by Peter Malone and Roger Lambert

Dora Wings have given us a very good Vultee Vengeance kit. It is easily the best Vengeance kit available in any scale. Take note of the box labelling though. The kit can only be built as a Vengeance Mk.II and, even then, not all variations of that mark. Some later RAAF Mk.II aircraft had intakes on both top and bottom at the front of the engine cowling, as well as many being fitted with extra cooling vents around the outer cowling. Check your references for the configuration of the aircraft you choose to model. The kit scales out quite well to full scale dimensions for span and length but, I had a few reservations about cross-sectional shape of the fuselage in a few areas.

It is possible to build the kit as a Mk.I by modifying the front of the engine cowling, (intake on the top of the cowling as well as the bottom of the cowling), and making a few other minor modifications. A Mk.IA can be built with few modifications, but one, in particular, to note is that most Mk.IA that entered service had the extra cooling vents around the engine cowling. To build any of the later marks (Mk.IV based on A-35) will require some fairly major modifications, the main ones being increasing the wing incidence to +4 degrees, modifying the undercarriage fairings and, addition of extra intake and vents to the engine cowl and accessory bay. The cockpit areas, seats and instrumentation were also quite different.

This is a very high quality kit but, as with most products, it is not without some errors and omissions. After we open the box, with its striking, but slightly inaccurate, painting of a No. 24 Sqn Vengeance releasing a bomb, we find:
1. Ten sprues of parts in a grey, strong, but slightly brittle, plastic. Excellent surface detail.
2. One sprue containing the canopy and various light covers. These are very clear.
3. Two sheets of etched metal parts.
4. Two sheets of decals, one carrying all the major markings and one of stencils.
5. A sheet of masks for the canopy.
6. A twenty page A5 booklet containing assembly instruction and four colour schemes.

The quality of moulding of the parts is excellent, and one is immediately tempted to cut some of the major pieces from their sprues and do a dry fit. The fit of the major parts is very good, even though there are no alignment pins. Some of the smaller parts have keys to assist assembly, which is often not clear from the instructions. These small parts are also brittle and fiddly, requiring great care when removing from their sprues, cleaning up, and assembly.

The pilot's cockpit and observer's position are accurate and very well detailed. Little extra work needed here. The modeller has the option of having an open bomb bay. If this path is taken, a lot of extra work will be involved to correct and detail that area. There is virtually none of the plumbing and wiring that there is on the aircraft. The bombs appear to be 'dummies' and lack fuses and safeties.

The clear parts are a gem and the sprue gates are placed where they can be cleaned up without damaging the part. The cockpit canopy is moulded in seven parts and I was expecting that this would allow me to assemble it with sections open. I was to be disappointed, however, as the canopy can only be assembled with the three sliding sections closed. With all that internal detail, it would have been nice to have both cockpits open.

The etched metal sheets are Jekyll and Hyde. Some of the parts, particularly cockpit fittings, are too small for my poor old arthritic hands. You'll need a magnifier and a good pair of fine tweezers for many of these parts. Take care; the carpet monster will gobble the small parts as quickly as it can! To my mind some of the parts given as etched metal are totally inappropriate. The dive brakes, in particular, are rendered as two dimensional, when, in fact, there is some quite heavy structure. If you choose to model the airbrakes in the open position, you will be up for more extra work. Anyway, the dive brakes were normally in the closed position when the aircraft was on the ground: if they were extended they would be a major hazard to anyone working on the aircraft. However, it was not unusual for the brakes to be deployed on 'finals' to get the aircraft to sit down on short strips and to have them open when taxying to negate the effect of strong cross-winds. However, when the aircraft parked, they were shut. A bonus is that the etched dive brakes in the kit fit perfectly into their recesses on the wing, so having them shut is not a major problem.

The instruction booklet is quite comprehensive. The assembly instructions are well illustrated but, lack clarity in detailing exactly how some parts go together and their exact location. I also found several errors where parts had been mislabelled, (e.g. the flaps), or not labelled at all, (e.g. throttle/mixture quadrant). Colour call outs are prevalent throughout the instructions and certainly help with the painting during assembly. Colour equivalents are given for Mr Hobby, Tamiya, AMMO MIG, Hataka, and LIFEColor paints.

The colour artwork and decal sheet do not match up to the quality of the rest of the kit. None of the aircraft depicted in the instructions can be built accurately using the included decal sheet. (See table below). I'm also a bit dubious about the sheet of stencils. They are too prominent and photos show very few of these on the aircraft. I also found the camouflage colours specified on the drawings to be inaccurate. The instructions call for RAF Dark Earth and RAF Dark Green for the upper surfaces when, in fact, the green and brown used were US manufactured paints. Admittedly, these were supposed to be matches of the British colours, but the match was not very close. I do not believe that, on receipt, the RAAF painted the entire under surfaces of their Vengeances in Sky Blue. I know other references state that the under surfaces were in Sky Blue but, in my opinion they were left in the 'Sky Gray' in which they arrived.

Some kit omissions

Not all the parts necessary to build an operational RAAF Vengeance II are supplied in the kit. The modeller will need to find, or manufacture, from his own resources, the following:

Armoured glass behind windscreen. Fitted to all RAAF operational aircraft. N-3 Gun sight reflector pane. This was fitted to all RAAF operational aircraft. Treaded tyres. These were fitted to operational RAAF aircraft. Fairlead for trailing antenna. The radio for this was not fitted to many RAAF aircraft but, the fairlead fitting was often retained.

If building the model with open bomb bay, you will also need to provide:

A more accurate pair of bombs. Those provided seem to be inert practice units. Universal bomb racks. Dora Wings would have us believe that the bombs were hung directly on the bomb beams. On the Vengeance I, IA and II, the bombs were carried on British supplied Universal Bomb Racks which were, in turn, fitted to the carrier beams in the bomb bay via an adaptor plate. If the bombs are fitted as per Dora Wings instructions, they sit too high in the bomb bay. The hoops which were fitted around the bombs and carried the spigots which engaged with the displacement arms that moved the bomb clear of the propeller.

Errors in the Kit

To my eye, the kit has a few cross-sectional errors.

In particular, I believe that the engine cowling could do with some remedial work. The front of the cowling is too deep, which means the lower cowling lacks the upsweep evident in profile. Also the cowling and fuselage, back to the bomb bay, have incorrect cross-sections. Yes, these cross sections are 'flat', top and bottom, immediately in front of the windscreen and bomb bay but, Dora Wings has extended this 'flatness' too far forward. The engine cowling is more 'egg shaped' at its rear without the large flat top and bottom sections as moulded by Dora Wings. To make some of the cowl flaps fit they would have to be given a sharp bend, not the flat contour on the actual A/C.

I also find the shape of the dorsal fuselage, aft of the guns, to be a bit too flat on top. This is not major and easily corrected with a few swipes of the file.