Airfix 1/48 Buccaneer S.2 for 2022!

[TEXANTOMCAT]

I thought it was a ‘ballast bucket’ like their Vulcan design ?

 

TT

[RMP2]

40 minutes ago, TEXANTOMCAT said:

I thought it was a ‘ballast bucket’ like their Vulcan design ?

 

TT

 

Spoilsport.

[tony.t]

Would you want Airfix to include a radar? Maybe if moulded in the harder clear plastic they use it would have a little more finesse. 

Frankly, I think Black Dog et al will have these options covered (including, hopefully, my recce tray).

I'd rather Airfix focus a bit more on the cockpit, undercart and wing fold detail. 

 

I'd like at least one of these S.2Cs, definitely two if there's a viable S.1 gobackabit conversion set made. The S.2B with Pavespike, Dash-whatever Westinghouse and gravity-assisted explody things can wait. I first need to get bored spraying shades of sea grey. 

 

Tony 

[sniperUK]

Workbench on the development of the Buccaneer. 

 

https://uk.airfix.com/community/blog-and-news/workbench/new-buccaneer-s2-go-big-or-go-home

[JamesP]

I hope that anyone who thinks that upscaling is easy (read cheap) sees this article. 

[Corky]

On 1/10/2022 at 11:03 AM, marky sparky said:

Great news............................but................................. £72? wow

Me and my mates were thinking the same. The original kit sold in Toronto for 34cad. 

New one will be about 125cad which means its almost on par with the Tamiya 1/48 F-14.

I hope it's a winner for Airfix. I have childhood memories of the Buccaneers on the Ark Royal. Can't wait !

[bobsyouruncle]

On 1/25/2022 at 4:58 PM, 71chally said:

XN974 retained the EDSG and white scheme for a long time,, so I would assume it to gain that fairing while still in grey and white.  It might have even been used for flight-testing the fairing.

The production line shot is dated Dec 1966 and I'm sure I've seen this as captioned as XN974 in the past, perhaps in for mods after the fairing was fitted.

I would concur with what Sniper says, I can't say I've seen a picture of a service S.2 in grey and white with that fairing, and there are even quite a few in all over EDSG without the fairing.  Might be generalisation though.

Hi James, yes it would make sense that the fairing was 'in-flight' tested using one of the test and development aircraft such as XN974 (possibly still in the EDSG/White scheme?).

I came across a close-up shot in Tim Laming's Buccaneer book on page 72, which to my eyes has the fairing and is still in the EDSG/White scheme. Annoyingly, it's not captioned which aircraft it is

but I'm thinking as you say, most likely a test and development aircraft. This one looks to at least be out on an apron somewhere.

 

I'd post it, if not for copyright rules.

 

My whole point of posting any of this (besides just pure interest), was just to mention that it might be possible to do a one-off model without filing off the fairings in an EDSG/White scheme, if anyone fancied taking the research further and finding out which aircraft this was (thinking Test and Development such as XN974)?

 

Cheers Bob.

 

 

[wadeocu]

Regarding the fairing and the grey over white scheme, here is what I was able to accomplish with the 1/72 kit, a sanding stick and some decals from the spares box:

 

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by wadeocu

[Stephen]

Two sheets coming from Xtradecal

 

 

 

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X48228?result-token=AtLtm

 

 

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X48229?result-token=AtLtm 

[wadeocu]

Well see there you go; Xtradecal has the grey and white 801 scheme on a Bucc with the fairing at the intake - just fudge it right? 

Sad to say I see a bit of fudging going on here.  Mostly with the minor bits to be fair, but still.  For example the 16 Sqn scheme would have had X on the airbrakes and nose wheel door not the last three and the last three on the 216 scheme would have been dayglo not pale blue.  It would have been nice to get the RAFG specific stencils for the 16 scheme as well, but at least an omission like that isn't on the fudgy side of things.

 

I won't say it is disappointing because I have come to expect this sort of thing from Xtradecal these days.  I sure do miss Dick Ward and his thorough attention to detail!

[71chally]

28 minutes ago, wadeocu said:

Well see there you go; Xtradecal has the grey and white 801 scheme on a Bucc with the fairing at the intake - just fudge it right? 

Luckily there are a lot of images of '977, and it didn't have that fairing while in that scheme.

However, i'm still wondering if Airfix will have that as a separate optional part, and I'm guessing if not that it would be fairly easy to remove and make good.

[wadeocu]

1 hour ago, 71chally said:

Luckily there are a lot of images of '977, and it didn't have that fairing while in that scheme.

However, i'm still wondering if Airfix will have that as a separate optional part, and I'm guessing if not that it would be fairly easy to remove and make good.

I’d say no based on a comment by Mr Mock on his YouTube channel on this topic.  I believe he is playing a role with the decal artwork for this release.  But yes - easily enough remedied with suitable grit and elbow grease.  It is not a challenging task.

[Muzz]

I think there will likely be at least one other sheet released by Xtradecal as there's no 12 Sqn or 237 OCU options on those sheets.

[Jabba]

1 hour ago, Muzz said:

I think there will likely be at least one other sheet released by Xtradecal as there's no 12 Sqn or 237 OCU options on those sheets.

Or Gulf ones, unless they do a separate sheet for them.

[sniperUK]

2 hours ago, Muzz said:

I think there will likely be at least one other sheet released by Xtradecal as there's no 12 Sqn or 237 OCU options on those sheets.

No rush on them as RAF airframes can not be built from the first boxing, no bulged bombay, no arrestor hook housing with flare dispensers, RAF specific weapons etc 

[Oldgitian]

Just been reading through all the comments.  All sounds very exciting.  Buccaneer has always been a favourite of mine.  FAA aircraft in particular so great to see Airfix doing a fine job.  But really......even with the cost of raw materials.......over £70.00 for a box of plastic?  I'll be building the previous offering from the stash. 

[Julien]

Keep this on topic please, all off topic posts will and have been removed

[wadeocu]

On 3/16/2022 at 12:10 PM, sniperUK said:

No rush on them as RAF airframes can not be built from the first boxing, no bulged bombay, no arrestor hook housing with flare dispensers, RAF specific weapons etc 

I have been thinking about this and I suspect you are correct that some of these parts will not be in the first boxing, however I believe an RAF bucc could be done with what will be in the first boxing.  An early S.2A could be done as with the S.2C boxing of the 1/72 kit, but with all the bits needed for the S.2D option you could do an S.2B with the bomb door rotated open.  I am not certain that the inside of the bomb door was the same with or without the bomb door tank.  The CMR kit had them done differently if that is anything to go by, but going from the 1/72 kit, if there is a difference I think what we will get for an open bomb bay is accurate for what XV361 looks like now.  If so then what will be provided would actually be accurate for an S.2B with the bomb door rotated.  Martels, bombs and even FAA rocket pods would be suitable for an RAF model.  The trouble would be sourcing a decent set of RAF stencil decals.  I think the only option you’d have there is to use the old kit decals for RAF stencils.  You are correct though that a gulf war model will require the flare housing at the arrestor hook bay and more suitable stores ie pave spike and aim-9.  I suspect we will only get the older style slipper tank in the first boxing too so that is a limitation.  A grey bottom 12 sqn jet with full Martel load would be an option though, if you could live with using the old lousy decals from the 90s release.

[Shaun]

Are the Kitsworld Bucanneer decals stencils any good, they have a few sheets allready on the market.

[Shaun]

On 3/15/2022 at 10:11 PM, wadeocu said:

Well see there you go; Xtradecal has the grey and white 801 scheme on a Bucc with the fairing at the intake - just fudge it right? 

Sad to say I see a bit of fudging going on here.  Mostly with the minor bits to be fair, but still.  For example the 16 Sqn scheme would have had X on the airbrakes and nose wheel door not the last three and the last three on the 216 scheme would have been dayglo not pale blue.  It would have been nice to get the RAFG specific stencils for the 16 scheme as well, but at least an omission like that isn't on the fudgy side of things.

 

I won't say it is disappointing because I have come to expect this sort of thing from Xtradecal these days.  I sure do miss Dick Ward and his thorough attention to detail!

Not being fussy, but i would of thought the sand and cream scheme with the red star on the nose would of been a more interesting option for a Red Flag jet.

[Des]

5 hours ago, Shaun said:

Not being fussy, but i would of thought the sand and cream scheme with the red star on the nose would of been a more interesting option for a Red Flag jet.

 

Been out there for a while - https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/CS48005?result-token=PASbf

[Muzz]

17 hours ago, Shaun said:

Are the Kitsworld Bucanneer decals stencils any good, they have a few sheets allready on the market.

There good, I used some on a build last year, pretty sure their the only company that provide the pink toned down panel markings for the grey scheme. Unfortunately they don't do the full set of stencil data for any of the schemes just a few here and there.

[Shaun]

12 hours ago, Des said:

 

Been out there for a while - https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/CS48005?result-token=PASbf

Thats a pretty old sheet, a little red star would not of been that hard to produce on a modern fresh sheet. Same for the snow schemes..

[wadeocu]

22 hours ago, Shaun said:

Are the Kitsworld Bucanneer decals stencils any good, they have a few sheets already on the market.

Oh yes - I forgot about those sheets.  They do have some stenciling but as Muzz points out they are incomplete.  It also looks like there are some on the Gulf War sheet and different ones on the RAF sheet, but don't make a complete set between the two.  They do seem to include the major ones though.  The yellow walk way lines do not include the red hash marks which is a let down.  I was a bit put off of Kits World due to accuracy issues, but when it comes to the Bucc anything less than total accuracy gets under my skin so I am admittedly a bit hypersensitive to these issues.  The sheets produced by Airfix for the 1/72 kits are absolutely superb and the printing quality is top shelf too.  I expect no less for the 1/48 release.  I will probably start an RAF build along with an 809 Bucc this summer when the kit comes out and then have the RAF jet painted and ready for decals when the RAF boxing comes out next year.  I build very slowly so that shouldn't be too much of a stretch.

[Shaun]

2 hours ago, wadeocu said:

Oh yes - I forgot about those sheets.  They do have some stenciling but as Muzz points out they are incomplete.  It also looks like there are some on the Gulf War sheet and different ones on the RAF sheet, but don't make a complete set between the two.  They do seem to include the major ones though.  The yellow walk way lines do not include the red hash marks which is a let down.  I was a bit put off of Kits World due to accuracy issues, but when it comes to the Bucc anything less than total accuracy gets under my skin so I am admittedly a bit hypersensitive to these issues.  The sheets produced by Airfix for the 1/72 kits are absolutely superb and the printing quality is top shelf too.  I expect no less for the 1/48 release.  I will probably start an RAF build along with an 809 Bucc this summer when the kit comes out and then have the RAF jet painted and ready for decals when the RAF boxing comes out next year.  I build very slowly so that shouldn't be too much of a stretch.

I've not yet had a kitworld sheet thats not had an error..