Frog Buccaneer

Hi All!

The Blackburn <a href="https://imodeler.com/tag/buccaneer/" class="st_tag internal_tag " rel="tag" title="Click for the Buccaneer database at iModeler">Buccaneer</a> was designed to a Royal Navy specification for an all-weather strike aircraft. First fitted with Rolls-Royce Gyron Junior engines, the Buccaneer was soon found to be underpowered. Refitted with Rolls-Royce Speys, the Buccaneer soon became one of the best, if not the best all weather, low-level strike aircraft. I talked to an exchange USAF pilot who flew both the "Buc" and the F-104G in Europe, and he said the "Buc" was the best riding aircraft down low. Low was its domain, for during a "William Tell" exercise, the "Buc" scored 2 to none against F-15As! The RAF soon purchased the "Buc" to replace the cancelled F-111K and BAC TSR.2.

From the 1950s until the rise of Matchbox, Airfix had a close competitor. FROG. Frog kits also specialized in British subjects while kitting other kits. FROG went out of business sometime around 1975, and the non-German molds were sold to Novo, and Revell of Germany received the German kits. Compared with the kits today the FROG kits are primitive. Towards the end, they started to improve, but not enough. This kit, FROG No.238, a Blackburn Buccaneer, dates from around 1972.

Frog had started to improve the quality of their kits by the late 1960s, but the Buccaneer is not one of them. When you open the box, you notice the cockpit is lacking in detail and has holes in the sides by the intakes. There is no wheel well detail, and they are not boxed in. Also lacking are block-off parts to keep from seeing from the intakes to the tailpipes. This kit is from a collection being sold from an estate. When I opened the kit ( which was heavy) I found a “C-Scale” Buccaneer weapons set. C-Scale was a British company that made detail and conversion sets from white metal, as resin was not popular at that time.

I started with the blank off parts first, measuring and cutting, filing and sanding until they fit. I then had to make the rear of the cockpit as none was provided. Plasticard was used to form these parts. The fuselage was molded into an upper and lower half. The upper half was a different width from the lower half. Sprue spreaders were used on the lower half to widen it. I still had to file the seams, sand them, and use filler. The nose cone did not fit, and it needed to be filed and filled. C-Scale (CS) provided a new ram air scoop for the starboard side. The kit's blobby scoop was removed, the CS scoop was cleaned up, and crazy-glued on.

CS also provides the Bucc's “slipper tanks,” which are in white metal. These were assembled, cleaned up, and filled. The inner mounting bumps were removed and sanded smooth. Crazy glue attached the tanks and the tank-to-wing seams were then filled. Now the real fun started. CS provides a corrected fin top and new RWR antennas for the aerodynamic “bullets” on the tail. The fin top was fairly easy: cut off the old, drill holes for pins, and install the new fin top. But the RWR antennas took a lot more work. I needed to cut the front “bullet” off, and replace it with a thicker piece of sprue, blend it into the tail, then attach the new antenna and blend that into the new piece of sprue. The rear antenna was the same. New sprue, blend the sprue and the antenna in.

At this time, I was wondering why I started this kit. Because of the amount of filler used, I wet sanded the kit at the kitchen sink. I allowed the kit to dry. The white metal parts were primed, and the kit was wiped off with Isopropyl Alcohol to clean the model. I wanted an overall Dark Sea Grey aircraft, and Xtracals provided the decals. The aircraft was painted in Vallejo Dark Sea Grey and allowed to dry before the Future clear coat was applied. The Decals worked well with the Micro Scale System, but they were very thin and fragile. When dry, the model was given a second coat of Future, then a flat clear coat was applied. Finally, the engine intake was painted silver, the exhausts were painted steel, and the RWR and other antennas were painted US ANA Sand.

The last items, such as the canopy ( dipped in Future), landing gear, and their doors, pitot, refueling probe, and wing RWR antennas, were added, which finished the model...finally!

The model represents a Blackburn ( later Hawker-Siddeley/BAe) Buccaneer S.2A serial XV867, coded 655/LM, of 736 NAS based at Lossiemouth, Scotland in 1970.

This kit was more work than I thought, and more than I wanted to put into it. You need to box in the cockpit, the wheel wells, fix the intakes and exhausts, install blanking partitions, and fix the fin top. I started on the cockpit and did not realize the sides were open to the intakes until it was too late. I did not do most of the fixes. There are better kits of the Buccaneer out there, and I suggest you build the new mold Airfix kit, and leave this kit to the collectors.

Bruce

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