The very popular Concord Armor at War Series has now released PANZER VOR! Volume 5continuing the excellent combination of modeler/author par excellance, Frank V. DeSisto, with parent company Dragon Models as publisher. This edition doesn’t include the author’s bio, but Mr. DeSisto is one of the original founders of AMPS, has been published elsewhere, is a font of knowledge that he readily shares in his books, and as an advanced modeler and professional photographer, chooses photos that will offer great interest to the modeler. Following the format of the previous four volumes, there are 16 color platesby Laurent Lecocq and 175 black and white photos, all with high quality, detailed captions written by a modeler, for modelers.

The Albatross was to be a replacement for the Grumman Goose; it began life as the XJR2F-1 Pelican with a Navy designation as the PF-1 and an Air Force designation of SA -16A. The SA-16B – the subject of this kit – was an upgraded machine which had 100 inches added to each wing in two separate plugs. A seventy-inch extension was grafted outboard of each engine nacelle, with a thirty-inch one near the tip. It also had a slightly wider horizontal stabilizer and a taller vertical fin. The B model had a wingspan of 96 feet 8 inches and was 62 feet 10 inches long with an empty weight of 22,883 lbs. It was powered by two Wright 1820-76A-94 engines of 1425 horsepower each, and boasted a speed of 236 MPH, with a range of 3465 miles. At least 19 other countries operated the Albatross besides the United States.

Background

Land of The Giants was a science-fiction classic TV show from Irwin Allen, airing 51 episodes from 1968 until 1970. In the (then) far future of 1983, a crew takes off for a sub-orbital trip from LA to London when they are hit by a space storm and mysteriously transport to a world where everything is 12 times bigger than Earth, ala Gulliver’s Travels.

The Kit

Packaged in an Aurora-reminiscent box featuring an attractive painting of the Spindrift just entering space, and at 17 parts over several trees, the kit is simple enough in construction to have its instructions printed on the back of the box. In addition to the instructions, the back of the box also has paint call-outs for Testors Model Master Acryl and Enamel paint lines. The parts are molded in orange and clear plastic and include a free paper fold-up color interior from TSDS, and a decal sheet.

A while back, I purchased RBF (Remove Before Flight) flags for a Skyraider and they gave the aircraft that final detail which changed it from bland to grand. The RBF flags added a few more degrees of realism.

Now, Eduard has come out with these RBF Flags for aircraft modeled after Israeli units, such as the F-16. Included in this set are 18 red exterior flags, 14 yellow interior flags, and 4 placards for ejection seats, all in Israeli writing. These are also colored and printed on both sides which enable them to be “posed” in any position, such as twisting them to make them appear to be blowing in the wind or just falling naturally in the cockpit.

I highly recommend these RBF flags to anyone building an Israeli aircraft for that extra effect. As always, my thanks go out to Eduard for submitting this product for review.

Acreation is one of several aftermarket companies that offers Pan Am decals for the new Moebius kit of the Orion III Space Clipper.

The small sheet is well printed and in register. It offers the Pan Am Globes, Pan American titles for the fuselage, and Pan Am titles for the wings. These last are not seen on the model used in the film but I have seen builds with them in the past. Also included are several small markings including "No Step" markings and some that are included in the kit decals, if you don't use them, to depict the panel lines.

The sheet has a continuous carrier film so make sure you cut the images close, especially the globes.

The only thing missing from this set are some instructions to tell you where to place the smaller markings. I even went to their website where they have a space for Instruction Guides, but they are listed as Coming Soon so no help for me.