Trumpeter 1/700 USS Yorktown CV 10 Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

The USS Yorktown was the second Essex class aircraft carrier planned during World War II. She was laid down 1 Dec 1941 and commissioned on 15 April 1943. She was initially named Bon Homme Richard, but renamed to honor CV-5 which was sunk on 7 June 1942. The Essex class ships were built to provide a larger platform from which to launch naval air strikes and to strengthen the diminishing carrier force. Within the course of her WWII service the Yorktown played a major role in destroying several Japanese ships, including the IJN Yamato, the biggest battleship ever built, and several aircraft carriers. The Yorktown was refitted and used in later wars and is now preserved as a museum at Patriot's Point, Charleston, SC.

[Ed Note: The above is Abram Joslin's introduction to the 1/350 scale version of this kit from Trumpeter.]

Trumpeter has released the next increment in the scaled-down carrier force. The larger version of this kit, the 1/350 USS Yorktown CV 10, was released at the beginning of 2005, so here were are 11 months later with the 1/700 version of this kit.

For the record, the kit consists of 637 parts on 32 sprues (duplicate trees not shown), plus separately molded full and waterline hull bottoms, upper hull, hangar deck, and flight deck. As with each of the previous releases, this kit also features a stand and identification plate, also molded from styrene.

The kit features its entire airwing molded in clear styrene, offering the meticulous painter the opportunity to have clear canopies with some depth inside the aircraft. The airwing consists of 12 TBF Avengers, 12 F6F Hellcats, 12 SB2C Helldivers, and 12 SBD Dauntlesses.

A full-color three-view profile is provided to help you replicate the 1945 Measure 33 camouflage worn by the Yorktown.

Markings for this release are all relatively simple as the aircraft have late-war stars and bars. You will note that Trumpeter didn't include US flags this time around - they've been providing the 50-star flag that we use today, not the 48 star flag used during WW2.

The kit also features a nice vacuformed display base for a water surface with wakes molded in to represent the ship underway.

Like each of the other aircraft carriers Trumpeter has released, this is a beauty straight out of the box. The Measure 33 colors worn by the Yorktown will make for a more unusual subject and will definitely be an eye-catcher on the contest table.

My sincere thanks to Stevens International for this review sample!