It wasn't the Kit, It was Me (The accidental second Airfix Buccaneer).

[David H]

Many of you recall a year or so back i built and finished the Airfix 72nd scale Buccaneer. Those of you who followed the build progression probably remember that i had fit issues between the instrument panel dash, and the windscreen. At the time, i thought it was something of an oversight and while i was able to make it work, i thought Airfix was asleep at the switch.

Fast Forward to late 2022.

I have a second Buccaneer going into paint (funny story), and time came to install the windscreen.

In a nutshell... i was flat out wrong.

The second instrument dash installed exactly per the kit instructions, and fit fine.

 

 

 

At this point, while allowing the suspense to build.... i used the NewWare Models NWAM0742 mask set this time, instead of Eduard. This is just me, but based on my experience using both Eduard and NewWare masks, given the choice i'll use NewWare. If you haven't had a chance to compare them to some Eduard masks, you should.

This is the inside of the windscreen, masked and painted with the NewWare set.

 

And now... the big finish.

The Airfix Windscreen fits as perfectly as anyone could expect.

 

 

 

So, this experience just re-enforces my feelings towards the kit, which are very very positive. Airfix knew exactly what they were doing; i did not. Thought it was important to pass on my findings and set the record straight.

 

-d-

Edited February 21 by David H
slight change to title

[cpoud117]

Hello! What do you use to wax your canopies, they look amazingly clear.

[ruudster]

Looking great!  I'll see it at Seattle's show?  🙂

[David H]

1 minute ago, cpoud117 said:

Hello! What do you use to wax your canopies, they look amazingly clear.

i use Malm's liquid carnuba wax. The stuff looks like honey mustard salad dressing. You apply it with a wet brush, and when it dries it looks like clear flat. You then polish the dried wax away with a cotton bud or two. Very very fast, and eliminates the problematical aspect of dipping canopies in Future. I've been told that mineral spirits will remove it but for obvious reasons, i'm too afraid to try.

2 minutes ago, ruudster said:

Looking great!  I'll see it at Seattle's show?  🙂

if and when Seattle has a show, i guess....

[cpoud117]

Thanks, I'm not a big fan of dipping canopies either. I'll try to source a similar wax locally, it's worth a try

[ruudster]

https://www.ipms-seattle.org/events.php 👍

[David H]

1 hour ago, cpoud117 said:

Thanks, I'm not a big fan of dipping canopies either. I'll try to source a similar wax locally, it's worth a try

if you can find the direct equivalent locally, so much the better. It's pretty expensive stuff, but on the other hand it WAS meant to be used to wax your Ferrari....

[cpoud117]

On the plus side, a single bottle is a life-time supply for a modeller. But it's true that if it doesn't work, it's a very expensive trial.

 

[David H]

This was never intended to be another build thread; i think i've covered that pretty well. However, here is an addendum to show the happy ending of the windscreen installation story.

 

The windscreen was glued in place using MiG AMMO white acrylic glue. The liquid glue was rinsed away with a wet paint brush and allowed to dry overnight.

The following morning, the dried excess that didn't rinse away was carefully sanded off. There was a little bit of filling and sanding done with Mr Dissolved Putty on the front end of the windscreen base.

 

The windscreen periphery was then masked off and a coat of Tamiya LP-11 silver applied.

Then i applied my customary mix of YZC primer.

Removing the mask from the periphery showed there were one or two places where a little bit of filling was still needed, so i patched those areas up with Mr Dissolved Putty, sanded it out and charged on.

Here's what it looks like now...

So, All's Well that Ends Well.

[David H]

But What's This?? A SECOND Buccaneer??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watch this space, as they say...

[Klaasdebouwer]

Looking very nice indeed. Would love to see it on its feet. 

[David H]

On 11/5/2023 at 1:04 AM, Klaasdebouwer said:

Looking very nice indeed. Would love to see it on its feet. 

The undercarriage legs are in work now....as is the canopy.

-d-

Edited November 6, 2023 by David H

[David H]

Speaking of the undercarriage legs...... i installed the struts last night. The main ones, anyway.

I've seen variations of this technique applied to much bigger models; things like Tempests, Sea Furies and the like. I imagine it would work on a P-47 Thunderbolt as well; pretty much any plane that had inward- facing wheels and axles.

 

I carved off the kit-provided brake stacks molded onto the outboard halves of the landing gear legs, and i drilled holes clear through the landing gear forks to take replacement axles and the Eduard aftermarket wheels.

 

The location of the Airfix gear struts is actually pretty good as-is, being robust and not vague or floppy. In a perfect world, i woulda used a piece of stainless hypo needle tubing of the right diameter that was perfectly straight.

 

Unfortunately, this slightly wonky piece of brass rod was all i had but it was straight... in places.

 

I think it will work since i think the airfix plastic is sufficiently flexible to take a little bit of wiggling without breaking when i extract the rod.

 

Up next are the ejection seats. Stay tuned.

[David H]

Latest update from the Royal Model Aeroplane Engineering Establishment....

The main gear struts are anchored into place. It turns out that i did have some perfectly straight pieces of Brass Rod. Wish i knew this earlier. Chalk it up to laziness, i guess.

Reason i mention this is, any ripples, bows, or irregularities in the wire will "drag" or impose side loads on the gear struts when you extract the wire. Obviously, breaking the landing gear attachment point in the process of removing the rod completely negates the point of this exercise. I still recommend it as a technique though, as landing gear with trailing-link design cause a lot of illusions and parallax issues when looking at them head-on, trying to align them.

 

After experimenting with both metal as well as plastic, as well as both .030 and .035 diameter rods, i settled on using .035 diameter Evergreen rod for the axles.

The fit was a little on the snug side, but it allowed the wheels to be installed with no glue, relying solely on friction to keep the axles in place. The wheels are also free to rotate, which will make aligning the flat spots on all three wheels a lot easier.

Since these photos were taken, i went back with some Humbrol 146 and touched up the axles. I'll hit them with a little bit of the future/water/flat black wash at some point.

Once again, the Eduard Brassin wheels did not let me down. The masks for painting the wheels worked perfectly.

Holes did of course have to be drilled clear through the main wheels, as well as the brake stacks to accept the axles.

The Nose gear assembly is largely done, though i am waiting for the Humbrol 146 to dry on the extension strut (it's great paint but it seems to take forever to dry).

So with that in the wings, i decided to prime the Aerocraft resin ejection seats. I am liking what i see, so far.

Sometimes you need to shoot these things with primer, just to make sure you really understand the detail you're looking at.

Aerocraft also includes some 3D printed overhead face curtain pull rings and lower ejection handles. They're very delicate but the slot you see above the pilot's parachute pack is designed to take them. The size of the part doesn't intimidate me as much as the challenge of brush painting something that small.

 

I shall ponder this further. In the mean time, Merry Christmas!

[David H]

Right then. She's on her feet.

She won't be finished by year end, but this is a significant construction milestone. For me, it constitutes the mid-point of the "End Game".

There are some glitches on the fuselage that need to be rectified, plus the Ejection seats are still in work. Anything that still needs to go on the bottom of the model is ready, but there are things like the refuelling probe, anticollision beacons and blade antennae on the top side that still need to go. Not to mention the air brake...

stay tuned for more...

-d-

[David H]

Greetings again from RNAY Bremerton/ HMS Mongoose.

 

More itty bitty, fiddly, bendy breaky parts installed on the Buccaneer.

Rocket Pods, and Air Brake installed.

Photo intentionally taken from low angle, to make the model look more menacing.

Couple things to note:

The model is not perfectly photographed from head-on but you can sort of see how the trick with the brass wire worked to get the main struts level. The gap you see around the right gear fork goes away if you move ever so slightly to the right.

Going from the Airfix diagram, the main landing gear doors should hang lower, in the sense that they should be nearly touching the gear. Try as i might, i could not get the gear doors to hang any lower than this. I tried thinning the hinges, and i'm positive that the struts were installed correctly. I had this same problem with Buccaneer number one, as seen here...

I tried an experiment with regards to mounting the rocket pods...

I wanted to mitigate the gaps between the mating surface of the pylon and the lower wing plank. To that end, i carefully applied Starbond black CA to the holes that take the locating pins. Then, i slopped on MiG AMMO acrylic glue onto the mating surface of the pylon. I pressed the two together and the excess Ammo oozed out from the joint, which i rinsed away with a wet paint brush.

The resulting joint is pretty strong. The one catch is, if you apply too much black CA to the holes, the excess also squeezes out and since it's black, it clashes with the gloss white undersurface. Now, i think this is because i applied just a little too much black CA to the holes but i think this technique is worth trying again. Unlike the engine pods on the A3D, cross sectional thickness is minimal and i can't get creative with drilling holes and fashioning pins from exotic metals.

There were two attempts at mounting the Air Brake. The first was with AMMO glue, but the brake angled to the left so i pulled it off, scraped away the dried glue and re-attached it with Tamiya liquid cement. I think the aft view seen here is what prompted me to pull the air brake off, and re glue it.

 

Assembling and painting the air brake assembly is awkward, but it's installation to the aft fuselage was not. I'd seen some people go to the extreme of installing a piece of wire, sort of like a spindle to mount the brake on...but at least in 72nd scale its not needed. The resulting join is pretty strong. Drilling out the holes in the air brake plates takes a while but i think its worth it.

 

What appears to be a shadow along the rear fuselage flank is actually Tamiya Smoke, which i sprayed along the sides to depict jet exhaust. I referenced the Pathe newsreel footage of 801 Squadron aboard VICTORIOUS and the planes were pretty clean when they came aboard. In my view, better to exercise a light touch rather than go overboard (no pun intended).

 

I had a ghost seam re appear on the forward fuselage so i needed to re-sand and re-paint that area. When that was done, i installed the Refuelling probe.

Lastly, i installed the rudder. i cut two small strips of Tamiya tape and stuck one to the top and one to the bottom of the rudder. I applied Ammo glue to the edge of the rudder in between the two tape hinges and pressed the rudder in place. Next i took a wet paintbrush (yeah, again) and rinsed away the excess glue.

 

By 1 AM the joint was dried and the tape was removed.

We are now down to two blade aerials, an anti-collision beacon, 2 ejection seats, the wind deflector, some TAT probes, and the pitot boom.

Hopefully you're not getting tired of these agonizingly tedious updates ant the end of the build. I know i'm repeating myself but, not enough time is devoted to explaining the details of the "End Game". In my view this is where 95% of mistakes are made. One needs to carefully study and think about the sequence of how the finishing touches go on.

 

Happy New Year, Everybody!

[Flying Badger]

Looking great David. 

 

I'm blatantly Stealing the brass wire trick! :-)

[David H]

3 minutes ago, Flying Badger said:

Looking great David. 

 

I'm blatantly Stealing the brass wire trick! 🙂

just make sure you use a straight piece of wire. Ask me how i know this....

[F-104 nut]

Looking really great David !

[dnl42]

That looks excellent. Particularly well done repair. 

 

On 12/23/2023 at 7:35 AM, David H said:

I've seen variations of this technique applied to much bigger models; things like Tempests, Sea Furies and the like. I imagine it would work on a P-47 Thunderbolt as well; pretty much any plane that had inward- facing wheels and axles

I will indeed try this on a P-47. 

[David H]

14 hours ago, dnl42 said:

That looks excellent. Particularly well done repair. 

 

I will indeed try this on a P-47. 

They way i saw it done, instead of using a wire that passes through the axles, builders used a piece of polystyrene tubing, i guess cut and adjusted to perfect length, and then slipped over the axles at either end.

What was not clear, was if the gear legs were "flexed" outboards to remove the tube, or if it was cut in the middle with a tool of some sort.

You're on your own with that one, laddie.

[David H]

Ahoy there, Lads!

An update from the Admiralty. Ejection seats are finally painted and installed.

 

The paint work belies the detail on the seats. I went back with the wash at least three times in an effort to clean things up.

Were i to do the seats again, i would prime them with Nato Black, and then drybrush them with German Grey, in order to see all the facets and details integrated into the seat. I brush painted the grey lower frame this time and combined with several washes tends to make the detail look a little softer than it is.

Here's some closeups of the finished seats. I was squeamish about using the resin printed ejection curtain handles, but actually once installed and painted i like em better than the Eduard handles i used on ill-fated Buccaneer Numero Uno.

That white fleck that you see on the upper strap is i think some dried Testors Dullcoat. i have since scraped it away.

And here they are in the cockpit.

Since this photo was taken, the aft leaning "ironing board" in the rear cockpit has been removed. Not in the original configuration.

Here's some final photos showing you (maybe?) the Eduard ZOOM set i used in the cockpit...

And finally a starboard beam view. Mostly.

So, what's next? Well, the canopy is done. I need to build up 4 bombs for the weapons bay, the pitot boom needs to go on, and there are two blade antennae that go on the spine. I installed a red anticollision beacon on the spine (after i catapulted the first beacon into another dimension), and the wind deflector for the Navigator is on now. I need to make some small black disks to put in the backs of the rocket pods.... but i think that will be it.

 

Not long now, lads. Thanks for checking in.

[heloman1]

Looking good...

 

Colin

[David H]

7 hours ago, heloman1 said:

Looking good...

 

Colin

Thanks Bro.

[David H]

Right Lads. I'm calling her done.

I'll get to work on a final report for RFI, but most of you know how this song goes.

Til then, enjoy the pretty pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do wish Peter Banfield were around to see these.

 

Fly Navy!