Entex "Air Giants" Lockheed C-5A Galaxy!

Finishing out my collection of Entex "Air Giants" is this little C-5A Galaxy in 1/480 scale. I remember seeing the larger 1/144 scale Otaki C-5A (in Entex form) at Peterson Hobby and Crafts, but knew I could never afford it. It was always one of those special "untouchable" kits displayed high on a shelf behind the counter. So I settled for the next best thing, the "Air Giants" version for .89 cents. This model isn't much of a giant when finished, but it's crisp, accurate, and takes up hardly any shelf space.
The original one I built in '75 was molded in white, and I remember painting the wings and lower surfaces gloss gray. The rebuild shown here however was molded in the correct gray, so all I had to do was paint the upper fuselage white. The decals were barely usable; the thin blue stripe which separates the gray from the white on the fuselage was unusable, but its absence is not really that noticeable at this scale. The original Fuji and Entex versions of this fine little kit include early USAF C-5A markings. If you buy the current Academy version, you get a slightly later version with MAC emblem for the rear fuselage, and no cursive "galaxy" script for the forward section. No landing gear is included for this model, just a display stand.

There were several other "Air Giants" available at Gemco when I was a kid including the XB-70, Guppy, B-1, B-52, P-2 Neptune, B-17, and Martin P5M. I didn't buy any of those, and now I wish I had to complete the set. Entex also had a neat little set of airliners in what was labeled "pocket-pak" kits. These included a DC-8-62, 727-200, 737, 747, Concorde, and Boeing SST. These were even smaller than the "Air Giants".