Italeri has re-released its 1/72 V-22A Osprey with new decals. As CHRIS CLIFFORD discovers, it’s a real trip down memory lane.
When I checked on this kit’s original release date, I got quite a shock as it was further back than I remembered… 1989! I was then stationed at RAF Leuchars in Fife, and frequented Brian Sherriff Models in nearby Dundee at least once a month.
Thankfully, kit design and technology have improved greatly since then, but in line with the old adage “what goes around, comes around”, vintage products are still being re-moulded and given a new lease of life. This can be good and bad in equal measure.
Italeri often re-issues older toolings, and now it’s the turn of the V-22 which, after its first release, returned to the marketplace three times – in 1996 when it gained extra parts, and in 2012 – although the markings were the same in both, and in a Revell box in 2015 with new schemes. With this latest outing it has been renumbered as item 1463, and besides the original livery, there are two fresh ‘uniforms’
As for the parts, these do show their age in that raised panel lines are present, and the standard of moulding is not as you’d see today with a modern CAD-produced kit. Basically, it depicts the V-22A Full Sc…
