So, starting this one. As with most Dora Wings kits, this can be listed under Top 100 Kits I Never Expected To See In 1/48 Injected Plastic.
It's a purposeful but ugly beast. A little research tells you it only saw 3 months direct combat with RAAF in New Guinea in the spring of 1944. It was short-ranged, couldn't carry a heavier bombload than a fighter-bomber, and was a maintenance hog. Although there is a British author, Peter C. Smith, determined to defend the Vengeance to the death, so I ordered a copy of his book, "The Vultee Vengeance in Battle," which tells the story of the Vengeance in Burma with the RAF and RIAF.
And other research found the attached photo of a Vengeance taxying with the dive brakes deployed, so I know I can do that (looking at the kit, getting the pe-brakes flat to the wing looks like a bugbear).
The other photo in color leads me to believe that these airplanes were painted "US Lend-Lease RAF colors" and were left alone after arrival. So it's DuPont "Dark Earth," US Medium Green for "Dark Green" and a sky blue color for "Sky". Reading the operational history of these airplanes with the RAAF, they don't appear to have been run through an Australian paint depot. I saw some Hex-Spurtz over at The Other Place arguing that the green here is RAAF Foliage Green, so that it must have been painted in RAAF colors, but that green isn't that dark, and the Dark Earth definitey isn't the RAAF version. So that's what I am going with.
2 attached images. Click to enlarge.
