Airfix Buccaneer S.Mk.2, 1/48

[pigsty]

If I’d wanted to do so much filling, I’d have trained as a dentist. 

 

This is Airfix’s venerable quarter-scale Buccaneer, still the only game in town until Tanmodel’s comes through.  Then its frankly silly second-hand value should go down the tubes, as it really ought to.

This is not, on balance, a good kit.  I bought the RAF version when it came out and, thanks to a complicated trade with Muzz of this parish, have built it as the Fleet Air Arm version.  The colours and markings are for 800 Sqn in 1966, though they will have lasted only a few weeks, if that, before the overall grey scheme was adopted.  Hence the light weathering.

 

Plus points: good shape, OK surface detail (though some of it seems to be made up), some quite good RN parts.

Minus points: fit.  And fit, and fit, and fit.  How to describe the fit?  Well, it rhymes with fit …

 

Many have noted that the fuselage parts are warped and have to be coaxed together an inch at a time.  Friends of mine have said theirs fitted OK but, because the top-bottom split makes it all a bit floppy, still had to be assembled carefully.  Others have said one half was wider than the other.  Mine was different again: the bottom half was shorter than the top, by about 1½ mm.  I’ve included a couple of pictures of the airframe before painting so you can see the effect - and all the other points where I needed filler.

 

I realised this problem only after I’d glued everything aft of the wing.  The only way to make the nose parts meet was to force the bottom half forward.  It would never have survived the stresses.  But, luckily, I’d have needed at least three extra hands to glue it and hold it and clamp it, so I had to abandon that idea.  Instead, I cut off the lower fuselage forward of the engine fairings (nerve-wracking with the cockpit already installed), glued it in its correct position, and filled the gap with a slab of plastic card.  That’s the white bow behind the nosewheel bay.  This made all the panels line up, and closing up the front end became much easier than I’d expected.  Another bonus was that splitting the nose end left a hole through which I could fit a spreader bar behind the cockpit.  Adding the weapons bay door helps, but a spreader is the best way to stiffen the fuselage, and it’s a sod to fit one before closing up.  Mine is completely solid.

 

I then noticed that the leading and trailing edges of the wing were both slightly further forward on the top half than on the bottom.  This led me to think the whole bottom half was in fact underscale - yet it fitted in width, just not in length.  My conclusion: every single one of these things is bodged, each in its own special way.  You can only dry-fit, identify the problems, and hope to find a custom solution.

 

 

The main change on the intakes is to bring the compressors further forward, as the kit mounts them far too deep.  This is easy: cut off the bulk of the intake duct and the rest will fit comfortably.  The compressor should be in line with the first panel line back from the intake lip (the large rectangular panel with the fasteners is the engine access door).  I didn’t enlarge the bullet fairings, but I’m told it’s also quite easy.  Apparently, somewhere on the sprues there’s a couple of bits of plastic that are the perfect size and shape.  Shame they aren’t on the parts themselves.

I’ve built the kit to display the Buccaneer’s shape, so the wings are extended and the airbrakes closed.  Neither outer wing panel is the same depth as the matching inner wing, each (again) in its own special way.  You can see how much filling was needed to fair them in.  But that’s easy compared with the airbrakes.  Bash, bash, bash, is all you can do, but they end up quite solid.  A common trick here is to remove the strakes from one half to make them thinner.  But as each side has its own strake I wanted to keep a panel line all the way down the middle, so I kept them and thinned them a bit - probably not enough.

 

The tail goes together tolerably well and the way it breaks down makes it quite easy to get a level tailplane.  But the forward end of the fin’s root fairing is much slimmer than the spine, hence another great amount of work on the starboard side.  I used filler, but a better idea would have been to put a small shim between the two parts.  A couple of small points to note.  First, the early naval fit didn’t include the aerials on the sides of the fin, though the instructions aren’t too clear on that front.  Second, I’ve added a small antenna to the fin cap.  Hanged if I know what it is, but it appears on a few British aircraft of the time and it’s in all my reference photos.

 

The worst parts of all were the slipper tanks.  I don’t want to talk about them.   With the tanks and the airbrake, the corrective work took out some or all of the rivets.  That was good, as they’re far too prominent anyway.

 

 

The canopy is too wide for the sills if you have it fully forward.  The NeOmega cockpit was up to their usual high standard for detail but not for fit, leaving me gaps along all four sills.  So my compromise for both problems is to have the canopy slid halfway back.  This was a fairly common position when the aircraft was being deck-handled.

 

 

Weight: not mentioned, but there’s plenty of room in the nose.  Adding a slab of plastic card helps too.

 

Decals: commendably thin, which brings with it fragility and a nasty habit of curling up irretrievably.  Other problems are fuzzy printing and poor registration, although luckily the effect was mostly on white bits, which is easy to handle with this colour scheme.

 

Armament: the kit’s bombs are gash and the rocket pods, for some reason, are SNEB units on RAF pylons.  For a laugh I’ve used Bullpups.  I also moved the outer pylons inboard slightly, a very useful tip from the late Ted Taylor (and still visible on his old website).

 

Other little details:

• in the earlier versions the two antennae on the spine and the two under the chin are identical.  So you need four; Airfix helpfully give you three.  You can hack the other aerial into shape and, unlike me, you may even get it right.
• naval Buccaneers had no landing light on the nosegear.
• the pitot head and the tip of the refuelling probe are from Master.  Their usual excellence.

[tomprobert]

It's certainly come out beautifully, Sean, and the lovely finish hides the battles you had with it well. 

 

And having seen it in the flesh, your photos don't do it justice!

 

 

[Viking]

A difficult build by the sounds of it, but well worth the effort. She's a beauty!

 

Cheers

 

John

[Darby]

You posted this pre-watershed? How very risqué. What an absolute beaut!

[russ c]

Really nice Buccaneer there Sean, in the best scheme too. Looks superb

[exdraken]

Thanks for your lenghty text! Very worthewhile reading!

Excellent work imho

 

What is the stoty with the Bullpubs?

[woody37]

I'd say that despite the fight, you won hands down! Gorgeous finish, love this scheme too

 

[DAG058]

Fantastic work. I know Tan Models are working on a kit, but I'd still buy at least 3 of these though if Airfix retooled it!

[cngaero]

That's magnificent.

You've done a fantastic job with the old Airfix kit and finished it off with the most attractive scheme that the Buccaneer would ever wear.

[Bangor Lad]

Great post! I've always liked the Bucc and especially in this scheme. Thanks for sharing 

[Phone Phixer]

Great work. Brilliant result from all your struggles. Having built one, I feel your pain.

 

You mention about relocating the outboard pylons, but they also seem to be the correct stubby "pre Martel" pylons. Were they in the kit you had, or are they your own work.

[BerndM]

Splendid build, the extra effort was rewarding.

Great finish as well, love the livery.

[hairystick]

A very nice outcome!

How many times did you return it to the shelf of doom during the build process, if I may ask?

 

My sig. tells all...

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

Good to see it in its 'proper colours'

You deserve all the praise possible with this result.

[tonyot]

Beautiful job  and the scheme is brilliant,.....love the Bullpups too!

Cheers

           Tony 

[Reini78]

turned out great! congrats

[Bodmin]

Nice build. You've made a great job of it.

[Epeeman]

Blimey! - that really is excellent

 

Regards

 

Dave

[Andrew Jones]

Very nice build indeed , well done.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

My hats off to you sir ... that is real modeling when you have to wrestle a model into its correct form. You sir are a Grade A modeller not an assembler.

[pigsty]

Thank you all, you're too kind.

14 hours ago, Phone Phixer said:

You mention about relocating the outboard pylons, but they also seem to be the correct stubby "pre Martel" pylons. Were they in the kit you had, or are they your own work.

They're in the kit.  One of the changes between the original (RAF) kit and the RN/SAAF boxing was a few new bits of plastic with Navy-specific pylons, bomb door etc.  There wasn't nearly enough weaponry but the standard is quite a bit higher than the rest.

 

What is the stoty with the Bullpubs?

They're from one of the Hasegawa weapons sets.  With that and a Grand Phoenix FJ-4B, I have a terrible surfeit of the things so, as nothing else in the kit was suitable, I thought they'd make a change.  The Bullpup was occasionally seen on Buccaneers and Sea Vixens, and I have one picture of an 800 Sqn Buccaneer carrying them, so I know it was issued to my model's squadron.  It was nearly as unpopular with the Fleet Air Arm as with the US forces, and lasted a lot less time.

 

How many times did you return it to the shelf of doom during the build process, if I may ask?

Not once.  But it took nearly eight months to build.  In effect, my workbench acts as a Shelf of Doom for as long as some pile of dross is occupying it.

[CJP]

That's a nice Buccaneer and some interesting tips on the build - thanks

[hairystick]

On 8/14/2017 at 11:55 AM, pigsty said:

Not once.  But it took nearly eight months to build.  In effect, my workbench acts as a Shelf of Doom for as long as some pile of dross is occupying it.

Well done.

I was intending it to be the big build of this year, but then it sat for 4 months after sucking my mojo (doubt the carpet monster ate that bit!) so a Tamiya kit was rolled out.

 

Your build looks superb in that colour scheme as well. Quite tasty!

[RMCS]

Love the scheme...

[bruce bay]

I never make jets anymore... but I remember one of my first kits being a Buccaneer - no idea who by. And seeing this it's making me want to dip a toe back into post-WW2 modelling. Lovely build.