One of the modelling highlights of 2011 has to have been the release of the new 1/48 Revell kit of the Lockheed PV-1 Ventura kit, which offers accuracy, ease of construction and value for money in bucketfuls and deserves to sell extremely well indeed (I've got four and built three of them!).There are rumours that an earlier Ventura Mk II version of this tooling (as operated by 2 Group of the RAF) will follow and there are some clues to this on the sprues judging by the breakdown of parts and some of the unused items, which include the early fold-down navigator's seat and a bomb aimer's mattress and plotting table for the glazed nose position, however nothing for certain has been announced by Revell... yet. Before the introduction of this kit the only other way to build a model of the Ventura in this scale was the relatively expensive (but good) vacform kit from Koster, which offered alternative parts for an early Mk II or the later PV-1, or there was the closely related injection moulded kit from Fonderie Miniatures, which only offered the latter version. In 1/72 scale the best option is the series of Modelcraft kits, which covers most of the Ventura family, and these do result in a fairly decent model, however it does have its fair share of flaws such as an additional but superfluous entrance door on the right hand side of the fuselage and a totally incorrect flight deck, whilst the undercarriage is a little basic too.
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