USS Lexington
Trumpeter 1/350
My first impression upon opening the box was being impressed with how big the hull was! The Lady Lex was a BIG ship! The kit scales out nicely in length and beam to the real ship and captures the look of the Lexington nicely. The parts especially the AA guns are very well molded. The directions are clear and easy to follow.
However if you are building the ship full hull, the directions would have you mate the upper and lower hulls AFTER youve already finished the rest of the model. Do not do this!! The fit between the upper and lower hulls is poor and needs to be addressed first, not last! The lower hull is a little narrower than the upper hull, and needs to be widened using spreaders to get a snug fit.
Two things I was quite disappointed in: There is a tremendous amount of flash that needs to be cleaned up. For a model released in 2005, I find this unacceptable. Secondly, there are sink marks/knock out pins all over the model many of them in very visible spots. These will need to be filled/sanded/removed.
Construction is straightforward, but not without difficulty. As the old saying goes, dry fit twice, glue once. I used Gold Medal Models Lexington photo-etch set and highly recommend it it really adds to the finished model. If you replace the molded on flight deck safety nets, I recommend running a thin strip of plastic along the side of the hull to act as a mount for the photo-etched safety nets. Otherwise, youll have a problem getting them to stay on the hull.
Other issues I found while building the model:
1) My hull was warped, which gave me trouble when fitting the flight deck I had to fit the flight deck one section at a time, which let to other issues (seams between the 3 pieces of the deck).
2) I found the splinter shields for the 1.1 inch (28mm) guns too shallow and replaced them. Also, pictures clearly show bracing on the outside of these tubs, which youll have to add.
3) The shape of the flag plot platform on the island is incorrect (it should flare out from the bridge), plus Trumpeter omitted the searchlight platforms on the roof of the flag plot. The searchlights should be bumped up a level and a pair of signal lamps added to the navigation level.
4)The funnel cap is the wrong shape and too wide. Trumpeter molded this piece with wings that dont belong there. The actual funnel cap was curved, not flat, and Trumpeter replicated the curve with these wings. Sand them back till they are closer to the funnel sides.
5) The island is too far inboard from the side of the ship. I removed the molded on guides from the flight deck, re-scribed the flight deck and moved it to the correct position.
6)The rudder has the right profile, but is the wrong width and shape when viewed from behind.
When finished, the model builds into an impressive looking model, especially if you build it full hull, as I did. The Lexington is one of my all time favorite ships, so I went all out on my build and corrected the things I wanted to. For those of you building it out of the box, take your time, dry-fit as you go along and youll have a nice model for your collection. To save you some grief, I do recommend building the model in her waterline configuration.
Review by: Martin Quinn
