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All your Bucc questions


Don H.

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Sort of makes sense, then.  Not sure that it ever saw squadron service (certainly not during the Falklands conflict).  My information is that it was delivered directly to RAE Bedford in1976, and remained there for the rest of its active life until sold to Bournemouth museum. 

Trevor

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On 3/20/2022 at 8:12 PM, destraudo said:

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.   

 

I'm delving back into the mists of memory here.

The Shannon website mentions that the Bucc came from Bournmourth/Hurn airport.

IIRC it was owned by the owner of an airline which used to operate from there, and had their a/c serviced there (including BAC-111s) The Bucc was partially repainted in the colours of the airline - hence the striped on the tail. I can't remember the airline despite the fact I once flew on one of the BAC-111s.

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Thanks so much Dave, i saw other markings on panels that seemed pretty intuitive, like for tie downs and lifting, but this one stumped me and i didnt know the magic words to google.

 

Iainpeden , yeah you will be able to see in the photos that the red paint in particular seems extremely prone to complete separation from coats beneath.  

 

 

I actually took an absolute shed load of images of the plane for work, as i wanted super close up images if aircraft wear and tear. A few are blurry, and almost all are at extreme close distance to point you might not know what part of aircraft you are looking at, but if anyone is interested i will leave folder in my dropbox for a few weeks.      It's a few gigs tho so keep that in mind. XD  

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l5jyarezrrae3pt/buckaneer.7z?dl=0

I passed the link for the folder on to the person who accepts photos for use here, but i don't think they saw message yet. so i can always reupload if they need them. 

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  • 7 months later...

I'm sure the answer to this is posted somewhere already, but I couldn't find it...

 

I just got the new (2022) Airfix 1/48 Blackburn Buccaneer kit, and I note that they identify Option 4 as having bombs loaded in the bomb bay, and (I presume) that the bay is left open.  The question is, if there were weapons in the bomb bay, did the Buccaneer fly such missions with the bomb bay open for the entire flight, that is open during takeoff, flight and landing, or did Airfix just include an option to display an open bomb bay?  I've seen at least one picture that shows the bomb bay open with the landing gear retracted, which leads me to believe that an open bay was a mission alternative.  Certainly, an open bomb bay, either with or without ordnance, would result in significant drag, but I haven no knowledge of how the Buccaneer was flown.  Thanks for any help.

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3 hours ago, Hook said:

The bomb door could indeed be closed for flight, rotating to the open position for weapons delivery.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

Andre, thank you, sir, for what I THOUGHT had to be the answer, but I wanted to be sure!  Still deciding if I want to build mine with the bomb bay open or closed!  I appreciate the quick reply!

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Leading edge paint question - does anyone have a recommendation for painting the bare metal leading edges of the inlets/ wing/ tailplane?

 

Second paint question - the wings have a narrow strip of primer just ahead of the flaperons, but I can't find a colour reference for the primer - any suggestions?

 

 

Many thanks,

 

 

Paul

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Paul - I find it easier to paint the overall colors and then mask off the areas to be painted metal.  I like a dull aluminum for this.  In the old days Floquil Old Silver would be my choice but now I use whatever "not too shiny" aluminum paint I have handy.  That strip on the wing is actually provided on the decal sheet; it is yellow. - Jack

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On 3/27/2022 at 10:01 AM, destraudo said:

 

I noticed this symbol in a number of places on the aircraft. Does anyone know what it means?

https://imgur.com/a/f6PRpQ6

I thought I knew, but I did a Google search for "USAF aircraft stencil markings" and this is what I found:

 

https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/89757/what-is-the-meaning-of-these-stencils-usually-found-on-military-planes

"The sine wave sign indicates an access panel for electronics."

This is also quite useful:

https://scottbouch.com/English-Electric-Lightning-technical-resource.html

Go down to here: General Cold War RAF aircraft servicing and safety symbols

 

Larry

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On 3/13/2022 at 12:47 PM, 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 used the CMK seats...

IMG_3535

 These were the separate, stand-alone seats and not the ones which come in the comprehensive CMK Cockpit set...

IMG_3533

The pictures you see here are the seat as it appears, directly from the box. Since i built Buccaneer number 1, i now realize that some of the belts should be that blue colour that resembles3M painter's tape...

IMG_3532

Now, *HERE* is what the CMK seats look like, after the canopy breaker blades and ejection handles from Eduard have been added...

Seat 001 Seat 002 Seats 008

Now, having compared the CMK seats to the Airfix ones, the Airfix seats have the more prominent side plates to keep the pilots thighs closer inboard, but the seat is kind of thick and clunky and the canopy breaker blades are way too thick. The thigh guards are buried towards the bottom of the seats, whereas the breaker blades and ejection handles are very prominent. I consider the slight omissions of the CMK seat an acceptable tradeoff, as long as the Eduard canopy breaker blades and ejection handles are added.

-d-

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On 12/9/2022 at 11:11 AM, David H said:

 I consider the slight omissions of the CMK seat an acceptable tradeoff, as long as the Eduard canopy breaker blades and ejection handles are added.

I agree David; I have used the same combination.  I really think that the CMK seats are designed to incorporate the Eduard bits.  They fit perfectly and the omission by CMK seems otherwise inexplicable.  They look very nice with the addition of the Eduard parts. - Jack

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  • 2 weeks later...

Regarding Bucc serial numbers, anyone know if any XN or XT registered ones served with XV Sqn at Laarbruch, or were they all in the later XW and XX range?
 

Ideally the specific time frame I’m looking at for a future build would be when RAFG Buccs had light grey undersides but red/blue roundels (mid 70s?).

 

All the photos I’ve found so far show XW or XX serials on Germany-based ones.

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It doesn't look like they ever did. The initial delivery was XW526 through to XW534.

spacer.png

 

It looks like they kept with the newer airframes.

 

List of all the Buccaneer serial numbers. The links to the pictures may not work anymore.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140310173528fw_/http://www.blackburn-buccaneer.co.uk/Buccaneer_Index.html

 

I can't see any of the XT or XN serials as 15 or 16 Sqn allocation.

 

Rob.

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  • 8 months later...

To keep the ball rolling as it were and only haveing skimmed over all the previous information that I can see, some is lost unfortunatly, can anyone tell me exactly what loadouts there were for the RAF 2.B's when used in the anti shipping role?

 

Gondor

 

EDIT: I realised that the only thing I had not looked at was the very comprehensive CMR Buccaneer S.2 kit which I have. That answered my question :wall:

Edited by Gondor44
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Hi, I recently started working on a project about the Buccaneer and one brick wall I've kept running into was armaments. No matter where I looked I couldn't really find too terribly much about any weapons that the Bucc had besides the vague "unguided bombs & rockets" and the Martel & Sea Eagle. If anyone could help me with this that would be greatly appreciated, I'm looking for more or so weapons that it would have used later in its service life like around the late 70's to early 90's.

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It depends on what squadron and role you are looking for.

Maritime strike in your time period was Martel, both TV guided and anti-radar versions. Then in the mid 80's Sea Eagle was introduced, primarily on 208 sqn.

Overland was the RAFG sqns and 208 until their move to Lossie. Usual load was 4x1000lb bombs in the bomb bay. The wings had slipper tanks and an AN/ALQ101 ECM pod. The RAFG sqns did get the Sidewinder AIM-9B. 208 had an LGB role, so could have a Pavespike pod and 1000lb Paveway II bombs.

All airframes after the mid 80"s avionic update could carry the Sidewinder AIM-9G or L.

Then of course there was the nuclear strike role, which would have WE177 weapons in the bomb bay.

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15 minutes ago, cardiff guy said:

I have seen pics of Bucc's carrying 4 sea eagles but two on the inboard pylons with a dash 10 pod and a sidewinder seems a more realistic fit. Has anyone seen a photo or can verify this fit ?

 

When I was on a Buccaneer weapon load team. the Bucc would carry 4 Sea Eagle missiles on ship killing missions, the ECM pod and Sidewinder missile were used as self defence when on strike missions using WE177 weapons.  Any photos of Buccaneer squadron aircraft carrying Sea Eagles show only drill missiles, the real ones were kept for war use only.

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On 9/22/2023 at 2:31 PM, Phone Phixer said:

It depends on what squadron and role you are looking for.

 

I'm really just looking for anything and everything that the Bucc used, regarding roles I’m looking towards more cas and interdiction than anything else but any info is useful to me. Thank you for the info

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On 24/09/2023 at 02:33, The Clown said:

I'm really just looking for anything and everything that the Bucc used, regarding roles I’m looking towards more cas and interdiction than anything else but any info is useful to me. Thank you for the info

 

This is where the lost and much missed Blackburn Buccaneer website (http://www.blackburn-buccaneer.co.uk/)  would be invaluable - it had a page that listed many external stores combinations for the Buccaneer. Some of it is preserved in the Internet Archive, but I haven't yet found a snapshot that includes that page. Might be worth a look, but be prepared to be frustrated/disappointed by the info that is missing

https://web.archive.org/web/20171001000000*/http://www.blackburn-buccaneer.co.uk/

Edited by Dave Fleming
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6 hours ago, Dave Fleming said:

 

This is where the lost and much missed Blackburn Buccaneer website (http://www.blackburn-buccaneer.co.uk/)  would be invaluable - it had a page that listed many external stores combinations for the Buccaneer. 

Thank you very much, this has been a great help, the only issue is the page that I needed the most seems to have not been saved. All I really need to know about now is bombs because out of everything that's been the hardest to pin down. Thank you again for the wayback link.

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