Azur 1/72 Vultee V-11 By Chris Banyai-Riepl

History

In 1935, building off of the experiences from the V-1A, Vultee built the V-11, a fast, modern military aircraft destined mainly for the export market. A single-engined design with a low wing, the V-11 featured a long greenhouse canopy stretching along the top of the fuselage, encasing the crew of three. Four .30-caliber machine guns in the wings supplemented the rear-firing .30-caliber defensive guns. Bomb load was split between the bomb bay and wing stations. Operators included Nationalist China, the Soviet Union, Turkey, and Brazil, with the United States ordering a handful late in the plane's career. Rapidly outpaced by advancing technology in the late 1930s, by the time the Second World War started all were obsolete.

The Kit

Azur has come out with yet another model that I never expected to see in injection plastic form. The Vultee V-11 definitely falls into that obscure aircraft category, a category that Azur seems to cater to. The kit comes molded in a gray plastic, with vacuformed canopies and a handful of resin detail parts. There is also a small piece of clear film included, while the decal sheet is both colorful and expansive. The overall quality is high and up to par with other recent Azur releases.

Starting with the interior, the large greenhouse canopy will reveal much, which is why Azur has included many nice resin details here. Rudder pedals, control sticks, bracing, and throttles are all provided in resin, with the cockpit floor and seats being the only plastic parts in the main cockpit assembly. There is no sidewall detail, though, so a bit of added plastic stock here will really help out. The rear fuselage dustbin turret can be displayed opened or closed, and is also mainly resin, with a plastic gun.

Once the fuselage is together, there is an additional insert that will cover some of the interior, but the windows on the side provide another angle to view these details. These side windows, by the way, are what that section of clear film is for. The windows need to be cut out from this, and used as the glass for the sides and bottom. I am uncertain as to how this will look on the finished model, as the film is much thinner than the surrounding fuselage plastic, and there is very little contact area to glue them on to.

After the fuselage is together, the rest of the construction is very straightforward. The wings are split into three pieces, with a one-piece lower wing fitting into a section on the completed fuselage. The upper wing halves then match up to the fillets on the fuselage, with the dihedral fixed by the lower wing piece. The horizontal stabilizer is one piece, fitting in a notch in front of the fin on the fuselage. The cowling is split in halve, with a decent engine mating to a firewall piece. The remaining details include the landing gear, an ADF antenna, two styles of canopies (two each included), guns, and propeller, all of which should pose no problems in finishing the model.

The decals offer markings for just about every country that flew the V-11. The Chinese example seen on the boxtop is from 14 Squadron, out of Hankow in 1939. In addition to this plane, there is a Turkish example, camouflaged in a medium green over polished aluminum. The markings for this plane are simple, being nothing more than the Turkish national markings on the wings and rudder. The final option is a Brazilian plane, finished in overall aluminum. This one is a bit more colorful, with a lightning bolt cheatline in addition to the standard Brazilian national markings. The decals are well printed with good color density and registration.

Conclusion

This is very likely the only injection-molded Vultee V-11 we will ever see, and it looks like a decent model. Like the original, there is no complicated construction here, and the final result will be a great addition to any 1930s-era model collection.