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1/72 Airfix Blackburn NA39 Buccaneer prototype


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This is the first Blackburn NA39, serial XK486, the first prototype of the Buccaneer.  I have tried to represent her as I believe she was configured when she was rolled out.   She flew, on schedule, for the first time on April 30, 1958.   She was basically a flying shell - no folding wings, no weapons, no air-bleed system.

 

I built this from the old Airfix NA39.   I removed 13 scale inches just aft of the cockpit to move it back and I shortened and reshaped the nose cone (no radar in there!).  I also deleted the production-style strakes from the airbrakes and fitted 4 new configured as originally worn by XK486.   The blue is Tamiya Royal Blue: a nice colour match but no fun to airbrush for me for some reason.  Decals are mostly old ModelDecal ones with some homemade underwings serials.

 

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As a contrast, here she is with the S1 I recently finished.

 

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Comments and critiques welcomed.


David
 

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Jolly nice! The prototypes do look very different from the production aircraft. I’m toying with the idea of doing the prototype from the FAAMuseum In the Buccaneer GB if time allows, because that seems a bit closer to the kit.

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Thanks, everyone.  I like older kits - they're simple, like me.

 

I did make one deliberate omission - she had something (a spin recovery chute or a camera) in a blister on the airbrake port half.  It spoils her lines.  So I left it off.

 

David

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1 hour ago, TheyJammedKenny! said:

Nicely done!  How did you redo the intakes?  Did you employ styrene tube of appropriate diameter?

I did put plastic tube inside both the intakes and the exhausts but the outer intakes are as in the kit.  I needed some filler on the insides where the tube met the intake lips and then I I thinned the lips a bit too.  Here's a couple of in progress pics to show what I did to shorten the fuselage aft of the cockpit and refine the kit's intakes.

 

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There's a whole build thread on another modelling site I can point you to if you want to see more.

 

David

 

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