In what is described as a 'secret' release by Free Time Hobbies in their email newsletter, a limited quantity of a new kit of the Second World War aircraft carrier USS Enterprise CV-6 is now available for purchase at Free Time Hobbies. After their initial stock is sold out, they state it will be several months before a restock is available again with the kit's formal release.

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At that time of the article posting there were 42 kits in Free Time's inventory. As of this posting there's 20. According to Free Time Hobbies' newsletter we may not see this kit released again until towards the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

If anyone of our members purchases this kit now please consider sharing with us, in our forums, what you find as you crack the box.

Thank you.

As of now, Free Time Hobbies stock is sold out.

A limited second release for October is being taken but they too are selling out fast.

Pre Order

My only question is why it took so long for anyone to finally mass produce a 1/350 CV-6?

I ordered one. I will post photos when it comes in if no one else has beat me to it.

I ordered one as well. I checked when I got the notice and they had stock listed at 80. Impressive demand!

Merit now has posted the product on their site.

Several observations have been made by modelers that the description offered by Merit, who list the model as representing the ship at the time of the Santa Cruz action, actually seems to represent Enterprise at the time of the Midway action, the presence of TBD Devastators being the more obvious feature. TBD last saw service at the time of the Midway battle and had TBF Avengers by Santa Cruz.

Here are some comments made by two members of the development team of the kit. The had made these statements over at the Starship Modeler site (after all, it IS an Enterprise kit we're talking about).

"I was part of a team that helped with late research on the Yorktown kit, and some of the research on the CV-6 kit. I say late research as the hull was already done and when we told them to get rid of the hull plating, they weren't willing to invest the money in cutting a new mold to do it. So, yes, this Enterprise kit will have that hull plating. Get some sanding sponges from the hardware store and invest a few hours, it's easy enough to remove, but yes, it's too bad they didn't get this part right.

The Enterprise kit is Santa Cruz fit, despite the box art being wrong. They know the box art is wrong, but don't want to go about changing it. We did get to see CAD for the kit, and they did indeed provide all of the changes needed to make CV-6 in late '42 fit. I'm not sure if they've put TBDs in the box, as they weren't still in front line service by then, but as others have stated, the Trumpeter TBFs are easy enough to find and inexpensive. The Merit aircraft, by the way, are those same Trumpeter aircraft, just molded all in clear.

Also, as stated, the Merit Yorktown kit can easily be converted to Enterprise at Midway. The secondary Pri-Fly platform is included in the kit. You'll just have to check the AA positions and make the needed swap-outs. "

And....

"The Box art was completed before the CAD for the ship was - they knew they were going to do the subject and contracted an artist to do it, but we were never shown the art. Same with the air group - had they asked I could have given them the airgroup for any point of the war.

This is not to paint Merit in a bad light. They are primarily a distributor and contracted with Trumpeter to do the CAD and production for them. While they were able to provide some commentary, a group of us saying "change this change that" would not be unlike micromanagement by committee.

I can't say I'm unbiased, but I'd like to think that as someone who's been building for over 40 years, I can say that it is a good foundation for a good build."

Sprue Bros just got them in for $159