Anigrand 1/144 Victor B.2, previewed by Scott Van Aken

KIT #:	AA-4029
PRICE:	$102.00 from www.NostalgicPlastic.com Includes US/Canada shipping
DECALS:	Two options
REVIEWER:	Scott Van Aken
NOTES:	Includes Blackburn Firecrest, Bristol Belvedere HC.1 and General Aircraft GAL-61.

In 1947, the British Air Ministry issued a request in the form of Specification B.35/46 for an advanced jet bomber capable of carrying nuclear bomb. Short and Vickers responded with SA.4 Sperrin and T.660 Valiant. Sperrin was set as program backup while Valiant was awarded for production order. Handley-Page and Avro came up with advanced designs for competition which would become the Victor and Vulcan. Due to the aggression in Europe from USSR, both the Victor and Vulcan were also awarded production contract. The first HP.80 Victor prototype made its first flight in 1952, and the first production aircraft B.Mk.1 flew in 1956. After improved by the more powerful engines, wing design changes and many other modifications, the B.Mk.2 entered service in 1962. The Victor initially armed with the Blue Steel stand-off missile, and was intended to equip with American Skybolt missile. In 1972, Twenty-four B.Mk.2s were converted to K.Mk.2 tanker. The Victor never called into combat in bomber role but did see action in tanker role for the Falklands war in 1982 and Gulf war in 1991. The last Victor unit was disbanded in 1993.

Historical background from Anigrand website.

THE KIT

Anigrand's kit comes packaged in their usual compartmentalized poly bag with a separate compartment for the resin clear parts, each of the additional aircraft and three sections dedicated to the Victor itself. The image of all the parts, cleaned up and nicely laid out, are courtesy of Anigrand.

Those of us who have built and enjoyed Anigrand kits will come to recognize the nicely engraved detailing, the usual resin blobs and air bubbles that will need to be taken care of, and the generally good fit of the parts. Anigrand has added an interesting item to this kit in that there are large tabs that run vertically in the fuselage sections to help keep things aligned as well as to add some stiffness to these parts. This seems that it is now a standard feature and one I like. The one piece wings are nicely molded with slots to accept the landing gear and the fuel tanks. I like the way they handled the intakes on this with a full intake insert. The

Valiant did not have this feature and the seam that is created is not easy to fill. No real detail in any of the gear wells, but this is acceptable for 1/144. There is no cockpit detail on this one and really, little to see if there was. There are two bomb bay doors, one for the Blue Steel missile and a standard door. The small rear fuselage strakes will need to be made from card stock and templates are provided for this

Three smaller aircraft are included with this, as seems to be the norm for these 1/144 bomber kits. You get a Bristol Belvedere helicopter, a Blackburn Firecrest, which was an unsuccessful Firebrand replacement, and aA General Aviation GAL-61 flying wing glider . Like other small add-on planes from Anigrand, the really small ones have solid fuselages so for the glider, getting it to not tail-sit will be interesting. Anigrand provided two identical decal sheets for markings. The Victor can be done in the white anti-flash scheme with the pastel insignia or in the camouflaged low level scheme it used later in life. I had two sets of instructions in my kit, one of them with one side in full color. The assembly images are minimal, but adequate as these are not parts intensive kits.

Nice to have a Victor in this scale. As many of you know, Matchbox has done this one in 1/72 and way back when, Lindberg did a 1/96 version. Perhaps there has been a vac kit in this scale, but I've not seen it. As I know I've said before, 1/144 scale is great for very large aircraft like this. It bypasses the 'big airplane' syndrome as well as the 'where will I put it' problem.