The hangar deck has the generic engraved square deck plates that all Yorktown class kits have, but that bear little resemblance to reality. While there are locators for the hangar interior and uptakes directly under the island, there are no parts included to depict the area. If you build it out of the box, though, it's all academic, as all of the hangar bay doors are molded as part of the bulkhead sections in the down position.
The aircraft and the AA guns are all molded as single pieces, as previously stated. They look fine, but are easily swapped out for those wishing to up the detail. The gun galleries are a bit thick and shallow, but look good on the built example they had on hand; it's something else that those wishing a more detailed build can easily replace with PE.
The flight deck is one piece and extremely well done. Comparing the photo I took to the booklet of general plans, they got the number of planks and tie down strips correct and finely molded. I honestly didn't think to look closely for items such as the bomb and torpedo elevators.
The hull looks very good. Degaussing cables are molded on. The bow had an odd cut-out on the starboard side that gets filled with a corresponding piece on the fret. We couldn't figure out what this was at first, but the consensus was it may be to avoid the sink mark issue that the Merit kit has in that area.
Also included is a PE fret that appears very comprehensive, decals for the aircraft that look to be in-register, and pre-cut masks for painting on the flight deck markings.
Overall it looks outstanding. Those wishing to build out of the box can have a good representation with medium effort, while those wishing to do more have a solid platform for PE and aftermarket. I was so impressed that, after I got a chance to see it in person, I immediately went back to my room and pre-ordered from Freetime. Again, I didn't have any references on-hand and I haven't memorized every bit of the Yorktown class, especially not CV-6, but it looks great to me, and light years ahead of the Tamiya and Trumpeter offerings of the Yorktown class.
link to Modelwarships review below:
ModelWarships in-box review
Devin's pics below:
