornet has a sexy colour scheme.  Hornet comes with B-25 Mitchells for the Tokyo raid, Enterprise with a representative set of USN carrier types (something like four each Dauntless, Hellcat, Helldiver and Corsair).  Because they have been around for a few years, there's probably etched brass available to tart them up with if you start getting ambitious.

 

I've taken my eye off the 1/700 ball for some years.  I think Tamiya and Aoshima at least have redone some subjects in the last 20 or so years.  They are to even better standards and correspondingly higher prices.

 

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TA77510 Hornet

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TA77514 Enterprise

 

HTH

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All the manufacturers have produced new kits, even of the old subjects, and no longer bothering about direct competition with the same ship.  Fujimi standards are now much better and so are Aosima's, although still lagging behind.  They have done a new Illustrious which is much better than the old.  I think that some of the lesser carriers are available from Skywave.Pit Road.

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On the Japanese side I recall the Tamiya 1/700 Junyo as excellent.  But she's atypical for Japanese carriers in having an island and funnel like British carriers and had a relatively undistinguished career.  Not sure the kit can still be had for peanuts either.

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I, too, am looking at trying a 1/700 carrier or two. I have read good things about two relatively recent kits in the scale - the Academy Enterprise (kitted out for 1942 so good for Midway era but not late war after her refit) and the Dragon Essex (I believe they've also produced a Randolph, Lex II, and possibly a Franklin based off of the first kit). Neither are very expensive, at least in the states - the Academy is about $35 and the Essex a little more. I'm probably going to buy one of these two for my first attempt at the subject. 

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