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Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer


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Hello all and welcome to my entry into this Group Build. This is only the 5th model I've built since returning to the hobby late last year, and the first I've posted on this site, so hopefully I'll be able to pick up a few tips from more experienced modellers.

First of all, a few pictures of the sprues & decals

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I'll be painting her in Operation Granby markings, which is a nice simple scheme that shouldn't cause me too much trouble, and may even attempt a bit of preshading and weathering.

I'll post more pictures when there is some progress to report.

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It is a nice kit that is crude in places. I finished a Granby Bucc before Christmas and found this site: Blackburn Buccaneer: The Last British Bomber to be an absolute goldmine. Checking this site is a must before deciding on your payload configuration.

As an aside, and I know it's not relevant to this GB, the Airwaves and Aeroclub sets make a big difference to this kit.

Andy

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This is a lovely kit, and nose profile aside, builds into a good looking brick especially with the new ordinance. One tip I would offer having built a couple is get a few clamps and rubber bands ready for closing up the fuselage. The location lugs are offset from each other along each side and this can produce a twist as the glue sets that doesn't show up during a dry fit; but clamping can keep things nicely lined up.

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Welcome to the build, i'm a relative newbie back to the hobby aswell and found this site to be full of fellow model makers only too happy to pass on tips and tricks of the trade to make great models of all kinds of genre as is being shown nicely in the choices put forward for this GB. Happy building

Graham

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Thanks for the link Andy, some very useful information indeed. It's a great thought that I'll be able to model the aircraft as she was before setting off on a specific mission, makes it feel a bit more real somehow.

Thanks for the tip Arpie, I'll definitely be investing in some clamps. I guess I'll need to have a rummage around the Pound Shops to see what I can find.

And thanks to everyone else for your encouraging words :)

Not much progress to report so far. The pilots are painted and in their ejector seats, and the bomb bay door has been glued in place. Looks quite a good fit so shouldn't need any filler, though I think I'll need to do some light sanding to clean up some of the excess glue that dribbled through. Anything more will have to wait til the weekend when I'll have time to pop into town to get some paint to do the inside of the engine intakes, after which I'll be able to crack on with actually putting it all together.

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I've had a day off work to wait for a parcel to be delivered so I've cracked on with a few bits and bobs. Put the tail section together and few of the little fiddly bits on the upperside. Also cut the wings into shape, which is a first for me as none of the kits I've made so far have needed any cutting. They'll need a bit of sanding to smooth the edges, but it went fairly well I think.

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The pilots aren't glued in yet, just as well as it looks like the navigator has suffered from a bit of airsickness! I'll have to dab a bit more green on to clean him up a bit

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi everyone, I've been on a bit of a hiatus due to the Bank Holidays and what have you, but I have been doing some work. I've got the cockpit decalled up, with the crew in place. The rear panel doesn't have any lugs to connect to the sockets on the cockpit walls where it's supposed to go, so the decal on it got a bit banged up while I was positioning it. I'm quite tempted to just paint it grey and put a few dots of paint here and there to represent dials, but either way it should barely visible once the canopy goes on

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I've also got the two halves of the fuselage glued together & secured with rubber bands "borrowed" from the works stationary cupboard. It's not a great fit, so I'll be off to Modelzone over the weekend to get some filler. Does anyone have recommendations on what type to get, or are they all pretty similar? And am I right in thinking it's just a case of slap it in the cracks, let it dry then sand it down?

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Told ya :tease:

Only kidding. I found Revell filler works best for me. Spread on as thin as possible then once dry, sand down. I then use one of them nail buffer/polisher blocks to get a nice smooth finish.

Hope this helps and nice work so far.

Cheers

Chris

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Well, I was thinking there a few gaps in my last update. Then I put the wings on. :S What gaps I thought there were pale into insignificance now! Beginning to see what you meant now Chris, haha.

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That's most of the assembly work done now. I'll be leaving the ordnance & undercarriage till after I've got it painted since otherwise they'll get in the way. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get the gaps filled in and put the primer on.

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Looking good :speak_cool:

Like others have said, with a bit of care and attention, it builds up very nice. The seams on mine were exactly like yours but I ended up with this

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Never be the best you'll ever see but I'm happy with it (got another in the stash to build too so its not put me off :hypnotised: )

Hope you didn't forget the nose weight like I did.

Keep up the good work

Chris

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A bit of a bumper update today. I've had the weekend off so, plenty of time to work on the Buccaneer. First of all, got the gaps filled in:

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I Managed to get the worst of it filled in, but I think I may have used a tad too much at first, because I was just squirting a dollop on and smearing it with my finger. Later on I started squirting it onto a knife and using that to apply it more precisely.

Once it was dry (which happened remarkably quickly) I filed down the excess with an emery board. I was a bit worried this would obscure the detail, particularly on the wings but luckily it's escaped pretty much unscathed.

With that done, it was time to mask up the cockpit and spray on the primer.

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Finally, I picked out some of the details with a bit of preshading. Not sure how much use this will end up doing, but the panel markings are quite fine so I figured it was worth a try.

Top:

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and bottom:

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I've just put the first coat of Desert Sand on, but I'm going to let it dry before taking any pictures - I don't want to get finger prints on it!

Chris that's a lovely build you've done there. Hope mine ends up as good! :)

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I've got the main coat of Desert Sand on. The first coat was quite blotchy, but the second coat has gone on like a dream and I'm quite pleased with the results.

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Now I'm putting the masking on to do silver bits, then I can start attaching the undercarriage and ordnance. I've decided to go with the loadout carried for XW895's journey home at the end of the war. I like the idea of it being in a kind of "mission accomplished" pose.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Work has been progressing nicely. The painting done, and I'm quite pleased with results for the most part. Most of the problems come from my slightly overzealous application of filler. But it's all part of the learning process, so hopefully next time I'll get better results.

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The decals have gone on very nicely. I've had problems getting some of Airfix's decals to settle properly because they seem to be printed on quite thick paper. No such problems this time! Here's a couple of close-ups of the nose art, which highlight what I said about the filler causing bumps, especially in the second picture

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All that's left now is to get the undercarriage on, and decal up the ordnance. Must say I'm not looking forward to all these fiddly little decals into place.

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