The plastic parts are almost perfectly moulded. There are a couple of sink marks on the main landing gear but these will be largely hidden inside the gear bay. Plenty of detail is moulded in place too - on interior bulkheads, and even exhaust ejectors on the rear of the engine cowlings.

Separate detail parts are very fine. The control yokes, trim actuators and clothesrail aerials are especially worthy of mention. The respectable cockpit detail extends back into the navigator's position and the passenger cabin . Indeed, a floor runs the full length of the cabin interior with some more nice detail around the rear fuselage gunners' positions. Revell has thoughtfully supplied the top of the fuselage as a separate piece if the modeller wishes to display the interior of the aircraft. The rear cargo doors may also be positioned open if desired. Even the big cargo ramp may be dropped.

Each engine nacelle assembly is made up from ten parts, including a cooling fan that will largely obscure the engine face detail. Maritime radar arrays are included in the kit, although it is a little too chunky in this scale. Some extra work making a jig and folding new aerials from fine wire would be well worth the effort, as the radar is quite prominent on the nose of the aircraft.

Engineering is fairly conventional. The lower wing is moulded as a centre section incorporating all four lower rear nacelles, plus a lower outer wing panel on both sides. The upper wings are moulded as separate halves. This overlapping method of assembly should be very robust and will also ensure the correct dihedral is set for the wings.

The large gear doors are moulded closed, which is correct. The gear legs protrude through a small opening at the front of the gear bay. This means that the main undercarriage legs must be installed prior to assembling the wings. You'll need to take care not to damage the exposed gear legs while you finish assembling and painting your Ju 290. Another engineering peculiarity is that the armoured seats in the cockpit are split vertically down the middle. I assume this is necessary due to the curved backrest, but it will be a challenge to remove the join line.

Markings for four Ju 290s are supplied on the decal sheet.

These decals are typical Revell fare - flat finish (which always makes me nervous) and in register, including stencils. Colour callouts suggest greys 74, 75 and 76; but I think that the maritime shades of 72, 73 and 65 would be a more likely camouflage combination.

Revell's new Junkers Ju 290A-5 carries on the rich tradition of some of Revell's recent releases including their He 177 Greif and the giant Bv 222 Flying Boat. With a wingspan on 57.8 cm (almost 2 feet), Revell's Ju 290 would be impressive due to its size alone, but it has a lot more going for it than sheer bulk.

Once again, Revell has quietly released a great kit in 1/72 scale.

For some reason, these excellent small-scale kits do not seem to generate the hysteria of other recent releases in larger scales, but they are well worthy of attention due to their quality mouldings, high level of detail, their conspicuous size and good value price tag.

Now, Revell, how about applying the same treatment to some big Allied subjects in 1/72? A Halifax perhaps? A Stirling? A Hampden?

Recommended.

Thanks to Hannants for the review sample