After the Luftwaffe had 'come out of the closet' in 1933, the RLM put out a tender to all the aircraft companies for a modern monoplane dive bomber. This competition was won by the Ju-87 and a legend was born. However, there were other aircraft involved in the program and one of them was the Blohm und Voss Ha.137. This company was more well known for ship building and for doing flying boats and float planes. But they felt that they could compete for what they felt would be a lucrative program. The initial prototype was powered by a P&W Hornet engine, but using a radial wasn't the way to go as it severely blocked visibility. The RLM required the third prototype to be powered by a Rolls Royce Kestrel in-line engine and that improved visibility considerably. During all this time, while the various prototypes were being developed, they also firmed up the requirements for their new dive bomber and, using the stats of the Junkers entry (who says there is no corruption in government) one of those was that it be a multi-placed aircraft. Well, this pretty well put to rest the Ha.137 as it was a single seat bomber. It also put the other competitors out of the running as well and the rest is history.

Pro Resin kits are among the best molded resin kits in the market today. They are finely detailed, are not thick lumps of resin and are generally free from any molding flaws. This is quite true of this kit. In fact, were it not molded in resin, you'd think you had a high quality injected kit. There is nearly no flash, no air bubbles or short shots. The resin pour stubs are thin and make removal of parts a snap. The various attachment points for wings and landing gear have holes drilled for resin pins that are on the attaching parts. You will have to some clean-up of parts once they are removed from the pour stubs, but it is no worse than most injected plastic kits.

It almost sounds as if this is the perfect resin kit. Well, looking at it in the box, it sure does seem so to this reviewer.

Instructions include a short history, a parts list and four construction steps. Each one of these steps includes color information as needed. The colors are listed by generic, Humbrol, Model Master and Revell brands. Markings are for the one aircraft and this plane is overall 'Medium Grey' that equates to Humbrol 126 or ModelMaster 1725. I should point out that Testors web site now shows 'Model Master II' enamels and all the numbers have changed. Hmmm. Anyway, using the Humbrol number, this equates to FS 36270. The small decal sheet is well printed and has the usual multi-piece swastika.