Introduction

When World War 2 ended following the use of two atomic weapons on Japan the race for atomic weapons had began. Initially the United States of America had the edge on everyone where these weapons were concerned. America then began work on finding new ways to deliver these weapons and captured German scientists involved with Germanys V2 programme played a big part in this programme. Due to the costs involved America reduced funding and that would possibly have been the end of the matter if the Soviets had not successfully tested a nuclear weapon in the early 1950’s and the race of ICBM’s began in earnest.

The United Kingdom also had atomic weapons but did not go down the route of ICBM’s. Enter the V Bomber force in the late 1950’s of Victor, Valiant and Vulcan. These three aircraft types were the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent until we entered the early 1970’s when the Royal Navy took over the role with submarine launched Polaris missiles. The Valiant had already been retired by now, but UK still had a large number of Victors and Vulcans in service; what to do with them? The Vulcan continued as a bomber until the mid-1980’s. The Victor took over the in-flight refuelling role from the Valiant as it happens.

Revell of Germany has re-released the Victor Mk 2 onto the market, this unfortunately is not a recent moulding but the old MatchBox kit from the 1970’s.

Contents

This release from Revell of Germany is packaged in their usual end opening box. The contents break down as follows;
3 light grey sprues
1 clear sprue
A decal sheet
An instruction booklet
An advisory sheet

Review

First Impressions
With this model offering being a re-release rather than a new release you will not be surprised to find a few old school problems. The problems take the form of large gates between the sprues and the model parts, large ejector pin marks, simplified detail in the form of raised panel lines and worst of all some sink marks. There is a dimensional issues with the model being 9mm short in length but less than 1mm out on the wingspan.

The cockpit in this model is very simplistic being made up of a cockpit floor and rear wall with five seats. I do like that 5 figures have been supplied for those seat and I would say acceptable due to the very limited view of the cockpit on the finished model. The fuselage has that nice iconic shape of the Victor, but as mentioned earlier the panel lines are raised rather than recessed and are a tad on the heavy side. The airbrakes in the tail have been replicated and can be displayed in the deployed or closed position.

The wings are near enough as regards total wingspan as to make no difference. Again you have the raised surface detail to contents with. The intakes have come in for a lot of flak about the general appearance, but if you are building the model sat on its undercarriage, as most will, you could always but the red intake covers inside the intake and fix most of the issues. If that is not for you I believe there are some resin intakes available for improving the look and accuracy.

The tail is where I have a sink mark and this is a bad sink being both large and very obvious, unfortunately the photo does not make it as obvious as it is. Now some of you are likely thinking “well I will give this a miss with faults like that present”, but I have found that the replacement service provided by Revell of Germany to be pretty good, the turnaround time being about between 6 to 8 weeks. Other than that issue the shape of the tail looks right to me.

The under carriage is perhaps the area of the model I like the least. The detail is on the legs and wheels are not good and the only saving grace here is that the majority of it is hidden on this model. The refuelling pods on the wings are not bad considering the age of the model and the decals provided finish them off a treat. The refuelling lines and receivers are also included with the kit should you wish to finish the model in a flying attitude.

The loose leaved instruction booklet should not present any issues to even new modellers as the directions are clear and so easy to follow, also there are no overly busy stages to trip anyone up. The decal sheet is quite good as regards content and colour, there are no obvious omissions on the sheet as far as I can see. The decals are a little on the thick side though and so may be difficult to make sit down even with setting solution.

Conclusion

Having seen what Revell of Germany is capable off when it comes to their new releases it is a shame to see a number of new releases under the golden oldies tab, with that said I have seen this model built from the box and it looks quite good. Being a re-release there are a number of after market options available to add extra detail and accuracy to this model. The sink mark in the tail despite not being easily seen in the photographs is very obvious to the naked eye and is a shame to see in the present day having looked at model like the recent 1/48th scale Tornado released by Revell of Germany, which I believe is the best kit out there. As there is no other Victor options available of which I am aware I will recommend it to you, but it if you want to build an accurate model be prepared to spend money and time, especially so when it comes to removing the raised panel lines and re-scribing them.

Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For
details visit www.revell.de/en, @RevellGermany or facebook.com/Revell

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