USS Nimitz CVN68 1975 Aircraft Carrier

My model is in the process of being converted into the USS Abraham Lincoln CVN-72 but there are still some points that are relevant to all versions. The hull comes in upper and lower halves and there is a baseplate included so you can build it as a waterline model. The flight deck comes in three pieces and requires careful fitting to reduce the seams. There is also a hangar deck but no equipment, bulkheads, fire doors or conflagration stations at all. The hangar bay doors look nothing at all like the real ones. The kit ones look like roller doors whereas the real ones are large vertical panels. If you are building any ship of the class after 1980 you will need to update your aircraft accordingly but Trumpeter has foreseen this and makes sets of aircraft to update this and other carrier kits. If you are going to build this kit to represent other ships of the class or the Nimitz at a later point in her service I would strongly recommend buying the White Ensign photoetched sets. These have different exterior parts and details for other ships of the class and some corrections like the LSO platform which isn't even in the kit itself. I served on the Lincoln from 1991 to 1994 so getting it right is important to me.

The USS Nimitz is and always has been one of my favorite modern day aircraft carriers, and yes I have the movie, so this kit was an absolute must when she came out. She is a huge kit and as mentioned in other reviews a simple build. For me though the 1975 version wasn’t enough, so I decided to upgrade her to today’s standards, I have been working on her on and off for the last 4 years, still not done! Also as mentioned in another review if you want to cover the deck then yes you need to get some additional kits from trumpeter, they also have additional flight deck equipment you can get from them. And yes the air group is very time consuming, I strayed from tradition and put together an air group that from a personal point of view that would be even in today’s standards the most effective. I have included pics of my air wing. I do recommend this kit for both beginners as well as advanced builders, the kit is simple enough but also offers a challenge to those who wish to go further.

This is another in a long line of great kits from Trumperter. Excellent detail and if you use the White Ensign PE kit you can detail it even more.As you can see from some of the photos. The air wing takes quite a while but it is worth it. This would be a version from the 2000's as built. The kit includes what would have been the air wing in the 80's. Also some of the sensors were updated and the White Ensign PE parts are excellent for the updates. Over all an excellent kit.