Revell 1/350-450? USS Enterprise Deck Question

The scale is 1/400. This is the old Aurora kit. The aircraft were F-4s, F-8s, A-4s and a pair of HUP helicopters. Otaki/Arii have a couple of 1/400 aircraft sets of their own which are compatible with the Aurora/RM Enterprise. The sets include F-4s, F-14s, RA-5s, A-6s, A-7s, E-2s, EA-6Bs and SH-3s. The fit of the three deck sections was OK. I built the kit back in the dark ages of the late '60s (when it cost all of $10) and motorized it (another $2-3) so I left the center section removeable. I don't recall any significant fit problems and the center section did screw down flush. Last time I visited my parents house it was still flush. It helps if you ca n find a copy of Detail and Scale vol 39 on the Enterprise.

thx much. love how Tamiya got a larger version of the Enterprise into a box 3 times smaller than the revell box. the revell box will be great for all my kids hot wheel track though...
craig
TomGAJ wrote:

Funny thing is the original Aurora box was pretty much the same size as Tamiya's...

The reason for the three section deck has to do with the original Aurora release of this kit.
Aurora offered a motorizing kit for the original USS Enterprise and the center deck section allowed access to the battery compartment. As I recall, the original center deck section was held in place with a tongue and a tiny screw. A few of the motorizing components were included with the Enterprise kit and rest were in a separate motorizing kit included two electric motors (duh) and might have also included the battery box (4 or 6 "C" cells), mounting brackets and worm gears for driving the screws, and the associated wiring and electrical hardware. There was a sliding switch mounted somewhere on the hull side toward the rear to turn the motors on and off.
I waited weeks for the local hobby shop to get one of the kits for me which gave me time to save up the princely sum of $2.00 to purchase it back in 1968. I got the hardware all mounted and ready to go and filled up the bathtub. I could hardly stand the anticipation of watching CVN-65 on its maiden cruise so I turned on the switch and to my huge disappointment, the thing barely moved! I guess the screws were just not big enough in this scale to provide much thrust.
Martin