United Airlines Vanguard - Beauty or Beast?

[Henry Tenby]

This model was sold on ebay a few weeks ago for $1200 just one bidder. It is a pre production model from the 50s, but the nose is totally off from the actual Vanguard, it looks like a Stratocruiser nose. For me I find it totally gross, and I would have no interest in the model for my collection for this reason. What do you think?

[Neil Newman]

That’s a real rarity! I’m a real fan of the Vanguard (I have a 1/72 Skyland BEA one) I don’t have a problem with fantasy or what if liveries, I like the model, not at all a beast!

Neil.

[Henry Tenby]

Hi Neil, Thank you so much for responding. Absolutely, beauty is always in the eye of the beholder as the saying goes. For me, it is a rare thing because it is old and was made for presentation to United Airlines before they adopted the blue single cheatline scheme in 1958. It is the nose of the model which represents a bullet like profile similar to the Boeing Stratocruiser, which is accurate of the Vanguard design evolution. As I am a purist and I love the ultimate design of the Vanguard, my personal preference is for a model that looks perfectly like a real production line Vanguard. This is actually a proposal model, in the truest sense. There can be no debate that this model is historic. Wishing you all the best, and happy collecting!