For those who want a bit of history concerning Monogram, they bought most of the Aurora molds when Aurora Plastics went under in the mid 1970s. They then did a bit of cleaning up and some minor alterations of a few Aurora molds and released these kits under the Monogram label. Among those kits were the Fokker D.VII, Sopwith Camel, F-111A and the A-7A Corsair II. The kit itself is pretty close to Monogram's standards of the time with raised panel lines, a nicely done interior with raised instrument detail. However, it doesn't have the wheel well detail of a Monogram kit and the weapons are a single piece, where Monogram would do them in halves. There are a few other areas where things are a bit different, with the major glitches being a too wide canopy and intake. The intake is also not tall enough. It should be nearly circular. For the longest time it was the only A-7A kit available in this scale, but since then, Hobby Boss produced a series of Corsair IIs, and those have their flaws as well.

The kit cannot be built as an early A-7A unless the fin antenna is removed and a small fairing added to the section under the rudder, but most A model Corsair IIs were rather quickly upgraded with this feature. The A can also be done as a B or C version with little more than a decal change.

Anyway, the kit also provides a full selection of stores for the pylons. This includes a TER molded in with the outer pylon. I'm also not sure about the drop tanks as I seem to recall the A-7 using those that had a single fin pointed down, but I could be wrong about that. The intake trunking goes in a couple of inches, but since it will have a rather prominent seam, I'd recommend a cover of some sort. Not sure if anyone does a conversion set for the intake, but one would be a good move.

Now while I've said 'Monogram' so far, the kit box does have Revell written on it. Revell and Monogram became one company many years back and in that time, a lot of Monogram's catalogue has been released under the Revell label. I'm not sure when the kit was last released as 1979 was on other time I can recall. Instructions are pretty standard for modern Revell kits. Color information is in generic and FS 595 references. Markings are for two planes. One is the box art plane from VA-22 aboard the Coral Sea. The instructions claim the date for this was 1987, but I'm thinking that VA-22 was flying the A-7E at that time, and indeed, the decal placement drawings show an A-7E. The other is for an A-7P, which was an A-7A upgraded with A-7D/E avionics and sold to Portugal. This is one of their special schemes and I've provided a photo. The decal sheet is nicely printed, but has a color issue. Mainly that the dark blue for the VA-22 fuselage band and tail band looks more like a dark purple than a dark blue. There is no bu/no for the VA-22 option, either, and the decals are a bit on the thick side. However, it does include an instrument panel decal and walk areas.