Pappy

G'day people, Here is my completed matchbox 1/72 SAAF Buccaneer S.Mk.50. The underwing stores are scratchbuilt, as none are commercially available. the wing pylons are Airfix items and the seats were robbed from a Hasegawa 1/72 F-4E. I have added a few other tweaks. The WIP is here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=62130 cheers, Pappy

G'day people, The big blue bird is done!, I have posted pics in the 'Completed Bricks' section of the group build. I would also like to publicly thank Andrew in Newcastle (Oz), Graeme (a.k.a 'Eng') and Vlamgat, for their help in providing a canopy, decals and much needed information, without these guys this build would not have happened, thanks fellas I have tried to make an accurate replica, but There are some dodgy areas in regards to the inner pylon bracing arrangements. I made a best guess here, so don't take it as 100% accurate. if anyone has more info, including pics/drawings, i would love to hear from you, cheers, Pappy

G'day Col, Thanks very much. I have actually finished the kit, but unfortunately I can't get photobucket to work! as soon as the site is back up I will post some pics, cheers, Pappy

http://img202.imageshack.us/i/dscn4367c.jpg/

G'day people, I have spent today re-doing the H-2 "Raptor" guided bombs. I was not happy with the initial pair that I cast because the resin that I used was past its useful life, with the result that the two cast examples did not cure properly and an oily liquid was constantly seeping out of them and eating the paint. Take two with fresh resin was much, much more satisfactory and two new examples have been assembled I made a small improvement to these by installing clear lenses made from AGM-65 Maverick lenses sanded to shape. They look a lot nicer even if I do say so myself! All the ordnance is now complete and ready to install. I will still need to make the bracing struts for the H-2's, but this will have to wait until after the inboard pylons are installed. I have started added the bare metal de-icing areas to the leading edged of the wings. I am masking off the relevant area and just spraying on some silver. Here are the results for the tailplane cheers, Pappy

Thanks Wooksta, you had me scratching the old noggin for a little while before I realised what you were looking at. Progress continues, I have sprayed the main colours, these being the Gunze EDSG over Humbrol acrylic 230, PRU Blue. I am not really impressed with the Humbrol acrylics a I am sorry to say. The Gunze stuff sprays well thinned with Tamiya/Gunze thinners, and even better with GP lacquer thinners. The Humbrol stuff doesn't like GP thinners and turns into a jelly if this is used. I don't like thinning with water so I tried methylated spirits which was okay. The best results were achieved with Tamiya thinners. It sprays okay but I will be stickeing to Gunze paints as my preferred brand. Oops! A small mishap that will need a touch up, cheers, Pappy

G'Day Chris, Thanks mate, I will finish the 1/48 bucc eventually, but i want to concentrate on the little one first. Cheers Deacon G'day Wooksta, Thanks mate, but I think that you may be looking at the line I scribed in immediately aft of the canopy that represents the groove that the canopy retract mechanism slides along? If you mean something else that I may have missed then I am keen to fix that oversight up too! cheers, Pappy

G'day people, I have spent today masking and painting. Since I had sanded off the incorrect vertical canopy framing, I had to replace it, so I have used paint to replicate this. The process has been laborious as I had to mask of the canopy frame proper and spray the interior colour. The next step was to remove the masking from the clear portion of the sliding canopy and lay thin strips of tape to outline the white areas representing the central frame and sealant. Once done and the clear portion was masked up again and the white areas sprayed. This is the result: I get to mask the canopy again, and then I can spray the natural metal areas at the intakes and wing/tailplane leading edges. cheers, Pappy

G'day Andrew, Thanks very much for that, I'll have to take a closer look at my ref pics, cheers, Pappy

Struth, that was quick! Thanks very much Sean, cheers, Pappy

G'day Andrew, Great progress there, I like the way you have handled the windscreen frame, I assume that is from the F/Path PE set? What is the go with all the circles that you have added to the upper wings? cheers, Pappy

G'day people, I need a better electronic image of the 24SQN, South African Air Force (SAAF) unit crest. The image that I have is very small. I plan to print it out and use it next to the model I am building linky: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=62130 cheers, Pappy

G'day people, I need a better electronic image of the 24SQN, South African Air Force (SAAF) unit crest. The image that I have is very small. I plan to print it out and use it next to a model I am building linky: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=62130 cheers, Pappy

Cheers mate Bucc's flew under the radar Thanks very much Spence! cheers, Pappy

Cheers Jabba! I have added the ejection seat firing handles to the top of the seats. This completes all the details that need to be added to the cockpit and the canopy can now be attached and the cockpit sealed up. I will still need to smooth in the front of the windscreen as well as add the fairing for the windscreen wiper motor. The lower fuselage also had some additional details added. First up the Doppler antenna was made and added to the rear section. Further forward, a ram air scoop was made using a missile from the spares box, in this instance a MICA missile was used. The nose was cut off, drilled and sanded to shape. Cheers, Pappy

Thanks mate, the canopy was exactly what I needed! Boom-tish! Pappy

Thanks, it is moving along... Thanks Mike. I haven't said yet but I have an idea or two.... In my alternate reality, she won! I tried the link but it didn't work for me. I think in the case of YF-32 vs YF-35, the right jet won. In the case of YF-23 Vs YF-22 I am not so sure, cheers, Pappy

I agree, and that is part of the motivation behind this build. I have not used any aftermarket, though it would make things easier if you could buy some resin seats/cockpit, and weapons specifically for this kit! BMer's Andrew and Eng have sent me a canopy and decals, so I now have all the bits to finish the build so no more excuses! I did not have a canopy to begin with so I was a little anxious to see if the canopy would fit properly and not foul on any of the added detail. The only area I had an issue with was the right side of the pilot's instrument coaming and the extreme front of the same part. I scraped down the inside of the windscreen a little and did the same the the problem areas around the front coaming. The coaming will need a small touch up but nothing major. I took the Matchbox canopy supplied by Andrew and sanded off the central canopy arch. Matchbox have incorrectly depicted this feature as a vertical arch whilst the reality is that it slopes rearwards. After sanding off the arch, I had the small task of polishing the canopy back to clarity. I started with 800 grit wet'n'dry and progressively worked up to 2500 grit. At that point I used tooth paste as a polishing compound (the white creamy stuff, not the coloured gel variety) until the canopy looked pretty clear. It also had a fresh minty smell Once I was happy with that, I brushed a little thinned Tamiya clear blue inside The front windscreen to depict the tinted portion of the windscreen. The next step was a buff with a nail buffing stick just before a dip into some Future floor polish. This was the end result: I gave the Future 24hrs to dry properly. This is a dry fit of the canopy now. I need to add the ejection seat initiation handles and then the canopy can be added

Thanks, I hear what you are puttin' down but I really can't be arsed applying twice, cheers, Pappy

I like to think of it as a sonic pelican. First coat of paint on.... cheers, Pappy

G'day Simon, A very nice Hunter, well done! I would not call the Matchbox Bucc accurate. It has a nice shape but as I have said, the Airfix kit is a better starting point. Don't be afraid to experiment a little. I like to try something new on each build, whether this is a new weathering technique, a new paint brand or type of camouflage scheme for example. You will never improve your skills unless you push yourself a little bit. I would suggest trying something easy to begin with, such as thinning some parts down or adding very basic detail touches like replacing kit pitot probes or ejection seat handles with stretched plastic and wire, or adding seat belts using tape. You may surprise yourself, cheers, Pappy

Great work Mick, Lovely build of a lovely subject, and great pics as well, ironic taking pics of a aircraft taking pics! cheers, Pappy

Cheers that would be awesome. I tried to register on the IPMS South Africa website, but I was blocked as the webmaster was not accepting applications from 'free' websites, bummer! I have nearly finished the ordnance, I have had a small setback with one of my Raptor glide bombs. The two bomb castings used up the last of my casting resin. It was pretty old and a bit dodgy. One of the bomb castings turned out okay, the other not so much. I think either there was not enough catalyst, the resin wasn't mixed properly or (most likely) the resin was past its use by date. The end result was that this casting was constantly weeping an oily liquid. I have stripped it back and plugged all the weep holes with CA and will sand it, prime and re-paint in the hopes of salvaging it. I have some fresh resin on its way as well. Here is the 'good' one. I added the seeker by building up a dome with 5 -minute epoxy. It still needs The yellow HE band and some stencils but is otherwise done. cheers, Pappy

G'day Deacon, That is very nice of you! I am having a ball. cheers, pappy

G'day people, I missed thus thread the first time around but the bus is back in town so here are a couple of mine: The Revell re-pop of the Matchbox Wimpy, in a maritime scheme operated by 455 SQN RAAF bird in Bone, Algeria I built the extended Leigh light and added the rockets and launchers. 455SQN sank at least one sub with them I believe The Matchbox Wimpy may not be as detailed as the Italeri/MPM/Trumpeter boxings, but I does go together extremely well and IMHO it still has THE BEST representation of fabric covered Geodetic construction of all the kits. And the Vickers Wellesley. This is one is done up as one of the three birds that set a world record flight. This particular aircraft suffered an oil line failure but made a successful emergency landing in the outback. The crew were stranded for a couple of days until a rescue party was able to trek and rescue them. The aircraft was abandoned even though it only needed an oil line, and the aircraft was later bought by the RAAF as a WWII instructional airframe after changing hands several times. It was scrapped after the war Lastly, a plug for a current Matchbox build in progress, happening over in the Buccaneer group build Linky here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=62130