The kit subject addresses a generally under-represented set of modern USN aircraft carrier details. While there is an abundance of aftermarket aircraft available for 1:350 carriers, with the exception of some resin offerings there is very little available for the ubiquitous utility vehicles that populate carrier decks. This under-representation has been lessened by MRC with the release of a carrier deck equipment kit.

Packaging and Contents

Everything is in a double-blister pack with the interior blister pack designed as a tray to hold the sprues. For me, this interior pack or tray served well as a corral for very small parts. Two identical sprues are provided in the kit. All parts are crisply molded in light gray plastic. The sprue frames are formed nicely to provide protection for the delicate one-piece fork lift cages. The assembly instructions and painting guides are part of the cardboard packaging. No decal sheet is included.

The assembly instructions suggest that it is possible to build 2 of everything but the crash crane. There are enough parts for the following pieces of deck equipment:

• 2 large forklifts
• 2 small forklifts
• 4 tow tractors or 4 “oxygen trailers”
• 2 crash trucks
• 2 fire tractors
• 2 “tow bars”
• 1 large crash crane with almost enough extra parts for another crane.

The instructions are identical for the tow tractors and “oxygen trailers”. I believe this might just be a typo. The kit certainly provides enough for 4 tow tractors. The “tow bars” appear to be “oxygen trailers” and I could not find anything on the sprues that looked like tow bars. This might just be a typo as well.

Assembly Notes

Everything assembles well, with minimal trimming and cleanup required. Positioning the wheels and tires in the tractors was easily done, once I figured out how to handle the tiny wheels! There are not axle holes, but there are notches in the tractor bodies. This made it quite easy to hold the wheels in place and wick in a little bit of CA. Some of the wheels appear to have a flat side on the axle, which may be meant to face downward, but orienting the flat side in any particular way did not seem to affect the fit. The crash crane provided is a straight derrick version supporting a single hook, with the box-like control cab mounted on the left side. The “tow bar” is actually a small trailer with horizontal cylinders.

None of the examples built for this review are painted so that the reader can see the kit components bare. The deck vehicles of the kit nearly match the deck vehicles in a current project of mine portraying the USS Enterprise CVN-65 ca. 2003. The fork lifts and tractors are quite close to being a good match, but I am modifying the tilley/crash crane to the cranked derrick found aboard CVN-65 at that time, and will also drill out the control cab windows and put in clear materials.

Summary

This accessory set fills a needed gap in fitting out a modern carrier deck. All of the subjects contained in the set are an excellent base for further detailing as needed. The price is very reasonable. The parts could be used straight out of the box, but they make a great basis for additional detailing. I am delighted!

Thank you again to Akiko Kimura of MRC and the IPMS Reviewer Corps for the opportunity to contribute to the greater modeling community. Now, back to the workbench…

Photos

1. Unpainted crash crane with straight derrick, no. 11 Xacto blade tip for scale.
2. Unpainted large and small fork lifts showing nice details , no. 11 Xacto blade tip for scale.
3. Unpainted tow tractor, crash truck and gas bottle trailer, no. 11 Xacto blade tip for scale.
4. Back of package showing painting suggestions.
5. Front of package showing blister packs. Note instructions for assembly on the cardboard behind the sprues.
6. One of two identical sprues included in the kit.