italeri uss nimitz

You know I'm not a big fan of those waterline divided kits. I always go full hull if I can, and it just creates another seam to deal with, assuming it's even at the waterline.

The Italeri Nimitz class carriers are only about 70-75% accurate, depending on which ship the builder chooses, as well as the time period of the ship being modeled.  Fortunately, GMM makes a 1/720 photoetch set for the supercarriers that can greatly improve these models.

One major advantage of the Italeri carriers is that all of the American supercarriers are modeled except for the USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) and the USS Enterprise (CVAN/CVN 65). The Enterprise, however, is modeled by Revell in the same 1/720 scale.  All will require some degree of scratch building to make them more accurate.  But, I enjoy these kits.

Bill

The kit fits generally well, but like Warship guy said, they are pretty generic (the entire class from pretty much one molding).  Definitely check references for where all the radomes and antennas are.  Also, if you are in it for accuracy, pay close attention to the shape of the island and the radar mast/tower just aft of the island.  These have changed (sometimes significantly) with every ship in the class.  Fortunately, there are hundreds of pictures on the net of all the newer US carriers.

With a little bit of work it can be built into a pretty nice model that won't clobber your display space.  I think as the Nimitz it should be fairly accurate, but if you want a more modern version, you might want to make some resin casts of the little tiny radomes as those seem to be added to US ships on an annual basis.  If you haven't done resin, it's really easy, just grab a starter kit and I personally use the small cough medicine measuring cups to make really small amounts for small parts.

Groot

When building Italeri's Nimitz-class carrier, there are several things to consider, as others have posted.

If you build it as Nimitz, you'll be doing OK if you intend to build it as the ship appeared in the late 70s.  If you intend to build it as the Nimitz looks today, much of the kit's island and radar tower will require either aftermarket PE or a lot of scratch building to get it right.

As each of the Nimitz-class ships go through their mid-life refueling and complex overhaul, they get a new mainmast, new tower and different antenna rigging.  Sponsons along the hull are changed and the defensive weapons suite is changed.

The modeler is very lucky with the excellent photo gallery available on the Navy's website navy.mil.  Good, high res photos are available for free download that can make modeling a current ship much easier.

The kit is a good one and with some research, and some aftermarket tweaking can become an excellent  model.

Enjoy yours.

My biggest issue with this series is that Italeri has recently released kits of the USS Ronald Reagan and USS George H. W. Bush. Although they depict the new underwater bow form fairly accurately, they did attempt to accurately depict the SATCOM domes and newer weapons suites, and t hey correctly moved the tower mast from aft of the island to a position on the after end of the island, the completely ignored the shape of the island.  They have still used to original parts for the Nimitz, not the elongated form of the newer ships. Therefore, scratch building is still required. Oh, well . . .

Bill

Anybody thinking about a Nimitz-class carrier needs to take a look at the link below. On second thought, maybe you shouldn't; it may make you want to give up. Note the scale: 1/1250.

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/cv/cvn-69/Eisenhower-1250-kk/index.htm

John

Kostas Katseas is an outstanding modeler who regularly posts on www. steelnavy.com and on www.modelshipgallery.com.  This 1/1250 model of the Eisenhower proves it, and is representative of his work.  It just goes to show what can be accomplished with the Italeri kits with a little work and patience, and with some good photo references and plans.  Thanks for sharing that link!

Bill

What are those really long "poles" that stick out horizontally from the sides for? (not a steel navy kind of builder)

They are antenna masts that are vertical when no flight ops are happening and horizontal when flight ops are happening.   Mostly they stay horizontal at sea and are raised for berthing.

If I remember right, those "whip" antennae are short-range HF aerials for ship-to-plane communications.  They are in pairs, one whip is the Send, the other is Receive.   There will also be some TBS (Talk Between Ships) whips as well.

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I know they couldn't be for fish net trawling.