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Comments:
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The resin kit parts are solid, with crisp details, some minor flash on some parts (particularly the antennae), but no major airholes in any parts. The reentry cabin has a finely engraved hexagonal pattern that represents the honeycomb heat shield on the real spacecraft (the real thing wasn't a silver ball after all!). All parts are still on their pour plugs. Great care will have to be taken while removing the antennae from their plugs; or the modeler can replace them with antennae made from wire. Photoetched parts are provided for the retropack radiators, oxygen/nitrogen tank straps, and various brackets and detail parts for the service module. All resin and photoetched parts are numbered: the resin part numbers are on the pour plugs while the photoetched parts are numbered next to the part on the brass sheet. All parts are called out by their numbers on the excellent instructions. The instructions are broken into major module sub-assemblies, with detail drawings and text instructions supplementing the main exploded subassembly drawings. Painting details for each part are also included in the subassembly drawings, with paint colors called out for Testors, Humbrol, and Revell paint numbers on a handy color reference chart. A reference list and two-page program history (written by Barry Davidoff) finish out the kit.
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Sven Knudson
