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A Naval Bucc


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Thanks for that full description of painting the pit. So many layers - but it obviously does the trick. I liked the idea of spraying from an angle to leave a 'shadow', neat.

cheers

Grant

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Thanks for that full description of painting the pit. So many layers - but it obviously does the trick. I liked the idea of spraying from an angle to leave a 'shadow', neat.

cheers

Grant

I used that on my old Spit cockpit, and it does work. You still have to fill in between the panels & ribs though, but the unifying coat can then be sprayed from the direction "daylight" comes from in the finished pit.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Well I'm finally back online and have a little progress to show.

I have got the fuselage halves together, which wasn't has hard as I thought it would be. You can't join it together in a oner though that's for sure. You have to work round in sections. Gluing, fitting and allowing to dry, before moving onto the next secion. I used suprisingly little filler to get this result.

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Sanding the seams away took a lot of time and effort, which in the process destroyed the panels lines and rivet details. These were replaced using mission models scribing tool and MDC's riveting tool. Came out OK.

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The worst part of the fuselage debacle though is the exhaust cones. What a absolute nightmare!

From the top it didn't look to bad of a fit requiring only the slightest bit of filler.

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The bottoms however are a completely different story. This finish was obtained using evergreen stock and copius amounts of Milliput.

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The same can be said of the blast guards.

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Hopefully a coat of Mr Surfacer will reveal a perfect finish. But I fear not.

I have also started work on the airbrakes. Yet another joke of a fit. This one has been been fettled by using the Airwaves Airbrake set. Be warned that doesn't fit well either and needs a lot of filing and snipping to fit.

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Well thats about it so far. Not the easiest kit in the world to get together and definetly not for beginners. But I am really enjoying it none the less.

Feel free to comment.

Tonight the Heritage Intakes will be srayed up and fitted.

Nige.

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Progress is slow, but at least it's progress ;)

btw - that purple surface on the PE airbrake faces is the protective coat that stops the etchant from eating the whole thing. You should remove it with vinegar. Soak it overnight & it'll just float off in the morning. I've no idea how it paints if you don't remove it, or whether the paint lasts if it sticks ok... Best strip it ;)

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btw - that purple surface on the PE airbrake faces is the protective coat that stops the etchant from eating the whole thing. You should remove it with vinegar. Soak it overnight & it'll just float off in the morning.

Wouldn't the vinegar etch the unprotected metal? Maybe it would be safer to remove or dissolve it in lacquer thinner, MEK or isopropanol...

Nice work on your Buccaneer Nigel - that nose cries out for a pin tip just to make it really, really sharp...

Jens

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Wouldn't the vinegar etch the unprotected metal? Maybe it would be safer to remove or dissolve it in lacquer thinner, MEK or isopropanol...

Nice work on your Buccaneer Nigel - that nose cries out for a pin tip just to make it really, really sharp...

Jens

I've used vinegar myself on a sheet of Aeroclub with no harmful effects. In fact, some people suggest giving PE a dip in vinegar to microscopically "roughen up" the surface of the metal so that it accepts paint better.

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I've used vinegar myself on a sheet of Aeroclub with no harmful effects. In fact, some people suggest giving PE a dip in vinegar to microscopically "roughen up" the surface of the metal so that it accepts paint better.

Ah, yes, I've used vinegar myself to clean up old and tarnished PE sheets (before they were coated in a sort of nickel-ish metal). But, then I only soaked it for about 10-15 minutes, not overnight. That still sounds risky to me though...:)

Jens

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Looking good Nige. The fuselage gave me kittens the first time I made one back in 1994 (was it that long ago now?), its a complex shape with a lot of air floating around inside (and some of the later mouldings were abysmal), but I found that the best method was to start at the point of least flexing, i.e. the wings, then work my way around to the tail fixing it in short sections. By the time I got around to the nose the whole thing had firmed up and with that in mind my second was a easier. I also used some medium-grit foam-back sanding blocks from a DIY store, they cleaned up the seams fast but shaped themselves around the contours.

Been a while since I made one, I really should do a blog-build on a Bucc to illustrated the cheats and fixes.

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Rory you really should build yourself one of these. It definetly isn't a five minite job. Firstly you have to square up the whole in the fuselage so that you can actually get the exhaust part to fit in. This has the added bonus of leaving 2-3 mm gaps in places which need to be filled by adding evergreen stock and then sanding that back to fit. Once you have done that you will find that the profile and diameter of the exhaust doesn't match the fuselage. Thats when you fix it in the best position you can and break out the Milliput.

Oh and you have to do all that after you have dealt with all the flow lines that are in the same area, swirls and sink marks. Yes I have the ability to overcome these problems, but it can become tedious after a while.

Jonathon, you should do a piece about putting the fuselage together. I've lost count at the amount of articles I have read that state how the author got the Bucc out of the box full of good intentions. Only to put it back in when they see the state of the two fuselage halves. Any tips on the tail plane. Doesn't seem to fit well at all?

I'll give the etch a bit of a soak this afternoon to remove that film.

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Hopefully I'll get the power problem sorted with my workshop today/tomorrow/2112 so I might just do a "Bucc build" for the fuselage at the very least, show how to get around the alignment thing.

Speaking as someone who has three in the stash, I for one would be most interested in that.

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I think that is what is known as "typical British understatement."

Good grief.

Wholeheartedly agree - that pit is the Doggies Bollies...... G*d, I hope I never use that phrase again, talk about naff !

Ian

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Cheers guys.

Well I have finally fitted the Heritage Intakes. Very Straight forward and hassle free. Other than one small snag which was down to me anyway.

Here the is starboard intake only took a swipe with the old milliput to fair it all in.

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The port side was a little more trouble due to me filling an air bubble with cyno several weeks ago. Yep the glues now a lot harder than the resin so I just couldnt acheive smooth fit. No problem though. 30 seconds work with the dremel and the glues all gone leaving a nice hole ready for more Mlliput.

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And heres a shot of the compressor face. Just need to find a way the mask the compressor face off so I can shoot some white paint down there. For some bizzare reason I thought the whole intake was silver, not just the lip. :shithappens:

P6143734.jpg

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And heres a shot of the compressor face. Just need to find a way the mask the compressor face off so I can shoot some white paint down there. For some bizzare reason I thought the whole intake was silver, not just the lip. :shithappens:

Compass cutter disc of tape? Or you could use my (uninstalled) set as a template to cut a mask? :D

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I seem to remember hand painting the silver intake lips on my Buccs but then I was a braver man back then!

Hmmm seeing Nige's excellent pics I still fancy doing one of the low-viz grey Bricks as I like the challenge of weathering a single colour, albeit those Bucc were actually two-tone grey, something that gets overlooked.

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