I would like to express my sincere thanks to Revell for providing this kit to IPMS/USA and to them for allowing me to review it.

The Ford Skyliner was an innovative full-size car that came with a retractable hardtop and was built for only three years, 1957, 1958 and 1959. It had a very complex mechanism, which folded a section on the front part of the roof and then retracted it under the rear deck lid. It had three roof drive motors driving four lift jacks, four door lock motors, ten solenoids, four locking mechanisms for the roof, and a total of 610-ft. of wiring. It was the first retractable hardtop to be mass-produced. The standard engine was a 332 cu. in. or an optional 352 cu. in. was available. Transmissions available on the Skyliner were two manual transmissions, a three-speed and a three speed with overdrive as well as the 3-speed Ford-O-Matic automatic transmission.

So what’s better than a 37mm FlaK 43? How about twin FlaK 43s. And how about mounting them in an enclosed, armored turret and mounting them to an armored chassis? In 1943, the German military contractor Rheinmetall-Borsig started designing the Flakpanzer 341 to be just that, an armored, mobile twin 37mm air defense platform. Commonly referred to as the Coelian [Flakpanzer V], the vehicle mounted twin FlaK 43’s in a powered turret which featured the ability to fire near vertical. The turret found itself mounted to a Panther chassis that had been slightly modified. Although the Coelian never made it past a wooden mockup [on actual Panther chassis], several experts over the years have speculated that the design would not have been effective due to the enclosed turret. Many believe that the turret design did not properly allow for the exhaust gasses from the twin 37mm guns to vent.

This review will be for two different sets of machined brass and photoetch fro Master Models. Aside from appearance differences between the guns they were meant to mimic, assembly would be pretty much the same.

Master Models makes some of the nicest brass machining and photoetch I have ever seen. When I combined their barrel set for the German LMG-14 Parabellum with the breech and stock of the weapon in Wingnut Wings LVG C.VI, got them painted and added a touch of gunmetal and smoke pigment you could almost smell the hotgun oil and smoke.

I used CA and a touch of white Gator Glue in this assembly, along with Tamiya red-brown and Model Master Acrylic Gunmetal, with a light dusting and rub of Mig Gunmetal and smoke. I used Model Master Brass for the bullets and Stone for the belt webbing.