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REVELL-U.S.S.SARATOGA-What a revolting Development this is!!

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  • Member since
    October 2019
  • From: New Braunfels, Texas
REVELL-U.S.S.SARATOGA-What a revolting Development this is!!
Posted by Tanker-Builder on Saturday, February 5, 2022 3:08 PM

Oh Boy!

     I sure am glad I was Given this as a freebie at our last train Show. Confusing instructions to locate parts, Bad molding and so forth. I am glad I didn't have to pay for it! Grossly Overpriced for the problems inherent. My Heller Charles De-Gaulle bird farm was as bad in the molding but certainly better in the instructions. If I cannot build as planned, then it will go the way of other Terrible Shipmodels in plastic.

    Into the conversion yard to emerge as something else, Maybe a Container-Ship or whatever! 

  • Member since
    April 2005
Posted by ddp59 on Saturday, February 5, 2022 6:10 PM
  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Tuesday, February 8, 2022 3:32 PM

If it's the Forrestal class 1/540 one, I bought a glue bomb for $ 5 and used the lower hull to convert the very good Revell Midway into a full hull.

Gave the Tomcats away to someone who wanted a full deck of jets

Bill

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: Seattle, WA
Posted by Surface_Line on Tuesday, February 8, 2022 3:41 PM

Come on, TB.  That Revell Saratoga kitdates back to when the ship was brand new in 1961.  And even then it was a copy of the Forrestal kit that hadbeen released in 1958.

The aircraft were replaced in the 80s or so.  The original ones were blobs, barely identifiable as F7U, FJ and F11F types.  The later ones (F-14, A-6 et al) were pretty nice, I thought.

All I can say is that some of us who are of even older model years would be pretty bad, compared to the best of the best that were made in the past 20-30 years.

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Tuesday, February 8, 2022 4:09 PM

The box art with her in some arabic port rocked, too.

Bill

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: Seattle, WA
Posted by Surface_Line on Tuesday, February 8, 2022 6:09 PM

GMorrison

The box art with her in some arabic port rocked, too.

Bill

Magnificent box art.  I wonder if that planted the seed that wound up with me in the Navy recruiter's office, 12 years later.

  • Member since
    September 2005
  • From: Groton, CT
Posted by warshipguy on Tuesday, February 8, 2022 6:16 PM

Surface_Line,

Revell originally released the Forrestal class in the late 1950s-early 1960s. They included the 5" gun armament of 8 mounts at the four corners.  They also featured decent attempts at the original islands. Other details were for the original configurations of these ships.

Revell then remolded the Forrestal and Saratoga to their modernized and final configurations, although they are not as accurate as the original versions.  There is a detailed list of the deficiencies in the Detail & Scale book on Forrestal.

Bill

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: Seattle, WA
Posted by Surface_Line on Tuesday, February 8, 2022 7:26 PM

Thanks.  I only checked "Remembering Revell Model kits" by Dr Thomas Graham for the original date, since that was what Prof Tilley used to quote.  :-)

Rick

  • Member since
    September 2005
  • From: Groton, CT
Posted by warshipguy on Tuesday, February 8, 2022 8:18 PM

Rick,

I miss John. He was a great friend of mine.  I also remember he referenced that book a lot.  The problem with using that as a reference is that it was published in the late 1980s.  Revell retooled those Forrestal class carriers in the 1990s, making many changes.  The earlier kits were the better in many ways.

Bill

  • Member since
    October 2019
  • From: New Braunfels, Texas
Posted by Tanker-Builder on Friday, February 11, 2022 7:17 PM

Hi;

 1/542

  • Member since
    October 2019
  • From: New Braunfels, Texas
Posted by Tanker-Builder on Friday, February 11, 2022 7:27 PM

Hi-Surface _Line:

    It has been so long since I built a REVELL navy ship I forgot about the age of some of those molds. Remember, on their AKA and APA and other support ship kits I scratch build everything above the hull. The last carrier I built was the old LINDBERG kit of a W W 2 Kit . I think it was the " Wasp", I have REVELL'S Hornet + 2, but only because I was a Docent on the ship when she opened as a Museum.

    I think the same situation exists here as in the " Charles De Gaulle" the molds are long in the tooth. The island on the aforementioned French ship was an aberration of faulty parts. Heller presses a mold to far sometimes I am sure. But, I had thought the "Sara" was a newer, better molding. I will add in closing the little birds are fairly nice for the scale.

 

  • Member since
    April 2005
Posted by ddp59 on Friday, February 11, 2022 7:59 PM

CV-60 – USS Saratoga – Booklet of General Plans, 1993, Forestal Class, SLEP

https://www.hnsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/cv60.pdf

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