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1:72 Scale Resin Blackburn Buccaneer S.Mk.1


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Hi Bill,

I think your 'Leaning' would be the right way to go.......if a bit fiddly!

I'll have to go digging in my books, I'm sure I've seen a photo of a early cockpit.

I'll report back if I find anything that may be of use......I hope!

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Certainly the S2 cockpit that we have in the museum has a dark grey interior. I would imagine the S1 to be either that, or more likely knowing British jets of the era, black.

Ian, you are correct in that Laarbruch had II(AC)Sqn (Jags) and 15Sqn (Buccs) but it also had 'The Saints' (16 Sqn) with Buccs too.

The grounding was as a result of the accident at Red Flag on 7 Feb 1980 where part of the outer wing detached during a high G turn as the result of fatigue cracks in the spar.

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Ian, you are correct in that Laarbruch had II(AC)Sqn (Jags) and 15Sqn (Buccs) but it also had 'The Saints' (16 Sqn) with Buccs too.

Ms Ascoteer that one sentence identified you as aircrew!! To ground crew 16 were always "The Twig Pickers"!

Edited by wasacop
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Thanks for the encouragement! One of the unavoidable tasks of making a resin model is the removal of the parts from their casting (or pour) blocks. This is something that should not be rushed - a slip of the razor saw or sanding stick and the part can be irreparably damaged. Let's see what we have to start with, first the fuselage halves:

 

IMG_0580

 

The first thing to notice is that almost all of the cleanup is on the port side of the fuselage (the two inner edges in this photo). What do we have? Four big square "gates" and a lot of extra resin and flash. Especially note the wing fold areas on the top fuselage (the one on the right of the photo). The starboard side shows all of the nice detail of the wing joint - the port side, however, is completely covered with resin and it has to be removed. Yikes! Honestly though, this is easier than it looks and requires careful work with the sanding sticks (no razor saws here, please!).

 

Resin sands away much faster than styrene plastic, so it's important to stop and check your work often. And I mean often, like every few seconds, always test-fitting against the mating part. The trick to preparing this particular wing fold area is to sand away the extra resin until it is very thin. You can monitor this by holding it up to the light and judging its transparency. As it gets thinner, it will be more transparent. Also note the shape of the area being sanded, in this case it's an airfoil shape - not a straight edge. Here is where we're starting:

 

IMG_0581

 

That lip of resin at the bottom has to go, so it looks like the one on the other side:

 

IMG_0582

 

As we continue to sand this area, the resin will eventually become paper thin. Make sure to keep that airfoil cross section, too. Now we switch to a finer grade of sanding stick and an amazing thing will happen - the paper thin resin will simply disappear. If it disappears all at once, you'll know that you've also maintained the cross-section. Here is how I ended up:

 

IMG_0583

 

It matches the other fuselage nicely. By the way, what looks like a crack in the resin in the port intake area is not - it's simply cast that way. It's a defect in the mould and will most likely need to be filled (I'm not sure the intake would cover the entire defect).

 

Some resin kits have a fuselage join line that is nice and straight. That makes it easy to clean up the surfaces, much like cleaning up the surfaces on vacuform kits. No dice here though, the joining surfaces are at different heights and must be tackled individually. My only advice here is to make sure that you are constantly test-fitting as you clean up the edges. It seems like there is an amount equal to what we saw on the wing join that needs to be removed on the remaining port side surfaces. Sanding sticks in hand, off we go! Here is the result:

 

IMG_0587

 

I can't tell you how many times I've test-fitted this as I was sanding. Hundreds, probably. The end result, though, is that it will fit together pretty well. Not like a Tamiya injected kit, but resin kits rarely do. The port side lower wing fold area still looks a little nasty, but the fit is good. I probably won't clean it up any more, as you won't be able to see it.

 

One area that will need some filler for sure is the fuselage join just after of the exhausts, in the area often left unpainted due to heat from the jets. This is true even on the starboard side where no real cleanup was required.

 

Time for the cockpit, and now we can get out the razor saw. It would take forever to sand down the resin block that the pit is setting on! After the cut is made, and the surfaces cleaned up we have this:

 

IMG_0585

 

IMG_0584

 

Lots of nice crisp detail. I think I'm going to go with the Dark Admiralty Grey - what few photos I could find of the S.1 cockpit kinda sorta look that way. But before I actually fire up the compressor, I'll have another look around.

 

Cheers,

Bill

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IMG_0585.jpg

IMG_0584.jpg

Lots of nice crisp detail. I think I'm going to go with the Dark Admiralty Grey - what few photos I could find of the S.1 cockpit kinda sorta look that way. But before I actually fire up the compressor, I'll have another look around.

Cheers,

Bill

That rear cockpit looks as if it has a TV-Martel TV Screen.

I wasn't aware that the S1 was armed with such?

Yup looks as if it does. The S.1 I poked around at in the Highland Aviation Museum beside Inverness airport certainly had a screen in that position. Think I have a few crappy phone-camera photos if they'd be of any interest to you?

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Look forward to seeing this Bill.

By the way I photographed the S.1 at Newark Air museum a few years ago and have some detail shots including the cockpit.

If they will be of use I will upload them to the web for you.

Regards,

Mark

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On 8/14/2016 at 17:33, Col. said:

Yup looks as if it does. The S.1 I poked around at in the Highland Aviation Museum beside Inverness airport certainly had a screen in that position. Think I have a few crappy phone-camera photos if they'd be of any interest to you?

On 8/14/2016 at 18:08, FZ6 said:

By the way I photographed the S.1 at Newark Air museum a few years ago and have some detail shots including the cockpit.

If they will be of use I will upload them to the web for you.

 

Thanks, mates, any photos of S.1 cockpits would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Cheers,

Bill

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I think the Martel missiles were only carried by S.2B and later. If I recall when I built the S.2, there was a change in pylon position to allow the missile to be carried, and this caused the removal of one of the vortex generators on each wing.

 

Here is a photo from the Buccaneer S.1 Pilot's Notes showing the Observer's Cockpit, Forward View:

 

S1 Observer's Cockpit

 

I have to say that this matches both the resin and the photoetch quite well. Item number 5 is listed as the Blue Parrot display, and the photoetch piece that goes onto that area of the resin looks just like this photo. Item number 12 is labelled Blue Jacket, and again the photoetch looks similar, although not exact. I've heard of the Blue Parrot radar system, but not Blue Jacket. Related?

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Superb reduction Bill, that is a handy pointer! I've always gone about removing resin plugs etc with more of a coarse not subtle approach. You'd think with all the resin I've snuffled through I would have caught on by now? Nope. I had to read this to get the idea finally.

I do love the sweet, cloying smell of freshly sanded PUR however...

Great work, as per usual.

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Here you go for the cockpit photos Bill. Excuse the quality;

20150607_143903.jpg

20150607_143850.jpg

20150607_143843.jpg

20150607_143835.jpg

As you can see they are all from one side only as I was unable to access the other side of the aircraft at sufficient height to take the right side.

Here's one more from the rear of the front cockpit if it's any use;

20150607_143915.jpg

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Thanks, Col.! :):):)

 

I took the liberty of cleaning those photos up a bit so they're not so foggy. You're supposed to open the canopy first! Here they are in case you might find them of use.

 

20150607_143903

 

20150607_143850 (1)

 

20150607_143843

 

20150607_143835

 

20150607_143915

 

Cheers,

Bill

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I go away for a couple of days and then come back to find this sneaked in unnoticed! Another that I shall follow with interest. Always fancied getting one of these but the $$$ put me off a bit. I did venture towards a CMK Wyvern as that was the cheapest they did and I wanted to check to see if it was within my realms of possibility. It was a lovely kit that even I could produce a reasonable standard from. So have been hankering for a Bucc since then. Looking forward to seeing this come together it looks like a wonderful kit, although I read elsewhere (can't remember where) about the fuselage moldings and where the tab joins around the wings so just be wary around there (looks like you've done a decent job on it so far!).

Bob

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One goes out a few days in the mountains, and in no time there's a three pages thread of another great Navy Bird's build! Alright, I'm catching up :popcorn::beer:

Ciao

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Does anyone know whether these vents (shown here on the top of the S.2 intakes) are on the S.1? The smaller hole is one thumb wide, the larger holes are two fingers wide.

 

 

0032

 

0033

 

I don't see them in any photos I have of the S.1, and since the S.2 had different engines that necessitated different intakes, there is no real reason to expect these vents to be on the S.1. But I gotta ask, eh?

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Here you go Bill :)

20150607_144045.jpg

20150607_144103.jpg

I've a few more of the fuselage and wing fold from this machine that I'll get organised for you shortly.

Edited by Col.
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