Many of us here have already seen how Dick J posted his insights about the Trumpeter CV-5 kit in
another thread, confirming that the kit is indeed is overscale.
Still, this gave me an idea for those of us who are fixated on accuracy of dimensions: what if one used Tom's Modelworks
Hornet hull- with the supposedly accurate 1/700 hull and corrected bow shape- and added it to the new Trumpeter CV-5 kit?
If the overscale Trumpeter CV-5 flight deck proves to be slightly too long, wouldn't one just simply trim it a little to fit the Tom's Modelworks hull?
From various sources I read online, the actual
Hornet and
Yorktown both seemed to have been 251.38 meters long overall. (are we even sure the corrected Toms Modelworks
Hornet hull has accurate dimensions?)
Anyways, I've re-posted Dick J's comments for future reference for modellers at this thread:
Dick J wrote:
Just got my kit this morning. The hull scales out at about 1/697, making it about as over scale as the Academy CV-6 hull is under scale (at 1/702 - 1/703). Both kits appear to be in the range to be "close enough" on scale. Unlike the Academy kit, all three elevators are molded into the flightdeck, meaning that they would have to be carefully cut out to depict a lowered elevator - and the deck is not scribed on the under side to assist with that. On the flip side, the Trumpy kit has all three elevators molded at the hangar level, unlike the Academy kit, which unusually has not depicted the well for the forward elevator extending down to hangar deck level, keeping the deck unbroken at the forecastle level. This is all the more strange on the Academy kit because the forward elevator is one of the two where the elevator is a separate piece at flightdeck level. (How do you depict that one in the down position if the space below doesn't go all the way down?)
The exterior hangar sides are molded separately on the Trumpy kit (not my favorite way, but I can live with that), but no interior structures are provided for the base below the island. Checking the instructions, for the most part, the light AA is correct for CV-5. There are two exceptions, however. One extra 20MM is placed in the starboard catwalk aft of the after 5" guns. That should be easily removed. Second, one of the "non-permanent" .50 cal MGs is not located on the short deck aft of (and one level lower than) the port side after 5" guns. The kit does have the extra part to allow one to be placed there though.
Now for the big question - hull shape. The shape looks quite good, especially compared to the Trumpy Hornet hull. In short - they actually fixed it! I even like this hull shape better than the Academy CV-6 hull, particularly in the bow flair below the forward 5" gun sponson. (The Academy kit has a slight, soft "knuckle" there.) The degaussing cable is generally correct for CV-5 and is not as "overdone" as the one on Academy's CV-6. (The CV-6 cable depiction makes somewhat too wide of a swath in the bow area.) Obviously, I haven't built the kit yet to determine if all else is as it should be, but I think the basic shapes are close enough that other issues with the kit that might crop up will be easily fixed by the after market community.
All thinks considered, I think that finally we might have a keeper!!
PS: There is no lower hull piece in this kit.