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Good day to you all This is my latest impression of one of Her Majesties Fleet Air Arm not so great aircraft. Rejected by the Air Force so the Navy made do and it performed as well as it could but it was Too Big, Too Slow and Too Late! This is the 1:48 Special Hobby kit. It is a nice kit with some fine details, the only over size area was the fuel tanks behind the cockpit. It went together quite well but the wings do need alot of care and attention. Another pain was the engine, an exquisite rendition but to fit the engine to the exhaust ring was a right pain in the butt and caused quite a bit on chuntering and grumbling! Persevering it came out ok. The only problem I really had was when it came to painting. With the engine off there is a nice hole in the front to push a rod into so it can be held on that. However when I took it off again there was a rattle inside. On closer inspection I had shoved the rod up thropugh the cockpit and knocked off the instrument panel! With a bit of careful cutting and jiggery pokery I got the bugger back in but it was a little at times! Painted in Model Master acrylics, the sky was mixed approximately 2:1 with light sea grey to try and get that early sky grey colour. The camouflage was RLM 70 and 71 lightened about 1:1 with white. I think it came out ok and am pleased with the results. I think there has been a bit of criticism about MM RLM 70 and 71 but I find they are not too far off Fleet Air Arm colours! The underside was interior black and white. I did try a bit of preshading but i think i lost the effect. I shall try again though.I did a panel wash with my own mix from soft pastels and then used those for the exhaust staining. Decals from kit and a touch of rigging with elastic thread. Now for the fotos, I started off then as I uploaded I saw I had forgot the front canopy! so then went back and reshot but I have included some of the originals. All in all I like her. And her she is next to her new stable mate Next up is a Fulmar from MPM but due to lack of space I had to chop the wings up, I can feel myself going a little Cheers now Bob

Blackburn B-101 Beverley, pics thanks to Steve (Britjet) XH124 was on display at the RAF Museum London, Hendon, was scrapped in 1989. XB259 Was at now closed, Museum of Army Transport that was in Beverley, Yorks. Now on display at Fort Paull, Hull, in England.

Blackburn Buccaneer XX894. Preserved in taxiable condition by The Buccaneer Aviation Group based at Bruntingthorpe. Even though delivered to the RAF in 1975 the aircraft has been restored in Fleet Air Arm colours. Pics thanks to Alan Brown

Hi mates, I've decided to take a bit of a breather from my PB4Y-1 project. I've been working on that for three months or so, and I need to refresh my modelling mojo with a smaller project. Something to clear my mind so to speak. So I figured I would take up this nice little 1:72 scale kit of the Blackburn Skua by Special Hobby. The rules say I need to have an obligatory shot of all the stuff: Not much to it, as you can see, so this shouldn't be a long project. The kit includes a small PE fret with goodies for the cockpit, engine, landing gear, machine gun, rudder pedals, and bomb (or is it torpedo?) rack. In addition, nicely moulded resin parts are provided for the engine, tyres, and exhaust collectors. Panel line detail is recessed, but maybe a bit on the light side. Hopefully it doesn't disappear. As you can see, the marking schemes are for silver birds from 1939, both 803 and 800 Squadron from the Ark Royal. I'll do the 803 Squadron leader's mount, L2887/A7F, as it's a bit more colourful than the others. Did this plane participate in the downing of the Do 18 flying boat in September 1939? First is the cockpit, and as is typical with these short run kits it wasn't immediately obvious from the instructions how everything fits together. There are very few pegs and holes in this kit, so butt joints are common, even with the cockpit floor panels. But do the bulkheads mount on top of the floor panel, or to the end? It's shown one way in one illustration, and the other way elsewhere. However it goes together, the bulkheads need to be positioned where the small cutouts in the horizontal ribbing are: What looks like a huge ejector pin (which it probably is) will help locate the cockpit floor, but will be hidden by the fuel tanks. I decided to start by gluing the forward bulkhead in place (there are raised bosses to align it against) and then work my way aft, gluing each piece to the sidewall, one at a time, rather than trying to assemble the entire cockpit at once and then attaching it. This method seemed to work, as the bulkheads lined up to the small cutouts and it became obvious how they attached to the floor. Next up is a nice coat of British cockpit grey-green, or whatever it's called. I grabbed my handy jar of Model Master RAF Interior Green and found it had turned into, well, rubber by the looks of it. And no amount of Testors thinner would reduce it back into a liquid. No problem, stop by the LHS on the way home from work and pick up another bottle. Nope, sorry, there's been a run on that colour as it seems like everyone is building a Skua this week (which is really quite odd over here in Rochester New York). I decided to mix my own home brew, matching the Model Master paint. I used Gunze paints and the final mix consisted of H41 Pale Green, H48 Field Grey 1, H312 Green FS34227, and H322 Phthalo Cyanine Blue. Testing this against an old Revell Hurricane cockpit that was painted with the Model Master colour showed a really good match. The cockpit was then sprayed: With the vagaries of PC monitors, digital cameras, and the lighting in my photo booth, the photos are not an accurate rendition of the colour, which has more grey to it in real life. But it's gloss (the Gunze paints used to create it are all gloss) so this will take a wash without having to apply a separate shiny coat on top. Being generally lazy, I like being able to delete a step! Well, that's the start. Dry fitting things together shows no really problems (unlike some short run kits) so I'm pleased so far. The canopy even sits down over the pilot's roll-over frame/headrest, and I've read on-line that some folks had trouble with that. I'll keep my fingers crossed for the rest of the build! A Skua! Woo hoo! Cheers, Bill PS. To deepen the insanity, there's a Roc and Defiant lurking near the top of the stash! Yikes!

Was up delivering at the "buccaneer " service station today and the blackburn buccaneer is still there a bit faded but in great nick . So it was a nice day so grabbed some picts dont know if any use to anyone ?? think its went to the top of my list ,

Hi guys, New year new kit... almost. I have wanted this kit for a long time, in fact I've wanted a large scale Buccaneer for years. I've decided to make a go of it along side my other 'large' kits, The Hudson, Il-76/82VKP etc so it gives me a huge variation in what I'm doing. Huge thanks to Andy and Stuart for this kit, it's brilliant and it's going to give me hours (years) of fun! I won't bore you with everything you get in the box, as no doubt you've seen it on Andys brilliant thread. If you do want to see, check out my Flickr here! Here it is placed on my kitchen floor against the tape measure Resin 1/24th scale Buccaneer by Totallyrad.co.uk, on Flickr Resin 1/24th scale Buccaneer by Totallyrad.co.uk, on Flickr I'm starting off with the seats, Resin 1/24th scale Martin Baker Mk.6MSB Ejection Seat by Totallyrad.co.uk, on Flickr Resin 1/24th scale Martin Baker Mk.6MSB Ejection Seat by Totallyrad.co.uk, on Flickr Resin 1/24th scale Martin Baker Mk.6MSB Ejection Seat by Totallyrad.co.uk, on Flickr Photos vary now with the light as I was kindly donated some lights from a photographer friend who was going to put them in the bin!! (still getting used to them to) Resin 1/24th scale Martin Baker Mk.6MSB Ejection Seat by Totallyrad.co.uk, on Flickr Rear has had the resin ground away for an insert to neaten things up. Resin 1/24th scale Martin Baker Mk.6MSB Ejection Seat by Totallyrad.co.uk, on Flickr Resin 1/24th scale Martin Baker Mk.6MSB Ejection Seat by Totallyrad.co.uk, on Flickr It'll be trimmed to fit properly too, it's just pushed in at the moment. Resin 1/24th scale Martin Baker Mk.6MSB Ejection Seat by Totallyrad.co.uk, on Flickr Thanks for looking in..

Pics from Graham James from Old Warden, this is the last B-2 left.

Good afternoon colleagues. One of my early operations. But the model is seldom built by modellers. Therefore decided to show. Blackburn "Shark" II K5609 №684, the 821Squadron, aircraft carrier HMS "Courageous" 1936.