Brings back such great memories. Step one was me and my brother cutting all the airplanes from the sprues, playing with them, losing half of them, dad grumbling and finally putting the ship together.
My Dad built the Revell model in the late 50's, it ended up on my dresser with all of my model planes. At the time I was on it, 77-80, we had F-4s, A-6s A-7s, S-3s, H-3 helicopters , E-2s, and had an F-8P det on board in 77, and occasionally while in the Mediterranean we would host A-3 reconnaissance aircraft from a squadron stationed in Rota, Spain. I do remember most of those aircraft as my Dad was in the Navy and I grew up on Naval Air Stations, before I joined.
Dear Mike: your videos have a difficult to describe “Time Machine Sensation”. When you open in your videos the boxes, my mind connects immediately with my past and I can feel again that young kid excitement of unboxing a new kit: the smell of plastic, the shapes, the colors, the details, the transfer decals, etc... I can’t describe it. Thank you for taking us literally Time Traveling. Keep up your good work, it will be a document and a reference for future generations with the same values like you and me.
I am just finishing the later Revel version of the USS Forrestal for my father who served on her in the early 60s during the Vietnam conflict. This version has F14, F18 and Intruders and Prowlers.
I remember building the Revell Ranger in the early 60's. Beautiful kit. I'm pretty sure I only built one WW2 carrier, the Revell Franklin with the open bow and wooden deck. I did get the Aurora CVN 65 for Christmas. That was a big kit and the first one with a multipart flight deck and was actually screwed in place (to allow access to the motor/batteries for the optional motorizing kit). I appreciate the open box displays with all of the insane number of parts/details. I can almost smell the glue and the Testor's enamel paint. Really takes me back. Thanks!!!!!
My Dad was stationed on the USS Franklin D Roosevelt CV-42 on it's final tour before it was decommissioned in 1977. At that time the ship was using F-4 Phantoms and early Harrier Jump Jets as an experiment. He was also stationed on the USS Forrestal at NAS Mayport in Jacksonville, FL in 1959.
There were a few reasons that they decommissioned the FDR before its sister ships. 1) FDR needed a MAJOR refit to address its age and poor material condition. Because the Midway's refit in the late 1960s went well over budget, a similar refit for the FDR was canceled. Likewise, the refit for the Coral Sea was off the schedule. The FDR and Coral Sea's conditions deteriorated the longer time passed. Coral Sea eventually had a few refits in the 1980s to address its condition but I don't think it was ever in the Navy plans to retain that ship in the active duty fleet past the 1980s. It did get one final refit in the mid-1980s to allow Coral Sea to deploy with F-18s for the final years in-service. 2) The FDR had a different powerplant than its sister ships. Its propulsion unit was less reliable. This propulsion unit's performance issues and its "uniqueness" (ie, more expensive to get spare parts for!) gave the Navy another reason to retire the Rosie earlier. 3) Given the tight budgets the Navy faced post-Vietnam, there was an emphasis placed on keeping the new carrier construction program going. There was concern on whether the Navy would get funds to continue with the nuclear carrier program beyond 3 units of the Nimitz-class. The FDR was almost immediately scrapped after decommissioning because the Navy heads were afraid the Carter administration or whoever succeeded them might try to reactivate the Rosie instead of giving funds to build a new supercarrier (Nimitz-class at that time) which was preferrable to keeping a worn-out ship in reserve. It might have taken at least a half-billion dollars to refurbish the Rosie for active duty, money that might have been better spent on a ship design (Nimitz-class) with a 50-year lifespan ahead of it versus a ship that was worn and had maybe 15 years of life left in her. That kind of reasoning came up not long ago when the Navy seriously thought of reactivating the USS Kitty Hawk (which was in reserve but will eventually be scrapped soon). The problem with using Kitty Hawk is that the hull had been battered for over 40 years already and they could maybe get 8-10 years more out of it. The bigger issue was the powerplant -- the US Navy hadn't trained sailors to maintain and operate that boiler system for over a decade! It would have cost a lot of money to bring back old sailors to train a new crew to operate the boilers safely and who knows how much money it would have taken to rehabilitate a decade-retired supercarrier?!?
@@AvengerII I was on the Coral Sea in '79-'80 just after her '70s refit. That's when they removed the last of the 5" guns and I think replaced the catapults with a new model in addition to a lot of habitability upgrades. She got one more upgrade in the mid '80s when she got new radars and CWIS. I think the plan at that time was for her to replace the Lexington as the training carrier down at P-cola but that didn't pan out and they scrapped her in about '89 I think. The FDR was, I think, the first of the Midway class to get the angle deck and they learned from that when they did the Midway and then the Coral Sea. I think that's a big reason that she was scrapped, the angle refit was the least well planned and since she was the first reworked, she had deteriorated more than the Coral Sea and Midway.
@@Mishn0 Actually, the Coral Sea was scrapped between 1994 and 2000. There are pictures of her during the scrapping process online. [What was more puzzling to me than the FDR scrapping was WHY they kept all those Essex-class carriers in the reserve fleet into the 1990s. There were at least 4-5 Essex-class carriers in mothballs beyond the 2 museum ships they had by 1982. By the time they retired, the Essex-class ships were worn out and were basically only good for use as helicarriers because the jets became too big for them. They couldn't mount fighters bigger than the F-8 comfortably and the A-6 was too big for them.] It took 6 years to scrap because the original company that won the recycling contract went bankrupt and the hulk was in limbo for a while. Until the Forrestal herself was scrapped, the Coral Sea was the largest naval vessel ever scrapped. I think Constellation is now the largest military ship scrapped but she'll be surpassed by the Nimitz within a decade. The Enterprise is taking the longest to recycle because of her unique 8-reactor set-up. Thank goodness they didn't make anymore 8-reactor ships after the first and only one!
I built these in the 70's when I was a kid! I have found and am currently building the Lindberg motorized USS Coral Sea. My wife's father served on that in the late 50's - early 60's. He has passed away now and I am building it for Mom. This kit is so old the are a few warped parts I have to contend with, but it is going together nicely! Great channel, Mike!
I got an early Aurora Forrestal but the planes were dark blue plastic. '57 or '58 was around the time the Navy transitioned from blue airframes to light grey so both would be reasonable. I also remember that mine never had A4D's. They must have been added later. Thanks for this video, it really does bring back the memories.
What I absolutely love about your videos is that it takes me back to when I was looking at those kits to decide which one I was going to buy. Best days of my life.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Built the Revell Midway CV 41 (FDR kit with new decals) and the Aurora Forrestal in the late 70s. I also served on the Forrestal from 1990 through 93 when she decommed.
I was a paper boy and a lot of my money went into models and model rockets, I’m 73 now and still building and launching rockets for the grand kids! And I became a painter and graphic artist. Thank you so much for all your videos!!! Your model collection is way better than mine, oh well . . . keep em’ coming!!!
Great memories....I had the Lindberg carrier in a later boxing, had the Revell FD Roosevelt or Midway or Coral Sea a couple of times. One Christmas I got the Revell USS Essex, my favorite since as a 5-6 year my family took me on the actual USS Essex, at the time an ASW carrier. I have an 8mm film by my father, of me standing on the starboard elevator looking into the hanger deck...A-1s and S2Fs. Thanks for a great post.
My introduction to modeling came when, at 4 years of age in 1956, I watched my father build that exact Revell USS Forrestal on our living room table everynight for two weeks...I was hooked.
Got to love the flattops! I'm somewhat obsessed with the USS Yorktown CV-5 and CV-10 plus USS Coral Sea CV-43....hopefully, some day, I'll get my dirty mittens on one of them old USS Coral Sea kits.... 🤞🏻 Great video, as always! 👍🏻👌🏻👏🏻
A baby-sitter I had as a kid in the late '50s-early-'60s had two teenage sons who must've built those carrier models, because they had dozens of tiny gray jet airplanes they'd let me have to play with. Those planes had to have come from those carrier kits!
Mike, I really respect the way you point out inconsistencies and errors in box art, but quickly affirm that "It just works". Loved the flattop presentation!
One of the first kits I ever built while living on Long Island was the Roosevelt. A few years later I did the Forrestal. Thanks for bringing back so many great memories.
I started modeling in 2019 for my 10th birthday. My first model was a 1;800 USS Kitty Hawk. I later turned my Kitty Hawk into a Forrestal, because I couldn’t find any Forrestal kits. Now I wish I was born in the 50s to build and see these kits.
Thanks for the comment, and how cool that you were able to convert the USS Kitty Hawk kit! I know Revell and Monogram re-released the Forrestal-class carrier kits well into the 1990s, and they can be found on eBay today. Appreciate your watching the channel!
@@celebratingaviationwithmik9782 There's also an Airfix 1:600 Forrestal kit that came out in 1977 or 1978. I bought it in the 90s, when it was sold as a Heller kit, but didn't get around to painting it until last year. Interestingly, although the kit came out in the late 70s it depicts the Forrestal as it was in 1957. Its air wing is represented by three Skywarriors, six Skyraiders, six Furies, five Demons, and a Retriever.
I was fortunate. I lived and grew up around the real planes and ships, then later, I got to work on some of those same aircraft and was stationed on the Forrestal and the Nimitz. I just retired from working for the Coast Guard for the last 20 years, on search and surveillance aircraft, and I can say it all well worth it.
I consider these videos as among the very best when I choose to travel into the past and experience the plastic of the past. Special thank you for doing these. I am into this as a collector, builder, and I just love models.
Great video. I served on the USS Coral Sea CV 43 in the 70s. I just found a straight deck model a few months back on ebay. Sure wish they would bring them back. One thing is that most sailors are never talked about. The sailors below decks. The ones that run the ship. We only hear about the planes. I was a Boiler Technician. I worked in after evaporators. And made fresh water for the ship. And this cv42 was my sister ship, along with the Midway.
My uncle was in the navy in the 50's and got me the Revell Forrestal kit We put it together on one of his leaves, may have been 1958-59. The model was the main reason I served on USS Kitty Hawk from 1970-75. Thanks for video and the Nostalgia.
Many thanks for the trip back to my youth. I loved Revell carriers. I remember Christmas of 1976 I received both the Revell Forestall and Saratoga kits. I built the Modified Bon Home Richard and Wasp also. I’m waiting for some company to reintroduce the Midway in either 1/540 or hopefully one day in 1/350.
Thanks Mike for bringing model building back to my attention, I think it will help my anxiety and PTSD, it will help me focus on something else, Thanks again Mike great channel.
I really enjoyed this! I built the Aurora Missouri, Bismark, and Saratoga, and the Revell Forestal, Buckley, and Buchannan.The models all went the way of all styrene in young boy's lives, but I saved all the boxes! I bet I had 100 complete boxes from the '50's and early '60s. When I was in the Marines, Mom thought they were pretty stupid and burned them all, along with a western boot box full of bubblegumm or baseball cards of all the Yankee greats from those days. Several hundred cards went up in smoke.
When I was maybe 15 years old (about 60 years ago) I built the Revell Saratoga CV-60. All the buzz was to build the Forrestal, but I wanted to be contrarian so built the Saratoga. As I was already a fairly fastidious model railroader by then, I assembled it very neatly. But I didn't paint it prototypically. I didn't like red below the waterline and painted that black instead. I sprayed Floquil paint for the ship's gray and then masked for the black below the waterline. I used some sort of sprayer at the time that used a little compressed Freon bottle or something. The paint surface quality came out perfect (thanks to model railroading painting experience). I painted all of the walkways along the edge by hand with silver. And just painted all the airplanes silver. Not "proper" but I liked how it looked. So not painted in any accurate way, but a stylized way. A friend of our family had a table saw and helped me make a wooden base for it. I had glass pieces cut at the local hardware store and glued them to be a rectangular cover using some sort of cement that adhered to glass. Finally, I also built a Fletcher class destroyer No. 675 and made little wood blocks for it to stand with its waterline equal with the Saratoga. I don't know what kit that was made from, but it is either the same scale (which was the idea to show the contrast) or very close to the right scale. The destroyer should be just over a third of the length of the carrier, and it looks that way. Yes., I still have this sitting on a book shelf near me. It's amazing what a glass cover can do to preserve a model.
Cool stuff, Mike! I remember I got a model of the Revell U.S.S. Ranger (CVA-61) for Christmas in 1968, shortly before we moved across country to NAS Alameda, where Ranger was homeported. My dad was going to sea on Yankee Station with the Ranger. He went on for three cruises in Vietnam's waters. The art work was fantastic, by John Steel. The model was really complex for me, and I'm afraid I didn't do such a good job building it. Thanks for doing this series! Brings back a lot of memories for me.
I Renner going to the a and p food store with my grandma on Saturdays and nextdoor was a little stationary store and she bought me the Aurora Forrester,what fun with all those airplanes
I built all four of these carrier models at one time or another in the early to mid 70's, and even today I have an unbuilt reissue of the Aurora Saratoga (sister ship), as well as the retooled Revell Forrestal waiting for attention. I still have an original Forrestal model built for me in the mid 70's which I hope will sit next to the updated Forrestal as she was modified in the mid 80's. (It's my understanding that Revell altered its original molds to update the carrier, so there will no longer be any reissues of the ship as first built.) This video really brought me back to simpler times and wonderful memories. I'm glad I stumbled onto this video, and thank you for producing it!
Thanks for the stroll down Memory Lane. The old Aurora aircraft kits were plenty good for young modelers and I remember well the first plastic kit I ever built, the Aurora 1/4? scale P-26 molded in Schwinn blue plastic. Boiler plate rivets notwithstanding it looked like a P-26 and that's all that counted. In those days Revell was the undisputed champion of ship kits....their aircraft carriers were seriously impressive. No photo etch, no paint masks, it didn't matter. Those were our own creations that would never be judged in an IPMS competition. But at night when we went to bed and looked around the room at our very own Navy and Air Force, we were happy and satisfied. Because they were ours.
Hey, thanks a lot I bought two versions of the wasp, one as the boxer, and one as a mislabeled Yorktown with the number five to put on the flight deck. I added some detail to them and enjoyed owning them.
What a wonderful Video... I was about 9YO (in 1974) when I saw some uncle of mine building a Revell Forrestal... In my view -being just 9YO- it was so huge, so complicated. Of course the room where he was building it was absolutely off-limits... Thanks for bringing those momories back :-)
Really enjoyed that , many thanks . I have the carrier kits in my collection . I'm glad you didn't go in for criticism of the old kits , each has their charm as you suggest . Back in the day they were the best you could get . . Thanks again Jim
Built the Revell Forrestal while living at Reese AFB, TX when it came out. Used it as a show-and-tell in my elementary school class after we transferred to Tachikawa AFB, Japan in 1958. BIG model, and always got special shelf space for display.
I recall I built three carriers in my youth: Revell (?) USS Hornet (with B-25s); Revell Forrestal (maybe a re-release with markings for a sister ship); and the biggest of them all, the Aurora USS Enterprise CVN-65. can't recall what happened to the other two but the Enterprise met its doom by fire at the bottom of the pit that would become a neighbors pool. I had some of their airplanes in my spares boxes until well into the 90s.
A very nice group of Targets. All kidding aside the Box art is just amazing and colorful. Interesting to see the jets with flame coming out and they are getting ready to land on the carrier.
Nice upload. I never bought any of these kits but they sure looked neat on the hobby shop display shelves. I had a 4 x 8 ft. Lionel layout in my bedroom and no room for models.
I built the Revell USS Midway kit as a kid, and would dearly like to find one again. This class, including the Franklin D. Roosevelt, had the first armored flight deck of American carriers, never wood. I have the Lindberg Cutlass on order now. I've built it years ago. It is the very early version, which was severely underpowered, and never saw operational use. The later version was virtually a different plane, larger and more powerful, eventually even mounting the early Sparrow missiles. This version is available as a kit but is really expensive. The ancient Lindberg kit does look good when finished.
I just watched this video again, and I liked it again. Thanks for making it. I have bought about 8 Aurora and Monogram Forrestal class carrier models over the years, and I am pretty sure that those 3 A4 Skyhawks on the deck of the display model were added later. They came with the 1978 Monogram retooled version. If you look carefully they look a little different: darker gray, and more refined molding. Keep up the good work.
Thjanks! Enjoyable! I assembled the FDR, Wasp, and Forrestal kits you showed herein. Just a bit of correction: The FDR and its Midway-class sisters didn't have wooden flight decks...steel.
Mike, I say it again. You could take every one your kits, do a video, and I'd watch that in a heartbeat. Finally, a expert in aviation who can comment on aviation related model kits (and of course the box art). Never built a carrier in my youth, but a great video nonetheless.
Another excellent video Mike. The only carrier I ever built was the Revell USS Forrestal. A lot of model and a lot of money for my nine year old hands and piggy bank. In fact, I had to have some of the "big kids" help me out with some of the assembly of this very impressive model. I stuck to building mostly aircraft after that. Fabulous box art on those vintage kits too.
Oh wow. Nostalgia time again for me especially when you presented the Aurora Forrestal. (My build didn't come close to the factory build, but I was still quite proud of it.) Thanks so much for another great presentation. Love these shows, Mike! PS: I really enjoy your signature sign off... "So there you have it". Yes, indeed we do.
The USS Forrestal CVA-59 and USS Saratoga CVA-60 were actually laid down as straight deck carriers, and were modified to slant deck during construction.
Hey Mike, when the Forrestal entered fleet service, she initially had one elevator located on the forward flight deck, right behind Cats-1, and 2, but, that was changed to the configuration shown in the model kit.
I built then lindberg Wasp aka Lexington aka Yorktown aka Enterprise! I built it as the Lexington from Polar Lights. It still has the paper flight deck and still comes with all them Hellcats! I painted the canopys on all the planes and painted some a bit longer to make them look like a TBM Advenger! Lots of fun!
My father was VF-81’s duty officer on the Wasp’s first Pacific cruise under then Cdr Frank Upham, later Admiral. Pop bought me this model in the early ‘50s and gave it to me at the Atlanta General Depot personnel department Christmas party. One of his pilot friends, who ended the war as a guest of the Japanese after his F6F-3’s engine died, had stationery printed when he became a judge after his return that showed his Hellcat up close from the starboard quarter as it prepared to land on the Wasp in the distance. Wish I had kept the letter he wrote in the late ‘90s, telling Pop he would be unable to attend the grand opening of the National POW Museum at the former Andersonville Confederate POW camp. He died in 2006, five years after Pop passed
The Cutlass! My favorite. There is evidently a warbird project of one in Mesa. The same engine that was the bane of the X-3 applies here. Laf, I think. I could stare at Cutlass photos all day. Sometimes I do.
Quite the AURORA STASH... I’m really starting to get into your channel / site... My favorite carrier kits... ARE ... the REVELL YORKTOWN SERIES USS YORKTOWN USS ENTERPRISE... really hard to find USS HORNET... which I have in original box art...GREAT VIDEO... from MAXSMODELS... Chris from Ohio
The USS Wasp was built in Quincy MA Fore River Shipyard during WW 2, and was also brought back to the same location when it was decommissioned. Got to see it in the 1970 time frame when my late uncle took us around the inner harbor on his outboard. At that time, the former USN Air Station at Squantum still had its old hangar being used as the storage part of the Then Boston Harbor Marina.
@@teenagerinsac That was the second Wasp (CV-18), an Essex-class carrier. The previous Wasp (CV-7) was a single-ship class. That one was sunk during World War II and the Paul Allen maritime research group found the wreck of CV-7 a few years ago. Its namesake (CV-18) was decommissioned in 1972 and scrapped in 1973. Most of the Essex class carriers were scrapped fairly quickly after they were decommissioned. A couple like the Bennington and Hornet survived for decades in reserve even though it was obvious they would be highly restricted in modern aircraft operations. If they had been reactivated, they would have likely been used as helicopter and V/STOL carriers.
The flat bottom models were the best. That way I could split up my "Navy" into an enemy fleet and 'our' fleet. And place the enemy fleet at one end of the living room floor and the other fleet at the other end of the living room floor. And then I would make the sound effect from the movie "In Harms Way" (I believe) when the Japanese and American fleets began moving at each other for the sea battle. "Whaaa - waa Whaaa - waa Whaaa - waa" :-) Oh, and ya, the great naval battle had to take a time-out when it was time for Dad to watch the news. I'll betcha that Bull Halsey and Chester Nimitz never had to stop a major sea battle because their Dad's wanted to watch the news :-/ :-D
Wow, another super video! I own a Revell kit (original box, not assembled) of the Aircraft carrier "USS Wasp, Prime Recovery Vessel for Gemini", complete with Gemini capsule, Grummann S-2 Trackers and Sikorsky Sea King Helicopters. I keep it as it is as I am collecting all possible Space exploration-related toys and models. I hope that you will devote one or several of your videos to this super exciting topic.
@@celebratingaviationwithmik9782 Great! 👍 Thanks again for your great channel. I would dream of an equivalent here in Europe, with the same variety of experiences, gifts and talents that you have.
Super. A great video. I built one of the Forrestal kits (either Revel or Aurora). To me it was massive. I also built another carrier but all I can remember was it had ww2 aircraft. Thank you for another great trip down memory lane. Looking at your collection I scan down the boxes trying read them and figure out which ones I built as a kid. Looking forward to future episodes.
@@joeschenk8400 Great movie. One cannot image how big those ships are until one is on the flight deck. You can imaging playing 3 different football games at the same time on the flight deck, but really hard to have it sink in. I have seen videos of flight deck operations and those guys really know their stuff.
@@garfieldsmith332 MR Roberts is one of my most favorite movies because it shows what service was like for most sailors in WWII. I can do the dialogue! I have-before the lockdown- a young female librarian at my branch who likes miltary history!!! We recommend books back and forth. I told her to watch MR Roberts. She tells me she watched it with her mother and during the movie she turned to her and said that this is what Grand Fathers war must have been like, he served on a destroyer tender and she said she has a photo of him with a mop on his head for a wig, sort of like MR ROBERTS. I had been on the Essex and Intrepid and thought they were big until I visited the John F Kennedy and the America, they are huge, and the Nimitz class are even bigger!
Love these time capsule unboxing. I just find hard to consider that you managed resisting the temptation to build these! In France, although I am 50, I never saw any Aurora in a shop. I loved the Monogram brand. Great channel, keep going sir.
Thank you for an informative and well made video. I have noticed that Aurora and Revell made 4 kits of the same classes of ships in 1956-57 (Iowa battleship, Forrestal carrier, Baltimore cruiser, Fletcher destroyer). Aurora's were smaller and less expensive. As kids we sometime could not afford Revell, but they were more detailed and accurate. Revell's Midway was not really a waterline model. It just looked like one because it had a flat bottom and almost no detail below the waterline. I hope you make more videos of carrier models. Aurora's Enterprises (both of them) and Guadalcanal were cool. Thanks again.
