The USS Princeton was built at the Philadelphia
Navy Yard September 14, 1943 and commissioned November 18, 1945. She was
completed to late too late for world war two, but operated in both the
Atlantic and Pacific until being placed in reserve. The Korean conflict
brought her out of reserve and she became a forward base of operations
for US Navy Jets badly needed over the skies of Korea. She was reclassified
as CVA-37 in late 1952 and operated in the attack role sending her aircraft
on many missions to take out troop concentration, and infrastructure in
the North. After the truce was signed she returned to the US for conversion
to an ASW carrier. New carrier classes were then coming on line and the
old Essex class carriers were put to work in other roles. Princeton operated
a hunter-killer team of S2F Trackers and UH-34 helicopters until 1959.
She was later converted into an amphibious assault ship and designated
LPH-5 and operated in this capacity during the Viet Nam conflict. In 1969
she served briefly as a space recovery ship for the Apollo 10 mission.
She was finally decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1971.
Princeton received 8 battle stars for service during the Korean Conflict. |
Dragon has chosen to model the Princeton in her ASW role during the
50's. The basic Essex class kit has been upgraded with new aircraft and
other parts to allow you to model this post WW2 carrier. |
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| HULL |
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| The hull is one piece with a separate hanger deck and lower
hull.. There is some really nice porthole detail with eyebrows (rain gutters)
above them and plenty of piping, vent, and other detail. The many openings
to the hanger deck are all left open with separate roll up doors that can
be shown open or closed. |
Click
images
to enlarge |
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| HANGER DECK SPRUE A |
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| Probably the most exciting item on this kit, is this detailed hanger
deck. It included some interior details and nice deck plate details. |
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| FLIGHT DECK SPRUE B |
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| This kit includes the long straight flight deck which is
appropriate for this ship. It is the same as the one included in the Randolf
kit. There are also some parts from the Antietam
kit included but you will not need them for this ship. |
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| SPRUE B |
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| This sprue also labeled B is new to this ship. It included some of
the island specific details such as the new funnel and some mast parts. |
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| SPRUE C |
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| This sprue is identical to the one in the Essex kit. It contains some
of the walls that form the hanger deck as well as the separate roll up
doors. Various platforms and other details are very sharp. You might also
notice that there are carly floats molded on the underside of many of these
platforms. One other thing that I noticed was the absence of those dreaded
Aztec
stairs. Finally a kit that you don't have to try to scrape them off the
platforms. |
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| SPRUE D |
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| This sprue is similar to the one in the Essex kit except it has been
extended on the bottom side to include the four platforms and sponsons
shown below. The other items on the sprue include the walls and doors seen
on the above sprue. It also included the boat cranes and deck edge elevators
as well as the folding deck antenna masts. There are two different deck
edge elevators; one with molded on underside detail and one without. The
latter is designed for use with the included photo etch fret shown below.
Again the modeler is presented with a choice in how they wish to build
their ship. |
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| SPRUE E |
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| These sprues include many of the gun platforms and bridge platforms.
Notice that in most cases the underside bracing is present. There are also
several extra platforms that are not used on this kit. Also notice
the open grills in the top of the funnel cap, nice! |
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| SPRUE G |
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| This sprue contains many platforms used on the this ship as well as
some extra parts that are not needed. |
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| SPRUE H |
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| Only two parts are used on this sprue so you will have many extras
for the spare parts box. |
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| SPRUE h |
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| This clear sprue includes many bridge parts used on the kit. The idea
is to mask off the windows and paint the part. When you peel off the masking
tape, you will be left with clear windows. |
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| SPRUE J |
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| A stand is included to mount your ship on if you chose the full hull
option. |
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| SPRUE K (x 2) |
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| This is the weapons spure and there are two of them in the kit. It
includes the many anti-aircraft guns and various fittings used on the ship.
Various radar's and other detail items are also included. 5" 38 cal guns
are included in both open and closed types. The 40 mm guns are not bad
but the gun barrels are a little thick. The 20 mm are also a little thick,
but I really like the way they are molded. The front shield is offset from
the pedestal and the separate gun can be mounted at any angle just like
the real ones. You also get Mk-51 directors, searchlights and even some
pelorus mounts. All are as fine as injections molding permits in this scale.
Not to be overlooked are the nice life rafts that have some nice netting
molded on. |
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| SPRUE L |
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| The island is another really nice part in this kit. The main sprue
pictured below is from a very complex multi-slide mold that allows for
detail to be molded on almost all sides. On a conventional mold, there
are two halves and the parts need to be able to slide out of the mold.
This prevents some surface detail from being included as it would be scraped
off as the part was ejected out of the mold. The mold used here has what
are called slides that pull from different directions. This allows detail
to be cast on the sides and then before the part is ejected those parts
of the mold slide out of the way preserving the detail. These types of
molds are expensive and require quite an engineering effort to design.
This goes to show that Dragon is committed to offering the most
accurate kits to modelers and is willing to invest in the Research and
Development to bring it about. |
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The bridge has all kinds of detail on it from extensive conduit piping,
to the watertight doors and molded on ladders. The four dual 5" 38 cal
gun mounts on this sprue are a testament to how detail can be preserved
with this type of molding technology. The sights on the gun houses rival
that that we see in resin kits. |
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| SPRUE M |
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| This sprue contains some of the quad 40 mm gun tubs that mount under
the flightdeck. Most of these parts are not needed on this ship. |
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| SPRUE P (x 2) |
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| This is a second weapons sprue that adds an important weapon to the
kit. Specifically 20 mm twin mounts. Dragon has created a brand
new fret to add this weapon that was added later in the war. Additional
40 mm quad mounts and gun directors are also added. |
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| PHOTOETCH |
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| A nice photo etch fret is included with the elevator underside bracing,
and even some radar's and crew figures. The fret is relief etched to bring
out the details on some of the parts. |
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| DECALS |
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| The decals by Cartograf include the aircraft insignia that were used
during the war and include the red outlined insignia used briefly by some
squadrons. The deck striping and lines are well done. They are all nicely
registered and much improved from the typical kit supplied decals. Several
ships names are included so you can do other ships with these decals. |
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| AIRCRAFT |
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| Two types of aircraft are provided in this kit. The Anti
Sub warfare S2F Tracker and the HU-34 Helicopter molded in clear plastic. |
| S2F Tracker One with wings extended and one with separate
wings that can be folded. Includes separate landing gear, propellers and
even gear doors. |
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| HU-34 Helicopter. Two included with separate propeller blades
and landing gear. The tail assembly is also separate as it could be folded. |
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| INSTRUCTIONS |
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| The instructions are an eight page booklet showing the assembly in
a step by step process that is easy to follow. It looks like first pages
that show the weapons call for too many 20 mm guns. You will have to do
a little research depending on what year you are building your CV to represent. |
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| BONUS SPRUE N (x 2) |
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| Here's another nice touch, a bonus tug boat to help you dock this carrier.
It will help give you an idea of this ships immense size when displayed
alongside the carrier. This tug is not just an extra thrown in, it is an
all new mold produced with the slide molding technology that is fast making
Dragon famous. |
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| CONCLUSIONS |
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 This
kit will make a nice ASW Essex class carrier. It is well designed
and packed with options. The modeler has many choices when building this
kit. Full hull or waterline, Open hanger doors or closed, clear deck or
opaque, and your choice of original or modified angle deck versions. With
all the extra parts in the kit, you could probably model other similar
carriers by swapping out some parts. Save the rest for other projects.
Dragon USA lists this kit with an MSRP of $34.95 US. More than
a fair price when you consider the extras. It even improves on their previous
release the Essex. I am extremely pleased to see Dragon expanding their
Essex line to include Korean era, and can hardly wait to see what's next. |
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