Reviews : Academy USS Kitty Hawk

I just completed this model at the time of this review. This was my first ship model in thirty years. My dad got it for me a couple years ago, but for various reasons I had not been able to work on it until recently. PROS: (1)In my uneducated opinion, a very detailed model; especially considering it's a 1/800 scale supercarrier. (2)In general, the parts were easy to take off of their sprues (sp?) - very little excess plastic to deal with. There were a few small (literally) exceptions though. (3)The instructions were generally very clear to understand. (4)Unlike for several other Academy models I had dealt with, the decals for this kit were actually quite cooperative when it came to applying them onto the model. CONS: (1)As apparently such with Academy models in general (at least from my experience), there are a lot of itty-bitty parts to deal with. Unless you are very careful and have the hands of a skilled surgeon, there is an excellent chance you could accidentally have a tiny part slip from your fingers or tweezers and fall on the the carpeted floor and magically disappear due to it camouflaging with that said carpet. Likewise if you are not careful when extracting such parts from their sprues, you could very easily break them. Both cases have happened to me repeatedly with this model. (2) In my opinion, this is an EXCELLENT model kit; but I would not recommend it to a beginner modeler. With the abundance of those very itty-bitty parts to deal with I imagine the newbie could very quickly get frustrated with this model. OVERALL ASSESSMENT: In my opinion, if you want to do a quality model that has some challenge to it, this one would be a very good option.

I have to say this model was fun! It is very detailed and has a lot of aircraft to go on it. I will say this model is not for beginners, although because it has small pieces that you will have to use tweezers and magnifying glass to paint and put together. this model is very skilled and is detailed to the dot. it is up to you on weather you want to follow the same color scheme I personally like to change it up a little bit and make it my own. the directions were very easy to follow. so enjoy as I have enjoyed putting this together.

This ship was given to me as a gift and really got me into model ships. It is my first aircraft carrier. Being my first carrier it took me a while to build. I brush painted it and it turned out pretty good. The only thing that makes me give this a four star is the breakable parts/decals. A fun build overall and seems large for its small scale.

My second warship model currently in my backlog. Academy could have separated the upper and lower hull. The lower hull could have been painted red for less work. Anyways totally love the optional name plate and the water slide decals. Will be building it once i have more than enough materials.

The model its self is well built the only problem is how small some of the pieces are. The Deck aircraft were extremely hard to put together because I had to put extremely small parts on it got to the point were I gave up.

Great kit from academy. A lot of detail. Hull and deck require some clamping. Overall a great kit to build. Great kit for my first carrier.