Designed under the auspices of a NATO Armaments Committee, theAtlantic first flew on late 1961. The aircraft is a full function land based ASWplatform with a full suite of sensors and armament designed to track and destroyenemy submarines. It is fully as capable as the US Navy's P-3 Orion (developedat about the same time) and can carry two full crews for long duration flights.

Powered by two Rolls-Royce Tyne turboprops, the Atlantic caneasily shut down one engine and fly on the other when long loiter times arerequired. If the serial numbers an be believed, there were over 50 aircraftdelivered to the French Navy, with three of these being passed on to Pakistan. 9of them were sold to the Netherlands, 20 to Germany and 18 to Italy. The Dutchbought P-3C aircraft when they were available, but the Italians and Germans arestill flying their Atlantics. 

Developed in the last 15 years is the Atlantic NG. It is verysimilar to the older Atlantics in both overall look and engines. However theelectronics suite is completely new. Older Atlantics are being modified to thenew specifications and a total of 42 are expected to be completed.

Mach 2 have a love/hate relationship with modelers, from what I have read aboutthem. Modelers love the subjects, but find the kits very difficult to build.Apparently there are numerous fit problems and some of the molding isn't thebest. Looking at the parts on the sprue, one is left with the impression thathis is just a very large, short run kit. Sprue gates are large, there are noalignment pins and the is some flash on most of the parts. All this is typicalof low volume short run models. 

Looking closer at the kitone notices that all the panel lines are nicely engraved, though the engravingis a bit soft and not as 'crisp' as on standard kits.  However, some ofthat will go away under a coat or two of paint. The plastic itself is a bitsofter than what one expects from Monogram, but again it is part of the genre.There is a full interior, though some additional scratch building will be neededto make it look properly complex. However any of this additional building willbe tough to see through the clear plastic bits. They are thick and prettydistorted. Perhaps some polishing will help. Perhaps not.

Instructionsare minimalist at the very best. There are three exploded views; one for thecockpit, one for the wheel wells (which are devoid of any detail), and one forthe rest of the plane. The only painting instruction is for the prop. How nice,but what color is the rest of the airplane? There is no decal placement guideapart from the box top. Decals are very matte with lots of film around eachdecal. They are rather crisply done and look very much like old Heller decals.How they will work is unknown as is how opaque the reds and yellows will be.Past experience with French short-run kits has shown the decals to be less thangood, but I don't know about these.

How the kit will build is unknown and had Inot gotten it for a very reasonable price at a swap meet, I wouldn't have thoughof buying it. However, now that I have it, the desire to give it a shot is quitecompelling. If you have built a number of short run kits, then this oneshouldn't have too many surprises. Rarely have I found a kit to be unbuildableand I'm sure this one will turn out looking quite nice when done.

Review kit courtesy of me and my wallet!

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