U.S. Navy NC-5A Mobile Power Unit Model

The NC-5A is land-based vehicle designed to provide external electric power to aircraft for pre-flight or maintenance purposes. It saw service on the U.S. Navy Air Stations and Marine Corps Air Stations from the mid-1950s until the mid-1970s. Within this period, the NC-5A was employed to service all types of fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft of the Navy and Marine Corps.

This 1:72 scale model kit, produced by F4Models (cat. # 7024), contains resin parts, photo-etched parts and decals. It includes an option allowing to open up the rear compartment that houses power cables and is visible when the vehicle is powering up an aircraft.

For reference purposes, here are some historical photographs that show the NC-5A in action: photo, photo, photo, photo.
Notes:
 - The Navy and Marine Corps NC-5As were used as power units; they did not tow aircraft or ground support equipment.
 - This vehicle is a land-based equipment, but in a few isolated cases NC-5As were seen on aircraft carrier decks (e.g. during flight test programs).
 - The MA-1 mobile power unit employed by the U.S. Air Force is substantially different from the Navy's NC-5A and is not intended to be built from this kit.
 - This kit is for modellers with experience and high level of skill; do not buy this kit if you build your kits "out of the box" and use paint brush to hand-paint them.