From out of the blue of the Eastern sky.... it's Sky King! Well, not really, but if ever there was a TV show 'what if' vehicle that came to life, it would be the Ekranoplan! I had heard about these things back several years ago and would never have thought that someone would ever put one to plastic. Here's a quick synopsis of what it is taken from the instruction sheet:

The Soviets were looking for a way to move a lot of men and materiel quickly overwater and other semi-smooth terrain. What they came up with was a very large ground effects vehicle the 'flew' a few feet above the surface. The benefit of this type of  transportation is that it is fast (around 500kph), 'flies 'under most enemy radar, can carry a lot of cargo/troops, is much more fuel-efficient than an aircraft, and can also travel some distance over land if there are no real obstacles. I noticed on the completed kit that there seems to be some sort of beaching wheels under it which would allow it to move rather easily on concrete surfaces.

The prototype Ekranoplan M-1 was first discovered by US spy satellites enveloped in a cloud of spray while undergoing trials on the Caspian Sea in the early 1970s. It was a much smaller (100 meters long) technology demonstrator. It was envisioned that 120 of them would be built, but in effect only four were built, one of which was a static test airframe. Of the other three, one was lost in an accident in Sept 1992 and the other two were used operationally until October 1993. What killed the project was the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the inability of any of the new states to handle a large budget item like the Ekranoplan. I did manage to locate some images of it thanks to a reader who sent in a few screen captures. I have included them in this section so you can see the thing in action. As you notice, small it isn't!!!

First off, it is very gratifying to see that a major kit maker has the foresight to produce a kit like this. Revell of Germany has been a very surprising company and has given us as modelers a surprising array of interesting subjects over the last five years or so. I would never have dreamed that this kit would ever have been made and it was with much anticipation that I awaited its coming to the US after hearing of its release in Europe. Once they hit the shelves, I immediately bought one (at retail price yet!).

It seems like Revell likes to spread around the molding of kits as this one is made in Denmark! Not exactly a place well-known for producing model kits. What you do get is very typical of Revell-Germany's more recent kits. It is molded in medium grey plastic (which has a sort of pebbly surface to it), and has the required engraved panel lines. There are no gimmicks to the kit and the only moving parts are the gun turrets and prop blades. One thing that is missing is a display stand. I would think that a kit like this with no landing gear would warrant this now rare kit component. Anyway, the parts are well molded and crisply done. There is some flash on a few bits as well as a few sink marks, these being mostly opposite alignment pins and are found on the fuselage, horizontal stabilizer and gun turrets. Care has been taken to engineer the kit so that mold release pin markings are either not at all present or are on sections of a part that will not be seen once the kit is built.

I have been unable to show all the parts of the kit as they are too large for my scanner, but have shown the fuselage, a closeup of the nose and the parts diagram from the instructions to give you an idea of what the 41 parts look like. There is one clear bit for the cockpit and no interior detailing at all as usually befits kits of this scale.

Instructions are typical Revell AG in that they are on newsprint quality paper, have many pages of warnings, and the usual drawings for the 23 construction and decaling steps. Colors given are generic names with Revell AG paint codes. Three of the colors called out must be mixed, which includes the overall color of the kit. 

The decal sheet is very nicely done and is in register. It is printed in Italy so will be of better quality than those that are usually found in Revell AG kits. They are semi-glossy and should work very well indeed. There are two subjects on the sheet. Both from Kasplisk naval base on the Caspian Sea in Dagestan, Russia. The one with the large eagle (which I am sure is what most will build) is of the Soviet version while the other oneis the Russian version.

This nose section took a couple of putty applications. During all of this, the tail planes were glued in place. Fit here was so-so as well and it took quite a bit of filler to get a smooth join.  Once all this puttying had been done, the radar set was glued in place. I then went to glue down the gun turret, but when I tried to put the guns in the turret, the barrels snapped off!! I glued the turret down anyway and will stretch some sprue to replace the barrels. Final little bit was the 'stinger' radio antenna at the rear of the A-90. Then it was off to the paint shop.

The final steps were  gluing replacement barrels into the gun turret, as well as the intake vanes (which don't fit worth a hoot), and that was it!!