We need a 1/48 Buccaneer

[davidelvy]

I built one and the bendy fuselage mouldings were a bit of an issue. But it was not hard to glue up straight and it's a wonderfully tactile shape.

[Bobby No Mac]

2 hours ago, stever219 said:

Boulton Paul Defiant, Messerschmitt Bf109-E and Folland Gnat T. Mk. 1 spring to mind, but I'm notv1000% sure about the '109.

 

I take it back then, if they're willing to churn out a relatively obscure - yet severely under-represented - subject like the Defiant in different scales in quick succession then anything's possible 🤞

[stever219]

@Bobby No Mac I’m hoping that there are grounds for some cautious optimism.🤞

[Bozothenutter]

6 hours ago, stever219 said:

@Bobby No Mac I’m hoping that there are grounds for some cautious optimism.🤞

Hope is optimism isn't it...😉

[Pappy]

23 hours ago, Black Knight said:

Quote from the Airfix Tribute Forum history listing for the 1/48 Buccaneer, both issues

"2015 Airfix state: Inherent quality problem with the fuselage mouldings."

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/airfixtributeforum/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=1520

 

G'day BK, it seems like a vague statement. It states the obvious and well known issue but doesn:t actually say the molds have been damaged beyond repair. Model manufacturers frequently drop items from their catalogues for a while before re-introducing them. I think I saw that Airfix have re-released their Daring Class destroyer after it had been OOP for a while.

 

Yes there is (was?) a problem withe the fuselage molding, mainly due to th e ruddy big hole in the lower  half which has the weapons bay doors added. Airfix moulded it this way to allow for both the shallow and deep style doors. Until the required insert is added, the lower fuselage is extremely flimsy and dry fitting before that is comical to say the least. With the weapons bay doors insert added, the lower half is nicely fortified and the next fun jpob is getting the upper half to play nice with the bottom. There is a pinned thread on how best to achieve this which I will not re-hash here. The intakes don't fit that great either, again due to poor engineering and the fin isn't too crash hot either. In short not one of their finest and for those raised on a diet of Tamiya kits this would seem to be one kit to avoid but it does actually go together well with patience and some modelling skills.

 

Given that Airfix have been re-visiting their catalogue and releasing newly tooled verions of pervious subjects the Bucc would be a great subject. Kinetic beat them to the Harrier family (although they could sneak in with a GR.5😏) perhaps an RAF F-4 family of kits would also be a good choice given that this has been done poorly in 1/48? 

 

We live in interesting times

 

Pappy

 

 

[exdraken]

5 hours ago, Pappy said:

RAF F-4 family of kits would also be a good choice given that this has been done poorly in 1/48? 

The Hasegawa one is quite OK, no?

The Harrier Gr.5 at least was available from Hasegawa as well.

 

But there currently is no real F-35B out there since KH stopped production. It also never was widely available as Airfix would be...

 

 

[stever219]

3 hours ago, exdraken said:

The Hasegawa one is quite OK, no?

The Harrier Gr.5 at least was available from Hasegawa as well.

 

But there currently is no real F-35B out there since KH stopped production. It also never was widely available as Airfix would be...

 

 

Who cares about the F-35B?  It’s so ugly it makes the F-117 look good and, no doubt, as it’s American Tamiya and Hasegawa are both busily beavering away on the definitive reproduction of this hideously expensive, over-sold and over-complicated contraption (and I’m only referring to the power plant installation at this point).  Far, far better to expend the plastic on a 1/48th Blenheim IV based on the excellent Mk. I kit.

[Pappy]

3 hours ago, exdraken said:

The Hasegawa one is quite OK, no?

The Harrier Gr.5 at least was available from Hasegawa as well.

 

But there currently is no real F-35B out there since KH stopped production. It also never was widely available as Airfix would be...

 

 

 

Sorta. Hasegaw based their kit around their F-4J which was smart. There are new weapons sprues which include the  Spey exhausts, gun and recce pods as well as the UK style fin cap RWR but they did not supply new intakes. the RR Spey required more air so the intakes were noticeably larger. The engines were also bigger resulting in a subtle but noticeable flare of the lowere fusealage starting a little forward of the exhausts giving the jet a slight bananna effect. It was a good attempt. UK seats were also slightly different and the standard kit seats are employed. The F-4J wing is supplied but there is no provision for the underwing re-enforcing strap which to be fair was a laetr addition.

 

When Tamiya announced they wpould be releasing a new tool F-16, a lot of people asked why? the Has kit was pretty good (still is IMHO) but now the Tam kit is seen as the go to F-16 kit. Just because there is an okay kit does not mean there is no market for a better kit. Manufacturers can of course also get it wrong e.g the KH RAF Jag kit is not a huge improvement over the ancient Airfix kit and is beset with a lot of frankly avoidable errors while, the venerable Airfix kit is less detailed but more or less accurate and but goes together very easily,

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

[exdraken]

36 minutes ago, Pappy said:

 

Sorta. Hasegaw based their kit around their F-4J which was smart. There are new weapons sprues which include the  Spey exhausts, gun and recce pods as well as the UK style fin cap RWR but they did not supply new intakes. the RR Spey required more air so the intakes were noticeably larger. The engines were also bigger resulting in a subtle but noticeable flare of the lowere fusealage starting a little forward of the exhausts giving the jet a slight bananna effect. It was a good attempt. UK seats were also slightly different and the standard kit seats are employed. The F-4J wing is supplied but there is no provision for the underwing re-enforcing strap which to be fair was a laetr addition.

 

When Tamiya announced they wpould be releasing a new tool F-16, a lot of people asked why? the Has kit was pretty good (still is IMHO) but now the Tam kit is seen as the go to F-16 kit. Just because there is an okay kit does not mean there is no market for a better kit. Manufacturers can of course also get it wrong e.g the KH RAF Jag kit is not a huge improvement over the ancient Airfix kit and is beset with a lot of frankly avoidable errors while, the venerable Airfix kit is less detailed but more or less accurate and but goes together very easily,

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

fair enough!

but would Airfix be capable of producing a supperior kit? feature wise maybe, but finess wise? would it convince?

 

The KH Jag is definitely no general improvement over the Airfix/ Heller predecessor..... Airfix is fully invited to re-do the Jag family! (incl two seaters and Indian upgrades!)

hard actually no being an improvement in this respect!

[Lord Riot]

I actually like the 1/48 Airfix Bucc and think it has a slightly unfair reputation amongst some modellers. I didn’t feel the fit was that bad, it just needs a bit of coaxing and a fair amount of sanding on that fuselage join line. The biggest issue I had was the fit of the jetpipe casings.

 

I definitely consider myself closer to ‘assembler’ than modeller, and this is what I made from the kit three years ago (I’ve gained more experience since then!). No aftermarket used on this one either, all oob.
 

 

 

 

I have another in the stash which I’m planning to do with light aircraft grey undersides and folded wings, just can’t decide between XV Sqn or 237 OCU for that one! Will definitely be using some aftermarket stuff for it though.

 

I’d love another too but the eBay prices are silly in my opinion.

[RMP2]

Heres an option - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393504435823?hash=item5b9eb12e6f:g:0C8AAOSwZH9hFnvk

 

 

[exdraken]

22 minutes ago, RMP2 said:

Heres an option - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393504435823?hash=item5b9eb12e6f:g:0C8AAOSwZH9hFnvk

 

 

For the business freaks amongst you

 

Anyone knows about the Airwaves Bucc in comparison?

I have never done a vacform kit as of yet.. but somehow I think this is technology from the past...

 

 

[crobinsonh]

Whilst the 1/48th is nice it does miss some of the subtle shape and changes that CMR and Airfix got right with the new 1/72nd variant. One would have thought that Airfix have all the LIDAR data and within reason can easily upscale to 1/48th. I would ask that they go easy with the trenches as when you look at the real thing they do not exist in that form.

[Pappy]

13 hours ago, Lord Riot said:

I actually like the 1/48 Airfix Bucc and think it has a slightly unfair reputation amongst some modellers. I didn’t feel the fit was that bad, it just needs a bit of coaxing and a fair amount of sanding on that fuselage join line. The biggest issue I had was the fit of the jetpipe casings.

 

I definitely consider myself closer to ‘assembler’ than modeller, and this is what I made from the kit three years ago (I’ve gained more experience since then!). No aftermarket used on this one either, all oob.
 

 

 

 

I have another in the stash which I’m planning to do with light aircraft grey undersides and folded wings, just can’t decide between XV Sqn or 237 OCU for that one! Will definitely be using some aftermarket stuff for it though.

 

I’d love another too but the eBay prices are silly in my opinion.

 

I agree with you as well.

It is not an aircraft that is overly festooned with access panels and it goes together well (honest!) once you adopt the step by step approach of the fuselage join. For me it was the air intakes that were the most troublesome part, I cut off the fuelage portion o the lower intake and add this to the intake assembly then add the completed intakes to the fusleage

 

On 11/28/2021 at 8:42 AM, exdraken said:

fair enough!

but would Airfix be capable of producing a supperior kit? feature wise maybe, but finess wise? would it convince?

 

The KH Jag is definitely no general improvement over the Airfix/ Heller predecessor..... Airfix is fully invited to re-do the Jag family! (incl two seaters and Indian upgrades!)

hard actually no being an improvement in this respect!

 

I think that given their adoption of LIDAR mapping, they should be able to scale the co-ordinates up of down to whatever the required scale is. As for finesse, this is not a word frequently associated with Airfix but I think their efforts with panel line detail is very good in 1/48 but needs more work in 1/72. I think the next area where they need to improve is actually the surface texture which is sill a bit rough in comparison to Has and Tam who tend to use a harder plastic which is also smoother. I think that an Airfix 1/48 Bucc that was based on LIDAR mapping would be the bees kees and that it would be quite an improvement over their legacy kit

 

7 hours ago, crobinsonh said:

Whilst the 1/48th is nice it does miss some of the subtle shape and changes that CMR and Airfix got right with the new 1/72nd variant. One would have thought that Airfix have all the LIDAR data and within reason can easily upscale to 1/48th. I would ask that they go easy with the trenches as when you look at the real thing they do not exist in that form.

 

As above

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

[Covjets13]

It would be wonderful to have a new Bucc, however the Airfix offering is not to bad (no not been drinking)…honest.😉

 

Use the NeOnega cockpit and wheel wells they fit PERFECTLY. ( no cutting and trimming like other resin manufacturers). And then “tab” the fuselage like a vacform. I have built two and really enjoyed building them.  
 

 

Cheers Si

[spruecutter96]

On 11/25/2021 at 12:53 AM, Seawinder said:

It's apparently notorious for fit and detail issues.

Someone told me gluing the fuselage halves together is like trying to make two bananas lie straight and level. 

 

Chris. 

[71chally]

1 hour ago, spruecutter96 said:

Someone told me gluing the fuselage halves together is like trying to make two bananas lie straight and level. 

The Buccaneer wasn't coined the banana jet for nothing🤣  

 

I actually thought the AIrfix kit was pretty good, just need a bit of patience and time on the fuselage assembly.