USS ORISKANY from REVELL is a reissue of their classic Essex-Class angled deck carrier.

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Thanks!

Frederick, thanks for the review! Despite its age, I agree with you that Revell's Oriskany remains an appealing model and can provide a solid starting point for an accurate SCB-125 Essex class carrier.

That said, this is a classic kit with a number of well-known errors. The most notorious of these is probably the too-narrow hull which, though true, is sometimes overstated. The Oriskany’s beam was 101 feet (1212 inches), or 2.253 inches in 1/538 scale. Revell's Oriskany kit beam is 2.125 inches, which is less than a 1/8 inch (5.74 scale feet) too narrow, which isn't that bad on a model nearly 20 inches long. The problem is that the hangar deck bulkheads are too far inboard of the hull sides in order to accommodate the heavy solid railing and excessively wide walkways. This exaggerates the apparent narrowness of the hull and throws off the escalator on the hull side so it doesn't match up with the piece alongside the island on the flight deck above. Reducing the width of the walkways on the hangar deck sides (parts 7, 10, 18, and 20) by about 1/16 inch port and starboard to widen the hangar deck will mostly fix this. I would also recommend removing the raised planking detail from the poop deck (part 1), the main stern deck (part 2), platform deck aft (part 3), sponsons (parts 5L,12, 16, 21R, 22L) and the various island decks (41-45) as these were all unplanked steel. Oddly, Revell designers chose to depict the one deck which actually was planked, the flight deck, without any planking detail at all!

I built that kit when I was a lad, mid 70s I guess. The name 'Oriskany' has stayed with me all these years, and I have had an abiding interest in the Essex class carriers ever since.
don't remember any difficulties assembling, or even if I painted it, probably not.

thumbs up, would build again.

I remember as a kid, I had a whole fleet of box-scale Essex carriers, plus a cone-dome CVN-65. I remember setting them up and moving the various planes around on them. Oriskany was one of them. If I wasn't strictly 1/350 (more to keep my buying under control than anything else), I'd get me a new Oriskany. But then I'd need to get more planes for it, then sister ships, then escorts...

Thanks Guys,

I'm pretty stoked about cutting these parts off their sprues and doing the old girl proud! I can't recall if this was one of my models after I started painting. I know I've seen some off her parts in my bin, but then again, those could very well be from some other Revell carriers. I recall I built a Midway and one with F4D Skyrays, plus one of more of the Yorktowns. Heck, back then, I even built their carrier model that had F4 Phantoms.

I snared a HMS Campbeltown recently and look forward to posting a review of it when able.

Brings back a lot memories as a kid. I can remember the excitement of opening it up and going through the sprue with aircraft. Thanks for the review!

My Dad was a plankholder on the original Essex in 1942. When this kit came out as the Essex in 1958, he saw it in our local drugstore and had to have it. He would pull it out and look at it occasionally, not knowing where to start. Finally, at Christmas 1959 when he had a few days off, he decided to build it. I have fond memories of sitting around a card table with him and building this kit. As "we" built it, he'd talk about his wartime experiences, which I listened to with rapt attention. He'd never talked about them before. He talked of a TBF loaded with depth charges and three crew members they lost off the bow during their shakedown cruise while looking for German subs off the Atlantic coast. Of being buzzed by two Betty bombers one night at deck level during the Gilberts campaign, and waving to the pilot's before realizing they were Japanese- and the pilots waving back because they thought they were buzzing a Japanese carrier! Of being strafed by Zeros (in which a food locker was hit and cans of tomato sauce started leaking through the the locker vents, leading everyone to believe someone had hidden inside during the attack!). He talked of shore leave in Hawaii, and stealing Virginia Hams from the officers mess, to be made into ham and powdered egg sandwiches in thier metal treatment oven in the aviation metalsmith section. One of his favorite stories was the time he spent on watch as a loader during general quarters on the port quarter 5" 50 gun, and his hearing loss because of it. So this kit brings back some fond memories for me. Dad didn't seem to mind the angled deck, jet aircraft and modernized bridge and island, which were part of the "modernization" program for "his" straight deck Essex, or the fact the kit seemed to be a later "long hulled" Essex version-- he just wanted a model of "his" ship. Later, I built the Trumpeter early war Essex for him, but this kit really brings back some great memories. I'll probably buy one just to build in his memory.
VR, Russ