All your Bucc questions

[Chuck1945]

Contemplating getting the new S2B kit in 1/72 recently released by Airfix. Specifically I’ld like to do an Operation Granby Bucc. My understanding is that by then all would be fitted with MDC in the canopy; does the Airfix kit accommodate this feature?

[Melonfish]

A few quick questions if I may?
I've ordered the S.2C bucc from airfix (she looks a beaut) and a fair few resin extras for her, my plan is to build a circa 75/76 fuel bird.

the plan is to run one slipper tank, a buddy pod, and a single Aim9.

 

What i'm missing so far is the correct Pylon mounts for the Aim-9B (early pylons in the C kit, which hilariously the B kit has the later universal mount...) and the Mk 20 refuel pod.

Freightdog have this pod in 1/72 but it's out of stock, is there anywhere I can get another or am I stuck waiting on FD? - could I scratch one from a bomb/missile?

Apart from the RAF strengthening points i need to shave off, and the flare launchers, is there anything else I should consider on this bird? I'm short on reference material atm (working on it, page 4 has been super for this)
Rather excited as this is my first real plane kit in about 15 years.

thanks
Pete

[Phone Phixer]

I've done a very quick search around. no one seems to have any pods in at the moment. Looks like you will have to wait for Freightdog. Or keep checking somewhere like evilbay, if one pops up.

 

The Buccaneer S2C was the Navy equivalent of the RAF S2A, it had the earlier "pre-martel" pylons. The longer "universal pylons" were on the S2D (Navy) and S2B (RAF). AIM-9 Sidewinders were only carried on S2D/B's.

For the AIM-9B Sidewinder, you would need to source an Aero 3B launcher, instead of the Lau-7a that was used for the AIM-9G/L's. That is if you wanted to be totally accurate, but who would tell!

 

Rob.

[David H]

2 Questions for the Buccaneer Hive Mind:

 

1) Where exactly does the "Slot" for the Buccaneer canopy track centerline guide begin and end? Was there some sort of rubber seal originally installed to keep moisture out? It's not depicted on the new 72nd Airfix kit, and i'm gonna try to fake it with black paint. Photos reveal some information as to where it ends in the rear, but where it starts in the front is a mystery. My canopy will be slid back.

 

2) Have there been any newer resin ejection seats to come along since the Neomega ones in 72 scale? I have haven't primed em yet but to my eye they look a little rough.

 

thanks,

 

david

[Navy Bird]

19 hours ago, David H said:

2) Have there been any newer resin ejection seats to come along since the Neomega ones in 72 scale? I have haven't primed em yet but to my eye they look a little rough.

 

CMK make an entire resin cockpit for the Airfix kit that includes the seats. That's about all I could find that's readily available. CMK also make a Mk.6 seat by itself, but it's labelled for a Super Mystere. I don't know if that's the same or not.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[lacko75]

Hello!

Is it real?Folded wings with LGB Mk.13/18?The folding mechanism was strong enough?

I not find original photo on internet.

Greatings from Hungary.

Edited December 22, 2021 by lacko75

[exdraken]

This one maybe:

https://www.militaryimages.net/media/buccaneer-gulf-1-1991.16288/full?d=1521491153

[DougC]

That's a Sidewinder on the port wing of the photo of the real aircraft, so considerably lighter than the Paveway LGB fitted to the model. 

[ChocolateCrisps]

Page 253 (of the overall document) of the Pilot's Notes for the Naval Buccaneer says that folding is possible for any of the loads that can be put on the outboard pylons, and IIRC the mechanism was further strengthened and increased in power for the RAF version of the aircraft.

[lacko75]

Thank You for all helps!

Merry Christmas!

[klubman01]

On 09/03/2021 at 22:21, David H said:

 

1) Where exactly does the "Slot" for the Buccaneer canopy track centerline guide begin and end? Was there some sort of rubber seal originally installed to keep moisture out? It's not depicted on the new 72nd Airfix kit, and i'm gonna try to fake it with black paint. Photos reveal some information as to where it ends in the rear, but where it starts in the front is a mystery. My canopy will be slid back.

 

 

The canopy track starts a short distance behind the forward edge of the spine.  There is a picture on page 22 of Aeroguide 5 which shows this fairly clearly.  I would guesstimate the distance as about 6 inches.  The slot then extends back as far as the canopy can open, i.e. the distance between the rear of the screen and the front of the canopy when it is fully open.

Trevor

[David H]

Thanks Trevor.

[canberra kid]

On 3/9/2021 at 10:21 PM, David H said:

2 Questions for the Buccaneer Hive Mind:

 

1) Where exactly does the "Slot" for the Buccaneer canopy track centerline guide begin and end? Was there some sort of rubber seal originally installed to keep moisture out? It's not depicted on the new 72nd Airfix kit, and i'm gonna try to fake it with black paint. Photos reveal some information as to where it ends in the rear, but where it starts in the front is a mystery. My canopy will be slid back.

 

2) Have there been any newer resin ejection seats to come along since the Neomega ones in 72 scale? I have haven't primed em yet but to my eye they look a little rough.

 

thanks,

 

david

Some Bucc canopy bits and bobs 

John

[Hook]

1 minute ago, canberra kid said:

Bucc canopy bits and bobs

Great stuff!

[David H]

The compromise solution arrived at was to mask and paint a narrow, flat black stripe down the centerline.

It won a second at the IPMS Nationals, so clearly it was good enough.

-d-

[BikingLampy]

A question for the afficionados.

 

I'm nearly finished with the new tool Airfix 1/72 S.2C, built as XV154 on Ark Royal.

 

Looking at pics (inc my own from Bruntingthorpe) - all the preserved ones have the twin blade antennae in front of the nose landing gear painted yellow (presumably to stop banana-wranglers from scalping themselves). However looking at the "in service" pics I can find on line, it looks like this is a later change and the aerials were painted as the rest of the aircraft - but it's difficult to tell as mostly the shots are from further away of general carrier action with the relevant area in shadow or in B&W, not highly detailed close-ups to appease 21st century modellers.🙄

 

Thing is - now having noticed the yellow, its quite obvious, I can't unsee it, so if it is a thing in period (and it's just Airfix being lazy with the colour callouts), I'll dig out the paint...

 

Any advice?

 

Thanks!

 

BL

[71chally]

In Navy service the aerials seem to be mainly in the airframe colour of extra dark sea grey.  Should add that when the Buccs had white undersides the aerials were white with a marking stripe on them.

However there did seem to be the odd variation which look to be an off white to me, which I assume is the natural colour of the aerial before being painted.

 

I think the yellow paint is a later RAF thing, but could be wrong.

 

This is worth a watch for spotting aerials!

 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2022 by 71chally
added second sentence

[klubman01]

The twin blade antennae were yellow on RAF aircraft - well, certainly the S2A's of 237 OCU.  Remember, the Bruntingthorpe aircraft were in RAF service, even if they've been repainted as FAA machines.  Also worth noting are the carrier landing lights just ahead of the blade antennae.  Some of the OCU aircraft still had them fitted after they had been transferred from the FAA to the RAF.  I suspect that "new build" S2B's did not have these lights.

Trevor

[BikingLampy]

Thanks both. That seems pretty clear to ignore the yellow. I did think it may be an army thing...

 

Cheers

 

BL

[BuNo02100]

Have two of the New tool Airfix 1/72 S2Cs in the que, one to get a feel for the kit and problem areas as an out of the box build and a second to build with some aftermarket.  I have seen the cockpit from CMK and it looks pretty good.  I also see that they have some ejection seats sold separately but they don’t quite look correct.  Has anyone used the CMK seats and willing to weigh in on their accuracy?

 

BW

[Phone Phixer]

4 hours ago, BuNo02100 said:

Have two of the New tool Airfix 1/72 S2Cs in the que, one to get a feel for the kit and problem areas as an out of the box build and a second to build with some aftermarket.  I have seen the cockpit from CMK and it looks pretty good.  I also see that they have some ejection seats sold separately but they don’t quite look correct.  Has anyone used the CMK seats and willing to weigh in on their accuracy?

 

BW

I have not used the CMK seats or cockpit, but just looked at their website.

It depends on what era you are building the Buccaneer to represent. The CMK cockpit set has the correct Mk 4 seats for an S2C pre 1972. After 1972 the seats need to be Mk 6's. CMK have those very wrong.

Better MB Mk6 seats are produced by Neomega. https://www.neomega-resin.com/mkvi-243-p.asp

 

Neomega also do a Buccaneer cockpit set, but it's really for an RAF S2B. They also have a note saying it will not fit in the new Airfix kit.

 

Hope that helps.

Rob.

[destraudo]

Hi, i took some photos of a buccaneer and was wondering if someone could explain something. 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1v0i7zene2qcgmm/IMG_20220318_132755.jpg?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7it53v2m1bch84z/IMG_20220318_150933_1.jpg?dl=0

 

The upward facing wing surfaces (in the folded position), and the downward facing surfaces  have very different surface characteristics, and i was hoping an expert could chime in as to why.

 

The upward surface (what would originally have been underside ) has generally a generally consistent tone  and roughness value

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fa56ai9kbj75xzm/IMG_20220318_151411.jpg?dl=0

 

though fuselage seems glossier.  

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zqvagmrfi8xvkpb/IMG_20220318_142211.jpg?dl=0

 

 

The downward facing surface is what i am really interested in, what exactly am i seeing here. 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kyw4op0mr5x3hhm/IMG_20220318_141757.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wqy0p9jyhgh3m8b/IMG_20220318_141528.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uc7hgibw10vowde/IMG_20220318_151628.jpg?dl=0

 

 

Not sure it translates, but i could see a roundel murkily through it. the pattern of light and dark almost looks structural .

Is it possible that 30 years of wind and storms (which vertical wings are fully exposed to unlike fuselage)  could abrade the paint to show previous camo pattern that i see elsewhere in this thread? And it's only really visible on what would be the wing topside because the underside colour . Is this effect bleed through of previous camo via other means? 

 

I would really like to understand what i am seeing here to find out whether it is appropriate to use on a unrelated 3d project. 

 

 

 

[klubman01]

I very much doubt that extreme weather has stripped the surface of the wings.  It's either been overpainted, or the paint has been partially stripped during maintenance, or similar.  Judging by the bulged profile in the nose area, I suspect that the airframe is XX987 which was modified to test Tornado avionics, etc.  which had grey upper surfaces and white lower surfaces.  This might explain the colour variations.

Trevor

[destraudo]

It was indeed used for testing tornado avionics, and prior to that apparently was involved in the Falklands and gulf  briefly or so i was told by staff. They didn't have an explanation for  the wing paint situation, the paint work has not been touched / no repairs have been carried out on it since they got it a decade ago.   you can see more about it here. https://shannonaviationmuseum.com/shannon-aviation-museum-collection/blackburn-buccaneer-xx-897/  

Edited March 20, 2022 by destraudo
typo

[destraudo]

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/keyword/xx897 

 

Found pictures of it from before it transferred to shannon. It is actually really sad how badly keeping it outdoors has degraded it in ten years. 

 

I will note that while the pattern i spotted is not present, there is definitely a completely different textural quality to top surface of wing in these images that seems to follow panel boundaries. I think you hit nail on the head about it being stripped, but by previous museum maybe and it was abandoned when it was sold to shannon.