1/48 Airfix Buccaneer S.2B (XX895 - 12(B) Sqn. - 1976)

[wadeocu]

Thought I would go ahead and start my thread to get me in the groove. Much of this post is a repost from the 'future' section.

I have decided that this build will be XX895 the year of its delivery to 12 Squadron at Honington - 1976. This calls for the Dark Sea Grey/Dark Green over Light Aircraft Grey scheme. At this point, I intend to load it out with 2 slipper tanks and 2 AR Martels - will have to scratch build the pylon adapters for the Martels as Flightpath did not provide them - .

XX895 was a late S.2B built for the RAF. This means that, in terms of mods, the Airfix S.2B is accurate as is, only needing some improvements in terms of detail rather than accuracy. As for mods, the most prominent would be the post mod 1044 air brake petals. As this is what comes in the box, this choice saves some headaches - if you are concerned about such things that is.

So far, I have been working with the Flightpath set, Eduard frets, some Airwaves PE, Neomega cockpit and some supplemental scratch bits. Decals will be drawn from several sheets as I have just about all that have been printed and like to get the best out of each. Unfortunately this means there will still be many kit decals to use; we need a Buccaneer stencil sheet Xtradecal!!!!!

Here are some pictures of what I'm after:

Watch this space; plastic pics to be uploaded when the official start date arrives! - Jack

Edited September 23, 2010 by wadeocu

[Mark M]

looking good mate

[Irishgreek]

That Sea Eagle missile on the next to last picture looks awesome. Does anyone know if there are resin versions available in 1/48?

[wadeocu]

That Sea Eagle missile on the next to last picture looks awesome. Does anyone know if there are resin versions available in 1/48?

Those are AR Martels actually. The S.2B kit comes with two very nice Sea Eagles including well done pylon adapters and decals. Martels are, sadly, harder to come by in 1/48. Flightpath has a pair in their set, but, as mentioned, they don't supply the pylon adapter and you are on your own for decals/markings. Cammett did a pair of AR and TV Martels, but they are for the TSR.2 kit so the pylons are wrong for the Bucc leaving you, again, on your own to deal with pylon adapters. Furthermore, the TV Martel set doesn't come with a data link pod which is essential for a Bucc with TV Martels. I will be using the pair from the Flightpath set and scratch building the adapter.

An interesting observation to make about that photograph is that it shows an AR Martel with a TV Martel pylon adapter - compare the adapter to the shorter ones in the other photos. It is longer and has a small conduit from the tip of the adapter down to the missile. This is actually a compressed air mechanism used to blow the protective caps off the TV Martel before launch. The protective caps were always kept in place to protect the clear glass nose from salt spray and other FOD. The AR version had no need for this function, therefore, it is very unusual to see them mixed and matched like this.

Cheers - Jack

Edited August 10, 2010 by wadeocu

[Andrew]

G'day Jack,

I'm very much looking forward to your build. Interesting choice of scheme and ordnance; pics are eagerly anticipated, so roll on the official start. Hope that all goes well for you.

Cheers,

Andrew.

[Irishgreek]

Those are AR Martels actually. The S.2B kit comes with two very nice Sea Eagles including well done pylon adapters and decals. Martels are, sadly, harder to come by in 1/48. Flightpath has a pair in their set, but, as mentioned, they don't supply the pylon adapter and you are on your own for decals/markings. Cammett did a pair of AR and TV Martels, but they are for the TSR.2 kit so the pylons are wrong for the Bucc leaving you, again, on your own to deal with pylon adapters. Furthermore, the TV Martel set doesn't come with a data link pod which is essential for a Bucc with TV Martels. I will be using the pair from the Flightpath set and scratch building the adapter.

An interesting observation to make about that photograph is that it shows an AR Martel with a TV Martel pylon adapter - compare the adapter to the shorter ones in the other photos. It is longer and has a small conduit from the tip of the adapter down to the missile. This is actually a compressed air mechanism used to blow the protective caps off the TV Martel before launch. The protective caps were always kept in place to protect the clear glass nose from salt spray and other FOD. The AR version had no need for this function, therefore, it is very unusual to see them mixed and matched like this.

Cheers - Jack

I see what you are talking about with them. I really did think they were the Sea Eagles, but there I go trusting Wikipedia for reference again! Fool me twice...

I do like the look of those Martels though. Sleek.

[wadeocu]

G'day Jack,

I'm very much looking forward to your build. Interesting choice of scheme and ordnance; pics are eagerly anticipated, so roll on the official start. Hope that all goes well for you.

Cheers,

Andrew.

Thanks for tuning in Andrew - your interest and support were much appreciated on the Hunter T.7A project! I hope to accomplish something to a similar standard or better with this build, but I am determined to not let that keep me from finishing it! Best regards - Jack

[wadeocu]

I see what you are talking about with them. I really did think they were the Sea Eagles, but there I go trusting Wikipedia for reference again! Fool me twice...

I do like the look of those Martels though. Sleek.

HA - wikinformation strikes again! Indeed the Martels are nifty to my eye as well - one of these days I'd love to do a full TV/AR Martel load out, but I'm just not up for scratch building the data pod yet. CMR's FAA kit has some decent bits for the TV Martel load out - I will probably do one in 1/72.

Looking forward to seeing your build - how are you getting on with it? Do you suspect you may ever make it to any IPMS shows with it? Perhaps we could coordinate a display and take the Most Buccs at an IPMS USA Event Ever Award - I think two should do it!

- Jack

[Irishgreek]

HA - wikinformation strikes again! Indeed the Martels are nifty to my eye as well - one of these days I'd love to do a full TV/AR Martel load out, but I'm just not up for scratch building the data pod yet. CMR's FAA kit has some decent bits for the TV Martel load out - I will probably do one in 1/72.

Looking forward to seeing your build - how are you getting on with it? Do you suspect you may ever make it to any IPMS shows with it? Perhaps we could coordinate a display and take the Most Buccs at an IPMS USA Event Ever Award - I think two should do it!

- Jack

Jack,

I have made it to two. One up here in Warren, MI about 3 months ago. Before that the Nationals in Columbus. I did not enter anything, just went to enjoy the models and the vendors (of course!).

I've been considering getting the IPMS membership once I have something that I would feel okay with entering.

As far as the most Buccs at a US show, I bet you would be right there! I actually had started mine, but once the group build info started flying, I put mine on hold to finish during that. That CMR kit is pretty intriguing to me too. Little pricey though. Wait till I see a deal on the eBay. This is a link to my build that is on hold < Clicky >

John

Edited August 11, 2010 by Irishgreek

[wadeocu]

Great start everybody! I will try to find some time to pass on comments individually, but for now I will spend some time showing some of my progress.

One of the first things I do with a 48th Airfix Bucc is fill in the odd missing panel on top of the port engine. It is a simple process of cutting a shape from plastic strip with a template and filing in the edges with CA, sanded flush. It will be rescribed and rivets added later.

While I was at that, I went ahead and cut out holes for the vents at the base of the tail. The etched parts come from an Airwaves PE fret with instructions to scab it on, but I prefer the flush look so I cut out holes and backed them with some plastic strip. A 'shelf' was created to help support the PE part. Everything was attached/filled with CA and, again, sanded flush.

I went ahead and worked up the Aibrake petals with the Flightpath PE parts. The plastic requires a good bit of modification to use the FP parts, both that which is addressed in the instructions and some that is not. The kit parts are assembled and then carved up - removing strakes, drilling out holes as they dont match up with the PE overlay and, most importantly, the slot for the actuator has to be modified by removing about 2mm of the roof part and replaced with plastic strip for the slot to line up with the one on the PE part. The quater round ends also require some extra plastic to conform with the dimensions of the PE parts. Holes were drilled out here as well, but not all the way through as I did not want to let too much light in and make the hollow inside too obvious. Hopefully the pics will better explain all this.

That's all for now; I have made a bit more progress to share, but don't want to overtake my building pace with my upload pace. This is going to be a long project and I'm already feeling pressed by the six month dead line!

Cheers - Jack

[ollieholmes]

Those Flightpath airbrakes are a nightmare, the worst bit for me was the couple of bits that go in between them. I never worked out 100% where they went and just took an educated guess.

[wadeocu]

Indeed they do require a good bit of forethought and manipulating to bring it all together Ollie! I think I have a plan worked out for the actuator bits and a way to suspend it all when it's done. Alignment will be the biggest bear I think, but I plan on using a spare Airbrake set up from another kit as a jig of sorts. Anyhow, I set the airbrakes aside to come back to later and got on with the cockpit! - Jack

[wadeocu]

Ok, I thought I would go ahead and add pictures of some of the modifications I made to the cockpit to bring it up to S.2B standard for those using the Neomega cockpit and wanting to make it accurate for an S.2B.

In case you may be confused about the various S.2 - S.2D designations, here is a run down. The key to it all is Martel capability. When the S.2 came out in the early 60s Martel was still several years off. All navy jets with Spey engines were S.2s and that was the end of it. When Martel capability came along, it coincided with the RAF's adoption of the Buccaneer. RAF jets were designated as S.2A and S.2B with the As being non-Martel capable and Bs having Martel capability. Navy jets were redesignated S.2C and S.2D with Cs being non-Martel capable and Ds having Martel capability. A couple of ways to tell As from Bs and Cs from Ds without looking in the cockpit is the pylon fit and the number of vortex generators on the wing. S.2As and S.2Cs had the older style long pylons that were spaced a bit closer together on the wing (these pylons are offered in Airfix's RN/SAAF boxing, but I don't think the instructions address the spacing issue). S.2Bs and S.2Ds had the newer shorter style pylons that were redesigned for the Martel. They were also spaced a bit further apart to accommodate the missile (the Airfix kit wing has holes set up for this configuration). The S.2B and S.2D also had the fifth from inboard vortex generator removed (the one immediately above the outboard pylon) leaving 20 instead of 21 vortex generators.

The Neomega cockpit is lovely and really fits the way it ought to; Aires could learn a thing or two in that department. It is pretty good accuracy wise, but it does not depict a Martel capable aircraft. The modifications required include building the display console that goes between the nav's legs, the control stick to the right of the nav and reworking the rear ejection seat so that the thigh guards are splayed out (this allowed the nav to get in after having crammed the Martel display between his legs). In addition to these Martel oriented modifications, I added an air hose that Neomega missed on the port side of the pilot's cockpit using guitar string; it will be toped off once the nav's windscreen is in place.

To modify the seats, it was easy to choose which one to do as one of the seats already had a broken thigh guard. I just cut the other one off and used it as a template to make a mate. I glued them back on with a bend added per reference photos.

As for the Martel specific mods in the cockpit, these were accomplished with bits of plastic cut and sanded to shape; very simple modifications overall.

I've been doing some painting in the cockpit and plan on doing some wheel well work before joining the fuselage.

Cheers - Jack

[Mark M]

looks cool

[Metallicus]

looks awesome!!!

[wadeocu]

Thanks Mark and Brenden; progress is slow, as I predicted, but I am determined to use a lot of these Flightpath parts I have saved up over the years. I need the peer pressure/support to get off my duff and put in the effort required by these PE sets!

I made the cuts for the resin cockpit and installed the side walls before painting because two of them were broken and required piecing back together. Luckily I had all the pieces. I also installed the canopy rails from the Flightpath set; this required some small cuts in the Neomega part for the Nav's front/Pilot's rear cockpit piece to fit. It is also going to make installing the Nav's windscreen an adventure.

I did some work on the windscreen. This involved parts from the FP set for the frames and masking inside and out. The PE frames are not a perfect fit. First, the windscreen washer equipment has to be sanded from the kit part as it is oversized. After polishing the kit part back into shape, the PE parts were carefully glued on w/ CA. The PE frame does not meet up at the ends perfectly so some filing/smoothing out with A-poxy putty was done. The application of PE parts required painting the frames inside and out. I started by applying some baremetal foil to the outside, cutting it out, applying Tamiya tape to the outside and cutting it out (the bright foil helped pick out the outline nicely), and then taking off the tape to use inside. It didn't actually work out as I planed because the foil tore a bit in some places, so I put the cut out on some cellophane and cut out another Tamiya tape mask for the inside.

I went ahead and put the slipper tanks together as these can be tricky. I put the outside top piece on first, lining it up at the joint, and then used it to guide the other piece as it has to be bent to shape. A good bit of CA was needed to fill everything in. Everything was sanded down and looked ok without the loss of some molded detail in close proximity. I will have to add plastic strip to replace the circumferential 'brace' (?) that runs around the tanks and over the joints.

I keep coming up with things to do before I glue the fuselage together; hopefully I will have it together before the end of the year!

- Jack

[Metallicus]

That looks increadeble!! nicely done that pit and windscreen are going to look great when all painted up

[ollieholmes]

I kept on coming up with things to do before tackling the wing fold n my yellow Bucc. Its one of those things that needs to be done so one night i sat down and did it and im very pleased with it.

[wadeocu]

Thanks Brenden - It was with some trepidation that I approached the Flightpath windscreen frame, not having done it before and dealing with CA on clear parts, but I found it to be easier than I thought and am also fairly pleased with the result and feel it was worth the effort.

Looking forward to seeing your build Ollie. It is indeed nice to be chuffed with the results of an effort that you were uncertain about diving into. Can't wait to see your wing folds.

-Jack

[ollieholmes]

Looking forward to seeing your build Ollie. It is indeed nice to be chuffed with the results of an effort that you were uncertain about diving into. Can't wait to see your wing folds.

Im planing on spraying another coat of yellow on tonight so you should see some photos soon.

[bigbadbadge]

Wow, amazing work, all the extras llok great I am getting worried now .

All the best

Chris

[wadeocu]

Thanks Chris; I was just thinking the same thing about Pappy's build! No worries though any finished Bucc model is a fantastic Bucc model in my book. Raising the bar for everyone is what I think this GB thing is all about. Can't wait to see some pics of your progress. Best - Jack

[wadeocu]

Meager progress to report on here guys; silly day job is standing in the way of progress!! Some more modifications to the basic kit parts here - nothing fancy.

The intake trunk parts were cut down to 19mm - about even with the edge of the outer intake part. I felt that this shortened the trunk sufficiently but still left wide enough of a trunk to meet up with the compressor face reasonably well.

I have also drilled out and added some of the vents and holes in the intake parts. The starboard engine received the Flightpath replacement grill placed in a drilled out hole to be flush with the surface.

The port vent was tricky in comparison. For one, Flightpath doesn't offer an upgrade, and the other concern is that the grill is really a thin but deep strake more than a drain cover type of deal (true of the starboard vent as well, but I do have my headache tolerance limitations). I drilled out the kit rendering of this vent and a wide space above and below each half. I filled in the wide space with thin strips of plastic sandwiching some spare PE scraps in the appropriate spot positioned so that it met up with the middle division. The middle horizontal division should be thin like the vertical strakes, but I just left some of the kit plastic to serve in this role as it simplified the modification. Hopefully the pics will explain this more clearly.

I also drilled out the circular vent on top. Note that these are neither symmetrical nor are they handed per the real thing. I used a couple of different drawings and referenced several photos to place them, but am sure they are not precisely positioned - just what looked right to my eye. I still have to add the hump parts which are also asymmetrically positioned.

Next on the list was a riveting experience. I drilled out some rivets with a #80 drill bit along the spine. I scribed a faint line with some dividers using the longitudinal panel lines as a guide. I measured out the spacing with a ruler and pencil, drilled the holes and sanded everything back to tone down the holes and erase the scribed line. There are some wayward rivets that will be filled and drilled again.

Next up was a stroke of madness during which I decided that folding and aligning the Flightpath wing vortex generators would not be quite the frustrating experience as it first appeared. I hurried up and sanded the kit parts a drilled the holes before I came to my senses. Of course the real entertainment is yet to come.

I sanded off the kit representation which is a bit chunky and not correct for a martel capable aircraft. Airfix supply 20 in a row which really does not work for any version as S.2s, S.2As and S.2Cs had 21 and S2Bs and S.2Ds had 20 with a gap over the outboard pylon, missing the fifth from inboard example. This also allowed me to relocate the line of vortex generators which I think is a bit off on the kit. Nothing scientific, that is just the way it looks to me in comparison to pictures. I would not bother with changing the location of the line if I were not using the PE parts. I am still, however, going with the 19 vortex generators configuration even though it is not accurate as it will leave me two spare parts and I may well need the spares. FP only provide 40 replacement PE parts. The real fun will come when I have to make 76 perfect 90 degree bends in 38 tiny PE parts. The second photo has the old location marked in pencil to show the change in position and angle. I feel from my observation of photos that this line was parallel to the row of rivets behind the vortex generators rather than the panel line for the blown air natural metal area at the leading edge of the wing.

Last for today is the pilot's instrument panel. I have done most of the cockpit painting but will save that for another update after I complete the painting. I have modified this part by grinding back some of the central instrument detail on the Neomega part and using the Eduard PE part with the acetate backing for the central cluster.

That's all for now. I hope to make more progress soon but I dont expect for it to be particularly rapid as I have a lot of conflicting interests coming up (job issues, 3rd child due 10/28 and deer season!).

Best to all - Jack

[Pappy]

G'day Jack,

Good work that man there!

Inspiring stuff. I am pondering how to improve the grille on the left intake myself. I am looking forward to see how the vortex generators turn out. I like what you have done with the resin panel, it looks correctly flat. I think Neomega's panel is a little too cluttered in comparison with the real deal but it does look pretty painted,

cheers,

Pappy

[Andrew]

Hi Jack,

Lovely progress, especially the recent work on the intake vents. I admire your dedication in just preparing to place the vortex generators and stand ready to be amazed at their application.

Cheers,

Andrew.