bar side Posted December 26, 2020 Share Posted December 26, 2020 Nice work. Bit of filler to be expected & that’s nice tidy work. Hope your dad is getting better. All the best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted December 26, 2020 Share Posted December 26, 2020 Dean, you've done an admirable job wrestling that beast to the ground and pounding it into submission. The engineering/ design of the new 72nd scale tooling is miles better. Can you imagine the shock of people who struggled to put this model together, coming off the Spitfire 22/24 and the Lightnings?? The mind boggles. david Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanflyer Posted January 26, 2021 Author Share Posted January 26, 2021 Thanks for wishing my Dad well. Happy to report that he's doing fine now. 🙂 Further (slow) progress...the wingtip navigation lights were moulded solid, so I but them out and replaced them with bits of clear sprue with a hole drilled inside to simulate the bulb. A lot of painstaking research was needed to find out whether the bulb inside pointed outwards or forwards! This pic shows the red light installed and sanded to shape, while the green light is still just rough sprue: Both lights completed: One strange bit of moulding is this oval depression on the port engine cover- the starboard one has an oval panel there with fasteners on the cover. Had to make a cover for that...the fasteners don't show up in this pic, but they're there: Then, I could finally get the wings and windscreen on, not without their own trials: The yellow and white areas on the fuselage are where I've had to add some home made decals to match the markings on the real thing. The coloured background was first painted on, and the black and transparent decal was placed over it. Masking has been placed over the two yellow ones to protect them for when the camo goes on. A quick look at the underside: After a bit of rescribing here and there, it's just about ready for painting now. More when it happens... Dean 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 This crime scene looks oddly familiar..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanflyer Posted January 26, 2021 Author Share Posted January 26, 2021 7 minutes ago, David H said: This crime scene looks oddly familiar..... Except the victim is a bit bigger... 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanflyer Posted February 6, 2021 Author Share Posted February 6, 2021 More has happened...first off, I got the Dark Sea Grey on: Then I tried masking off the camouflage pattern with tape. No chance with all those wiggly curves, so even though it was a hard edged camo I was looking for, I went back to the Blu-Tack sausages method: The problem is that the camo pattern is slightly non standard on this airframe, very few photos exist of its topside, and none of its underside. Consequently, much poring over of reference photos from the day and trying to square that with the Airfix painting guide meant that the total masking time on this was about three and a half hours. The underside was a bit of a puzzle: It took a couple of repaints before I found the right green to use, and as the green on the real thing has weathered and faded heavily, it was decided to replicate this while the masking was still in place. The aircraft is always parked outside with the wings folded, and the shadow cast by the wings over the fuselage has produced a noticeable protection against fading by the sun. Also, a canopy cover is used, and the bleaching effect on the uncovered versus covered areas is quite pronounced. This was achieved with a lighter green strategically airbrushed on the appropriate areas: Once the green was finished, it was time to see how it looked against the grey, and the laborious process of removing all the Blu-Tack started. It was at this point that the leading edge of the starboard wing cracked open again. Ooh, the language. I think I invented a couple of new swear words at this point. The plastic Airfix used on this kit is soft, delaminated, pebbly, warped and doesn't take glue well. Other than that, it's a perfect material for making kits with. After a few touch ups to unsatisfactory areas of the camouflage, and a super glue repair to the wing, overall the thing wasn't looking too bad. I even uncovered the decals for the pilot's name and the yellow warnings, touched up the paint around these, and painted and weathered the nose cone: Then the time had come to make it shiny so I could handle it and not worry about leaving fingerprints on the green, which was particularly prone to them. Klear was airbrushed on over two sittings, one for the top and one for the bottom: Then it was time to add the roundels and fin flashes. These were quite faded and bashed about on the real aeroplane, so I couldn't use the decals which were too dark and pristine looking. I masked off the appropriate areas, and sprayed a base coat of white. The red and blue areas were then added in a blotchy and uneven manner, taking care not to completely blot out the white. I also masked and sprayed the aluminium leading edges of the wings at this point: If anybody is looking at the roundels and thinking I've done a rough job on them... ...you're right, I have. And it's intentional! Look at the real ones: 😉 Next step is to mask and paint: wheel wells, fin top bullets and stabiliser leading edges. After that, it's on to the decalling stage... More when it happens, Dean 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanflyer Posted February 17, 2021 Author Share Posted February 17, 2021 Blimey...dropped down to page 10 and not a single comment on my last update. Have I upset you lot or something..? Latest progress- I got the decals on, a mixture of the kit decals, an aftermarket sheet for the squadron markings, and some self made decals. Compounding the problem was that some of the kit stencils were the wrong colour, being black whereas the Brunty versions were white, so I had to cobble some markings together from spares. Glossed over, they looked ok: The serial number on the fuselage was cobbled together from an aftermarket sheet, but for the large serials under the wings I had to get creative. The decal sheet I had had the serial XW529 on it, so I carefully drew up a pair of '4's the same size and style, cut them out of masking tape, and airbrushed them onto the wings in the correct places: Then I cut the '29' off the decals, and positioned the 'XW5's in the right places...I think they blended in well: I've now started adding the panel line wash, grey on the grey parts and black on the green parts and the hinge points: Some tidying up needed yet, and then on with the matt coat. In other news, the undercarriage has been assembled and is ready to fit: More when it happens... Dean 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kev67 Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 Brilliant, you got to love the Buccaneer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliGauld Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 That, Sir, is absolutely beautiful. Loves me a Buccaneer. Cheers, Alistair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJP Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 Just shows what can be done with an kit like this Buccaneer - it captures the feel of the Buccaneer and you are doing a really neat job on it CJP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter W Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 You’ve definitely wrestled this kit into something good to look at, amazing results so far. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 yuhuu! fantastic beast modelling here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 Wow, Dean- You've been busy! Glad you made it this far. I just finished an evening of fixing places on my Bucc that i wasn't happy with. Still a bit more detail painting to do before i can start decaling. Having said that- CRACK ON! -d- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matto21 Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 I've enjoyed reading this thread, top work with an old kit and looking forward to seeing it finished now! Oh for a new tool 1/48 Bucc! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crobinsonh Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 Hi Dean, Only just seen your build log for XW544. You chose a perfect day for your back seat ride and both jets performed flawlessly. None of us at that time realised it would be the final Cold War Jets and they will certainly be missed by all of us. Both of our jets are safely ensconced at ex-RAF Kemble (now Cotswold Airport) and we are looking forward to a bright new future along with the Canberra PR9 and other cold war jets to arrive in 2021. We will understand much more about what sorts of operations are possible once the COVID lockdowns are over and we can return to the airfield. ...and back to the model. Awesome build of a challenging kit. Someday, I hope we may have a 1/48th or 1/32nd to satisfy our desires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theplasticsurgeon Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 That looks great Dean, a super memory of your trip! Glad to hear that Kemble days are being considered - right on my doorstep, and I've been there for steam-fairs. Keep up the good work, and hope to be able to meet you again at a model-show sometime soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanflyer Posted February 18, 2021 Author Share Posted February 18, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, crobinsonh said: Hi Dean, Only just seen your build log for XW544. You chose a perfect day for your back seat ride and both jets performed flawlessly. None of us at that time realised it would be the final Cold War Jets and they will certainly be missed by all of us. Both of our jets are safely ensconced at ex-RAF Kemble (now Cotswold Airport) and we are looking forward to a bright new future along with the Canberra PR9 and other cold war jets to arrive in 2021. We will understand much more about what sorts of operations are possible once the COVID lockdowns are over and we can return to the airfield. ...and back to the model. Awesome build of a challenging kit. Someday, I hope we may have a 1/48th or 1/32nd to satisfy our desires. Hi Colin...I was going to send you a link to the finished article, but wanted to see how it turned out first. It was the best weather day I've ever had at Brunty- I was incredibly lucky there! 🙂 What other Cold War jets are going to move to Kemble? I know the big stuff can't be moved, and about the plans for hopefully keeping a corner of the site to house them. I saw a post recently that said the Guppy had already been scrapped, but I can't find any confirmation of this- have you heard anything? Cheers, Dean Edited February 18, 2021 by Deanflyer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG058 Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 (edited) Lovely work thus far, I can't wait to see it finished! Edited February 18, 2021 by DAG058 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyOD Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 Just caught up with this. What a fantastic looking Bucc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 Dean, I just did a huge catch up. I must have missed the start entirely. I've built probably three of these in the past and the end result was always a struggle. Never mind a big stick, you must have threatened this one with a sawn off shotgun! Those are some of the best faded roundels I've ever seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tk1608 Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 That looks great, you’ve made it look easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanflyer Posted February 24, 2021 Author Share Posted February 24, 2021 Thanks for the comments folks. 🙂 Right, this is the last WIP update, as I've forgotten to take any more photos! Here it is at the end of the weathering stage, with the matt coat on and various stains and scuffs added. Most of them were done according to my reference photos, so if you think it looks overdone, I can assure you it isn't! I've literally just put the finishing touches onto it, and I'll edit the photos tonight and post a RFI thread tomorrow sometime. 85 hours work wrestling this into submission...so I've wave goodbye for now: Cheers, Dean 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 G'day Dean, Sadly I have just caught up with this. Lovely stuff going on and I especially like the combinatio n of weathered paint and markings, these are often overlookeed. One thing I would suggest is to scribe in the prominent canopy opening trackonto the spine area aft of the canopy. I expect you will have the canopy open 'waving to your adoring public' so the track may not be that visible and I appreciate the build is at an advanced stage so you may be reticent to attempt it so late in the build. Either way, this is cracking stuff cheers Pappy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanflyer Posted February 24, 2021 Author Share Posted February 24, 2021 Hi Pappy, Nope, it's finished now as I said, and it's really not noticeable under the open canopy. Thanks for the info anyway. Cheers, Dean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJP Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 Great looking Buccaneer - really like your paintwork CJP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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