Dora Wings Vultee P-66 Vanguard

Hi All!

First, let me say that the people at Dora Wings are getting kits out under the conditions that they are ( the War) impresses me greatly, so any grievances are really superficial and are to warn you of any pitfalls. I have ordered several kits directly from them, it is safe.

This is about their new kit, DW48050 Vultee P-66 Vanguard. The Vanguard did not play any real factor in the war. It was ordered by the Swedes but was caught up in the chaos at the start of the war in the US and Sweden was embargoed from deliveries of weapons. They were offered to the RAF, which rejected them. Many were then sent to India fro Chinese use. Though some were rarely used by the Chinese the majority were abandoned in India and allowed to rot. The US Army did use the P-66 for coastal defense in California with the 14th Pursuit Group, and as advanced trainers.

The kit is nicely molded with trace amounts of flash here and there. The surface detail is absolutely wonderful. And parts, with excess plastic and paint removed from the mating surfaces, fit very well. Only trace amounts of filler were used. he kit comes with RAF and Royal Swedish Air Force decals, a fret of etched brass and canopy masks.

First of all the instructions are incomplete, parts are missing numbers, and are missing a step or two. So you need to follow what they have on the sheet, but be able to interpret what is missing. Also, work in an area where you do not have a carpet monster. There are a lot of small parts which like to leap off of the sprue and commit suicide in that carpet monster.

Some small details: I used the plastic parts for the instrument panel as they had better detailing than the etched parts. I needed to rebuild a cockpit side due to it being a short shot. I used stretched sprue and a photocopy of the other side as a guide. Fit 5 times and glue once as the instructions can be nebulous as to the position of parts. TAKE YOUR TIME and try to allow steps to cure before moving on. Most of the kit went together well, but there are a LOT of very small parts.

The engine needs careful fitting of the parts and careful fitting of the engine on the mount. Some of the instructions are a bit nebulous here. When assembling the cowl, the instructions do not mention etched part 11, which is the grill for the intake at the top of the cowl opening. Now the cowl flaps. The kit supplies etched flaps and they are a huge pain in the butt. They bend at the individual flap indentations and there is nothing for the crazy glue to grab onto. So I tried ten thousandth plastic card. It was too thin and would not glue down. So I cut individual flaps out and then glued them on using 20 thou card. It is not perfect, but it is my kit. The cowl fits very well, and there was sufficient area to cement it.

The landing gear is in scale, and this presents its own issues. The mount for the gear on the upper wing is just a depression. I used liquid cement to fix it, then I used crazy glue to strengthen the joint. Now another ugly problem raised its head. The wheel cover, the torque link lower joint, and the small gear door are all glued to the same place. Although I used liquid glue, the plastic softened and became very flexible. So I was forced to let the kit set for several days. If I ever do another P-66 I will use crazy glue here.

As I was doing a USAAF P-66 the model was painted Olive Drab (ANA613) and Neutral Grey using Vallejo paints. When cured, Future applied for a gloss coat for the decals, which came from the spares box. The Microscale system was used to apply the decals. When the decals were dry, a second coat of Future was applied and a final coat of flat clear was sprayed on.

Time for the final bits. The prop had blades that were shaped well, but the hub did not look like a Hamilton Standard hub. Out came the parts box and a suitable prop was found ( though I have no idea where it came from), the landing light was attached, the canopy was painted Olive Drab (ANA613), and the backlight ( rearmost part) of the canopy part number H4 was used. Finally, the navigation lights were missing from the sprue. So I used blobs of Testors White Canopy cement for them. And the Dora Wings P-66 was FINALLY finished.

The kit represents a Vultee P-66 Vanguard serial number 42-6902 of the 14th Pursuit Group for Western Coastal Defense. This aircraft subsequently was transferred to an advanced training base.

I know this kit is a "limited run" kit, with all the issues that come with these kits. Such as fit 5 times glue once, and parts cleanup, you will need to work with etched and resin parts, which often do not fit, and scratch building parts that were omitted. This kit had all of that except the resin parts. But the worst failing of this kit was the instructions. Steps were missing and necessary parts were not even mentioned. When you endeavor to persevere when finished the kit is a good-looking model of an obscure type. I can only recommend this kit, the Dora Wings P-66 to those who have several limited-run kits under their belt.

Bruce

2 additional images. Click to enlarge.