Airfix Blackburn Buccaneer S.2B in RAF Service (A12014) 1:48

[Mike]

Blackburn Buccaneer S.2B in RAF Service (A12014)

1:48 Airfix

 

 

The Buccaneer needs little introduction to most British aviation enthusiasts, as it was in service for a long time, first in the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, and latterly with the RAF after remaining airframes were handed-over, performing a similar strike role in both branches of the British armed forces.  The Buccaneer was originally designed by Blackburn for the Royal Navy, which is why even the RAF aircraft retained their folding wings and arrestor hooks. Blackburn was later rolled into Hawker Siddeley, hiding away its lengthy heritage.  It was designed to be a rugged low-level attacker that was to approach below the enemy’s radar horizon, and had a reputation as a highly-stable weapons platform that although it was just subsonic could leave other more modern aircraft in its wake in the turbulent air close to the ground.

 

After the last British aircraft carriers were retired at the end of the 70s, the hand-over to the RAF was completed, and older airframes were scrapped due to safety concerns after an accident, leaving them with a fleet of around 60 aircraft that served until 1994 when the Tornado took over the tasks it had been carrying out.  The type progressed from initial S.1 variant to S.2, replacing the underpowered De Havilland engines with the powerful Spey engines that were also used in the Nimrod and British Phantoms amongst others.  This required a larger intake to ingest sufficient air to feed the engines’ voracious appetite, and later the S.2B was further upgraded to carry Martel missiles.  The S.2A moniker was reserved for former FAA airframes after they had been converted for use by the RAF, while the C was the Navy’s name for the S.2A, and the D were former Naval airframes upgraded to S.2B standards.  The last hurrah of the Buccaneer was during the first Gulf War that the British called Operation Granby, laser designating targets for the Tornados that it accompanied in the event they encountered problems with their own pods.  They were instrumental in the destruction of many bridges in Iraq, and they were also sent to dive-bomb airfields and bunkers either solo, or with lasing provided by other aircraft.  On its return from the Gulf, it was decided that they were no-longer needed, and were retired early, despite having been substantially upgraded at great cost just a few years earlier, which is typical of British Defence decisions.  Their role was taken over by the Tornados after they had been upgraded to operate the Sea Eagle anti-shipping missiles that the Buccaneers had been carrying before they were retired.

 

 

The Kit

This is a fresh reboxing of the still brand-new tooling of the venerable Buccaneer from Airfix, adding RAF decals and a new sprue of parts that contains many parts common to the previous version, reorganised to accommodate the new missiles etc.  The kit arrives in a large top-opening box, and if you consider part count to be a value indicator, you’re getting almost 300 of them on the seven sprues that are in a darker grey styrene than usual, reminiscent of the Extra Dark Sea Grey scheme that it often wore in service.  There is a single sprue of clear parts, a large decal sheet and a thick instruction booklet that has three glossy colour and markings profiles inside.  First impressions are excellent, with lots of delightfully fine detail that includes panel lines and rivets, as well as raised details where appropriate, at odds with the jest that the Bucc was hewn from one huge billet of airframe aluminium.  Amongst the parts you get a very detailed cockpit, gear bays, engines, boarding ladders, an open port engine bay that even includes a handy styrene mask for painting, a contoured box inside the nose for the nose-weight, detailed bomb bay, air-brake in the tail and a broad weapons load, plus a set of FOD guards for the intakes and exhausts.  That’s an impressive list of features that even includes two pilot figures, although they are sadly still suffering from the hands-on-laps pose that dates back to the 80s and beyond.  Such a minor gripe that it’s hardly worth mentioning, especially as many folks don’t use pilot figures anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that my two old Airfix Buccs have been firmly pushed right to the back of the stash, let’s move on.  It’s of no concern to this modeller though, because this kit and its siblings are already doing roaring trade at model shops, and is firmly in the realms of the de facto standard for 1:48 scale.  Having since watched the Hornby TV show where Paramjit worked upon this project, it’s clear that he and the team have put in a lot of effort to create a model kit that trumps their old tooling by a substantial margin, which is honestly a huge understatement.  The decal sheet is similarly well-detailed with lots of stencils, seat belt decals, and dials for the instrument panels that should add to the realism of the cockpit without stressing your bank account further.  Before you break out the tools, you need to decide which of four weapons loud-outs you are planning to deploy on the wings and in the belly of your Bucc.

 

Decal Option A

4 x Sea Eagle Anti-Shipping Missile

 

Decal Option B

4 x  Empty Underwing Pylons

4 x 1,000lb Bombs in Bay

 

Decal Option C

2 x Slipper Tanks on Inner Pylons

2 x Empty Outer Pylons

 

Decal Option D

1 x AIM-9 Sidewinder Missile or 1 x 1,000lb Paveway II Laser Guided bombs

1 x AN/ALQ-101 ECM Pod

1 x AN/AVQ-23 Pave Spike laser designator pod

1 x Empty Inner Pylon

 

 

Construction begins with drilling the necessary holes for your chosen weapons scheme, which takes up four pages with various diagrams used to assist you with the decision.  A further page shows the location of the various internal decals that are used throughout the build, although they aren’t mentioned on the actual instruction steps, so a bit of cross-referencing and pencil markings might be wise to prevent missing some out.  They are all within the cockpit however, so that shouldn’t take long.  We finally get to cut some parts off the sprues to make up the two Mk.6 Martin Baker ejection seats, which consist of six parts each, with large multi-part cushions and the overhead pull-handles that initiates the ejection process in the event of an emergency.  The seat building process is carried out twice, then the rear-seater’s instrument panel is made up with a recess on the front mating with a block on the back of the pilot’s launch rail, adding decals to the panel and the headbox of both the seats.  The cockpit tub has the nose gear bay glued under it, needing just the aft end cap adding to box it in, then the side consoles are detailed with top surfaces that lock in place on shaped depressions, and accepting decals later to improve the detail.  The pilot’s instrument panel is started by adding rudder pedals behind the centre, and adding the short L-shaped control column into the slot in the front of the panel, before it and the rear bulkhead are joined to the rest of the cockpit, followed by the two seats, the forward one also holding the rear instrument panel.  In preparation for the closing up of the separate nose portion of the fuselage, a container is made up from two halves, which has large I-shaped bars running down the sides, and inside you are told to put 15 grammes of nose weight before closing the lid on it.  It’s a fancy feature that should make the sometimes fraught task of avoiding a tail-sitter model a thing of the past, cramming lead shot into available spaces to your best guess and hoping it won’t cause problems when you close the fuselage halves.  The nose sides have cockpit sidewall detail moulded-in, which is improved further by adding seven extra parts, and if you are planning on using the included boarding ladders, you should drill some holes where indicated, ensuring they are horizontal to the finish aircraft’s line of flight.  The nose weight fits into the port half of the nose on its I-tab, taking care to glue it home fully.  The cockpit slides into the port nose half, and should click into position thanks to a tab on each side of the rear bulkhead that clips in place on a shape secreted in the rear of the nose halves.  Gone are the days of inexact cockpit positioning, which is another welcome improvement.  The nose is glued together and allowed to set up, then the pilot’s coaming and clear HUD are popped on top, finishing off the work in that area for now.

 

 

 

 

As mentioned, there are detailed engine fronts included, plus their trunking that penetrates deep into the fuselage and out the other end, with an almost full engine in the port side nacelle that can be displayed.  The first parts are the exhaust trunking halves that are paired on a cross-brace and the halves fit together using four circular depressions, and includes some framework for the main gear bays, which is painted a different colour.  A bulkhead straddles the two tubes and incorporates the rear walls of the main bays, with another at the forward side that clips onto a large tab.  Another bulkhead slides into the rear of the exhaust trunking tubes, and two perpendicular panels slide in between the two aft-most bulkheads to strengthen the assembly, and provide surface detail for the inner walls of the main gear bays.  This part of the assembly can then be inserted into the lower fuselage half, which has the rotating bomb-bay roof moulded into it.  Before proceeding, two raised panels and square blocks should be removed by sanding back to the correct profile of the engine nacelles.   The intake trunking is mounted on a similar cross-brace with two circular alignment pins, then is butted up against another bulkhead that has engine front-faces moulded into them.  You are incited to build the next few steps whether you intend to display the engine or not, as it will make aligning the parts much easier down the line, and I’m not going to argue.  The shell of the port engine is made up from two halves, and attaches to the rear of the forward bulkhead behind the intake trunks, with some detail painting necessary before you insert them into the fuselage in front of the aft assembly.  Some additional tubing is laid over the top of the engine as it will appear through the hatch if you are leaving it off, but omit these parts if you are modelling it closed.  A curved plastic part is included with the word ‘MASK’ etched on it is surfaces that can be used to protect your hard work on the engine during the painting of the exterior of the model.  Paramjit is clearly demonstrating his devotion to modelling and modellers there, as masking a recessed area can be tricky.  If you are displaying the engine, the upper fuselage needs a little work, removing the access panel that has been helpfully part chain-drilled for you from the inside, making the task simply a case of attacking it (carefully) with a scalpel, and a scrap diagram shows the correct angles to cut through the thickness of the fuselage.  A side wall is glued in place in preparation, then the fuselage is left to one side for a moment, before it is shown again over the page, where you are incited to paint the main gear bay rooves and drill out some holes in the spine if you are folding the wings.  The fuselage halves are then joined only if you are folding the wings, where you are advised not to glue the aft bulkhead as it will help ease the alignment of the two halves.

 

 

The decision of whether to fold the wings or not is down to you, but bear in mind that RAF aircraft retained their wing-fold mechanisms, and there are photos of them with wings folded on airfields, despite their original reason being to save space below deck on a carrier.  The folded option involves inserting ribs into the wing roots that have spikes projecting from the top to receive the outer wing panels, which are next to be put together.  Two decal options involve making up fairings that project from under the leading edge of the wing outer panel, then the ailerons, all of which are made from two parts each, then adding a choice of different shaped clear wingtips, depending on the decal option you have chosen, stopping the inner ends with a rib that accepts the fold mechanism later.  You are told to remove the fifth vortex generator from the inside edge, and the port wing also has a long pitot probe mounted on a fairing below. 

 

For unfolded wings, a spur on the outer panel is removed, and so is the fifth vortex generator as for the folded option, then an A-frame with insert is placed in the recesses inside the wings before they are joined.  The wings are glued into the lower wing roots within the raised guides, then the upper fuselage skin can be glued down, again without gluing the aft bulkhead.  The same painting and drilling is done before the two halves are glued, as per the repeated scrap diagram.  If you have elected to expose the engine, a brace is glued across the bay, then the bay door and a small part are fixed in place on four hinges that slip under the edge of the bay.  Again, the mask part is included for your convenience during exterior painting.

 

 

 

The Bucc has an area-rule era coke-bottle shaped fuselage, so has a bit of a wide rear, which is made from a separate section to the main fuselage and incorporates the tail fin.  The tail is split vertically into two parts, and has an aft bulkhead inserted during closure, after which the tail-hook insert is glued into the gap in the underside of the assembly, followed by gluing of the tail and the nose assemblies to the fuselage, taking care to align everything neatly to remove or reduce any remedial work.  The larger S.2 intake trunks are slotted over the interior trunk surface, and are topped off by a handed lip, but as usual, it’s best to ensure a good fit here before applying glue.  The exhausts have inner and outer skins too, and these slide on inside the other before being attached to the rear of the fuselage either side of the tail, with the short flap-sections made up from top and bottom halves and fixed next to the exhausts either flush, or dropped to 40°, next to the ailerons that can be offset to 30° by swapping the actuator part out.  The final flying surface is the prominent T-tail, which starts with the main surface that’s made from top and bottom halves, mated with the now usual circular locating tabs, then it’s glued onto the moulded-in tail fin.  The fairing on top is two more parts, with a choice of forward and rear bullet fairings, separate elevators (one of which is arrowed to the rudder position incorrectly) and rudder panel, all of which are single parts each and can be deflected as you wish.

 

 

The Buccaneer has a long tail cone fairing that splits vertically and hinges out into the airflow to act as the air-brake, which was a definite weak-point of the old kit in terms of detail and fit, but doesn’t seem like that’s going to be the case with the new tool.  To display it open, you begin by assembling two outer skins on a W-shaped support, then inserting the three peaks into the rear of the brake surfaces, which are moulded as one, and have some nice rivet detail moulded into them.  The surfaces are boxed in at the rear by the fairings that give it the tapering profile it achieves when stashed away, adding a short bulkhead and a triple-linked tube before sliding the air-brake assembly into position, with a scrap diagram showing the correct orientation of the tubes diagonally within the assembly.  The closed air-brakes are simple by comparison, comprising two halves and a central bulkhead that creates the vanes at the top and bottom of the fairing.  It slots straight into the rear of the fuselage, so is quite the appealing option if you’re intrinsically lazy, in a hurry, or just don’t like masking.  The arrestor hook is added later by choosing a deployed or stowed Y-shaped base, actuator to get the correct angle, and the hook itself with a small blade aerial next to it.  A pair of blade antennae and two probes are also fixed under the nose while the airframe is inverted, with a tubular aux-intake further back on the fuselage.

 

 

Under the belly of the Bucc is an innovative rotating bomb bay that you can either pop the lid onto and carry on with the rest of the build, or put the effort in and detail it further.  The process begins by adding an insert forward of the bay, with another insert with clear light at the rear, and a detail insert in the front of the bay that is used for both options.  The closed bomb bay can then be covered up and you can move on, but if you plan on showing off that nice detail within, there are five lengths of hose/cable bundles fitted within, plus two thick pipes added into the main gear bays nearby.  The bombs are fitted later if you plan on using them.

 

 

The gear of the Bucc was sturdy to cope with constant hard landings and catapult launches from the deck of a carrier, so all the struts are moulded in halves with some of the wider sections hollow inside to reduce the likelihood of sink-marks.  Some bright spark will probably make metal inserts to toughen those up further.  The three wheels are each moulded in halves, with a flat-spot on the bottom to simulate weighting, although all the wheels are shown as not glued in place yet, presumably so you get the flat spot on the bottom consistently.  There is also a scrap diagram showing the diameter of the hub, which should allow the deft modeller to create their own punch-out masks to ease painting of the wheels, choosing a diameter of 7.6mm.  Once the gear is done, flooding the wheel centres with glue should prevent them moving again if you don’t want to faff about every time you move it in the future.  The nose gear leg slots into the bay with a retraction jack behind it, and a single bay door running down the side of it.  The main gear legs fit into a hole in a rib and on top of another rib, making for a strong bond, then they have their curved doors fixed to the edge of the bay with three hinges that slot under the side.  A decal of a data-plate is applied to both the main gear legs at front and rear, which is good to see, as stencils make models look much more detailed IMHO.

 

Before applying the glazing to the cockpit, you should choose whether to install the pilots, which have a detailed painting guide next to them, then a blast-shield is placed between the two pilots, and a choice of two windscreens, only one of which has a wiper, so you can use aftermarket Photo-Etch (PE) wipers if you’re an inveterate detail upgrader.  This is certainly a model designed by modellers with modellers in mind, and watching the episode where Paramjit is working on the design is well-recommended.  The main canopy also has two parts, one with the det-cord breaker moulded-in and the other without it, so you can use alternative methods such as PE or decals to replicate the det-cord that shatters the canopy in advance of the pilots punching out.  Yet another helpful addition.  You can close the canopy or depict it pushed back to just over the rear pilot’s seat using either of the two parts, either option showing off the detailed cockpit within.  The Bucc’s prominent L-shaped refuelling probe is inserted into a recess on the nose in front of the canopy, and the spine is decorated with blade antennae and lights depending on which decal option you have chosen.

 

The weapons included in the box are well-detailed, and have inserts for the Sea Eagle missiles to give them more realistic thickness fins.  The weapons set includes the following:

 

2 x TV Martel Anti-Shipping Missile

4 x Sea Eagle Anti-Shipping Missile

1 x Martel TV Guidance Data Link Pod (left over from the C/D boxing)

2 x handed slipper tanks

1 x 1,000lb Paveway II Laser Guided bombs (the instructions mark this as a 10,000lb bomb due to a typo)

8 x 1,000lb Iron Bombs

2 x AIM-9 Sidewinder Missiles

1 x AN/ALQ-101 ECM Pod

1 x AN/AVQ-23 Pave Spike laser designator pod

 

All the weapons have handed pylons that are suitable to their station, some of which have additional parts to thicken their mounting-points, and the bombs have either pylons for wing-mounting, or cleats for mounting inside the bomb bay.  All the weapons and fuel tanks have stencils and a painting guide included on the main sheets.

 

The model is complete now, but Airfix have helpfully included several extras that will give your model some additional visual interest.  There are two crew ladders with separate stand-off brackets, one for each pilot that are fixed side-by-side to the nose using the holes drilled initially before the model was completed or even begun if you’re prepared.  There are also Foreign Object Debris (FOD) guards for the intakes and exhausts, which have nice engraved detail, and the exhaust blanks have a T-shaped handle that is fitted to the centre of the part.

 

 

Markings

The Bucc didn’t wear too many schemes during its long and illustrious career, but Airfix have managed to include four different options on the sheet, each of which has a side of glossy A3 in full colour devoted to it to assist you with painting and decaling.  An additional four pages in the instruction booklet shows where all the many stencil decals are placed for each decal option, avoiding duplication and over-complication of the other sheets of diagrams.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• XW527/527, No.12 Sqn., RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland, 1993
• XW544, No.15 Sqn., RAF Laarbruch, Germany, 1971
• XV352, No.208 Sqn., Operation Red Flag, 1977
• XW547/R, Guinness Girl/Pauline, Operation Granby/Desert Storm, Muharraq Airport, Bahrain, 1991

 

 

 

Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas.

 

 

Conclusion

I’m still excited of course, but I’ve calmed down a little bit since the initial release.  It’s an exceptionally well-detailed replacement for the old tooling, and the engineering that has gone into the making of the kit is first-rate.  Add to this the useful extras such as the ladder and FOD guards, and we’re onto a winner.  It’s a Buccaneer too, and we’ve waited SO long for a new one.

 

Extremely highly recommended.

 

Kit Only

 

Kit & Coin

 

Review sample courtesy of

[John_W]

My friend is a 999 call handler. He reports a surge in middle aged men suffering palpitations, racing pulses and feeling faint since this review came out...

My late Brother in Law was a mechanic on Buccaneers and was at Red Flag when the US Pilots learned that all the jokes about how low Buccaneers  flew weren't jokes at all. 

The review also reminds me of a tale he told of a canopy that had been removed for maintenance suffering an accidental det cord firing, thankfully no one hurt but brown trousers all round...

[Alan P]

Thanks again for another helpful review Mike. This looks like the definitive Bucc kit and it'll surely be flying off the shelves.

 

[Deep breath] BUT WHEN'S IT GOING TO BE RELEASED IN 1/32??!!!!

[Marlin]

Thanks for the review Mike.  

Looks like Airfix has another winner with this kit. 

I'll be buying at least two of them. 

I can't resist something carrying anti ship missiles, and I also like the Op. Granby version in lovely desert pink.  

/Bosse

[tony.t]

Thanks for the excellent review.

I am slightly confused by the penultimate sprue close-up which appears to show the original flush weapons bay door. Is the  'Navy sprue' included too?  

 

Tony 

 

[Alan P]

10 hours ago, tony.t said:

I am slightly confused by the penultimate sprue close-up which appears to show the original flush weapons bay door. Is the  'Navy sprue' included too?  

Looks like it doesn't it? The bulged bomb bay is on Sprue F further up.

[eng]

9 hours ago, tony.t said:

Thanks for the excellent review.

I am slightly confused by the penultimate sprue close-up which appears to show the original flush weapons bay door. Is the  'Navy sprue' included too?  

 

Tony 

 

 

I didn't think that sprue was in this boxing of the kit. Just checked two reviews on YT and neither show this sprue in the new release.

 

Eng

[Filler]

My guess is that Mike may have sensibly been economical with his time and reused some images and text from the Navy version review.

 

In the review, frame E has gone and been replaced by frame F (with a slightly different shade to the blue background, suggesting it was taken at a different time). The image showing frame E accompanies text talking about the arrestor hook and rotating bomb bay that are more conveniently adjacent on frame E than on F.