Revell Bréguet 1150 Atlantic "Italian Eagle" 1/72 Revell (03845)

[Julien]

Bréguet 1150 Atlantic "Italian Eagle"

1/72 Revell (03845)

 

 

The Atlantic was developed by Bréguet in response to a NATO specification to replace the Lockheed Neptune as a long range maritime patrol aircraft. The design was a conventional mid winged monoplane powered by 2 Rolls Royce Tyne Turboprop engines. As a designed for purpose aircraft a large ventral weapons bay was included as well as a retractable surface search radar, with a Magnetic anomaly detector in a tail boom. The primary weapon was air launched anti submarine torpedo's, although mines, depth charges and anti ship missiles could be carried. Its reported Italian Aircraft have flown with NATO provided nuclear weapons. Sonar buoy tubes are located behind the weapons bay. Originally the French ordered 40 and the Germans 20. Later the Italians ordered 18 and The Netherlands 8. 

 

 

The Kit

Here Revell have re-boxed their kit from 2003, this is though only the second re-boxing of the kit.  This kit come with special markings for an Italian example with a complete airframe motif of an Eagle on it. With 9 sprues of grey plastic and 2 clear ones you got a lot of plastic in the box, there is a full weapons bay, and torpedoes & other stores for it; and it looks like all the parts for different versions are on the sprues as well, most notably the rear fuselage with the sonar buoy dispensers.  There is nice engraved detail throughout and the moulds have held up really well. 

 

 

 

Construction begins away from the cockpit in the centre of the aircraft with the weapons bay. Two sides, the roof of the bay and two end bulkheads make up this section. Into the are added the racks for the weapons. There are also quite a few stencil decals for the bay as well.   Of course if you are going to close this up on the finished model you dont have to do this work, though it would be a shame to hide all the detail in here! Once the bay is complete it can be added into the main fuselage section and this can be closed up, not forgetting to add in four windows before you close it up.  We can then move onto the cockpit (phew). Floor and side consoles are added to the main lower part and rudder pedals are fitted. Control yokes for both stations go in followed by the seats and the instrument panel (instruments are provided as decals). The lower front observation position is built up and attached to the underside of the cockpit. then the rear bulkhead goes on. The search radar is built up and added to the back of this bulkhead, it has an "in flight" position, and an "on ground" position depending on how you are building your model. The completed cockpit can then be put inside the two halves of the main fuselage.  The two part cockpit canopy and the nose glazing can then go on, and the front fuselage can be joined to the centre part.  Work now moves to the rear of the aircraft with the vertical tail and tail planes being assembled and added to the fuselage. The MAD boom is also assembled and added here along with the correct under fuselage insert. 

 

 

Next up its the wings. These are convectional left/right with uppers and lowers. The first thing to work on for each wing is the turbo prop engine. In the upper wing half the rear bulkhead for the engine are goes in and then a full length exhaust is built and attached to this, Next up in the lower wing the main wheel bays are built up if you are doing a wheels down version. The wing halves can then be joined and on each side of the nacelle the side parts are added.  Under the nacelle the chin intake is added.  The wings can then be attached to the fuselage. The propellers are made up and attached to the engine front, these are then in turn attached to the nacelles

 

 

 

 

At the front the nose gear is built up and added along with the gear doors. The main wheel units the follow suit. If closing up the weapons bay then then the doors can be added, if opening them up then some surgery is needed before attaching the doors. Moving to the top of the aircraft the dorsal spine parts are added along with various antenna and aerials. Under the tail a whole host more aerial are fitted along with the rear entry stairs if the modellers wishes to open this. The last items to be added are the underwing spoilers and the wingtips. 

 

 

 

 

Decals

There is only one option ton the sheet the rather impressive Italian Eagle from the Italian Air Force., 41 Stormo, 88 Gruppo form 2006. As good as the decal sheet is they cant do the whole aircraft in decal. Only certain parts are and the modeller has to paint the rest, though Revell have done what they did with the resent Cargolux 747 and provide masking templates to copy and use in the instruction booklet. 

 

 

 

Conclusion

This will be an impressive kit once built up, my only small gripe is the Revell could have included markings for a standard line aircraft as an alternative to the special scheme.

 

 

 

Currently, Revell are unable to ship to the UK from their online shop due to recent changes in import regulations.

 

Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit

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[armored76]

Matching paint and decal colours seems fun to do The split cockpit glazing equally so... After having seen one in flesh in a museum, this was a must build but this scheme scares me off a bit, to be honest...

[sroubos]

There are many aftermarket sets out for the Atlantic but of course that will cost you. It is a shame Revell do not include a regular camouflage version with all their recent special paint job kits. I'd rather have a big decal sheet with four of five camo options than a big decal sheet with a special edition, but apparently the market prefers the latter.

 

I do like this re-release though; I have the Mach2 kit in my stash and this is of course infinitely better so perhaps an upgrade is in order. How well does the Revell kit go together?

[SallysDad]

Looks interesting.

[Andre B]

It's an "big" aircraft (44,4 × 52,1 cm). Bigger than an Lancaster (29,5 × 42,8 cm) and Shackleton (39,0 × 50,7 cm) in 1/72...

[WARDOG]

I also like the regular, "line" aircraft schemes and I like the looks of the Newbury too.

 

My greatest wish is that Revell would release an Atlantique II kit by adding the parts required (along with a nice 72nd scale Bo-105 PAH.1 with all the correct "bells and whistles"!).

 

I could then say "I've done it all!"

 

Cheers,

 

WARDOG