Proof of My Insanity, or 1/48 Airfix Buccaneer with S.1 Conversion

[Davec_24]

I've taken a break from building difficult kits for a while, as my modelling mojo hasn't been at its greatest in the last year or so. However, I am currently in the mood for a challenge, so I have decided to break out one of the Airfix Buccaneers I have in the stash. I have been meaning to build a Buccaneer S.1 for some time, so that end I have a set of the Heritage Aviation intakes to modify the kit's, and a vac-form canopy from Aeroclub, to save me having to sand the det-cord out. I have also got a couple of Aeroclub Martin Baker Mk.4 ejection seats in white metal, though they are fairly crude as after-market stuff goes.

As if this wasn't enough, I was never happy with the kit's cockpit, so I plan to scratch-build or at least heavily modify this area, and I will also be adding to the rather meagre detail inside the main wheel bays. I may also pose the wings folded, with the airbrake and/or bomb bay open - in all of these cases, the detail will be scratch-built rather than using after-market, so this build is going to be a bit of a project! In addition, I have no transfers for this model, so I will have to try and get the hang of printing my own, which is something I have not done before.

Hopefully, you can see why all this has finally convinced my wife that I really have lost my marbles (having spent 4 weeks just on filling and sanding the last one of these I built with just a PE set, let alone scratch-building and conversion work). Wish me luck...

[Scratcher]

Decals would be much easier to print for an all white anti-flash finish, using clear decal sheet. The white paper backing will give you an accurate idea of how they'd appear on the model.

I'll be watching this....

Edited September 16, 2012 by Scratcher

[Tim T]

As far as nuts goes, I would argue this is the full pistachio. Good luck with this. You have my complete admiration!

[Davec_24]

Cheers Tim - it might well be off to a rather slow start (while I figure out what I want to build into it and how) and then lag again with all the fit issues, but hopefully I won't stall with it too badly if I take it easy!

Scratcher, I'm leaning more towards the EDSG/white scheme, especially if I do fold the wings etc..The reason for that is that I think the S.1 in anti-flash white looks beautifully clean, and it would be a shame to mar it with any of open brakes, bomb bay, canopy and folded wings: I want to do another (maybe in 1/72) which is just clean, but this one probably won't be. Anyhow, I have some clear transfer sheet and also some white stuff. I was thinking of cutting some disks from the white stuff to match the size of the roundels, so that I can use them to back the roundels that go over the grey on the nose and wing upper surfaces (might take a couple of layers). We'll see - may end up doing her overall white yet, it would certainly be easier for painting and transfers!

[Scratcher]

Perhaps someone has spare white lettering you can use - that's the problem. White disks, rimmed with the same blue as the roundels to define the edge and marginally smaller worked for me too on dark paintwork.

[Vulcanicity]

Wish you luck? Duly done, good luck!

This promises to be a long, but rewarding project, I'll be watching!

[Giorgio N]

Going through the whole building process and scratchbuilding parts might be insane, but the choice seems to me to show a great thinking mind: IMHO the S.1 version of the buccaneer is the most interesting and best looking !

Best luck with this project !

[wadeocu]

Good luck - this may be helpful for your decal effort:

https://sites.google.com/site/rjcaviationart/decalarchive

[Davec_24]

Thanks wadeocu: I picked that up when searching for Buccy decals, and will be my first port of call when I try the home-made ones!

Giorgio, I absolutely agree that the S.1 looks nicer than the S.1, and I do love the almost 1950s vibes to them, with the nuclear role and all that.

I've stripped out the un-wanted "detail" (ribs and the likes) from the cockpit, and now need to add various panels, buttons, switches etc. along with new internal ribbing. As for cockpit references, I presume the main differences between the S.1 and S.2 are to be found in the observer's cockpit; do any of you know of any good references which I can use in the cockpit rebuild process?

[SkippyBing]

Oddly most of the differences are in the pilot's cockpit, although depending on which S2 you're talking about the differences can range from negligible to quite a lot. Give me five minutes and I'll send you a PM with some stuff I've got.

[OzH]

If it helps, I used the Aviation Workshops Ark Royal decals on my S.1 but she's in anti flash white... I took a similar path, Airfix and Heritage, a build thread here if thats of any use, didn't scartch the cockpit though... good luck with that!

[Davec_24]

OzH, I do believe I've seen your Buccaneer before, whilst previously trying to drum up motivation for this build. I've bookmarked it, as you have some good shots (between you and Skippy) of the differences I will need to mod, such as the tailhook and holdback.

Am I right in thinking that the holdback can be retracted independently of the undercarriage, i.e. I can have it posed up with the gear deployed? Is this also true for the retractable catapult spools?

[Davec_24]

Finally, an update! It's been a busy week with less modelling time than I could have hoped for, and what time I have had has been spent on scratch-detailing the cockpit, which was very time-consuming. I decided to go with the kit's cockpit tub, but with the rib detail removed and the raised panels and bumps reshaped as appropriate, and then added detail from plastic card, rod and wine bottle foil. I just have to add the stick and a few instruments which will be cut from the kit's transfer sheet once the cockpit is painted, and in some cases laid over with some plastic card panels with appropriately-sized holes, to give a bit of depth.

Here are a few pictures of the cockpit as it is at the moment. I had to make new walls for the observer's cockpit because the kit's walls follow the shape of the fuselage side where the S.2 has those fairings either side of the nose, between the intakes and the fuselage. Thanks to SkippyBing, I was able to use images from the Buccaneer S.1's pilot's notes as an invaluable reference, which means that as much as the cockpit is an "impression" rather than a totally to-scale, 100% accurate model in its own right, I've managed to put most things where they should be and give a fairly authentic look to it:

I could really do with getting a better camera for this sort of thing, but hopefully this gives a good idea of what it looks like. I'm hoping the detail will come out better with painting and washing. The ejection seats will be done later, as I've just about had my fill of cockpit detailing for now, and they don't have to go in until final assembly anyway!

[Chablar]

Lookig very nice so far. I do love a good Buccaneer. Cockpit detail is great too. Whats the quality of the kit like?

Edited September 28, 2012 by Chablar

[Davec_24]

Cheers - hoping to get the cockpit primed up today so I can see how it's looking! The kit is of medium quality (i.e. good quality for the mid '90s) on the face of it; the actual moulding itself is fairly clean and flash-free and the plastic is reasonably workable (usual softish Airfix stuff), but the detail is not what you'd expect from a modern kit, hence the scratch-detailing. Once built, the shape captures the Buccaneer better than most kits since it nails the nose profile, tail fairings and "bottle waist" fuselage, which not all kits do. It also succeeds in capturing the powerful, brooding look of a Buccaneer and represents the essence of it very well.

However, the fit is totally ridiculous, not least because the fuselage parts are warped. It's not just this particular one, they all seem to be like that and this is why this kit has such a reputation as a complete pig to build. I've dry-fitted the fuselage halves together, and they fit about as well as the S.2 I built a couple of years back. Last time, it took weeks of sanding and filling to get the thing ready for paint, so I'm not looking forward to that part...

[woody37]

Fabulous detail in the cockpit. It's going to look rather special when all painted up.

[Davec_24]

Right! Another update at last, this time with quite a bit of progress in terms of time taken, even if I still don't have anything which resembles a Buccaneer yet. I've finished the cockpit (ejection seats will be done later), with a few of the decals from the kit which were mostly used for the instruments.

On the kit, there is no attempt at representing the holdback bay, where the equipment was housed to which the holdback was attached during carrier launches, even though the kit is for the naval S.2 - presumably the Buccaneers built specifically for the RAF differed in this area and this is what Airfix based theirs upon. There are some good pictures in post #19 from OzH's build, which is serving as reference and inspiration for this one, at http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=72730.

Anyway, I decided the easiest way to do this was to replace the kit part where this detail would be with a new, scratch-built item which had the holdback and its bay built in:

I have also re-worked the arrestor hook recess to give it the correct, tapered profile with a teardrop sort of shape near the hinge. I've scratch-built a corresponding hook, using the head from the kit part with a new arm of the correct shape, with spring and link detail:

And finally, a picture to compare my modded version to the kit's original (the other one is an un-built kit from the stash, destined to be completed as an RAF S.2, so hopefully I won't have to do all of this again!). Note I have also built a new tail bumper for the sake of added detail, just using some plastic card to get the double-layer look of the original.

That's all for now - I've started work on some basic detailing to the main gear bays. The real deal is so busy that there is no way I'd ever summon the motivation to make a properly accurate version, but I'd like to put a few of the more obvious bits and pieces in there to give an impression of the real thing, as the kit's bays just look too empty!

Edited October 13, 2012 by Davec_24

[SkippyBing]

Nice work on the hook, oddly although I've never seen it mentioned in any of the books on the Bucc the RAF aircraft seemed to have had the hook extended into what was the hold back bay on the RN machines. I think this may have been due to the way airfield emergency arrestor gear was used, i.e. land and then run though it, as opposed to catching the wire onboard where the aircraft was still in a flying attitude. While I think about it, I'm not sure the spring featured on RN examples either although that may be me not noticing it. I'll dig out some pictures of an S1 tomorrow.

Don't know if you've got to it or not, but the holdback had a small fairing on it which was pretty much flush with the fuselage when closed.

[Davec_24]

Cheers Skippy! The pictures I've seen of the FAA Museum's S.1 have got the spring on the hook, I think. As for the holdback, I thought it looked a bit open on the picture from OzH's thread - I presume the fairing of which you speak should be over the "triangular" frame of the holdback gear itself?

[Norman]

Looking good !!!

[Scratcher]

Re the hook and holdback - from what I can gather, there are variations in this area. This isn't definitive but I think the Blackburn built aircraft had a hook recess conforming to the shape of the hook while the H.S. built aircraft had a straight sided hook recess. The holdback had a faired cover, so was virtually hidden when retracted, although, sometimes the cover was removed. RAF aircraft had the holdback removed and sometimes the cover too, leaving a gaping hole there! Later RAF aircraft had a chaff dispenser installed here.

The photo below is a MK1 at Highland Aviation Museum, Dalcross. Can't swear which Mk the hook was from though, although I'm not aware of any changes in hooks between MK's 1 and 2, or in RAF service. A definitve answer would be helpful.

[Davec_24]

Good pic Scratcher, thanks! I'll have a think and see whether I want the fairing on or off. I suppose I could lower the holdback and have the fairing lowered as well (it's a nice piece of detail), though I was originally going to do it retracted so as not to break up the shape of the aircraft too much.

[SkippyBing]

although I'm not aware of any changes in hooks between MK's 1 and 2, or in RAF service.

As I said, I haven't seen anything in print about a different hook in RAF service, but if you look at pictures of the tail hook on ones used by the RAF it ends in the holdback bay. If you've got the Aeroguide on it, there's a good couple of pictures on page 49 showing this, one of which has the chaff dispenser as well and there's a cut out in that for the end of the hook. Oddly they don't seem to have cut into the bulkhead between the holdback bay and the hook trough so it's angled slightly away from the fuselage and doesn't sit properly in the trough.

You can just about make it out on this photo http://www.airliners.net/photo/UK---Air/Hawker-Siddeley-Buccaneer/2146215/L/&sid=80ce9e71b9a1303d6130ec1ea64089a1

[Truro Model Builder]

Very nice work so far, Dave. I shall definitely be watching progress, and somehow I think that you will be back for more milliput very soon! By the way, did you manage to sneak the Sunderland in unseen?

[Davec_24]

Cheers Martin! I'll see how I get on with the Milliput - the kit itself has enough fit issues even without modifying the intakes, but I'll be interested to see how well the Heritage parts fit. I may indeed be back for more...

R.E. The Sunderland, I owned up to it - it's a decent amount of plastic for the money, so the wife's OK with it - plus she likes the look of the Sunderland, so with any luck that will help my case when she sees how big it is built up!

Edited October 14, 2012 by Davec_24