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Airfix Buccaneer S. Mk. 2


David H

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1 hour ago, general melchett said:

Good lord, that put up a bit of a fight but percyveerance (and every filler known to man) certainly paid off, looking good. Now for the beak. Onwards and sideways...

Yeah if i didn't fix it, i'd never hear the end of it from Bette Davis.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, time for an update.

 

After making about as much of an effort as i could to get the beak on the front of the tailplane to play nice with the leading edge, i started casting about for something else to do on the model.

 

I ALMOST installed the windscreen, but then i thought i'd look for something to do on the underside of the model.

 

So, what follows is the beginning of my decidedly non-linear  (or as the Irish would say, "Organized Chaos" ) approach to painting this wee beastie.

 

Early Buccaneers had the entire undersides painted in gloss white. This looks great on a model, but it brings with it a unique set of challenges involving white paint.

In a nutshell, these problems can be boiled down to these three challenges:

1) White Paint Doesn't cover over dark surfaces very well- Especially Gloss White Paint.

2) Flat White Paint is grainy and rough.

3) White paint takes forever to dry.

 

Well, through the use of lacquers and acrylics, the slow drying times of white paint are largely mitigated. However, the coverage and roughness issues remain.

 

So, here is where i started. I decided to use the outer, folding segments as very elaborate paint chips to try out the Gunze H1 (Gloss White) and the H333 (Extra Dark Sea Gray).

Following conventional colour dogma, i began by masking off the outboard wing panels with Tamiya tape and i back filled with low tack #2093 3M Sharp Lines Multi Surface tape.

 

Note that i have NOT installed the following parts: D50 and 51 (Port and Starboard ARI 18218 aerial housings) and D6 (Flaperon pushrods). These merely get in the way during the painting process and just beg to snag onto something and break off. Part D2 had the pitot boom lopped off, and a hole was drilled to mount a MASTER pitot boom during the "end game".

 

I then sprayed down a coat of Tamiya White Surface Primer (square bottle) onto the wing undersides, thinned with Mr Levelling Thinner.

Buccaneer Wings 02

After this was done, i applied a coat of Mr Color H1, Gloss White to the model. Once adequate coverage was attained, i carpet-bombed the surfaces with straight Mr Leveling Thinner, applying almost enough for the thinner to pool on the surface. This was then set aside to dry.

Buccaneer Wings 01

I can tell you that i got a deep, brilliant coverage (which is good) but not surprisingly some airborne particulates landed upon the surface while spraying and embedded in the surface (not such a good thing). Also, some panel lines there the upper and lower wings come together look excessively broad and deep.

 

Oh well. Cost of doing business, i guess.

 

The tape was removed; tomorrow i will wet-sand the wings and fill in some of those chasms with krystal kleer.  Then comes the second coat of Gloss White, to be followed by a coat of Mr Super Clear.

Until then, thanks for shopping!

 

david

Edited by David H
typos, additional content
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I am no expert on FAA aircraft, but I have always liked the look of the Buccaneer (although my knowledge is little beyond visual recognition about it). Thank you for providing us all this great info along with a peek at Airfix’s molding—impressive work!  Best, Erwin

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1 hour ago, VT Red Sox Fan said:

I am no expert on FAA aircraft, but I have always liked the look of the Buccaneer (although my knowledge is little beyond visual recognition about it). Thank you for providing us all this great info along with a peek at Airfix’s molding—impressive work!  Best, Erwin

It's an interesting design for its time. It benefited from American technology transfer, with respect to the milling of integrally-stiffened wing skins.  The R-R Spey Turbofan arrived just in time to make the range and endurance acceptable, and as far as i know its the only carrier-based jet with a T-Tail. Bleed air was blown over just about every surface except for the rudder, and from what i can surmise the plane was tailored to operate squarely in the transonic region, rather than on either side of it like most American jets.

 

-d-

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Here's the latest update. What you see here is 2 coats of H1 Gloss White, sanded with 4000 between coats and then overcoated with Mr Super Clear III UV Cut, GX-112

 

Buccaneer Wings -03 Buccaneer Wings -04

some minor sanding of fuzzies on the stabilizer to follow, then i will mask off the undersides and shoot some Extra Dark Sea Grey on the wing topsides.

-d-

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5 hours ago, Gondor44 said:

A you going to add the hooks for the strop?

 

Gondor

Not if they aren't included in the kit. The objective here is to keep things as simple as possible.

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Hi Everybody,

 

I'm on the road for another 4 days, so just a quick update.

 

I was antsy to try out the Mr Color Semi Gloss Extra Dark Sea Gray. So, i masked off and sprayed the upper wing panels. The paint sprayed fine but it was decidedly not semi gloss, really tending more towards the matt side of the spectrum. A protective Coat of GX-112 has added a bit of gloss and given the paint that "Hard Candy Shell" that i joke about.

 

More gloss needs to be added; perhaps i will mix it into the paint next time. Next up will be the topside of the horizontal stab, and then i'll mask it off and get to work on installing the windscreen.

 

Speaking of which: i noticed Eduard offers 2 sets of canopy masks for the Airfix Buccaneer. I know one of em was for the original "Gulf War" Bucc from the late 20th Century, but did they offer a newer one for this newer kit?

 

So long for now,

 

david

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Hi Kids! Thanks for tuning in, and now time for another update.

 

The time has finally come to paint the rest of the white undersides. I hate this part...

First step was a coat of Mr Base White 1000. Not surprisingly, there were a few places that needed a bit more work. Once these places are plainly visible, there really isn't any point in building up the coverage any further.

1st coat of Base White

You can see i've made a laughable attempt to mask off the wheel wells. More on that later.

Once the problem areas were sussed out, i next sprayed several coats of Mr Base White to build up the requisite opacity and coverage. During this iteration, there were some intermittent sanding sessions with wet 4000 micro mesh cloth, as i discovered the occasional rough patch, mainly around the wing root leading edges and along the edges of the rotary bomb bay.

Buccaneer Mr Base White Undersides

i've been sixes and sevens with the Mr Base White 1000. It doesn't cover quite as well as the Tamiya White Surface Primer, but it doesn't go on as grainy, either. With all the concave areas found on a Buccaneer, taking this route seems to have been a wiser choice. Mr Base White seems to take "Carpet Bombing" better than the Tamiya as well. It seems to have leveled out more, and taken on something of an semigloss eggshell finish (a very smooth eggshell, mind you).

Again, there was a little bit of wet sanding in places but nothing too onerous.

This time, i chose to use Mr Color Gloss White instead of Tamiya...

Gloss White Belly 01 Gloss White Belly 02

You will notice i removed the stuffing inside the wheel wells. It didn't work too well and it appears i painted the exhaust tubes the wrong colour anyway. It might make for a tricky masking job, but at a minimum i will re spray them with Admiralty Grey and i might even be able to mask and repaint the exhaust tubes in gunmetal. Between their illustrations and their rather cryptic use of Humbrol paint number callouts, getting the right colour in the right place is sometimes an aggravation, building an Airfix model.

 

While the model out-gasses and sets up, i shall ponder my next move.

 

As always, keep those letters and cards coming.

 

d-tached

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And now, a brief discussion about the windscreen.

 

The good news is, the windscreen is very clear, crisply molded and free of distortion. Most importantly, by itself it fits the fuselage beautifully.

 

The bad news is, its thickness cases interference problems with the instrument panel coaming. I had to saw off the front of the coaming along the deep recessed transverse line, cut away the locating key, sanded down the boxes on the upper surface, and i narrowed the base  by sanding down the flanks. With those mods made, the windscreen will now fit; quite well in fact.

 

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this before.

 

The windscreen is waiting for the Krystal Kleer to dry. Next step: Masking the windscreen then the extra dark sea grey will follow.

 

-d-

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Thanks for mentioning this, David - I'll be looking out for it when I finally resume work on mine. I'm just about at the point in the project where I will attach the windscreen and it's very useful to be prepared for interference with the coaming.

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5 hours ago, Andrew said:

Thanks for mentioning this, David - I'll be looking out for it when I finally resume work on mine. I'm just about at the point in the project where I will attach the windscreen and it's very useful to be prepared for interference with the coaming.

Andrew, the windscreen wound up fitting quite well. The Krystal Kleer dried fast enough that i was able to go ahead with masking off the windscreen (Eduard CX556- worked brilliantly!), and i just finished painting it.

 

Started with Mr Surfacer Black 1500, followed by my home-made aircraft primer of Tamiya White Surface Primer tinted with Yellow Green, followed by a coat of Mr Color C333 Extra Dark Sea Gray, and finally topped off with a generous Coat of Super Clear UVCut.

 

-d-

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Coming along in leaps and bounds -d-. I don't remember having an issue with the fit of the windscreen but it was some time ago and the memory is fading fast. I like the idea of the home-made white with a hint of yellow/green primer, co-incidentally, I'm doing something similar to my 1/24th version. How did the Super Clear turn out?

 

General Meaning

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1 hour ago, general melchett said:

Coming along in leaps and bounds -d-. I don't remember having an issue with the fit of the windscreen but it was some time ago and the memory is fading fast. I like the idea of the home-made white with a hint of yellow/green primer, co-incidentally, I'm doing something similar to my 1/24th version. How did the Super Clear turn out?

 

General Meaning

Short answer- quite well. Pictures to follow, after i've had my coffee and aligned the inertial platform.

 

d-clination

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This plane has something very charming, which I however cannot exactly define. And your build is excellent! What a fantastic glossy finish you've achieved there! Absolutely brilliant!

I wasn't aware of this "carpet bombing" technique, I need to google it a bit to see what it is about.

Great work so far, I will follow your topic if it's ok. I look forward to seeing the rest of the build!

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I got a question or two about the windscreen installation, as well as the painting.

What follows is a series of pics taken during the procedure. Should be fairly self explanatory.

Windscreen 001 Windscreen 004 Windscreen 007 Windscreen 010 Windscreen 012

What comes next is the masking of what i call the "Waterline" separating the grey topside from the gloss white lowers. So, if anybody is wondering why i'm not answering the phone...

 

Thanks for tuning in.

 

d-bot

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Re the catapult spools (hooks), it looks as though they were retractable in normal operation and only deployed for launches. I looked through the Warpaint No2 which has one image of a Bucc on the catapult. The plans/drawings don't show any panel where they may be stowed. Certainly on RAF cabs, the system may well have been disconnected. Maybe someone else has a reference.

 

Colin

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, after what seemed like an entire afternoon of industrial-grade masking, i finally have the extra dark sea grey roughed in...

EDSG Tape Layup 01

Oh, Look! It's a Yellow Bellied Buccaneer! Lovely Plumage....

EDSG Tape Layup 02

The next step was to get some Extra Dark Sea Grey onto the model. In this case, Mr Color C333. i would not consider this a semigloss finish, no matter what the label says.

EDSG 01 EDSG 02

Next came several generous coats of Mr Color Super Clear UV Cut, GX112...

EDSG 03

And with that done, it was time to remove the masking and see just how bad it looks.

EDSG 04 EDSG 08 EDSG 05 EDSG 07 EDSG 06

I think its safe to say that the heavy lifting is mostly done now. There is some over spray in a few places that need to be cleaned up, and some minor tweaking to make the waterline perfectly symmetrical. However, nothing too difficult. I'm not sure if the line that runs along the intake sides is parallel to the longitudinal axis or if it slants upwards slightly. Hard to tell from photographs.

 

At any rate, i'm interested in your thoughts.

 

Thanks for shopping!

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21 hours ago, mark.au said:

Looks pretty good to me.  I’ve always liked the clean simplicity of this scheme, especially on the Bucc.  

Like the classic BOAC scheme, i'd characterize it as Sober, but Smart. It was phased out a lot earlier than i expected, the overall grey scheme taking over sometime in 1967...

 

-d-

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