Review Build Vultee Vengeance Mk.II 1:48 Dora Wings

[Mike]

After reviewing this kit (here) that was sent to me by Eugen of Dora Wings from the Ukraine just before the shutters came down in what is bound to be one of the terrible events of this century (that's all I'll say on the matter, you keep your own counsel), I wanted to thank him for the sample, and sent a message.  So far he's not replied, but I hope he's ok.  If he manages to read this at some point, I want to send my best wishes to him, his family and friends, and the wider Ukraine.

 

I got the urge to build it, and I'm not too brilliant at resisting urges like that, so I opened up the box again and started hacking parts off.  This is the third kit I've started recently, and I'm hoping to get them all through to completion at around the same time because I'm tired of not completing models. I've got the new Eduard Zero going here, and a Wingsy Kits Claud on the go here, which came to a grinding halt when I realised I'd got no suitable paint for the cockpit!  I've since got those from Albion Alloys and Air-craft.net, so thanks to both of those lovely folks  

 

moving on, I began putting assemblies together on the Vengeance for the long two-seat cockpit that has the bomb bay running along the underside, the tail wheel bay and the engine. all of which will be needed to close up the fuselage.  The kit's got some excellent detail from the box, with a lot of PE ready to further improve on that, which has taken me a while to get put together, but I'm not the fastest modeller in the world, and I've been doing other stuff in the background, such as sleeping a lot.   The cockpit was made up into what seemed like an infinite number of sub-assemblies, with some of them are total works of art, such as the framework that supports the gunner's seat, which has to be seen to be believed.  Surprisingly, I found that easy to put together thanks to the quality of the moulding, scraping away all the mould-lines as I went.  The seats were also nice, as was the main panel, with decals to put behind the PE panel, which I did in a one-step process using Klear as both the decal setting solution and glue for the panel, so that everything could be lined up neatly before setting.  Here's a group picture of the assemblies, erm, assembled.  Sounds like a Marvel film:

 

 

 

This all got a squirt of grey primer then a coat of either Gunze Chromate Yellow Primer (C352), or Zinc-Chromate Type-1 (C351), lightened hither and thither and then glossed'n'washed with some Ultimate washes.  Some touch-ups, amalgamation of various sub-assemblies and re-gluing back the PE parts to the sidewalls 2 or 3 times (I can't help being clumsy!), I finally got it into position within the fuselage, along with the tail-wheel and its bay.

 

 

 

I'm not terribly far off closing up the fuselage now, at which point I'm going to do the same for the Claud, but in the meantime I've put together the engine, which is currently in black primer as I write this.  I also built up the engine cowling, partly because I was dying to see how it went together.  The short answer is "brilliantly!".  The longer answer is still brilliantly, but it took some careful and fun PE wrangling and was only achieved thanks to some exceptional moulding by Dora.  The main cowling was in two halves with a separate lip that goes together nicely.  I did a little fettling of the joins so they fitted flush, and then turned to the intake in the bottom of the lip.  That's a separate styrene part with two PE splitters that fit into little grooves in the main lip.  I glued those in first and then added the styrene top section, using plenty of liquid glue to get it to squish out when I put a bit of pressure on it.  That worked well, and clean-up was minimal.  The cooling flaps are PE and fit into gaps in the rear of the cowling.  I cut each one off in turn so I didn't get them confused, annealed each one and rolling them carefully in my rolling tool, using the largest 19mm roller.  With a negligible amount of tweaking of the PE, and a bit of scraping of the ends of the gaps, I got each of the four cooling flap sets to fit into the cowling really neatly in the closed position.  A lot of the credit goes to Dora's designers, and they're going to look great with a bit of paint on them (the flaps, not the designers!).

 

 

The half-circle recesses in the rear of the cowling is where the exhaust stubs poke through, and they needed a little bit of work to make them more in-scale with reality.  Those were made up and scraped thin the following session, using my Galaxy Model motor tool to get the thickness down, then scraping the edges with a sharp '11 blade.  Once I was happy, I melted the interior surface smooth with some liquid glue.  They got a coat of black primer at the same time as the engine, and are now brown, waiting for me to put some rusty/hot shades on them.  The pic below shows them before they were semi-melted:

 

 

The next job is to finish up the fuselage closing and paint the engine.  Whether I can be bothered to wire up the spark plugs or not remains to be seen.  Doing that task on the Zero nearly drove me (more) (than usual). The gear bays have been painted and put to the side, and I've just realised that I've forgotten to take a single picture of them

[Mike]

I managed to get the fuselage closed up late last night, starting by taping everything together to see how the insert in front of the cockpit fits.  I applied glue to one side of the insert and lined it up as best I could, waiting 'til it had set before doing the other side to minimise mis-shaping of the forward fuselage.  I then went round the rest of the fuselage with the glue brush, and clamped a few areas, taping a few others as appropriate.  This afternoon I started to clean up, and noticed a few small valleys along the longer sections of the seam, so I took the tops off them with a fairly coarse sanding stick, then squished some Tamiya Basic filler into the by now clearly visible shiny areas where the sander hadn't touched.  While I wait for it to cure, I took a couple of pics below:

 

 

The underside is open showing the bomb bay, which I also forgot to take pics of earlier I'm going to replace the kit bombs with some Eduard ones I have lurking about, as I'm not confident I could get them through the painting process without knocking off the PE fins.  I'm a bit of a clumsy modeller just in case I've not mentioned it enough

 

 

The next step is to sand all that back, check and redo if necessary, then polish it back to smoothness and reinstate any missing rivets and panel lines.  Meanwhile I'm going to wash the gear bays and glue the wings halves together, and maybe slap some paint on the Claud now I've got the paints

[wellsprop]

Looking good!

[hairystick]

A great start Mike!

It amazes me that there are so many aircraft types out there begging to be put into production by kit manufacturers, but yet these are not picked up. Thankfully Dora Wings have done this on the big beast of a Vengance.

 

Keep at it Mike, this needs to be finished.

[Mike]

8 hours ago, hairystick said:

Keep at it Mike, this needs to be finished.

I'm going to do my best.   I'm working on the underside seam today, and have been fettling the wings to get them to fit better into their recesses.  Once the seam is dealt with, the wings will go on, and its full quirkiness will be visible.  I can't wait!

[Mike]

The fuselage seams took a while to get right, but I whipped them into shape eventually after creating lots of dust and sanding residue.  A couple of doses of primer confirmed things were satisfactory, so I moved on to the wings.  The seams were easy enough to sort out, so I set about the flying surfaces, which were a bit confusing if I'm honest.  How much of that was me being a bit dim is up for debate I got them glued together and started to add them to the rear of the wings, which showed up a few issues of my own making.  If you check out the pics below you can see some white sections in the flap hinge department, where I'd managed to knock off the hinges during constructions I made good with some styrene strip so things look OK, and while I was waiting for the glue to dry, I made up the prop, which was easy-peasy.

 

 

I smoothed out the seams and inserted the wingtip lights, which fitted quite well, although I did sand them back a little so they were flush-fitting with the wingtip.  During the gear bay painting process I sprayed zinc-chromate in the exterior part of the gear bays, which I later found out should actually be the same colour as the underside, as should the gear legs and bay doors on both sides.  I'll overcoat that in due course once the wings are glued on and ready for paint.  No-one's perfect

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Looks a cracking kit, Mike (& you’re doing a great job of it, obvs). 
 

No desire to poke any political hornets’ nests, but sending all good wishes to Eugen and all Ukrainian model companies / people at what must be a horrible time (to put it mildly).

[Mike]

I was prepping the landing gear bay doors last night, and suffered from a scary ping of one of the C-shaped PE openers that led to me spending about half an hour going over my desk with a fine toothed comb, hoovering my floor with a little Shark vac I keep in the workshop, all to no avail. What's a guy to do?  I thought about making one out of styrene sheet, but decided against it and cut a chunk of the spare PE from around the kit's sheet, scraping a template with a knife blade, which I cut, sanded, cajoled and swore at (a lot), to reach the following conclusion:

 

 

It was hard going, mostly because the long edge is around 4.5mm, and I struggled to get it to stay still while I attacked it with the various files, sanding sticks and so forth.  I even used my Galaxy Model motor tool with a super-thin reamer in it to get the shape on the little nubbin at the end.  It's not perfect, but once the paint is on, and it's sat on its own wheels, no-one will notice.  That's the hope, anyway.  Now I just have to glue them both in place without losing another one!

[AdrianMF]

What a fiddle with your "G" shaped PE! I'm surprised your original didn't turn up stuck to your elbow five minutes after you had finished the new one. Does look like a cracking kit though, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the PE for the wing brakes fits - the recessed bay looks very crisp.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Mike]

5 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

I'm surprised your original didn't turn up stuck to your elbow five minutes after you had finished the new one.

Me too It's bound to turn up eventually, but in the meantime I can proceed with utmost caution

[Mike]

Slow progress on the various aspects of the model, notably the exhaust flap under the fuselage, just in front of the bomb bay.  The PE bends up easily, and once I offered it up to the hole, I noticed it was a little bit too big (the hole), so shimmed it with some scrap styrene strip, sanded it back square, test-fitted, then glued it in place.  I'm also half-way through rolling the tail bay door into shape no, but it keeps pinging all over the place!

 

 

The last few parts on the sprues are mostly for the landing gear legs, so those have been done ready for primer, attached to coffee stirrers in sets so they don't get lost or mixed up during the build.  Those two lumps of Blutak are there to protect the tail-wheel yoke and the new PE cooling flap, as well as the delicate bits hanging out of the bomb bay.  You might also have noticed that the tail is complete, with a bit of sag on the elevators, but a straight rudder.  The ailerons on the wings are also offset slightly for effect.  It just adds a bit of variety, y'know?

 

 

The wings have been fettled and made to fit better, and I've applied a couple of coats of Black 3.0 to the space that will be seen through the PE framework in the gear bay.  That should give the impression of dark space rather than grey plastic once the wings are on.  Next job

[Mike]

I worked up the nerve to glue the wings on today, after fettling them to within an inch of their lives to ensure they stuck.  I also dug out my EBMA jig to keep everything in order while the glue sets up, which makes it a must-have.  The wings are almost a butt-joint in shallow sockets, apart from one location tab that projects about 2mm inside the fuselage, so it's key to get a good joint.  I flooded the area with liquid glue and held them in place for a few minutes while I watched some Galactica 80.  Remember that? It's a bit more hokey than the original, as most of it is based on earth, presumably to keep the budgets down, one of the main reasons the original got cancelled.  It was costing over $1m per episode, with much of it being spent of the SFX.  I digress.  That's not like me!

 

I snapped a pic on my phone where it's sitting next to my photobooth, as I daren't move it for now.  I'll take a proper pic later.

 

[opus999]

I'm glad I stumbled on this -- the Vengance fascinates me and this looks like a pretty good kit.

 

I had to laugh when you mentioned Galactica 1980.  I think I was just the right age when Battlestar Galactica came out (7) because it was the greatest. show. ever. to me and my friends when it was on.  When Galactica '80 came on, I was excited BG was back, but I remember that, even as a kid, I thought it was ridiculous.  As an adult, I can look past some of the less-than-stellar episodes of BG (interesting network politics were responsible for those... but that's a different story) and I still get some enjoyment out of it.  As an adult, I tried watching G1980 and only barely got through the first 2-part episode.

[Mike]

14 minutes ago, opus999 said:

As an adult, I tried watching G1980 and only barely got through the first 2-part episode.

I just made it to the end, and it's limp compared to the variable first series, and almost every FX shot is a rehash of the first series, even down to the 2-cab Vipers becoming 1-cab when they take off.  They had the lid up on one of the full-size mock-ups and you could see all the bolts holding it together inside, and someone had clearly used too long bolts, as they were about an inch past their nuts with zero detail inside to distract the eye.  G80 became Knight Rider with flying bikes, as each story involves them helping a down-and-out to get one up on the bad guys. I might watch the "new" one next, which is fast approaching 20 years old next year!   Here's the airframe in almost 1 piece.

 

 

In between sleeping and writing a review, I managed to do a little thinking.  I know.  Thinking! I was wondering how to mask the bomb bay quickly and easily, when I remembered the closed bay that I wasn't using.  I cut some slots in the part and fitted it over the open bay, letting the openers hang out, which I'll wrap with tape later.  The bay fits so well that it won't even need any glue, which is nice

 

[mick b]

42 minutes ago, opus999 said:

I'm glad I stumbled on this -- the Vengance fascinates me and this looks like a pretty good kit.

 

I had to laugh when you mentioned Galactica 1980.  I think I was just the right age when Battlestar Galactica came out (7) because it was the greatest. show. ever. to me and my friends when it was on.  When Galactica '80 came on, I was excited BG was back, but I remember that, even as a kid, I thought it was ridiculous.  As an adult, I can look past some of the less-than-stellar episodes of BG (interesting network politics were responsible for those... but that's a different story) and I still get some enjoyment out of it.  As an adult, I tried watching G1980 and only barely got through the first 2-part episode.

Just goes to show that it was crap when it first came out unlike Thunderbirds that still holds firm after all these years. Great work Mike on the Vengeance. I remember my Dad having the Frog version in his stash a million years ago and being transfixed by its odd wings and beefy fuselage. He always said to make something unusual 😁

 

Mike

Edited April 2, 2022 by mick b

[Mike]

Got a bit more done, starting to prep for paint.  The windscreen has been glued on after painting the coaming my version of black, after I blacked out the edges of the glass that were being glued down with my usual GS-Hypo, to help cut down internal reflections.  Did the same with the fixed central section, and have blacked up the gunner's window too, although only the two parts have been glued at this stage.  I'll be applying the provided masks shortly.

 

[Mike]

Last update before

 

I decided to pose the dive-brakes in the closed position mainly because everything else is going to be open, so I washed off the primer with some Liquid Reamer to give the CA a better chance of sticking.  Someone asked whether the PE brakes fit well in the bays, and the answer is like a glove.  I cleaned up the attachment points, sloshed a bit of CA into the recesses so that the edges of the parts would catch, then put each one in, one after another.  Any overflowing CA was wiped off with debonder, which I'll wash off with some IPA tomorrow once the CA has cured fully.

 

 

You might have noticed the canopy masks change from vinyl to tape half way down.  I was having trouble getting the edges to stay down, and there were some tiny overlaps on the frames, which was taking longer to deal with than just making my own, so I did I've tack-glued the rest of the canopy on, filled any gaps with Blutak, and installed the new highly powerful Blutak 2800 engine in the cowling, which is also tacked on with GS-Hypo, so all the demarcations match up at the end.  Those little bits of tape on the top of the removable canopy sections are to remind me which way they go, as they fit better this way.  In case you were wondering, some of the vertical frames widen about half way down, so it's not my wobbly masking

[Dunny]

Looking good Mike - I'm looking forward to getting my grubby little mitts on one of these, with an RAAF scheme in mind. Look forward to seeing this progress,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[Mike]

I finally got round to putting the primer on the Vengeance, which exposed a little glue that had squirted out from under the windscreen.  It's clear, so I didn't spot it until it turned grey, so I had to scrape that off and re-prime it.  I'd first given the masked canopy a coat of dark grey so it looked somewhere near black from the inside.  I took a guess with the help of a couple of photos that the interior of the frames were originally black, but it's hard to tell from old B&W photos and dusty museum pics.  If I'm wrong I'll live with it I gave the whole airframe a buff with a polishing stick's rough side, but it still needs a rub with some clean kitchen roll to get rid of the ingrained dust.

 

 

I'll give it a rub, check everything's good and then put some of the underside colour on.  meantime, I'm about to squirt some Mitsubishi interior green on my Claud.

[Mike]

Finally got the engine painted, and just couldn't muster up the energy to wire it up, so you're going to have to forgive me that one

 

 

I'll put the blue on tomorrow when I've got more energy

[Nachtwulf]

On 4/2/2022 at 12:37 PM, Mike said:

I just made it to the end, and it's limp compared to the variable first series, and almost every FX shot is a rehash of the first series, even down to the 2-cab Vipers becoming 1-cab when they take off.  They had the lid up on one of the full-size mock-ups and you could see all the bolts holding it together inside, and someone had clearly used too long bolts, as they were about an inch past their nuts with zero detail inside to distract the eye.  G80 became Knight Rider with flying bikes, as each story involves them helping a down-and-out to get one up on the bad guys. I might watch the "new" one next, which is fast approaching 20 years old next year!   Here's the airframe in almost 1 piece.

 

 

In between sleeping and writing a review, I managed to do a little thinking.  I know.  Thinking! I was wondering how to mask the bomb bay quickly and easily, when I remembered the closed bay that I wasn't using.  I cut some slots in the part and fitted it over the open bay, letting the openers hang out, which I'll wrap with tape later.  The bay fits so well that it won't even need any glue, which is nice

 

Wow! I can't believe those two pictures are of the same model! The wing just looks completely different between the two photos. Amazing! The detail of the kit appears to be quite nice and you are doing a wonderful job.

[opus999]

This looks really great with the wings on.  It's the wings that fascinate me so much and really make the aircraft's look.  Other wise it looks like a blocky, awkward, Dauntless's older brother.

 

On 4/2/2022 at 12:37 PM, Mike said:

I might watch the "new" one next, which is fast approaching 20 years old next year!

20!  Oh.... don't say that.    I watched it with my teenaged boys and they were transfixed by it.  It is a well done drama that bears almost no resemblance to the original.  ...and the plot gets quite twisty.

[mahavelona]

This is looking fantastic and it's lovely to see this kit built. I had been so looking forward to it.

[georgeusa]

Just finished reading all of the posts on this kit.  You have done such a great job on her.  Do not discount your modeling skills.  From these posts, your skill is excellent.  I have a half completed AZ 1/48 version that stymied me with the butt joined wings and getting them aligned correctly.  Still working on that problem.  This kit looks so much better and well designed.  Looking forward to your next posts.

[Mike]

7 minutes ago, georgeusa said:

Just finished reading all of the posts on this kit.  You have done such a great job on her.  Do not discount your modeling skills.  From these posts, your skill is excellent.  I have a half completed AZ 1/48 version that stymied me with the butt joined wings and getting them aligned correctly.  Still working on that problem.  This kit looks so much better and well designed.  Looking forward to your next posts.

Thanks George, good to see you and your avatar again Didn't you say that's your wife?

 

I'm busy adding the little PE wire frame to the front of the Claud's cowling at the moment.  It's testing my patience something rotten