History

The Handley Page Victor was conceived as a nuclear bomber in the late 1950s. It was the third and last of the “V Bombers”, following the Valiant and Vulcan. As the Royal Navy took over the nuclear deterrent mission with submarines, the V Bombers became aircraft without missions. The Valiant had already been reconfigured as an airborne tanker, but when the airframes became worn out, the Victor bombers became the tanker force.

In 1982 the Victor K.2 tankers participated in one of the most complicated missions ever conceived. Operation Black Buck used 11 Victor K.2s and a single Vulcan B.2 to deliver a bomb load from Ascension Island to Port Stanley Airport in the Falklands, a distance of 3900 miles.

The next, and last big deployment of the Victor K.2 was the 1991 (First) Gulf War, The RAF called their participation Operation Granby. This was the operation to force Iraq out of Kuwait

Thank you PJ Production for providing this elegant aircraft accessory pilot figure, and thank you to the IPM Reviewer Corps for letting me review it! I am very appreciative of all you do for the scale modeling community.

The pilot arrived in a small blue cardboard box, with a small plastic bag inside holding both the pilot figure and a casting plug with arms. The light tan resin showed no sign of mold release and the minimal flash was easily removed without compromising the fine surface details. The separate arms allow custom positioning to suit the application, and the arm-torso join surfaces are flat, easily allowing drilling or flexible wire or pin to reinforce the joint. The resin is not too brittle or too soft. Many detail surfaces, such as harnesses and straps are slightly undercut, allowing highlighting washes a good place to pool and do their job.

This is the British decided that they needed a less expensive tank so the Medium Tank Mk. A Whippet was developed. This had a crew of three and was armed with four Hotchkiss machine guns. It first saw battle in March 1918.

The kit contains

• 7 sprues molded in tan styrene
• 1 Main hull
• 3 Sprues of track parts in Black Styrene
• 2 Stings for tow cables
• 1 decal sheet
• 1 instruction booklet.

Construction

The kit is not too complex and assembles in 16 stages which are not to complex.