No warship in American history has a service record like the Big E. Of the 22 major naval actions of the Pacific War, USS Enterprise CV-6 was present for 18 — Midway, the Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz, the Philippine Sea among them — and though she was damaged fifteen times, she returned to the fight every time, ending the war as the most decorated US ship of WWII. Tamiya's 1/700 Waterline Series kit captures her as she finished that war: bristling with the augmented anti-aircraft batteries of her late-war refits, her deck carrying the Hellcats, Corsairs, Avengers and Helldivers that swept the Pacific's final campaigns. Completed, she runs to 350mm — a fleet carrier's presence in a display-friendly footprint.

The Yorktown-Class Legend

Launched in 1936 with a displacement of just 19,900 tons — modest by later fleet-carrier standards — Enterprise punched far above her weight, becoming the symbol of the US Navy's determination through the darkest and brightest phases of the Pacific War. She was among the handful of pre-war American carriers still afloat at the war's end, having fought through it from Pearl Harbor's aftermath to the Japanese surrender.

Late-War Configuration

The kit reproduces her final wartime form, with the layered 40mm and 20mm anti-aircraft fit that late-war kamikaze defence demanded, and a deck air group of the four definitive late-war US Navy types. It's the Big E at maximum fighting power.

Waterline Series Construction

The hull builds to the waterline for seascape display alongside the rest of the 1/700 Waterline Series — including her old adversaries. Tamiya's Zuikaku (Item 31214) depicts the Japanese carrier Enterprise's task forces fought at Santa Cruz and the Philippine Sea, in her own late-war fit: the two kits together stage both sides of the Pacific carrier duel in matching scale and standard.

What's in the Box

• Moulded plastic sprues including hull, flight deck and superstructure
• Deck aircraft: Hellcat, Corsair, Avenger and Helldiver types
• Waterslide decal sheet
• Pictorial assembly instructions

Needed to Complete

• Plastic model cement
• Paints (Tamiya colour callouts in the instructions)
• Basic modelling tools