Part 3: On To Victory... (Productions!)

Wing construction was unremarkable except for some more “coaxing” on the poseable surfaces.  This can be corrected with some block sanding of the edges, and in one case, elimination of one of the “hinge tabs” that refused to line up with everything else.  The flaps and slats were left off until after paint and decaling.  The wing to fuselage attach required minimal putty where the aft section of the wing meets the fuselage, and on the bottom at the vary front of the wing panel.  A minor point, easily dealt with.

Here I have good and bad news…the good news, which is major plus for a Trumpeter kit, is that there is not one ejector pin mark visible anywhere.  YAY!!  The bad news is that there is one horrendous sink mark to deal with on the aft top of the fuselage where the tail cone fits.  This part required even more “coaxing”.  In order to achieve better alignment, the locator pins were cut off the intake ramps, and they were cemented in to be absolutely straight.  This kit would benefit from the use of intake covers.

Well, as completion nears, it’s beginning to look like a Vigilante.  I guess I was surprised that it wasn’t larger with everything attached, but when you consider that the images show the completed model displayed on a “Just Plane Stuff” flight deck that measures 13” x almost 17”, it hangs over in several directions.  In fact, it’s larger than an F-14, but not all that much.

Paints used were what are left of my Aeromaster stash, and Testor’s Gloss White.

As previously stated, I chose to use the gorgeous Victory Model Productions offering for the decals (thanks again for the sample sheet).

The scheme I chose is the aircraft that made history when discovering the exact location of the Hanoi Hilton.  The crew was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.  As in the post with Victory’s decals, they are near perfection in register, color and ease of application, really nice stuff.

I decided to display the canopies in the up position, and did some judicious decaling inside them, which looks much better than just plain unadorned flat black.

Upon completion, it passes the “doodah” test…doo the thing look like a Vigilante?  Yeah, it doo.  As with many other Trumpeter kits, I guess the same adage applies here once again…it isn’t Tamiya, but it isn’t bad!  I really have to give those people credit for offering us never before produced kits in scales that these old, tired eyes can work with.  You decide, but I think any NAVAIR buff will want to add this to his stash.

I just have one question, after checking out the refueling probe, did it take a proctologist to work on it?

Thanks again to Stevens International for the sample kit.

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