Manufacturer: Mach-2
Construction is very straight-forward with only minor problems. The
assembling sequence starts with the assembly of the propulsion bay,
but I think it is better to start with the central core and boosters
and not to glue the bottom part to the central core until the first
stage has been painted. All halves fit quite well but some sanding is
required which destroys some of the recessed panel lines. These were
rescribed later. The holes in the boosters in which the pegs of the
base are supposed to fit in need to be enlarged, do this before the
boosters are glued to the main core. The hold down posts of the
propulsion bay didn't quite match the recessed area on the boosters,
so I slightly rotated the boosters which hides the small gap.
The painting instructions are very clear, but only Humbrol colours are mentioned. They are generally available in France, but I doubt if they are in the rest of the world. The boosters and central core main colour is gloss white: for this I used an acrylic spray can. The lower half of the central core is shown as a brick pattern, the bricks being matt pale stone and the spacings a lighter colour. As I haven't seen any pictures of a real Ariane 5 yet, just the battle stage and the mock-up at Le Bourget '95, I painted this all matt pale stone. After this dried the propulsion bay was glued to the central core and paint blemishes were touched up with a brush. I covered the bands on the boosters with chrome foil 2 millimeters wide. It's not in the instructions, but I liked the look of it and the mockup at Le Bourget had them.
The built model looks nice and gives a fair representation of the
Ariane 5 as it has appeared so far. Construction took 5 hours, not
counting the time to let the paint dry. The price is a little on the
high side for an injection molded plastic kit in the rather odd scale
of 1/125. I ordered it directly from the manufacturer, but Squadron
Mail Order also sells the kit for a whopping $59.95.