1/720 Revell Arizona

I got the Revell 1/720 a year ago as a freebee from a mail order house. I was really exited about it until I took it out of the box. About 98% of it was embedded in flash. Half of the parts were not even recognizable.

IMO, Revell is still producing parts in molds that are way past their prime.

I have never actually thrown a complete model, box and all, into the trash until I saw that kit.

Scott

The Dragon 1/700 Arizona is by far the best in that scale range. The measurments are very good and the kit is well designed. The Trumpeter 1/700 is the second best. The Revell kit needs work done with it to be built correctly. Seams are a problem in this kit The super structure has a very bad one between the 5 inch guns in castemates. Best thing to do is to surface it over with puddy and redrill the port holes. The Dragon kit is by far the best. The issue of the fighting tops is a non-issue it holds acyrilic paint just fine and I glued it to the hard plastic parts with super glue but since I build resin kits more often than plastic thats no big deal. I actually perfer super glue to "standard" model glue (the Testors stuff in the orange or blue tube).

No jtelley is right, it is the Dragon kit, my mistake. This 1/350 Arizonia kit is frying my brain.

I believe torybear may be referring to the recent 1/700 kit by Dragon. I know Trumpeter has an Arizona in 1/350, but I'm not aware of a 1/700 one from that firm. Maybe I'm mistaken.

I've built the Revell 1/720 one, and have the Dragon 1/700 version in my "to do" pile.

The Revell kit is quite old, never was really state-of-the-art, and nowadays, with the masses of flash and other signs of age, is something of a disaster.

The Dragon kit, on the other hand, has to be one of the nicest 1/700 warships around. It features turned brass 14" gun barrels, cast metal turrets (though I'm not sure why), aircraft and boats molded in clear plastic (paint everything but the canopies and windows), brass anchor chains, and a small set of photo-etched brass detail parts. It's gotten some criticism because some of the parts - most notably the big "fighting top" structures on top of the masts - are molded in a flexible grey plastic, allow for molding them in one piece each. There's some concern that this material will be difficult to paint, and to fasten to hard styrene parts. Since I haven't started mine I can't comment on that point. I can say that it looks like a beautiful kit.

There is, of course, quite a difference in price between the two kits. If you intend to spend some time building a detailed model of the ship, though, the Dragon kit version is the one to get.

Regarding enhancements - Gold Medal Models makes an excellent set of photo-etched detail parts that covers the Arizona and all classes of American fast battleships. That set is an excellent investment. If you combined it with the photo-etched parts in the Dragon kit, you'd probably have enough left over to do a Tamiya Missouri - and the Arizona and Missouri side by side would make a thought-provoking exhibit. The begining and the end of the war in the Pacific.

You might want to take a look at the 1/700 Trumpter kit. I hear that is pretty neat.