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Phoenix Five. 1968


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For the 'In the year that you were born' GB I started (but didn't finish in time) a Sea Vixen FAW2 of Simon's Sircus that displayed through 1968. At the end of the display season, Simon's Sircus displayed with the Phoenix Five, 5 Buccaneers from 809 Naval Air Squadron.

 

 

For this build I plan to use Airfix's new Buccaneer to build an aircraft from the Phoenix Five to display alongside the now completed Sea Vixen. Decals will come from Model Alliance's Royal Navy Aerobatic Display Teams sheet.

 

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Made a start on the cockpit tub, using the Eduard etch. 

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On 5/12/2020 at 2:55 AM, Jb65rams said:

For the 'In the year that you were born' GB I started (but didn't finish in time) a Sea Vixen FAW2 of Simon's Sircus that displayed through 1968.

I remember you were building this. Did you ever finish it?

Great choice to build the Buccaneer display team. I only remember the 'Blue Herons ' at Yeovilton in the '70s. You can do them next! 

Colin 

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@Colin W Yes I did eventually finish it over the Christmas holidays. Looks ok but was hard work.

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Progress has continued with the Buccaneer, surgery has been successfully completed to remove the wings to allow the wingfold to be installed.

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Fuselage components assembled.

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Holes drilled in the airbrake, about 5 mins work, really improves the look.

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Doh! Insert choice of swear word(s) here,

 

When building the new Airfix Buccaneer - pay close attention to stage 21, make sure you install the the intake trunking the correct way round or this is the result when trying to install the intakes.

 

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Would cause too much damage trying to separate the fuselage to correct the error. My thought process went a bit like this

  • Bin it
  • Bin it and buy a new kit and start again.

and then I had a brain wave.

  • FOD guards.

Cut the trunking off with a razor say, will then install the intakes and use FOD guards to mask the mistake.

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Taking to the internet to see if there are any FOD guards out there, if not will try to scratch some.

 

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Your Sea Vixen looks great. 

Great save with the FOD guards. These should be used far more often than they are. No need to buy. You can make them from plastic card very easily. 

 

Colin 

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After a bit of thought I have ordered the Flightpath set.

 

In the meantime I painted everything inside the fuselage and intake black and then fitted the intakes. View from a distance does look that bad.

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JB it really is very easy to get the intake ducts in the wrong way up; I nearly did it with mine and it was only several dry runs with the outer sections that convinced me that they were indeed the right way up.  I’m a bit surprised that Airfix didn’t tool a lug and slot arrangement, as they did with the rear fuselage bulkhead in this kit, to avoid such an eventuality.

 

As you’re building the kit with the wings folded intake blanks, and Smartie lids over the jet pipes, would be highly appropriate and add a splash of colour to your finished model.

 

Please could you take a couple of photos of the front fuselage join below the cockpit?  Mine’s been a complete horror to put together neatly: at the moment she’s a rampant filler queen and prospective Shelf of Doom resident.

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30 minutes ago, Jb65rams said:

@stever219 A couple of photos as requested,

 

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Needed a bit of filler to blend in a small step on one side. Still needs a bit of tidy up.

Thanks JB; I had a bit of a step on the starboard side which is a pain because there’s a small raised panel immediately ahead of it, as you’ll well know.

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Thanks @Col.

 

Made a start with the decaling. Using a mix of the kit decals and the Model Alliance decals.

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Trying to minimize the use of the Model Alliance decals as they are behaving very well. Just don't want to settle down, the underwing serials being the worst, silvering badly. Having to use a sharp scalpel to repeatably puncture the decal before flooding with setting sol, after 3 or 4 applications the situation was much improved.

 

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Good to see paint and decals on this one. I have never had any problems with Model Alliance decals, but there is always a first for everything. Hope that the rest of the decaling goes as planned.

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Decaling finished. Couldn't resist fitting the wings so see what she would look like. 

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I am happy with the result, unless you look closely you cant see the mess I made with the intake trunking.

 

I have now turned my attention to the FOD guards. It is reminding me why I don't use much etch. 

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That's looking very nice JB :thumbsup2:

 

I'm building a similar vintage 809 Squadron aircraft (number 324).  I must check to see whether that might have formed part of the display team too....

 

Cheers

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