Trumpeter 1/144 Vulcan B.2

 The Avro Vulcan was a quad engined delta wing tail-less jet nuclear bomber designed for the RAF. It was part of the trio of bombers that made up the UK's V-Force (V for Vengeance) as part of the UK's nuclear strike force. The Vulcan served from 1956 – 1984, the 2^nd longest career of the three V-Bomber types.

During its long career of nuclear deterrence and conventional strike, the Vulcan were involved in only one combat operation, codenamed “Black Buck”, a series of conventional bomb strikes on the Falklands airfields during the Falklands War (ironically, Argentina had wanted to purchase Vulcan bombers for, um, reasons but was stopped by the British Foreign Office because they had suspected (correctly) that the Argentinians might use the Vulcan to bomb the Falklands. Argentina invaded the Falklands three months later.)

The Vulcan came in two main versions, B1 and B2. The B1 version was the original version that was optimized for high altitude, long range nuclear strikes with limited ECM and no aerial refuelling capabilities. The B2 version had improved more powerful engines, electronic/ECM upgrades, aerial refuelling and reinforced superstructure for low level missions as the dangers of the USSR's high altitude SAM network became obvious to NATO planners. Later upgrades included provision for the US Skybolt nuclear tipped standoff missile (cancelled) and UK Blue Steel nuclear tipped standoff missile (cancelled.) The entire V force would be pulled from the nuclear strike role when the Royal Navy acquired the Polaris SLBM to be placed into their own boomer subs (SSBN.)

It also starred in a James Bond novel and film, Thunderball, whose plot started with a SPECTRE agent who stole an RAF Vulcan (B1 model) equipped with two nuclear bombs in an attempt at nuclear blackmail of the West.

Trumpeter has produced a 1/144 scale model of the B2 version of the Vulcan. It comes on three sprues of grey plastic, one sprue of clear plastic and a decal sheet along with an instruction booklet. The kit has a total of 68 parts.

The parts are very clean with minimal flash and have finely done panel lines (that are quite out of scale for 1/144 but that can't be helped based on the technology and for the model representation.) The majority of the parts are attached to the sprue gates on the part edge not on the part itself which helps reduce the amount of damage and clean up. The detail of the Vulcan looks nice, but as I'm not a Vulcan expert I'm not 100% sure about the accuracy (it is Trumpeter after all.)

It doesn't have a lot of parts for the interior and there isn't much to see as the cockpit is painted black. The kit also includes the optional Blue Steel missile for those who want to do a what-if Vulcan at nuclear readiness.

One issue with the color call outs is the interior color of the landing gear wheel wells and the wheels themselves is wrong. It is not Dark Sea Grey and Green. It should be white and silver based on the photos operational aircraft. Don't know where Trumpeter got their colors from.

The decals sheet is quite small with a small number of stencils. Hopefully they won't have issues like some Chinese made decals have been known to have.

Trumpter has made a decent looking kit of the Vulcan. It looks like a decent quick build especially considering it is 1/144 scale. The only issue may be the intakes (but it is an issue with all scales of Vulcan due to the shape and limitations of plastic manufacturing.) As noted above there are some issues with accuracy of the color call outs for the landing gear wheels and the interior of the wheel wells. Just check your sources (cough, google, cough.)

Should be a good fun kit for any level of modeller.

Dan Lee

October 2022