A quarter-scale Catalina has been high on my 'wants' list ever since I saw Paul Budzik's beautiful scratch built 1/48 PBY in Fine Scale Modeler. Indeed, the same magazine ran a poll in 1994 to see what the modellers wanted to produced - the Catalina came tops in the 1/48 category and Revell/Monogram announced their big 'Cat' kit shortly afterwards.

The kit has now been released, and while it carries the Revell banner in Europe, it's pure Monogram all the way - it carries their copyright stamp on the mouldings - though the tooling was done in Korea and follows the same high standard of detail and finesse as their He-111.

Packaged in a big (and heavy) box , the large, mid-grey sprues fit snugly, those for the clear parts beings wrapped separately. The kit depicts the PBY-5 with the separate beaching gear. Surface detail is superb, the finely recessed panel lines and rivets on the metal surfaces contrast nicely with the subtle texturing on the fabric areas. The integral rudder and tail surfaces have excellent undercuts giving the illusion of depth. The kit is sensibly engineered too, the lower surfaces of the wing are split into two large halves, with the seam effectively being masked where it meets the fuselage fairing, the upper segments are divided into a centre section and outer panels, with the join falling on a natural panel break. It also means that as each section overlaps, the wing is kept dead straight, with little chance of drooping - essential with with such large parts.

With such an impressive exterior, the interior is no slouch either, with full details for the cockpit and rear gunners stations, all moulded to the usual Monogram maxim of as much detail on as fewer parts. The area for the radio operator is left bare, though little can be seen of this just aft of the cockpit. The clear parts are well moulded, the transparencies for the waist gunners show thick edges if posed open, but vac-form replacements should be available for the competition minded.

The excellent engineering extends to the engine cowlings too, which are moulding in one piece. The engines themselves are well fashioned and the whole assembly slips onto the wing with consummate ease. Cleaning up the floats probably accounted for most of the filler on my kit, there are some awkward seams to eliminated across flat surfaces. The beaching gear in my sample was broken, so I wrote to Revell for replacement parts, but at the time of going to press, they still hadn't turned up. I needed a touch of filler on the top of the fuselage and to smooth the joins between the wing sections, other than that everything went together superbly, which is a remarkable feat with such large mouldings. External stores include radar antennae and four depth charges.

Finishing options are provided for two aircraft, a pre-war US Navy PBY in the classic silver/yellow finish, and an RAF (and not Royal Navy as the box would have you believe) Catalina of 209 Sqn in the extra dark sea grey/dark slate grey/sky scheme. However, Revell's finishing instruction are as ambiguous as ever, being keyed into their (limited) range of paints - surely listing the proper shade (ie, Extra Dark Sea Grey) alongside the nearest Revell paint number isn't going to hurt? As it is, Revell recommend almost the same colours as their 1/32 Mosquito - obviously the differences in the temperate land and sea scheme has escape someone attention! It's a pity Revell louse up an excellent kit with such pathetic finishing instructions.

Things didn't get better with the side view camouflage pattern for the RAF Catalina, which in places, didn't tally with the plan, so I turned to photo's for a better reference. I finished my model as a Coastal Command 'Cat' and used Tamiya and Gunze acrylics for the camouflage scheme. Due to the sheer size, painting and weathering this model was time consuming (even with an airbrush).

An excellent looking decal sheet has good print register and with plenty of stencilling. But despite the high standard, the yellow and red for the RAF roundels was too bright, while the grey of the code letters was way too dark, almost disappearing against the sea grey areas of the camouflage. The adhesive qualities in my sample were very poor, even on the glossy finish, and the use of setting solutions failed to cure the problem. I tired every trick I could think of (white glue, Kleer polish etc...), but in the end I had to scrub round using the Revell sheet and make my own arrangements.

I re-sprayed the undersides white, plugged the antennae mounts and finished my model as a Catalina 1P of 240 Sqn. I used a mix of Modeldecal and Almarks sheets for the SEAC roundels and culled the serial number and code letter from elsewhere - Aeromaster have since released a sheet for this (and other) aircraft.

With the decals dry, I fixed the wing into place and added the struts, which needed a little trimming before everything lined up. The floats slotted into place no problem. Some gentle weathering - especially across the centre section of the wing, followed by a final dusting with a 50/50 mix of Humbrol's Matt Cote/Satin Cote gave the model a nice service sheen.

Be warned, the finished model is huge. With a wingspan of over 64 cm/26 inches (2ft 2!) this giant is going to require a shelf to itself - I thought 1/72 PBYs were a handful! Expect plenty of conversions, detail sets and decals for this big warbird.

A truly superb effort, all the more remarkable given that a few years back Monogram were reportedly not interested in doing any new WWII kits - thankfully they changed their minds. Revell are to be commended for issuing the kit at a real bargain price ( 19.99 in the UK) but I wish they'd tighten up on their finishing instructions.

Good to see a long neglected - and very important - subject being given the treatment in 1:48 and, despite the errors around the fin, what a kit!