USS Enterprise CVAN-65 by Arnaud Bizard
Brand: Revell
Scale: 1/720
Review by: Arnaud Bizard

 

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Introduction

 

USS Enterprise (CVAN-65, later CVN-65) was the first nuclear aircraft carrier of the world, commissionned in 1961 and still in service in 2009. It saw action during the Cuba missile crisis, Vietnam war, Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The story of the ship can be found in more details on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(CVN-65)#Cuban_Missile_Crisis

 

Here are a few sources of good pictures of the ship from 1961 to present:

http://navysite.de/cvn/cvn65.html

http://www.maritimequest.com/warship_directory/us_navy_pages/aircraft_carriers/enterprise_cvn_65/uss_enterprise_cvn_65_page_1.htm

http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/65.htm

http://www.navy.mil/local/cvn65/ (Go to the photo gallery)

 

Be careful when you use these pictures to depict the Enterprise at a particular date as the ship changed throughout her carrier!

 



The kit

Revell released this kit in 1984 according to the copyright printed on the instructions. It is still the only kit of the modern Enterprise in the 1/700-1/720 range. It depicts the ship before her 1979 refit, i.e. when the phase array radar was still on the island.

 

The box contains four sprues, a well-printed instructions leaflet, a small decal sheet for the deck and island numbers and a set of alphabet flags printed on paper. The first sprue contains the flight deck, 12 A-4s, 2 Vigilantes and 2 Intruders. The second sprue contains the two halves of the upper hull and the bottom of the hull. This of course makes like easier if you want to build the ship in a waterline configuration, which is more popular at this scale, but will probably require some putty to make a full-hull representation of the ship.

The third sprue contains the hangar doors (Closed as the hangar bay is not included in the kit), the elevators, the stern and other structural parts of the hull. The last sprue contains the island, 12 F-4s and two Hawkeyes.

 

The plastic is quite soft (see how the sprues are bent in the pictures, this is not an optical effect!). This means it will be easy to work with but some reinforcements might be necessary to make sure the hull does not twist. The molds are not that young but the details are still crisp, no problem there. It is not of the level of Trumpeter’s Nimitz class kits though, 20 years of moulding technology make quite a difference.

 

The global shape of the ship is correct.  While the flight deck looks exactly right, which is about the most important thing for a carrier, the sponsons are not exactly as they are in reality (see the aft port side sponson for example, completely round in the kit and with a straight cut at the rear in reality) but that should be easy to fix with some documentation, a drill, some plasticard and putty.

 

The hangar bay is not present in the kit but should not be too hard to scratch build, and even easier to build from an aftermarket kit (Starfighter models).

 

The island is right in shape but very crude in details: No pipes, ladders, watertight doors etc... This again is easy to fix with one of the numerous standard PE sets available, for an even better result than if these were injection molded. The top of the island is quite poorly represented and will certainly be an area of challenge for those willing to represent the numerous antennaes and the complex cylinders assembly on the conical superstructure (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/USS_Enterprise_island.jpg).

 

The ship’s self-defense missiles are not very fine and would gain to be replaced, like the airwing (Skywave has all of them and Trumpeter has the F-4s and the Hawkeyes. All are in 1/700 scale but the difference is invisible).

 

Theship’s name and the numbers for the island and the flight deck are the only decals supplied. The deck markings are not supplied but just slightly raised on the plastic part. You will probably want to sand this down. While I prefer to paint these markings anyway this might be a problem if you don’t like masking tape. Fortunately Starfighter decals has a set especially designed for his kit. You may also want to use Gold Medal Models’ Supercarrier set as it provides you with top-quality island markings (Numbers, “Beware blast jets”...) and the deck “small” markings, such as power hatches and the “65”, but not the main lines.

 

      
      
      
      
Click on the images to enlarge!



Conclusion

A very honest kit for its age, the Revell Enterprise allows the beginner to build a fair replica of the ship and provides an excellent basis to build CV(A)N-65 at any stage of her life for the advanced modeler.

 

      
      
      
Click on the images to enlarge!



 


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  Photos and text © 2009 by Arnaud Bizard

May 16, 2009

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