Introduction

The de Havilland DH.110 Sea Vixen is a British twin-engine, twin boom-tailed, two-seat, carrier-based fleet air-defence fighter flown by the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm during the 1950s through to the early 1970s. The Sea Vixen was designed by the de Havilland Aircraft Company during the late 1940s at its Hatfield aircraft factory in Hertfordshire, developed from the company’s earlier first-generation jet fighters. It was later called the Hawker Siddeley Sea Vixen after de Havilland was absorbed by the Hawker Siddeley Corporation in 1960.

The Sea Vixen had the distinction of being the first British two-seat combat aircraft to achieve supersonic speed, albeit not in level flight. Operating from British aircraft carriers, it was used in combat over Tanganyika and over Yemen during the Aden Emergency. In 1972, the Sea Vixen was phased out in favor of the American-made McDonnell Douglas Phantom FG.1 interceptor.

The Kit

Back when I was still in high school, I remembered being taught the difference between "accurate" and "precise"; This offering of Sea Vixen in 1/48 scale definitely fell into the latter category. First look into the grey styrene molded parts reveals finely engraved panel lines, vents and other details, apparently trumpeter has caught up with the latest molding technology with the increasing number of slide-molded parts offered with their kits.

The upper and lower fuselage were molded separately from the rest of the kit, the latter included a fairly detailed air brake bay already molded in. Three more parts were also molded separately, those are the nose cone and the two air intakes lips which have amazingly detailed slide-molded intake splitter plates. one PE fret gave us the wing and intake fences at fairly accurate scale-thickness, as well as cockpit, airbrake bay, and arrestor hook bay details

The undercarriage bays, however, was still made up of several wall and ceiling components, though Trumpeter thankfully provided them with pegs and holes for positive alignment.

Quick dry fit of major parts proves good fit, with vast majority close to snap fit. Care must still be exercised though, especially on area behind the cockpit where the upper fuselage met the upper nose section.

The clear parts were thin and free from blemishes. it includes the two-part pilot canopy, window and hatch for the navigator inside the "coal hole", navigation lights, and seeker heads for the Red Top and Firestreak missiles (which had unique octagon-pyramid-shaped seeker head)

Now it may all sound fine and dandy, but there's a reason why a called it "precise" but not "accurate".

Yep, you guessed it right, while Trumpeter has gone a long way in their molding department, it seemed like their design department can't be bothered to even look up a decent drawing of Sea Vixen on the internet. Accuracy went all over the place, ranging from tail booms that's too short, miss-shaped navigator hatch (not to mention cockpit panels that's completely fictional), incorrectly placed panel lines, rear part of the canopy molded into the upper fuselage, the list goes on. To make matters worse, it appears that the "mad Chinese riveter" had escaped the Chinese gulag and wreaked havoc on the kit surfaces, putting rivets where things aren't even supposed to be riveted!

The early version of the kit also had huge error in decals and color callouts, which requires us to spray the underside silver. The Sea Vixen never had a silver underside. A quick google search would confirm these issues in minutes, consequently the wing serial numbers were also printed in white... which should go into supposed to be white underside! apparently, it has been fixed in later boxing as my example was free of this error, but it always good idea to double check the content before you buy.

Other shortcomings such as lacking wing fold mechanism, non-posable airbrake, navigator hatch, and flaps are more of a nuisance and can be easily fixed with some effort.

Verdict

If you wish to build a well detailed, vaguely Sea Vixen shaped aircraft that goes together easily with reasonable price, then you might tolerate this kit; more power to you. Otherwise, go get the Airfix kit, it's somewhat less detailed with less fine panel lines, but at least it is much more "accurate" than the Trumpeter's offering

The "Bomb"

As I was finishing up this kit, I remembered  shindenwolf once did a commission for  bering (now  atomicalex) of De havilland Sea Vixen with a Bomb, Aircraft, HE 2,000 lb. HC, otherwise known for its rainbow code "Red Beard". Now, the kit only included a couple of external tanks, two Red Top missiles, and two Firestreak missile, despite the fact Sea Vixens only flew with single type of missile in a single time, requiring you to either buy an aftermarket option, swap with a friend who happen to have this same kit, or, God forbid, buy another Trumpeter kit to have four of each missile.

Needless to say, i choose the first option and promptly went to Hannants to get the 1/48 resin Red Beard by Transport Wings, among other things. The package arrived within a week, and I was happy to report that the cast was pretty good, there was some bubbles and flash, but nothing a quick puttying and sanding wouldn't fix. Sadly, it doesn't come with decal so after spraying it with a coat of bronze green, I had to scour my part bin for unused stencil and color bands.