Background

As featured in the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Federation starship USS Reliant was the vessel commandeered by the despotic Khan Noonien Singh, a late 20th century superhuman product of genetic engineering. Khan first appeared in an episode of the original Star Trek TV series, “Space Seed,” where he and his crew were discovered in cryogenic stasis while drifting through space aboard the SS Botany Bay. Revived by USS Enterprise’s crew, Khan and his followers were permanently exiled on a remote planet by Captain James T. Kirk after a failed attempt to seize Enterprise.

This is a very nice kit. Simple enough to be the first ‘glued’ kit for someone moving up from snap-kits, but also a well-made kit that more experienced modelers can build into a great scale model. The kit’s one-piece body and one-piece frame are both very nicely molded parts.

Tom “Mongoose” McEwen is a drag racer best known for is legendary races against Don “The Snake” Prudhomme. McEwen’s “Mongoose” moniker even was a reference to Prudhomme’s “The Snake”. In 1968 McEwen introduced a new funny car based on the iconic ’57 Chevy. With runs of less than 6 seconds, this car laid claim to being the fastest ’57 Chevy in the world.

Britain had the V Bombers, Valiant, Victor and Vulcan, from the 1950s through the 1980s. They were large bombers designed to carry the large nuclear weapons of the 50s, and they served the RAF well, with the Victor and Vulcan serving as aerial tankers and the last Vulcan tanker retiring in 1984.

This model is of the Victor B.2 bomber version of the aircraft. The bomber was never used in combat; the Valiant bombed Suez in 1956 and the Vulcan bombed the Falklands in 1982. Victor tankers participated in the “Black Buck” missions in the Falklands, with 11 Victor K.2s needed to get one Vulcan to the target, Ascension Island, and return, a round trip of 6,800 miles.

The Victors were designed to carry a stand-off nuclear missile called Blue Steel. This was to be replaced by the US designed Skybolt missile, but that program was cancelled.