Anigrand Craftswork 1/144 PB2Y-5 Coronado Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

On the heels of Consolidated's successful flying boat patrol bomber, the PBY Catalina, the Navy started planning for a patrol bomber of greater range and capability. First flight of this second Consolidated patrol bomber - the PB2Y - took place in 1937, two years after the PBY entered service. You'll recall in those pre-World War II days, there were few runways available in the Pacific and the US Navy was still empasizing two types of aircraft, those that could operate off of water, and those that could operate off of ships at sea.

The PB2Y-2 was the first production version which ironed out many of the development and performance issues affecting the earlier versions. This was soon followed by the PB2Y-3 that added self-sealing fuel tanks and armor, and entered service shortly after the attack upon Pearl Harbor. While an XPB2Y-4 was developed, it didn't offer sufficient performance improvements to justify further production. Instead, exisiting PB2Y-3 airframes were re-engined wing R1830-92 engines and redesigated as PB2Y-5. Some of these aircraft had their armament stripped from them to create transport and medevac airlifters which were designated as the PB2Y-5R.

As with many of the Anigrand Craftswork 1/144 scale releases, this kit is actually four kits in one box. The four subjects in this box are:

1. PB2Y-5 Coronado
2. XF5F-1 Skyrocket
3. XBTM-1
4. XF15C-1

The two images illustrate the usual fine job of packaging of each kit and clear parts to get you a complete and undamaged model. Each bag contains one kit, and each bag is heat-sealed into separate compartments to keep parts from shifting around during shipment and potentially damaging one another.

The next image is of the main parts of the PB2Y. The kit is beautifully cast and has nice detailing in the castings. Assembly is straightforward with the clear resin parts providing the nose cap and cockpit cover. I am certainly glad that this kit is in 1/144 scale as it would be a large model otherwise.

Next is the short-nosed XF5F-1 kit. The tiny landing gear struts and unassembled propellers will make this a delicate model after completion, but it might be worth building this (and the others) with the gear up and sans prop blades to render the aircraft in flight.

The T-tailed XF15C is next and it was a competitor of the Ryan Fireball in that it too had a piston engine up-front and a jet engine in the rear. Only three were built.

The last aircraft is the XBTM-1, which was the prototype for the Martin AM Mauler. This aircraft did enter service with the US Navy but was soon eclipsed by the Douglas AD Skyraider.

The kit provides two sheets of decals to provide sufficient pre-war/early war national markings for all four aircraft.

I am still in awe over the quality of the resin work that Anigrand Craftswork puts into these models. If you are a prototype fan, these four are definite must-haves for your collection. The nice part about 1/144 scale is that it will take up a fraction of the shelf space of the larger scales.

My sincere thanks to the US importer, Nostalgic Plastic for this review sample!