1/48 Airfix Blackburn Buccaneer S.2B 

by Stephen Prior

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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.

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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

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Photos and text © by Stephen Prior