In-box review of the Trump's new U.S.S. Freedom, LCS-1.

1/350 scale of course. Great compliment to your Trump or Bronco 1/350 LCS-2 U.S.S. Independence.

1.st of all,  this ship was alot more expensive than the Indepence. I got Independence in China for like less than $15, this ship cost me $30. But still pretty cheap consideringly.

The kit is proto-typical trumpeter. The kit contains 530 pieces on 8 sprues, upper and lower hull, single piece hull deck,  various pieces of Photo-etch (details for stuff like the Sea Ram, netting and handrails). a decal sheet and a 29 step instruction book.

Now, don't know the accuracy of the kit and don't care. IT looks like a Freedom and that's good enough for me. But anyways...

The major differences this time, when compared to the Indepence, there are several open areas of the ship that you can display open to show off the ship's innards, these include: The quick on, quick off Zodiac special forces bay at the rear, this is a detailed unit with a side bay, control room, two zodiac boats, one on a "launcher", the other in storage. It look pretty good, but of course, anyone want to go to town can add more details on this, if they can find any refrence for this.

The biggest difference, and disspointed some people, was that for the independence, there was no clear parts for the windows/pilot house, mainly due to the faceted plates on the model. This time however, clear PVC's are provided for the main pilot house windows on the freedom, and since the facets on the freedom isn't nearly as bad as the independence, the main deack house comes in a single piece. This should make assembly a snatch.Also, a simple deck house with very simple details is included to depic the pilot house consoles and chairs. But this is really simple and anyone who is serious could go and detail this up. But then again, don't think you can see much once the pilot house is locked down.

In fact, this deck house contain many many detailed parts to make it really good from an exterior point of view. A LOT, and I mean A LOT of smalls parts goes here, so do becareful and not launch some of these into another dimention! Behind the pilot deck is the helicopter hanger, and simple walls make this up. Again, detail this up if you want, but even with the hanger door open, it can be hardly seen. A MH-60 Seahawk and a RQ-8 Fire Scout is included. Strangely, the photo-etch tiedown rings from the Indepence is missing, although the "Pot holes" on the flight deck are still there. Freedom deck too small? The photo-etch safety nets are there though.

One pleaseant option that is included in this kit, and missing from the Independence is that two 30mm close in cannons (not Phalanx) turrets are included and can be placed up above the hanger deck directly behind the pilot house. These cannons are placed here to defend against small ships during surface combat. These are not offered for the Independence so if you want to equip your Independence kits with them, you can now. Or you can use the same blank covers and cover these areas up if that's your thing.

Anyways, a lot of small details in this kit so becareful. But it looks like Trumpeter did a great job on this ship like they did with the Independence (Although those thrice damned lock down rings gave me a headache, and it's still there, incomplete because of that reason lol). If you got the independence like me, well, you need this fella cause the Independence alone is not right, it's like going out with only one shoe on! So yeah, worth  the money, especially since I only paid $30 for mine! AS for the build, I'll keep you posted as soon as I get up the courage to finish the Independence! (Those thrice damned lock down rings! GRRRRRRRRRR.....)