Arii 1/800 scale USS Forrestal

[19kilo]

Ships are something I rarely do. And I’d have most likely never done this one except a friend has had this kit for years, never built it, and asked if I’d build it for him. I’ve never heard of this company that made the kit. But I have to say the deductions were vague and the overall detail not that good. Anyway, here she is. 

[keavdog]

I'm not really a ship builder either, but I'd sure be happy if I built one like that. I've built ARII kits in the past and liked their 1/48 aircraft. They were pretty nice for the time.

[handiabled]

I'm sure your friend was thrilled to receive the results of your work! Not everyone can pull off a successful build like this.

[bakster]

Looks nice...

[kyledehart5]

Ah. Very cool!! I’ve yet to build any ships. Really nice work here! Turned out excellent

[tcoat]

I do build ships and will say that looks excellent! I would be happy to put that on my shelf.
I have never built an Arii kit but Scalemates tells me that this mold is from 1991. Although a bit chunky it looks like the overall detail is pretty close to that of the Italeri kit of the same vintage. The only glaring details that seem to be missing are the scores of life raft canisters that should cover much of the sides and the (what appears to be in the pics) solid hull below the port elevator. All in all not bad without resorting to etch for more in scale detail. The lack of helicopters and deck handling equipment is also an odd choice they made as these are prominent pieces of equipment even in that scale.

Italeri 1/720 showing the canisters on the bow. Other details look close.

[Leon]

Nice finish on this!

[lyle]

Well done!

[themongoose]

Turned out as a nice clean build. Nothing any of us can do about the clunkiness of the pieces in this scale unless you want to spend a fortune replacing near everything with etch 😜 I like your aircraft painting as well 👍