1/700 Carrier jets/props

The answer is, It depends. At least as far as the airplanes goes. It depends which ones you are building and in what time frame. The main plus for most of the Trumpeter ones is that they are molded in clear plastic, so you can get the clear canopies without having to worry about painting them gray or black or whatever. The main minus for the Trumpeter ones is that they are molded in clear plastic, so you have to either mask around the clear canopies or hand paint each aircraft (my choice). Tamiya also has some 1/700 aircraft; for modern US jets another source is Fujimi, also molded in clear.

As for folding wings, if they are not molded that way, in 1/700, it's easy enough to score along the wing at the correct place with your hobby knife and "fold" the wings yourself. One thing I would recommend looking at is the White Ensign Models fixed wing aircraft parts PE set, PE 715. Lots of little goodies on there, and you can double up with their four-bladed props to get the new eight-bladed look for the E2-C Hawkeyes if that is correct for the time frame you have in mind.

Well the answer I was looking for is the ability to fold the wings. Having been on sea trials with all but 1 of the east coast carriers (CVN-77) and every west coast flat-top. I noticed that all fixed wing aircraft aboard have the wings folded back at all times until they get on the catapult, except the T-45's of course. Having spoken with various naval aviators including 6 different CAG's they all said it been that way since before they could remember. I'm wanting to put as many aircraft on as possible. In my reaserch for the entire 1991 CVW-1 air wing I WOULD need 16 A-6E, 5 EA-6B's, 5 E-2C's, 25 F-14A's, 6 SH-3H's, 10 S-3B's, and 22 F/A-18C's. Making up 89 aircraft. I do not wish to put that many on. But I would like an accuate representation of what the flight deck would look like during 100% flight ops.

*thinking "This is a man who likes punishment ...*

I spent awhile rummaging amongst the debris of the hobby shelf (never a pleasant task) and found the remnants of my air wing stash. The Trumpeter Vikings, Hawkeyes and Prowlers are all molded full wing, but, as I noted, it's an easy job to make the cut, and most of the Trumpeter 1/700 jets have a mold line at the correct spot. Before I did that, though, I coated each one with Future, both to shine up the canopies and give the brittle styrene a bit more strength. The Fujimi Hornets I got came with separate wingtips, a time-saver.

A couple of things to keep in mind - and I am NOT trying to be a killjoy here: It's almost as much work to build a 1/700 airplane as a bigger one. My Hawkeyes, for instance, had 12 itty bitty decals on each aircraft. Getting a plethora of droptanks to line up can get trying. If you go whole hog  with the PE and add tow bars and crewmen and such, the possibilities for insanity are endless. I only made 37 aircraft for my Enterprise build, and I was about ready for the rubber room, but it turned out OK, and the recipient of it was thrilled: