Reviewed February 2026
by Martin J Quinn

The Lexington-class battlecruisers were officially the only class of battlecruiser to ever be ordered by the United States Navy. While these six vessels were requested in 1911 as a reaction to the building by Japan of the Kongō class, the potential use for them in the U.S. Navy came from a series of studies by the Naval War College which stretched over several years and predated the existence of the first battlecruiser, HMS Invincible (a series of proposed battlecruiser designs was in fact submitted to the General Board in 1909 but was not approved for construction). The fact they were not approved by Congress at the time of their initial request was due to political, not military, considerations.

The Lexington's were included as part of the Naval Act of 1916. Like the South Dakota-class battleships also included in the 1916 Act, their construction was repeatedly postponed in favor of escort ships and anti-submarine vessels. During these delays, the class was redesigned several times; they were originally designed to mount ten 14-inch guns and eighteen five-inch guns on a hull with a maximum speed of 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph), but by the time of the definitive design, these specifications had been altered to eight 16-inch guns and sixteen six-inch guns, with a speed of 33.25 knots to improve hitting power and armor (the decrease in speed was mostly attributed to the additions of armor).

The design challenges the Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair (C&R) faced with this class were considerable, as the combined requirements of optimum hitting power, extreme speed and adequate protection taxed the knowledge of its naval architects and the technology of the time. The desired speed of 35 knots had been attained previously only in destroyers and smaller craft. To do so with a capital ship required a hull and a power plant of unprecedented size for a U.S. naval vessel and careful planning on the part of its designers to ensure it would have enough longitudinal strength to withstand bending forces underway and the added stresses on its structure associated with combat. Even so, it took years between initial and final designs for engine and boiler technology to provide a plant of sufficient power that was also compact enough to allow a practical degree of protection, even in such large ships.

While four of the ships were eventually canceled and scrapped on their building ways in 1922 to comply with the Washington Naval Treaty, two (Lexington and Saratoga) were converted into the United States' first fleet carriers. Both saw extensive action in World War II, with Lexington conducting a number of raids before being sunk during the Battle of the Coral Sea and Saratoga serving in multiple campaigns in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean. Though she was hit by torpedoes on two different occasions, Saratoga survived the war only to be sunk as a target ship during Operation Crossroads

This history is taken from Wikipedia.  For more on the Lexington-class battlecruisers, click here.  There are also a handful of photos of the incomplete members of class under construction, at the bottom of the "Cruisers" page on Navsource.net. 

The 3D-Wild USS Lexington CC-1

Lexington is packaged in a sturdy, and colorful, flip top box. Inside the box are the two piece hull and casement deck (each wrapped in clear plastic wrap), clear plastic boxes with additional parts, two sheets of photo-etch, brass rod and the instructions. Unlike many 3D printed models that come with a forest a print support on a print raft, 3D Wild has removed the hull and casement deck from the print rafts, along with most of the print supports.  There are still some to be removed, but the majority of this tedious work has been done for you. 

This is the first 1/350 kit of Lexington in her battlecruiser guise that I know of.  Previously, there was a resin 1/700 model from Imperial Hobby Productions. 

The hull is a two piece affair, and is printed in a gray resin. The hulls scales out pretty close to the real ship in both length and beam. 

At the aft end of the forward section of the hull, there is a rectangular male connector that fits into a similarly shaped female connector in the aft section of the hull. This will help with alignment.  While the aforementioned print supports were removed, the mating area is very rough, and will need to be trimmed and sanded for a good joint. 

There is planking - with butt ends - printed on the main deck.  Chocks are also printed to the sides of the hull.  The bases for the bollards - but not the bollards themselves - are printed to the deck. 

The quality of the planking is inconsistent.  At the stern and amidships, it's pretty good.  At the bow the pattern changes and both the wood deck has another series of recessed lines, which ruins the effect of the butt ends.  Also, the anchor chaffing plates have this same pattern.  Additionally, there are visible print lines on the sides of the hull.  On both sides of the aft section of the hull, they almost look like fingerprints. 

This is printed as one piece.   Similar to the comments about the hull, there are visible print lines.  Also, recall that I mentioned that 3D Wild removed the print supports from these parts?  Unfortunately, there are still numerous little nubs to clean up, plus on my kit, the number 3 barbette has a big chunk taken out of it. 

My biggest issue with this part is the lack of interior bulkheads within the casement deck. This omission means that you'll be able to see right through the casement deck from one side to the other.  In a photo below, compare the Lexington's casement deck with a casement deck for the USS West Virginia (BB-48) from Model Monkey.  This part would have been much more realistic with the bulkheads as part of the print, similar to the West Virginia part.   

The forward funnel deck has boat cradles printed to the deck, while the aft funnel has searchlight platforms printed to the sides of the funnel.

While the funnels are impressive in size, this whole print raft gets let down by a myriad of print lines, especially on the decks and other horizontal surfaces. These are going to be very difficult to clean up, particularly on the boat deck. 

I am disappointed in the cranes - they are solid.  I would have liked to seen them at least partially open, to better capture the look of them. 

6in guns
3in AA guns
Saluting guns

The 6" guns are fine, as are the saluting guns.  However, the 3" guns look to be a spurious design. Looking online and speaking to other ship modelers and researchers, we can't seem to find an actual gun that matches this design. That being said, these may be correct, and I - or my research sources - have just never seen this top secret design before. 

There two frets of PE included.  They mostly consist of railings, but also include inclined and vertical ladders. 

The instructions are in booklet form, and in color.  There is a section on what tools to use and some tips on dealing with this material.  Also included is a parts manifest.  The rest of the booklet has the step by step instructions. This is no painting guide.  

3D Wild has had an aggressive and prolific release schedule, Lexington being one of the many kits they are churnin out.  I do this this kit is an improvement on their first release, the Japanese light carrier Ryujo. That being said, there is still work to be done.

On the plus side, this is a very unique subject - a 1/350 Lexington, in her never-finished battlecruiser form! Similar to the Ryujo, kudos to 3D-Wild for thinking out of the box, being bold and producing a model of this ship, as well as offering other versions of Lexington as if she had been built and undergone modernization. Understanding the limitation of 3D printers, I also like that the hull is "only" 2 parts (just like the first large resin ships).  I think the plug on the forward half the hull will definitely help with alignment. I like that the casement deck is printed separately.  The planking on the main deck is (mostly) pretty good, and the photo-etch looks good.

However...my biggest gripe is all the print lines, especially on the decks, particularly on large open "boat deck" and the bow area.  These are going to very difficult to fix, be it with putty or primer (or both).  My second gripe is with the omission of bulkheads on the "interior" of the casement deck.  Sure, I can box it off with plastic strip, but why should I have to? This should have been caught in the design phase. 

If you are up for the challenge, and are a big fan of never-built USN ships, then you might like this kit. It will certainly fill a niche in your scale model fleet. However, I can only recommend it for experienced modelers, and/or fans of USN never-were, or Lexington-as-a-battlecruiser fans, who are up for a challenge. I'd like to see 3D Wild slow down their aggressive release schedule and focus more on quality, and less on quantity. 

This is 3D-Wild's 1:350 USS Lexington (CC-1) Battlecruiser Model Kit, kit number WS0152.  It's priced at $318.00 USD, and is available directly from 3D-Wild.