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1/72 Buccaneer...what's out there


Courageous

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2 hours ago, Courageous said:

We are modellers...we will overcome. :whistle:

 We are and we will !

I've built the Airfix Buccanner before and this particular kit will also be converted in an S.1 using resin intakes and exhausts, plus a few bits from a CMR kit so it will require plenty of modelling skills

At the same time the bad fit of the Airfix kit, even in its very first boxes, is one of the several reasons why we really need a new 1/72 Buccaneer... looking forward to Tanmodel issuing theirs !

Edited by Giorgio N
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4 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

Just received a first issue Airfix Buccaneer I bought for a good price on a certain well known auction site and as the fuselage halves were removed from the sprues, I did a quick test fit... oh dear, I had forgotten how bad the fit of this kit is !

Is that the 1989/90 semi-new tool or the 1961 original? If the latter, the box has to say NA.39 to be the first issue. Completely o/t, but the Bancarella was raided for a substantial number of books a week ago 😊

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18 hours ago, tempestfan said:

Is that the 1989/90 semi-new tool or the 1961 original? If the latter, the box has to say NA.39 to be the first issue. Completely o/t, but the Bancarella was raided for a substantial number of books a week ago 😊

 

It's the 1989 proper Buccaneer. I know that many consider this a modification of the earlier NA.39 kit, however to me they look so different that I struggle to see how one may have been developed from the other, really the only thing they have in common is the way the fuselage is split.

Good to hear you found something of interest at the Bancarella ! Isn't it great when a trip can also bring us to some site of modelling interest ? :D

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I agree that not much was left of the NA.39, let alone unaltered. But one or two parts still have the original part number on the inside, IIRC nose halves and/or airbrakes. That suggests that Heller milled the S.2 from the original steel, to some extent at least.

Indeed - though the idea of the visit came to my g/f through me repeatedly muttering about ordering from them, or better still paying them a visit - so the visit was on the Cards from the outset ! All Ali's (except one) they had which I missed, plus a sizeable number of IBN's...and I will PM you again for something related :whistle:

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One advantage the Matchbox kit has over the Airfix is the intake lips.  They are quite distinctive on the real thing and are really nicely done whereas the Airfix ones are too blunt.  I grafted the Matchbox ones on to the Airfix kit after a little surgery (the Matchbox intakes are separate parts but the Airfix are integral).  Other than that the Matchbox kit doesn't really have much going for it in my opinion.  I also used an aftermarket nose, refuelling probe, slipper tanks and tailplane, I think all were produced by Scale Aviation Modelling, which were all huge improvements over the Airfix kit parts.     

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  • 3 months later...
On 13/05/2017 at 5:30 PM, Max Headroom said:

There is also the Frog S.2. From memory it has the wing vortex generators (unlike Matchbox) and underwing stores (but not I think slipper tanks).

 

Cockpit is basic, it has a see-through effect with no blanks for the intakes or exhausts.

 

Trevor

that's all correct. You need LOTS of filler

 

Andy

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