Lord Riot Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Having just finished Airfix’s superb Royal Navy Buccaneer, I couldn’t wait to start an even newer kit, of the 1/48 RAF’s S.2B version. The sprues are pretty much the same but with a bulged bomb bay (that I won’t use as this one will be open too) and handily an ECM pod, AIM-9 and Paveway LGB as used in Operation Pulsator, the deployment of six RAF Buccaneers to Akrotiri in 1983 to support the British Army peacekeeping force based in Beirut. These jets flew at ultra low level through (rather than ‘over’!) the streets of Beirut to deter terrorist attacks on the UK contingent. There’s a fascinating account of this deployment here: http://www.naval8-208-association.com/NewsArticlesOpPULSATOR01.html This will be my chosen aircraft; XX901 of 208 Sqn: I’ll need some aftermarket decals for this one, plus an extra Paveway LGB from somewhere (only seems to be one in the kit that I can see). I’m also going to stick four 1,000lb bombs in the open bomb bay. I bought an Xtradecal sheet for the underwing serial. I need two yellow ‘0’s for the tail fin but I’ll worry about that later! This will come in handy, particularly for the Pulsator weapons loadout. Tally ho! … 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psdavidson Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 lurking with intent interest /P 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phone Phixer Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Nice, and a not often modelled period of the Buccaneer. A couple of hints for a 208 Sqn jet of the time. You may already be aware! The N band receiver pods on the wing leading edge should not be fitted. Use the panel around the arrestor hook without the flare dispensers. I don't think the kit includes AN/ALE 40 dispensers for the exhaust nacelles. You will have to adapt the ones for the outboard pylons, looks like parts 20 & 21 on the sprue. Remove the larger lower triangular fairing and plate. Just use the smaller triangular dispenser unit and magazine. The end plate of the stbd magazine should be red, for the flare end caps. The port magazine is a silver/dirty white colour for the chaff end caps. Flares were never loaded on the port dispenser as that would involve them being ejected past the fuel dump mast!!! Are you seeing a reason why this mod wasn't carried on past the 12 Pulsator aircraft?!! Following with interest. Rob. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted January 28 Author Share Posted January 28 Thanks @Phone Phixer, this is brilliant info, very helpful! Can I ask a question regarding the underwing stores? These are what I’ve made from the kit, do you or anyone know if these are correct for 1983? I’ve since removed the flare dispenser from the ECM pod pylon and I’ll use it under the jet pipe fairing instead. Unfortunately it looks like only one tail hook fairing is included in the kit and it has the inbuilt flare dispensers. Unless I’ve missed another on a sprue somewhere!? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phone Phixer Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 6 hours ago, Lord Riot said: do you or anyone know if these are correct for 1983? Yes, they are all good for the 1983 Pulsator period. I was going to say the chaff dispensers need to be removed from the ECM pylon, but you have done that. I wonder if the tail hook fairing is on one of the sprues from the S2C/D boxing. I should hope it's in there, or Airfix has cocked up with the correct fit for the early XV Sqn and 208 Sqn Red Flag options in the kit! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted January 28 Author Share Posted January 28 I’ve had a look and there’s definitely just the one tail hook fairing included in this boxing, with the chaff dispensers built in. Worth bearing in mind for anyone building those early versions in the kit. I’ll sand it all down before fitting it to the airframe, though it’ll be some time before I get to that stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 I found these images online showing the chaff/flare dispensers under the jet pipe fairings. As @Phone Phixer says I should be able to use the kit ones intended for the pylons to make these. I made a start on the cockpit. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 The cockpit is pretty much exactly the same as for the S.2C except for I used the rear instrument panel with the extra radar screen. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timmas Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 That cockpit's looking good! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phone Phixer Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Nice. That extra screen, low centre, in the rear cockpit is a TV screen. It was initially introduced on the S2D & S2B for the picture sent back from the TV guided Martel missile. It was then used for the video feed from the Pavespike pod. Due to the nav having to get his knees either side of the screen without breaking his thigh bones, the seat was modified. The thigh guards were splayed out to give more room. You can see that on the seat in your picture of the cockpit bits, That is why there are 3 ejection seats in the kit. One rear seat has straight thigh guards, the other is splayed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 That’s great info, thanks @Phone Phixer! Really interesting getting proper info on all this stuff, brings the build to life more for me. I may be asking you more questions before I finish it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 A slightly different order of construction for wings down compared to folded. Stores painted in their main colours. I tried to get as close to ‘bronze green’ as possible for the thousand pounders. I’m thinking the main body of the Paveway is also bronze green, with RAF dark green fins and nose? 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Bob Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 2 hours ago, Lord Riot said: Stores painted in their main colours. I tried to get as close to ‘bronze green’ as possible for the thousand pounders. I’m thinking the main body of the Paveway is also bronze green, with RAF dark green fins and nose? A matt dark green will suffice for the main body of the bombs, they were stored out in the open so they faded and weathered, The tails, those are No.114 slick tail units, they were stored in containers so remained clean and a dark bronze green. The Paveway tail, was an American item so remained in olive drab. The guidance units had tan, olive drab and anodised metal components, Google an image to see what they look like. The 1,000Lb bombs should not have that bulge on them, that appears to be the protective transit ring and had to be removed to attach the tail unit. The tails are also missing the arming vanes, the small wind driven propeller that armed the bomb. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phone Phixer Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 There are a series of photo's in the BM walkaround section on bombs. Ignore the conduit running along the bomb and the GPS disks on the guidance unit. This is actually an enhanced PW II, the Bucc never used it. All the coloured parts to the tail and guidance unit are the same. There are a whole list of issues with the 1,000lb bombs in that kit. Like they should have 117 retard tails for low level dropping. But meh, they are tucked away in the bomb bay underneath the model! 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 @Retired Bob @Phone Phixer thanks gents, it looks like I might have some more work to do on these stores then! I’ll have a look through my spares bag and see if there are any more accurate 1,000lb-ers. If not at the very least I’ll sand down the raised ring. A quick question on the Paveway, is that photo of a practice one, being blue, or were live ones also that colour? I’m assuming those sent to Akrotiri were live for Pulsator? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phone Phixer Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 Yes, that bomb in the picture is HES practice. The ones on Pulsator were live HE items. Green with a yellow ring painted just behind the nose adapter. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard E Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 22 minutes ago, Lord Riot said: A quick question on the Paveway, is that photo of a practice one, being blue, or were live ones also that colour? Yes, that's correct and I suspect that the Pulsator aircraft carried live examples - @Selwyn can probably confirm. If you can find a copy, the December 2020 issue of Airfix Model World included a build article for an Op Pulsator Buccaneer based on Airfix's 1/72nd scale kit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Bob Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 25 minutes ago, Phone Phixer said: Yes, that bomb in the picture is HES practice. The ones on Pulsator were live HE items. Green with a yellow ring painted just behind the nose adapter. HES practice bombs were used for training, dropping them on bomb ranges rather than using expensive and more dangerous high explosive green painted bombs. I've bought some ResKit British 1,000Lb bomb for my Buccaneer builds, you can get them with either the 114 slick tails or the 117 retard tails. The only weapons that I usually loaded into the bomb bay of Buccaneers were WE177 special weapons (training purposes obviously) By their last few years of operational service when I was at Lossiemouth, the carrying of weapons was invariably done on the wing pylons, 4 x drill Sea Eagle missiles or CBLS with the bomb bay fuel tank and the bomb door tank to extend the range 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selwyn Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 17 hours ago, Lord Riot said: A slightly different order of construction for wings down compared to folded. Stores painted in their main colours. I tried to get as close to ‘bronze green’ as possible for the thousand pounders. I’m thinking the main body of the Paveway is also bronze green, with RAF dark green fins and nose? There is obviously something seriously wrong with this Paveway II (UK). The Paveway kit is a modification of the standard British 1000lb bomb so the central component of the LGB should be the same shape/ diameter as the 1000lb bombs above it. There also appaers to be a panel of some sort on the bombs side, which in nonsense. EDIT To measure the correct size required the dimensions of the full size British 100lb bomb body (tail joint ring to the nose in 1000lb bomb image above ) are: length 49.5inches. (1257mm) Diameter 16.6inches (419mm) You can scale them to 1/48 to check their accuracy. Selwyn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selwyn Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 13 hours ago, Phone Phixer said: There are a series of photo's in the BM walkaround section on bombs. Ignore the conduit running along the bomb and the GPS disks on the guidance unit. This is actually an enhanced PW II, the Bucc never used it. All the coloured parts to the tail and guidance unit are the same. There are a whole list of issues with the 1,000lb bombs in that kit. Like they should have 117 retard tails for low level dropping. But meh, they are tucked away in the bomb bay underneath the model! The Paveway modification kit used with the British 1000lb was adapted from the US Mk 84 2000lb bomb paveway components. The Modifications are plainly visible The US Olive Drab components are unmodified, the Deep Bronze Green (darker green) components are the modified UK bits added to adapt the tail unit and nose to fit the UK 1000lb bomb. the live 1000lb bomb would be Deep Bronze Green with a yellow band situated just behind the DBG nose fairing. Incidentally the the Yellow markings on the tail and canard fins still say for use on mk 84 bomb. Selwyn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted January 31 Author Share Posted January 31 Gents, thanks so much for your help with this, very informative! Following on from your input @Phone Phixer, @Retired Bob, @Selwyn I’ve attempted to make the Paveway look a bit more accurate with some surgery and a standard 1,000lb-er. Hopefully a bit better? Probably more detailing to add yet but at least the middle bit is the right size. Second, I’ve used some offcut sprue and plastic card to make some little propellors for the retarded bombs. Here are the stores as they are for now … Any further mods required? 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selwyn Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 1 hour ago, Lord Riot said: Gents, thanks so much for your help with this, very informative! Following on from your input @Phone Phixer, @Retired Bob, @Selwyn I’ve attempted to make the Paveway look a bit more accurate with some surgery and a standard 1,000lb-er. Hopefully a bit better? Probably more detailing to add yet but at least the middle bit is the right size. Second, I’ve used some offcut sprue and plastic card to make some little propellors for the retarded bombs. Here are the stores as they are for now … Any further mods required? Still a problem with the paveway its now overall far to long the bomb body is parrallel you have cut the bomb halfway down the tail unit. In real life the Mk 84 tail/bomb connection was 18inches diameter the british 1000lb was 16.5 inches so there is a slight taper down from the tail to the bomb not the other way as you have it. the best way to cure it would be to cut off the drum portion of the tail section and glue the bomb with the tapered section directly to it. Selwyn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted January 31 Author Share Posted January 31 Thanks @Selwyn. Paveway duly shortened! I’m not sure I have the skills to do much else to it so hopefully this one is close enough … 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selwyn Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 2 hours ago, Lord Riot said: Thanks @Selwyn. Paveway duly shortened! I’m not sure I have the skills to do much else to it so hopefully this one is close enough … That looks a lot better, think the problem is that the bomb tail unit is a bit anemic, but its the best job you can do! Selwyn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted February 1 Author Share Posted February 1 Back to the actual airframe, and I’ve now attached the cockpit and nose section to the centre fuselage and wings. The fit was smoother than on the FAA one though I suspect that’s just down to my alignment rather than Airfix! The wing joins need filler though. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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