introduction

Trumpeter has been giving us, ship modellers, the royal treatment of late, whether your interest lies in 350th or 700th scale. The 350th Hornet has been around for a couple of years, and now we have Trumpeter's same level of excellence in 700th scale.

presentation

This kit is packed full. You get the now traditional waterline water base done in translucent blue plastic. The option of a full or waterline hull, as well as the hangar deck. An assortment of aircraft, suitable for either the Doolittle raid or Midway. The only questionable part of this offering would be the box art..... a bit simplistic, and not to Trumpeter's usual standards.

contents

The kit provides you with 465 parts ,moulded in a light grey plastic on 22 sprues plus the lower hull, upper hull, flight deck, hangar deck and waterline plate. The aircraft are moulded in a clear plastic and have engraved detail. They come in sprues with separate propellers and landing gear. All 16 B-25's, 12 Devastators, 12 Wildcats, and 12 Dauntless make up the Air group.

The hull has been faithfully reproduced and based on the Warship Pictorial #9 'Yorktown Class Carriers' looks the part. The one piece wooden flight deck has very fine engraved detail, and gives you the option to lower two of the three elevators. One area where the 700th Hornet surpasses the 350th scale Trumpeter offering is in the hangar deck, Trumpeter gives you the option to leave the majority of the hangar doors open or closed. The only fault in the hangar deck would be the lack of internal walls, it's quite visible and with all the doors open, you'll have to augment it with a bit of plastic card.

The Island is accurate, and well detailed. It would of been nice for Trumpeter to give you a bit of photo-etch for the radar antenna and the Mk37directors. These can be obtained in pre-existing available photo-etch sets.

The details range from very good to marginal. The 5in guns are given in two parts and are good in detail for this scale. The 20mm AA mounts are way over scaled with no noticeable gun shield. These should to be replaced. The life rafts have nice detail, but are too thin, and do not properly portray the stacked three raft set-up visible in the period photos.

The aircraft are well detailed with most of the major panel lines engraved. The propellers and the landing gear are separate, which allows for an easy exchange should you go the photo-etch route. The kit provides you with a great set on-register decals for the planes. With the red circles within the stars and without. The only regret here, are the lack of red and white horozontal stripes for the tails of the Wildcats. The decals provided also give you the deck stripes.

in conclusion

This release from Trumpeter is a must for naval enthusiasts. Top quality for a decent price. Trumpeter continues to excel and improve on an already great list of kits. Given the breakdown of parts, Trumpeter should have no problem in releasing the Yorktown and the Enterprise.