USS Midway CV-41
by Paul Helfrich

1/542 USS Midway CV-41 (Revell)

Here's one of Revell's vintage kits from its "Picture Fleet" line of the 1960s. Some of these (like the battleship Missouri) are still on the market today, but not this one, the aircraft carrier of the fleet, the USS Midway.

Like the others in the series, it's kind of a semi-scale kit, with an abbreviated lower hull and no shafts or propellers. I motorized the kit (hence the switch on the port side), and it actually sails along quite nicely. I got this one at an "as is" sale, and it was missing a few pieces, which were approximated with bits and pieces from my junk box.

The Midway was one of three "battle carriers" - her sisters were the Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Coral Sea. All were converted to angle-deck configuration with the advent of jet aircraft and served for many years alongside the new "super-carriers." The Midway is now a museum ship in San Diego.

Although the Midway did not actually see service in WWII, I painted her in Measure 21, the same overall dark blue scheme many of the Essex-class carriers were wearing at war's-end.