The Bv-222 was the largest operational flying boat of any of the WWII combatants. As with many very large aircraft, the Bv-222 was initially designed for trans-Atlantic passenger service and not for any military use. You need to realize that in the late 1930s, a very common way to get across large bodies of water when you didn't want to go by ship was in a flying boat of some sort. All of the major nations had large passenger flying boats and they were usually the flagships (so to speak) of whatever airline was using them. In this case, Deutsche Lufthansa asked Blohm & Voss (who were Germany's premier ship builder and flying boat maker) for a design to carry 24 passengers in a day and 16 in a night configuration.

Well, these things take time, and by the first flight of the prototype in September of 1940, the war was underway. Naturally, it and all following aircraft were changed over to transports to serve the war effort. As with many of these large craft, there were very few actually built. Though there was a 'production' Bv-222 (the Bv-222-C), only four were ever completed to that standard. A total of 13 aircraft were eventually built. The v2 or second prototype that is the subject of this kit. It first flew in mid-1941 and was modified a number of times during its career. Though this and most of the rest of the first aircraft were prototypes, they were collectively referred to as the Bv-222A. Some references have stated that this plane was shot down in October of 1943 over the Atlantic by a Lancaster, but the kit instructions state that it was operational in July of 1944 and doesn't give its fate. Only two Bv-222s survived the war. Both were late production aircraft; Bv-222C-11 and C-13, the 11th and 13th of 13 aircraft built. One was tested post war by the US and the other by Britain. Both were later scrapped.

Like many of you, I was quite incredulous when I heard that this was being kitted by Revell AG.  However, incredulity doesn't mean that I wasn't eager to have one in my kit collection. As soon as I saw it available for pre-order, I ordered one. I knew how well Revell AG had done with the He-177 (another large German aircraft) so expected the same from this one. The molding is everything you have come to expect from Revell AG designed and molded kits; it is superb. There are a TON of parts to this one as you may well expect, all in a light grey plastic that was free from flash, sink marks or ejector pin marks in any 'embarrassing' locations.

Since you can only build one aircraft from this kit, there is not that much in the way of optional parts. Actually, there are none as the kit is molded in its final condition after all the various gun turrets had been installed. What is there in terms of options have to do with the position of things. You can have the bow station open or closed, the side door open or closed, beam gun positions open or closed, and the wing floats extended or retracted. You can also choose to have the upper fuselage above the flight deck glued in place or not. The reason for this last option is that the interior is quite well detailed with both upper and lower decks. The upper deck has full crew positions. You can also have engine cowlings opened if you so wish.

The instructions are most comprehensive and include 74 (!) construction and decaling steps. All appear to be very straight-forward and warn you of areas where you will need to modify the kit if you wish to have things opened up or not. Though the instructions state there are two markings options, there are no decal differences between the two other than the white aft fuselage stripe. One aircraft has white temporary paint over its RLM 72/73/65 sea scheme that was typical for flying boats, float planes and other types that operated over water. The decals look very good and are printed in Italy, probably by Cartograf. There are decals for the flight deck instrument panels should you wish to use them. I'm sure that someone will come up with a detail set for this as a new kit always has people thinking that it is something that they 'need'.

I mentioned in the Notes section of the stats box that this kit would probably join the Monogram B-52 and B-36 in the 'probably won't be built' pile. Again it is just a matter of where to put this beastie when done. As you can see from the ruler in the parts image, it has a wing span of over two feet and an overall length of at least 18 inches, making post building placement a poser for most of us. However, I'm extremely gratified to have this kit available. When you add up the quality molding, the very reasonable price, and the fact that RoG seems to be on a big aircraft kick, can the 1/72 Ju-290 or 1/48 Fw-200 be far behind?

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