HMS Ark Royal R07 kits

[cerperal]

Recently I decided that I should probably get around to completing the family connection model collection with HMS Ark Royal R07 circa 2007-8

 

The closest kit appears to be the new-ish Revell reissue of their Falklands Invincible; I was wondering whether this would indeed be the best starting point and how much effort converting it would take? Any help would be much appreciated 

 

Will

[AntPhillips]

The Revell kit is a rebox of the earlier Dragon kit, they also did an Ark Royal (circa '91) and an Illustrious kit with the flight deck extension for'ard, you might be better looking for one of those as the Illustrious kit in particular has extra parts for the later fit but also included lots of the original parts.

 

Unfortunately all 3 ships differed considerably over their lifetime, and noone has ever kitted the octagonal rear mast carried by Ark in her later days. 

[Mike]

I'd be up for an Ark Royal in 1:350 to go with my 1939 Ark, as I have a bit of a thing about the Ark, even though I know the square root of nothing about them I think it stems from reading about her exploits in WWII, and seeing her later namesake out to sea or in dock on a number of my summer holidays as a kid.

[cerperal]

2 hours ago, AntPhillips said:

The Revell kit is a rebox of the earlier Dragon kit, they also did an Ark Royal (circa '91) and an Illustrious kit with the flight deck extension for'ard, you might be better looking for one of those as the Illustrious kit in particular has extra parts for the later fit but also included lots of the original parts.

 

Unfortunately all 3 ships differed considerably over their lifetime, and noone has ever kitted the octagonal rear mast carried by Ark in her later days. 

I've been scouring certain bidding sites for the earlier Dragon kits, particularly the Illustrious one, to no avail. Seems like they had a fairly short production run in the '90s and the reissue. I was worried about the rear mast, makes sense given the latest tool was 2000. Bodging it is! Thanks for your help

 

2 hours ago, Mike said:

I'd be up for an Ark Royal in 1:350 to go with my 1939 Ark, as I have a bit of a thing about the Ark, even though I know the square root of nothing about them I think it stems from reading about her exploits in WWII, and seeing her later namesake out to sea or in dock on a number of my summer holidays as a kid.

1/350 Ark with full Harrier and helo fit would be too good to be true! Aside from stories of my dad doing contractor maintenance I vividly remember holidays down to Hayling and occassionally seeing her parked out in the Solent with the helis buzzing about

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

If you search on this site, somewhere you will find a (currently paused) WIP for my converting the Airfix 1/350 Illustrious to Ark c.1988 (when I flew from her).  How much work you need depends on the time frame your want to depict, since like all 3 CVS hulls Ark evolved a lot throughout her career.  The biggest change is the larger and more streamlined ramp, but Ark also had Phalanx (the other 2 changed to Goalkeeper for much of their lives), and a good few detail changes - and then later in her life when Sea Dart was removed, there were major mainmast differences.

 

Since you mention the Revell Invince, I assume you’re talking 1/700 (-ish), but even so you should find plenty of discussion of the differences between the 3 ships in the WIP.

[Whitewolf]

On 30/08/2022 at 15:25, Mike said:

I'd be up for an Ark Royal in 1:350 to go with my 1939 Ark, as I have a bit of a thing about the Ark, even though I know the square root of nothing about them I think it stems from reading about her exploits in WWII, and seeing her later namesake out to sea or in dock on a number of my summer holidays as a kid.

Would love a 1/350 Ark Royal R09

[Terry1954]

On 8/31/2022 at 7:16 PM, Whitewolf said:

Would love a 1/350 Ark Royal R09

 

Now your talking!

 

Terry

[Chewbacca]

I still have plans to convert the Airfix Lusty to ARK V as she was when she initially came out of build on contractors sea trials when I was OOW1 and when our air group consisted of a Swordfish!

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

On 12/2/2022 at 7:37 AM, Chewbacca said:

I still have plans to convert the Airfix Lusty to ARK V as she was when she initially came out of build on contractors sea trials when I was OOW1 and when our air group consisted of a Swordfish!

 

 
 

See my Ark build, which depicts (or rather will depict) her in 1988; boot topping aside, I don’t think anything had changed in the 2 years between

[Chewbacca]

Thanks Crisp.  I think I looked at that thread a while back and I think you're right, there weren't any major changes in that period as far as I could tell.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

On 12/2/2022 at 3:37 PM, Chewbacca said:

I still have plans to convert the Airfix Lusty to ARK V as she was when she initially came out of build on contractors sea trials when I was OOW1 and when our air group consisted of a Swordfish!

Gidday Chewy, I missed this post when you did it, I've just seen it. I take it the Swordfish was there as a symbolic gesture rather than as an actual combat-ready aircraft. 🙂 I love it. 👍

Regards, Jeff.

[Chewbacca]

I'm not sure I'd have fancied hitting the ramp at 60 odd kts somehow!  So in preparation for the Harriers that were to come later, it performed a VTOL recovery and take off - courtesy of one of Swan Hunter's cranes.