U.S.S. Saratoga, CV-60
1/144 Scale |
The Ship:
The Forrestal Class Aircraft Carrier were the first class of supercarriers, combining high tonnage, deck-edge elevators and and full integration of the angled deck. This new class os ships had a substantionally larger air wing of 80–100 jet aircraft, compared to their predecessors (50–75 for the Midway and Essex classes) Ordered as a "Large Aircraft Carrier", hull number CVB-60, Saratoga was reclassified as an "Attack Aircraft Carrier" (CVA-60), 1 Oct 1952. Laid down 16 Dec 1952, launched 8 Oct 1955, commissioned 14 Apr 1956.
Saratoga was decommissioned in 1994, |
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The Build:
Since there are no aftermarket parts for this, it's strictly an out of box build.
The kit comes with many of aircraft types that served aboard. I kept it minimal, F-14's of VF-103 "Sluggers" in the older Light Gull Gray over white Camo and F/A 18's from VFA81 "Sunliners" in the newer Ghost Grey Camo. I believe both these groups served aboard the Saratoga during the Gulf War.
It's unfortunate there are no aftermarket sets available for this scale kit (at least not the I was able to find)
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Final Thoughts...
This is one of six kits Italeri puts out in the 720 scale, and the only Forrestal Class carrier on the market that I'm aware of. A decent kit for short money . It comes with enough different types of aircraft for most of it's service life, from F-4 Phantoms through the F/A 18 Hornets. The kit went together quickly with minimal flash on the parts.
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Colors list | |
Topside | 36270 Haze Gray |
Flight Deck | 37031 Dk Gray |
Hull bottom | 10076 Oxide Red |
Boottop, Masts | 37038 Black |
Aircraft |
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F-14 Tomcat
A-7 Corsairs |
36440 Lt Gull Gray
37875 White |
F-18 Hornet | 36320 Dk Ghost Gray |