Anyway, onto the kit. The box is the usual red themed sturdy top opening lid & tray affair that recent larger Airfix kits have arrived in, and is hopefully the same size as the other V-bomber kit boxes for ease of storage. The box is sturdy, and will stand up to shelf stacking well which is good as it's going to be a while before I tackle it! The box art is nice and glossy but as has been commented upon elsewhere on this forum, perhaps not the most striking or inspiring portrayal of the mighty Vulcan.
Inside we have the usual instruction booklet in the three-colour format, giving what looks to be very clear detail on assembly order, part options and variant choices. A couple of nice touches are immediately apparent: there are templates provided for creating your own masks for the intake interior/exterior colour demarcation and also there are guides included in the parts to ensure the jet pipes are positioned to give the correct 'exhaust' spread. There are also two A3 glossy sheets, one illustrating the two schemes provided in the kit and the other giving instructions for the placement of the largish number of stencil decals provided.
The decal sheet provided is printed by Cartograph of Italy, and looks to be up to their usual high standard. Decals are provided for two schemes, representing XM594 of the Scampton Wing (carrying the Blue Steel weapon) or XM602 of 617 Squadron which is intended to be armed with 1000lb free-fall bombs carried on three bomb carriers within the nicely detailed bomb bay.
The parts are contained within seven sets of sprues, including one small fret for the Blue Steel option and one fret that appears to have had a small sprue taken off prior to packaging; possibly alternative parts for a later release, although I can't think what they might be...
The moulding looks good, details appear finely engraved or raised as appropriate and although there will undoubtedly be debates raging for months about the depth of the engraving it seems about right to me; not excessive but sufficient to take a panel line wash if that's your choice.
You have the usual options with regard to undercarriage (up or down), the crew access door can be posed open with the integral ladder if desired, control surfaces can be posed in a variety of positions (check reference photos for in-flight positions), and the bomb-bay doors are provided as alternate parts for open/closed. There is a nice bit of cockpit detail, but as always with the Vulcan perhaps this is wasted due to the lack of visibility once the fuselage is closed up...Still, we'll all know it's there so crack on! There is a little surgery to perform if you wish to mount the Blue Steel missile, and alternate parts to accommodate this. The air-brakes can be open or closed; if open the struts could do with drilling out to represent lightening holes but again check references as I have seen photos of both solid & 'holed' struts for the upper brakes. A little detailing inside the resulting wing openings will also help immensely as none is apparent as moulded.
There is one (very) small fret of clear parts. Not much else can be said of them, except that they are clear where needed
As always, no one will keep all the people happy all of the time so there will be discussions about some details (or the absence of) and accuracy as there seems to be about every kit these days but overall I would say a kit that has been worth the wait and that will make a lot of people happy.
After all, next year will be the 40th anniversary of the Falklands conflict so could be a good way to sell another boxing?
Thanks for the expert input Tony 
