dunloadin

Yes, the bomb bay had 6 stations you could stick a weapon on. Normal fit in my day was 4x 1,000lb bombs with slick tails (114), with a mix of stores on the wings as reqd, these fitted quite snugly in the bay. I have fitted cluster bombs in there but have never seen a jet that flew or dropped any from the bomb bay. The other two stations were for someting a bit more 'special', or a WRSL CBLS with front and rear fairings fitted in the bay to assist in them leaving the jet. An additional fuel tank could be fitted inside the bomb bay, as could be panniers for cargo/baggage and 'cakestands' for spare wheels....often fitted to jets transiting to/from dets, we even had a request from one of the aircrew to have a go at getting a windsurfer in...didn't fit. Not a crewroom myth, riggers, lekkies and sooties would occasionally have to do this, one very lucky boy narrowly missed being chopped in half. The door rotated on one axis, did not raise in. Navy jets never had the doors with the bulge, I believe the tank would not take the stress of a catapult shot and would rupture, tho I'm happy to be proven wrong on that.

Hmm, looking at where the guy on the wing is poking his screwdriver I would say that theres been a little gaffe there!

Just noticed, the top picture is a TV missile...the back end of the cable fairing is shaped squarley at the back..there would have been a bit of gubbins in there, the AR ones just had a rounded end similar to the front as seen in the other picture. Ahh, its all flooding back, good times on the Bucc!

Been a while since I looked up the site...can help you out on MARTEL, did a Q on it back in the day when I worked on Buccs. The fairing at the back of the missile is a part of the missile structure and the 5 'holes' are where the rocket motor venturies protruded from. The missile had two motors, a 'booster' and a 'sustainer', the large hole in the centre was for the larger sustainer motor venturi, the booster motor was a tubular shape with the vent to the sustainer passing through the centre, and had four smaller venturies, hence the four smaller holes. As far as I can remember they were all just inside the skin of the fairing. As for colour a lot of the training rounds fitted were the same off white colour depicted in the second picture (the pink band denoting a training round), though there may have been the odd green one kicking about. The only training rounds were of the anti-radar version, as the TV missiles were simulated by fitting a TVAT (TV Airbourne Trainer) pod. The missile at Cosford is probably one of the many drill rounds we used to use on the old generation exercises, as it would have been a bit silly loading live stuff and exposing it to the wind/snow/rain etc. hence the lack of any venturies. If memory serves me right the ends of all the venturies were protected from the elements by a thin plastic membrane that was off white in colour, which fitted perfectly into the holes in the rear fairing, but I could be wrong on that one. In my day all live rounds were the same glossy green as seen in the photo (deep bronze green), should think if they were off white they didnt stay like that for long. The AR missile had one yellow band on the warhead...similar location to the pink band seen on the training round, and a brown band where you see the blue band on the top photo, and perhaps a second brown band a bit further up by the wings. The TV missile had similar banding, and a black band just behind the yellow one (TV warhead was different). The launcher differs as well, the front of the AR launcher seen in the picture is removed and a larger bit went in its place, this housed a bottle of inert gas which flowed into the TV head via a 'frangible pillar' (yellow), basically a bit of pipe that detached when the missile fired, if the MARTEL in the museum is a TV one you'll see the position the pillar was fitted to quite easily. Been a while since I played with them, and I'm not sure if I have any pictures (doubtfull), but if anthing else crops up in my dusty old brain or if I find anything out I'll let you know.

The 960 replaced the 951/952/947 fuzes. The bombs in the Harrier kit will have the 947 (or was it the 942) which was the fuze used for airbursts, if you dont wanna use it just whittle the nose down. If the bombs in the kit have fuzing vanes as in 'spinny propellor bit' then they are probably CBU's, in which case leave them on.

Hmm, just did a quick search on the Aerodynamix Bucc, get the impression that they were sold as investments and a second mortgage will be needed. Perhaps more joy will be had if I try to do them all in 1/48th, the plan is to do them all to the same scale so dropping down a size probably makes more sense and will give more choice as I have Hunters/Buccs/Toombs and Tornados on my list. Be easier to convince the missus to give me the shelf space as well!

Hi all, I'm thinking of getting back into the hobby (the last kit I built was yonks ago) and am hoping to build a few models of stuff I've worked on over the years. There seem to be quite a few folk out there who produce some fantastic models and have a lot more info on the hobby than I do (definatley more up to date on after market stuff). So, I was wondering if any of you have details on the kits, or where I can find decals/photographs of the following subjects. I hope to find all in 1/32 scale but will consider others. Hunter F6/FGR9 - 2TWU Lossiemouth (found nothing on the net on this one) Hunter F6/FGR9/T7A 216 or 12 Sqn (found a few photos) Buccaneer S2A/S2B 216 Sqn (found a few photos) Most of the other aircraft are pretty well covered, but info on the above is very hard to find, any help at all will be greatly appreciated.

Just correcting a few things. ALL GR4's can be loaded with ALARM, the fitment on the outbord stubs is more commoner than you think, it allows the jet to still be used as a bomber. The ALARM stub pylons are not the same as the sidewinder ones, the outboards can be seen in the photos provided, unfortunatley you can't see the full shape as the Lau is in the way. The inboard ALARM stubs are bigger, shaped similar to the outboard wing pylons, have a staighter profile at the front and angle down like the winder stub, they are rarely seen fitted as the Sidewinder kit will be fitted to give the AC a bit of self defence. Any of the normal combination of stores can be fitted to the shoulder pylons, including Stormshadow, the favorite load during Telic (the Scottish Wing, not AAS) was 3x EPWII/2x ALARM/2x SW, the winders were dropped pretty quickly but the Lau's & stubs stayed on. The GR4 does not use Twin Store Carriers, never has; who knows, that may change in the future. Oh, and TAS have never loaded a jet...they are dumpies!

Troff, remember it well, guy thought he was Winston Churchill. A mutual freind was at a reunion and said both he and the SEngO of that period sat by themselves for the majority of the time...can't think why! By the way, it's good to see your around, I was the plumber you shared a house in Balmullo with. Don't know what Mavis is up to, but Gorgeous George finished his time at Lossie on XV and is now in the oil industry.