The Airfix Buccaneer
is not the easiest kit in the world to put together nor is it the most detailed
but it is accurate and looks the part when finished. I added the superb
Neomega cockpit as well as ejection seat lanyards from wire. The camera
mounts on the wingtips were scratchbuilt and the rest of the kit is from the box
as are the decals with the exception of the serial numbers which came from
xtradecal. I wanted something different from the green/grey and desert pink so I
chose XW988 which went straight from the factory to the Royal Aircraft
establishment at West Freugh in Scotland as a weapons trials aircraft. The
garish paint scheme was designed to allow easier tracking by cameras. Two
other aircraft XW986/7 were repainted in "raspberry ripple" red/white
and blue but XW988 was not. On retirement in 1994 the aircraft was bought
by Mike Beachyhead of Thunder City South Africa and after being repainted in a
glossy black scheme is still flying today.
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
|
I used Xtracrylix
RAF Green and Trainer Yellow with Vallejo white all brush painted. A coat of
Johnson's Klear gave an excellent shine for decalling with an oil paint wash for
some detailling. Scratchbuilt FOD guards cover the intakes.
While building, I followed a lot
of Ted Taylor's advice from his build in the ARC Gallery. That was a great help
with the fuselage. The wings are foldable and I think that was the
designers idea. I made spars from sprue to help alignment as there isn't
really anything to attach the outer sections to. This helped a lot as well
as adding some strength. I have a few more of these kits and would
recommend it as it looks great when finished. A great site for
reference is http://www.blackburn-buccaneer.co.uk/ .
Stephen
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
|
|