Part 1: First Look

MSRP: $79.99 Review kit provided by Meteor Productions, Inc. P.O. Box 3956 Merrifield, VA 22116 USA Telephone: 703/440-8720 Fax: 703/440-8724 Website: www.meteorprod.com. Email: support@meteorprod.com In 2005 Trumpeter, listening to the requests of many in the modeling community, released a much anticipated RA-5C Vigilante. The RA-5C was the most common variant of the Vigilante and therefore the sensible choice for kitting. The RA-5C was derived from an improved A-5 airframe, which increased the range and performance of the A-5 as a bomber. The result was revised wing design, and the characteristic hump, which altered the mid and forward fuselage. But I have always liked the sleek lines of the early Vigilante A3J-1/A-5A, without the hump, when it was still a nuclear strike bomber. Given these significant alterations, the conversion back to the A-5A is not one for the faint of heart; I did not want to wade into the conversion on my own. Cutting Edge to the rescue!

This is a multi-media package that is packed with extras - making it a one stop shopping set to build an accurate A-5A! You get a lot of stuff for $79.99. First, Cutting Edge provides all of the components to back date the RA-5C to the A-5A (A3J-1) variant of the Vigilante. Included in the set: a new upper fuselage, a new set of wings with positionable control surfaces, a replacement forward fuselage, new canopy glazings, new wing pylons, and a backdated upper tail section. Going one step further, Cutting Edge provides the early style intakes and seamless intake trunks (set 48487, which retails for $19.99). Third, included in this conversion is a vertical fuselage brace, which interlocks with the new upper fuselage, reinforcing the weak rear fuselage of the original kit, which tends to flex. Fourth, a full set of Black magic masks is included. The Black Magic masks sheets are large and from what I can tell provide masks for the painting of bright markings of the Test and Evaluation schemes. No instruction sheet is provided. Finally, a set of Cutting Edge decals for the A-5A with colorful schemes for five aircraft - two operational (VAH-1 on INDEPENDENCE in 1963 and VAH-7 on ENTERPRISE in 1962) and three test and evaluation aircraft (Naval Weapons Evaluation Facility - NWEF in Albuquerque, NM, Naval Air and Test Center in Patuxent River, MD and NASA Flight Research Center - now Dryden at Edwards AFB). The decals are typical Cutting Edge, with three pages of profiles, a brief history, and a listing of any modifications that that particular aircraft may require.

All of the components are first rate. The resin is typical Cutting Edge: durable, sharp detail and cleanly cast. The pour blocks are positioned for fairly easy removal. There is no flash, warpage, entrapped air bubbles or imperfections. Panel lines are lightly scribed and Cutting Edge chose not to replicate the rivets provided by Trumpeter on its parts. The new canopy glazings are cast from clear resin. This is my first experience with clear resin and they are a wonder! My samples are very clear and to demonstrate the fact I photographed them with a picture of an ENTERPRISE embarked A-5A underneath - amazing clarity! Rounding out the conversion is a 5-page instruction sheet that walks you through the conversion process. Despite all that is provided, I did find a few areas that I though could be improved. I am not a Vigilante expert and while I am armed with the Aerofax Minigraph, I would have liked to see an addition to the instructions that summarizes the differences between the aircraft, sort of a checklist for the backdate. One issue that is unclear is the tail cone to the Bomb-bay. Is the kit cone acceptable for the A-5A? It looks close enough to me, from the pictures that I have. Secondly, the instructions give you a clear step by step for converting the mid-fuselage. However the forward fuselage gets barely a mention other than you discard the old one and the fact that the cockpit will need to be sanded to fit in the new halves. In fact the cockpit tub will not fit into the new forward fuselage because there is less vertical clearance and the canopy openings are set at a different spacing than those of the Trumpeter kit. Third, there are no instructions with the Black Magic masks and the placement of some is not intuitive. Lastly, I would have liked wing folds for the A-5A wings like those found in the kit wings. But these are minor annoyances that do not detract from the overall quality of the kit. Overall this is an ambitious and impressive conversion. The steps are not too onerous that a modeler with some experience with resin could not handle it. The enticement of the aircraft schemes in the decal sheet should be reason enough to buy the conversion, but with all of the extras included, there really is nothing left to buy, except perhaps the Aires replacement engines. It you want a Vigilante that is sleeker and faster looking, with colorful marking options, then this is conversion is for you.

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