1/72 Airfix Royal Navy Buccaneer S2C, 800 NAS, HMS Eagle, June 1971
G'day all. It's been a while between drinks. It just so happens I reduced the stash by one over the weekend.
This is the lovely 1/72 Airfix S2C Buccaneer. It's a great kit to build with only two real gripes. I found that the inserts for the exhausts at the rear fuselage required some material removal as did a small amount at the nose to fuselage join. Other than that she's in the display cabinet safely. Kit decals used as XV336 while with 800 NAS on HMS Eagle in June 1971.
I opted for the folded wings and deployed air-brake not so much as a space saver, but because I think its an airframe that doesn't look too bad like this. Keen to hear you thoughts.
Cheers,
Mick
Very nice looking Buccaneer, @mickdrover, the folded wings look great, definitely liked.
Thanks George. It's a good way to save space in the cabinet.
Great build and a beautiful result, Michael!
Yes, I too find the "folded wings" posture very attractive on the Buccaneer.
Thanks Spiros.
Looks good to me, Michael. The paint looks great, very nice finish.
Thanks Ben.
A very fine looking Buc, Michael.
Agree that the wings folded up is a pleasure to look at.
Thanks John. I now want o get myself an RAF jet to do as an in-flight display. I think it lends itself to be displayed that way considering it was a low level strike aircraft for most of its life.
Nice work and a good result. It's a lovely kit I wish they would upsize and replace their #$#@! 1/48 kit.
Having done one of these myself, my suspicion is the source of your two gripes (minor as they were) were MIP (Modeler Induced Problems) - getting used to the new-mold kits that requite every single bit of sprue nib or anything else extraneous to be cleaned off a part is something it's easy to miss; I have found with every complaint about some glitch in a new kit (other than wrong-size parts, of which there are more than a few guilty parties) that when I go back over it, I find I managed to miss that one little bit of nib, which caused the cascade of "downstream" problems and all the purple clouds with lightning bolts over the work table.
Thanks Tom. I agree too, I wish they'd do a new tool Bucc in 48th scale. I t would be well received.
I understand what you say about the clean up required. Folks might not appreciate it but cleaning up mating surfaces on the new tool Airfix kits is certainly a good habit to get into. If no then fit issues can certainly arise.
Michael, I just checked the fit of my exhaust bits, with the sprue attachments cleaned off they fall into place ! I have not looked at the nose fit !
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
I always thought the Buccaneer being an absolutely and totally ugly plane. The only forgiving lines are around the canopy...the rest looks like a really bad design saved by impossible aerodynamic inventions. But hey, who cares about looks when you come up with an efficient low level striker doing its job.
Mr Drover, you made it into a totally bad looking aircraft in its black paint. Looking a bit like something Batman would fly. Bad in a positive way, that is.
Stellan, I think you will find that it is extra dark sea grey, Michael may confirm or otherwise.
Aha, well it certainly looks striking anyway. Thanks for clarifying, Allan.
It's not what i would call an aesthetic design triumph. If you go by the paint schemes of the prototypes, with those tiny Gyron Junior dog whistle engines, it resembles a swept-winged flying clown car.
When they introduced the Speys and the nose got a little bigger, the lines of the aircraft improved. One of those planes where the right paint scheme can make a world of difference.
"Swept-winged flying clown car"...classic. I'm going to use that.
Thanks Stellan. It doe look pretty cool in the dark colour. As Allan points out though, it was painted in Gunze EDSG. The bleaching/lightening of paint was done with Gunze H337 bluish/grey.
Nicely done Michael, looks good, I have an aerobatic team one to do myself.
Thanks Allan. What's the aerobatic team they were associated with?
Michael, 809 Sqn, Phoenix Five, from Lossiemouth in 1968, standard scheme, the only team to use Buccaneers.
Nice job. That’s one of my favorite jets and I too wish they’d upscale it to 1/48.
Thanks John. Yeah, a new 48th version would be great.
That's a very nice Buc! Great work on this.
Thanks Greg.
It's a beautiful Job, Michael! Having just finished mine, i had exactly the same problems getting the exhaust fairings to slot in and play nice with the fuselage flanks. So it's not just you. There were a few places here and there where things did not click together, but thats sort of par for the course and my issues were easily overcome with "old fashioned basic modeling skills", LOL.
Nice to hear David. I found it quite a forgiving kit too. It's my son's new "favourite".
A great looking build! Hey, the A-6 Intruder won't win any beauty contests either, but don't get in it's line of fire.
Thanks Robert. Now the A-6 was certainly a mud mover.
Wow, that Buc really shines.
Thanks Tom.
Great work, I’m finishing up mine now and also have had some fit issues, which I attribute to the complex and curvy shape of the Bucc (obviously, it could never be MY fault!). Nice paint work, that edsg finish dulled up fast while at sea.
Thanks Andrew. I've tried to achieve a bleached/worn look to the paint to replicate this. I found a great reference photo that showed this, no doubt after a while at sea.
What a bird. Still the best air brakes ever! Hard to believe the South African Airforce was the only export customer.