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Tom's Modelworks 1/350 USS Hornet Detail Set #3532

By Richard Eaton

Introduction

Shipbuilders around the world have been dreaming of Trumpeter's new 1/350 USS Hornet kit. Wouldn't you know that Tom's Modelworks would be ready for it with another one of their excellent photo etched detail sets. I was able to work with Tom's great sets for the Banner USS Arizona not once but twice in the last year. For detail, design, and ease of assembly old Tom's hard to beat! It looks like we have another large ship scale winner on our hands with this excellent set. Read on.

I was delighted when Tom's new set came in the mail. The set includes two large frets of PE and two double-sided sheets of instructions. The first instruction sheet includes Tom's basics of photo-etch and 33 "steps" identifying different parts and their placement. There are plenty of drawings and references to sketches included in the second instruction sheet. Tom even identifies the Trumpeter parts to be replaced or enhanced. One thing you might note is that there are references to photos found in Warship Pictorial #9 Yorktown Class Carriers including page numbers. This inexpensive document is available from Tom's and would probably come in handy as a reference during your build. There are seven notes (A through G) giving hints and suggestions for assembly. It looks like Tom did his homework on this one!

Instruction sheet two includes a series of reference sketches (A through H). Sketch A includes a full ship overhead and side view identifying assembly points for the major pieces. Sketches B through E show parts placement for the aircraft parts included in the set! These include B-25s, SBDs, F4F wildcats, and TBD Devastators. It looks like Tom has that early war air fleet pretty well covered! Sketches E through H detail the superstructure, create early war radars, and LSO platforms.

The Metal

One photo-etch fret contains a plethora of ship's railings in five different styles. A 1/350 Yorktown class is one big model so get ready for a ton of railing fun! As usual Tom's PE is nicely scaled but durable. It has just the right balance of scale without being flimsy.

The second fret contains the rest of the ship's parts along with aircraft details. Aircraft parts are plainly labeled and include props, landing gear and even antennae! One could make a pretty good build just doing the aircraft with this level of detail! There are 20mm gun shields to spruce up the kit parts. A large funnel top plate that appears to be meant as a template for modifying kit parts. There are nice ships boats details including flooring, railings, and rudders. The ships cranes are well represented. The various ship's antennae will really spruce up the build. Well, I could go on and on here but I just wanted to give you a taste of what this set entails.

Conclusion

I am impressed with this detail set. It is obvious that Tom's Modelworks was very much involved with this Trumpeter release and boy, does it show. This detail set is well thought out and executed. I highly recommend this to the average to advanced large-scale ship modelers due to the vast array of parts and railings. You might want to have a few detailed builds under your belt before tackling such a large project as this. Man, I can't wait to start building now! We thank Tom's Modelworks for providing this review sample.