Flat Tops And More

1/48 U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier Deck WW2 to Korea 

Also available in 1/72 

Review by Steve Bamford on Jan 17 2008

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This product from Flat Tops And More is a welcome item for anyone that builds USN aircraft from WW2 to the Korean War.  The set is pretty straight forward and is designed for the older carriers with wooden decks from WW2 through the Korean War.  The set consists of a dark hard plastic square (Sintra expanded PVC) base 11"x11", balsa wood planks, strips of photo etch tie downs and dark gray plastic U channel sections to lift the photo etch tie down strips to be perfectly level with the wooden deck top.  There is enough material to cover the deck in a  slightly diagonal way instead of square with the sides of the dark base piece.  

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

Different carriers had different tie down spacing, but this is covered in the 2 pages of instructions.  The lines on the balsa wood are laser cut so they are perfectly straight and uniform.  I must admit the assembly process is easy and the end results will look fantastic.  I'd suggest raising it up a bit with some sort of moulding around the perimeter of the base.

A great looking product that is well thought out and very well executed.  Drop by Flat Tops And More and check out this and their other carrier decks.  They also have very inexpensive printed carrier decks for modellers that want a pre-colored carrier deck for a quick display base.  You can also buy the photo etch tie down strips separately.

Steve

Photos and text © by Steve Bamford