Airfix 1/72 Buccaneer - Op Granby

[Volant]

Here is my Airfix 1/72 Buccaneer, finished around a year ago.
 

I used the kit decals for a very late Buccanner (post gulf war) - and so not 100% as per Operation Granby, but I’m not a stickler, so it’s close enough for me, particularly as the ‘Sky Pirates’ was in there. A real benefit of doing desert pink was that as it was applied in a rush, there’s very limited stencilling to apply - which personally I find a pain.

 

The kit is all OOB, which pushed my limited skill set to the edge. In particular I found the way the front fuselage and nose section went together was tricky - lots of joins along many different planes and angles. And so a lot of work with putty and sanding to correct my ham-fistedness. Tamiya paints (mix of XF-59 desert yellow, X-17 pink, and very small amounts of XF-2 white and XF-7 red until it looked ‘about right’) sprayed through Mr Procon PS-289:

 

Weathered to appear war-weary, as they seemed to get grimy pretty quickly from the photos I’ve seen. At the time I hadn’t tried chipping, although now I have, and so were I to do it again perhaps I’d try and replicate some of the hastily applied desert pink coming off to show the grey/green underneath. It’s always easy to get carried away though.. I also wanted to have folded wings to take less shelf space and add interest. However I also wanted weaponary. Luckily I found a photo showing exactly that - hard points in use, wings folded, so it did happen occasionally!

 

I will however try that eventually as this is number one of three Op Granby aircraft I’ll eventually get round to - I have the Eduard ‘Desert Babes’ Tornado and a Hasegawa Jaguar (with aftermarket decals), both 1/72, to complete the set.

 

Period photos sometimes seem to show the colour closer to sand, and sometimes more ‘pink’ - so I did a ‘rough’ mix on the paint so that each aircraft will be a slightly different shade depending on the photo/airframe that I’m (trying) to represent.

 

Thanks for looking

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hopesdaddy]

Nice work, your paint mix looks to be an almost perfect desert pink

[Volant]

Very kind, thank you.

 

I know the Tamiya acrylic range isn’t the biggest out there, but I actually enjoy the research followed by a bit of trial and error mixing my own shades.

 

That and they seem to behave for me when spraying, and my local model shop stocks them, within a 10 minute walk.

[HOUSTON]

Beautiful model and lovely detailing. 

it looks STUNNING. 

the overhead shot is Amazing. 

Kudos. 

Edited December 4, 2022 by HOUSTON