Casablanca Class Escort Carrier
Reviewed January 2016
by Timothy Dike
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This old kit is a blast from the past. Originally
produced by Tom's ModelWorks in the nineties. The kit is now out of production.
This kit was originally mastered by Bert McDowell and a more updated version
of the kit is available from Loose Cannon Models. This kit was a little
ahead of its time when first produced. Let's take a look at what's in the
box.
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| HULL PARTS | |||||||||
| The hull is cast waterline style with everything below the flight deck cast on. The hole is somewhat hollowed out in the hangar deck region. Casting is pretty good overall. | Click images
to enlarge |
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| FLIGHT DECK | |||||||||
| The flight deck consists of a single flat resin piece with a styrene sheet with the deck markings printed on. Obviously not the best solution here and this is the kits weak link. |  |
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| PLATFORMS AND DETAILS | |||||||||
| The bridge, gun tubs, and other platforms are all cast in resin with very little flash. |  |
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| WEAPONS | |||||||||
| The weapons included in this kit are resin copies of the old Skywave weapons set. |  |
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| METAL PARTS | |||||||||
| Life rafts are provided is white metal castings. |  |
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| PHOTOETCH | |||||||||
| The best part of the kit is the five photo etch frets. The first fret includes the radars, aircraft details, and bridge and mast details CVE. The other frets include railings, safety nets for the LSO, and gun details for the 40 MM and 20 MM guns. Several lengths of brass rod are also included to fabricate the masts, Most of these frets are still available from Tom's ModelWorks. |  |
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| DECALS | |||||||||
| No decals are included but deck markings and flight deck numbers are printed on paper that can be cut out and use this stencils. |  |
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| INSTRUCTIONS | |||||||||
| The main kits instructions are six pages long fairly well done and adequate to finish the ship. | |||||||||
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| CONCLUSIONS | |||||||||
 As
I mentioned before this kit is out of production but can still be found
on Ebay or the occasional flea market sale. |
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