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1/48 Airfix HS Buccaneer S2B 208 Squadron 1993 Queen's Birthday Flypast


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I have been wanting to build this kit for a long time, and somehow now I find building without a group-build far less appealing! 

 

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So immediately after seeing this GB announced, I thought,  there must be a Bucc I can find with some sort of association with the Queen!

 

Sure enough after much more Google research than usual, I found there was a flypast for the Queen's Birthday in 1993 with Buccs from 12 and 208 Squadron. They flew from RAF Manston for this flypast, and there is a very cool picture with them all lined up in a row. 

 

I was able to find a clear pic of aircraft XV361 on the day, which also appears to have a lighter grey radome which looks pretty cool against the standard wrap around camo.

 

With the kit decals I can build this by chopping up the Aircraft numbers for the 3, turning a 9 upside down for the 6, and fabricating 1s from two straight edges of the 0s. The rest of the markings should be in the kit if the decals behave as I hope! :shutup:

 

Speaking of being scared... I have heard this kit is a model builders nightmare/dream depending on how you define it. 

 

I traded this kit for a build IDF F-16I back when I lived in Singapore.

 

http://www.naval8-208-association.com/Buccaneer1992-94Page04.html

 

https://m.facebook.com/manstonhistorymuseum/photos/twenty-buccaneers-and-two-hunter-t7s-prepare-to-leave-manston-to-mount-a-celebra/970065706399346/

 

https://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=56127

 

 


 

 

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41 minutes ago, arfa1983 said:

Speaking of being scared... I have heard this kit is a model builders nightmare/dream depending on how you define it. 

First, welcome to the party

Not a nightmare - but requires careful assembly of the upper and lower fuselage halves.

Start at the intakes and exhausts areas.

1-Buccaneer-Fuselage001.jpg

When they're fully set - work on the nose and tail, which probably look like this by now.

2-Buccaneer-Fuselage002.jpg

But it does come together, like this:

Airfix_BuccaneerS2B.jpg

or this:

Airfix_BuccaneerS2D_Ground.jpg

 

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Beauty! Thanks for the tip! I attempted a dry fit of the fuselage halves and I was expecting a challenge, but wow! 

 

I did read the trick is to glue bit by bit and let it dry. I have some Tamiya fast setting thin cement which should be perfect for this application. 

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Well let's make a start !

 

What's in the box....?

 

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Hope those decals are OK!  Just realised I missed a photo of the clear sprue... it looks ok without being amazing (kinda like everything else up there 👆)

 

Construction begins with the seats and cockpit. The seats actually look pretty good built up. Also a few other parts. I like how the instructions tell you to preassemble all the small sub assemblies first.

 

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Then some black paint for shadow and H306 for the grey in the cockpit. Coincidentally it seems that this is a perfect match for the IP decals. I also got some Alclad Aluminium onto the intake inlets.

 

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Ok... let's see how these behave :shutup:

 

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Phew!  Not too bad! Pretty pretty pretty pretty good!

 

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They broke up a little here and there but didn't do any magic exploding tricks so I'm happy. Obviously a resin cockpit would do some magic here but I'm pretty happy with how this looks actually. Particularly happy with the matching paint and decal colours! 

 

You can see that the middle firewall (is it called that in a plane?) Is separated and bent backwards. Once I tried dry fitting into the fuselage halves it seems I had glued it to the back of the front cockpit instead of the front of the back cockpit, if that makes sense. So I had to do some surgery. Once installed and with the seat in place I think it should not be very visible. 

 

Edited by arfa1983
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World economy is going to :poop: so I had nothing to do at work. 🙃 Time to use up some of that Ramadan compensation leave! 

 

I started  gluing at the front with Tamiya extra thin fast setting. I wanted the nose to be as clean as possible because that's what stands out most. Of course, despite writing in red sharpie in the nose Add noseweight I completely forgot. Without the intakes fitted I was able to put some sinkers and blutac just behind cockpit which seems like it will be enough. 😅

 

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Then bit by bit it all came together. It's not a pretty situation, but somehow when you have low expectations the result isn't as bad as you thought. Vice versa is also equally true of course.

 

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Then got out the trowel and mortar to fill the indentations. 

 

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For sure on this build I cannot get everything perfect... the green and grey camo should hide a lot of the more minor imperfections.

 

And here we are after first sandage. It will need more mortar and sandage, but damn it's already a good looking plane! 

 

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Got most of the bits and bobs glued on and some primer on over the weekend. Unfortunately I'm fresh out of Mr Surfacer (again) so only have this Nazca heavy dark primer. I even threw in a whole jar of Mr Hobby gloss white but it barely lightened it. 

 

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A lot of minor sanding and filling to do, but nothing too drastic. 

 

Truth be told since getting some momentum on this 787 I have been seriously side tracked! (Also where the last of my Mr Surfacer went!)

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Now got the undercoat on. Could not get the seams perfect but it'll be ok,  especially with the camo finish! 

 

You can see on the left wing where I didn't have the airbrush pressure correctly setup. Should have started on the cardboard.

 

The whole hobby is about learning (what not to do mostly!)

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Edited by arfa1983
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12 hours ago, CliffB said:

No trace of all that filling and sanding.  A great job so far :thumbsup2:

Yeah that mottle definitely helps hide it. There's a bit still showing but it will look fine on the shelf which is my usual measure! 

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Made some great progress on this today. I dare say by next weekend I can have her in the gallery! 

 

My 42degC spraybooth: (drying times are severely shorter!)

 

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And finally with gloss coat and decals on. I used some spare EE Lightning decals I had for the roundels and fin flash, as the kit decals are really pretty poor. So at least for these obvious ones it looks a lot better.

 

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The kit decals have a very obvious carrier film and they don't really respond at all to decal solutions. 

 

But at least I was able to butcher some of them to get the airframe I was after, aircraft number XV361! Of course in order to have this otherwise somewhat obscure aircraft part of this group build, I needed to make this number work. Of course there were other Buccs at the flypast on that day, but I don't have any clear photos of the other serial numbers. 

 

52158832055_cdfcb696c8_b.jpg

 

 

Edited by arfa1983
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2 hours ago, arfa1983 said:

My 42degC spraybooth: (drying times are severely shorter!)

Looks great did the paint at least make it to the plastic before drying ? Those are some toasty temps to be painting in. 

Edited by Corsairfoxfouruncle
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4 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Looks great did the paint at least make it to the plastic before drying ? Those are some toasty temps to be painting in. 

Yes... just. I think the retarder thinner is a must. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I went to buy some fresh supply of modelling fillers and the price has really gone up

I think its due to a shortage caused by certain modellers needing so much!  :blink:  :lol:

 

How are you getting on with this?

1 month has gone already!

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18 hours ago, Black Knight said:

I went to buy some fresh supply of modelling fillers and the price has really gone up

I think its due to a shortage caused by certain modellers needing so much!  :blink:  :lol:

 

How are you getting on with this?

1 month has gone already!

 

I blame the (kit) manufacturers, not the users! But I don't want to get into politics here. 

 

And yes yes, it's still waiting to be finished in the same form as above. I've just been travelling for work and also started an F104 for the Century Fighters GB! 

 

I'll try make progress on this one over this weekend! 

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I got the wheel wells and landing gear painted today as well as the panel line wash on. Of course these panel lines are trenches, but rather than hide them, I think it's more effective to exaggerate them. I had a little dropsy today and the refuelling probe broke off bit that will be an easy fix. 

 

Just need to let the enamel thinners dry from the panel line wash removal, then it just needs a dullcoat, tires painted, and final assembly. Oh, and leading edges painted aluminium after the dullcoat. 

 

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So almost done! Just need to do leading edges aluminium and final assembly. 

 

The humid weather bit me in the a__ though. Right at the end of doing dullcoat a big fart of water sprayed onto the nose and made it lumpy. I'll give it a micromesh and then call it fibreglass texture. :whistle:

 

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Looking forward to seeing this one on the shelf! 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I got back from vacation. Feeling refreshed?

 

First thing this morning was to bust out the masking tape and Alclad aluminium. 

 

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I then got the landing gear on and painted the tips on the tail with clear yellow. 

 

And calling it done! Will get some proper photos for the gallery later today hopefully! 

 

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It looks good, but not great. However I am still happy how it turned out considering the quality of the kit.

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Really nice work what can polity  say is a challenging kit. 

I remember  the fly past only to well. They were based at RAF Manston.  22 of the blighters. They took off at 30 second intervals. 

Now the best bit. I was teaching orthographic projection to year 9. My school was right under the flight path for take off. I had an Ofsted inspector in front of me watching me try and teach. I would have helped if the pupils could all lip read.  Noisy is an under statement :doh:

 

Dick

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