The history of the Blackburn Buccaneer began in 1953 with the United Kingdom Royal Navy requirement for a new strike aircraft capable of a payload of 4,000 pounds designed to attack sea vessels as well as land targets. Two aerodynamic breakthrough features were incorporated into the design; boundary layer control where engine bleed air was blown over the wing flaps to reduce take off and landing speeds and the area rule. This principle reduced the fuselage cross section to achieve significant reductions in aerodynamic drag. Designated NA.39 the first prototype designated XK406 first flight occurred on April 30, 1958. Twenty pre-production aircraft were ordered followed by the production S.1 version. Trials showed the aircraft to be underpowered with the original de Havilland Gyron Junior engines and the aircraft’s performance potential would not be achieved until the Rolls Royce Spey 101 was installed in the S.2 version. Introduced into Royal Navy service with the S.1, No. 801 Squadron commissioned at Lossiemouth, Scotland in July, 1962 followed by No. 809 Squadron, No.800 Squadron and finally No. 803 Squadron. Service use resulted in a series of accidents attributed to inadequate engine power that would be corrected by the RR Spey in the S.2. Buccaneers served in the RN until the last through deck carrier, HMS Ark Royal, was retired in December, 1978 bringing to a close the Buccaneer’s service with the Royal Navy. A new career was to begin with the Royal Air Force when controversial and severe defense budget cuts led to the decision to provide Buccaneers to fulfill the mission planned for canceled purchase of General Dynamics F-111s. The first RAF aircraft were delivered in 1978 designated S.2B and differed only in some details from the Royal Navy aircraft. The RAF aircraft eventually were retired in 1994 and replaced by the Panavia Tornado. Well known to all Buccaneer affectionados as “Grandma’s Finest Hour” when the 1991 Gulf War commenced operations, the Lossiemouth Wing at Lossiemouth, Scotland deployed an initial batch of six Buccaneers to the Gulf for the purpose of providing laser-designation capability to the Tornado GR.1 force (that had no such capability at that time). The S.2Bs received new secure radios, old style S.1 wingtips for a smoother ride over the desert floor, updated chaff and flare dispensers, IFF upgrades and were repainted in ARTF (Alkali Removable Temporary Finish) “desert pink”. An additional six were deployed within weeks and all twelve aircraft received names and artwork. Six received pinup style artwork on the starboard side and eleven received the famous “Jolly Roger; Sky Pirates” patchwork on the port side. All airframes also received the names of local malt whiskies made in  Lossiemouth. During the first weeks of the deployment the usual weapons load was one AN/ALQ 101 electronic warfare jamming pod carried on the starboard wing outer pylon, a slipper fuel tank carried on the inner starboard hardpoint, a AN/ALQ-23E Pave Spike laser designator pod carried on the port wing inner pylon and a AIM 9L Sidewinder air to air missile carried on the port wing outer pylon. 

XX885 “Famous Grouse” is the subject of this build. The aircraft was delivered to the RAF on May 20, 1974 and served with 15 and 16 Squadrons at Laarbruch, Germany before being transferred to Lossiemouth, Scotland in 1980. As a result of spar fatigue cracks leading to a tragic loss of the crew and Buccaneer XV345, XX885 underwent replacement of the main wing spar. She subsequently served with 208 Squadron. In January 1991 she was prepared for the Gulf War being painted in overall ARTF, given the tail code “L” and named “Famous Grouse” after the local malt whiskey and painted with pin-up style nose art “Caroline, Hello Sailor” on the starboard side and the Jolly Roger on the port side. Noteworthy is the overpainting of almost all stenciling on the Gulf War Buccaneers. She earned seven combat mission symbols, one of which included the AN-12 symbol. In actuality the AN-12 was bombed and destroyed by Buccaneer XX894 but XX885 was on the same mission and after landing was parked by mistake in XX894’s spot resulting in the kill symbol being painted on the aircraft in error. After returning to Lossiemouth at the conclusion of the Gulf war she was repainted in gray before being retired in 1994. Although no longer airworthy she remains in storage at RAF Scampton owned by Hawker Hunter Aviation.

The bulged bomb bay was introduced by Hawker Siddeley after its takeover of Blackburn Aircraft and allowed extra fuel storage.

This is the 1994 tool 1/48 Airfix kit that has been issued in several different packages starting with #8100 (1994) labeled as the Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer S.2B with decals for two Royal Air Force aircraft in dark green/dark sea gray camouflage and one Operation Granby aircraft in desert pink and later #08101 labeled as the H.S. Buccaneer S.2, S.2C, S.2D, SMk50 (all without the bulged bomb bay) with decals for three Royal Navy aircraft and one South African Air Force aircraft. Finally in 2005 Airfix reissued the kit #09180 as a two complete aircraft kit package that included two instruction manuals and decals for three Royal Navy, two Royal Air Force, and one South African Air Force aircraft. Note that the South African Air Force Buccaneers had different electronics and therefore antenna and sensors than the British aircraft as well as different weapons suite and these are provided as additional individual parts where required. This model was built from the 1994 release that includes decals to model one Buccaneer that was deployed in the 1991 Gulf War. The kit instruction booklets are pictorial in nature and include detailed steps with paint color assignments using Humbrol acrylics (and no other paint types)  but there are some steps that require care to avoid construction mistakes. The first is the installation of the navigator's windscreen, part #84, that is to be glued to the cockpit coaming from below before installation of the cockpit tub. It can be installed from above but the lower tabs on the part will need to be carefully removed in order to do this. The second is the orientation of the main landing gear right and left halves and the relationship of the main gear wheels. On the Buccaneer the main gear wheels have the oval openings on the inside toward the aircraft midline; it is easy to reverse the orientation during assembly. Also just in front of the ventral side of the airbrake the fuselage panel in the Gulf War versions contains flare ejectors (part #97). My assembly omitted all external small parts such as pitot tubes, sensors, and antenna until final assembly to avoid breakage during the construction and painting. The non-transparent parts are molded in a light blue rather hard styrene plastic with engraved panel line detail and recessed fastener detail utilized except on the bulged bomb bay where raised panel lines are used. A common occurrence is significant warpage of the fuselage halves that consist of upper and lower fuselage half components. In addition there are some incorrectly molded parts such as the in-flight refueling probe that has an incorrect angulation of the distal end, and engraved panels that are incorrect in size and location on the forward fuselage. The fit of the engine intake cowls is very poor as is the fit of the engine exhaust cones. The option is provided to build the model with the wings in the folded position but the fold mechanism (part #37) provides no detail. If the wing is attached in the extended (unfolded) position the assembly rib (part #39) provides a weak assembly (my assessment, as the joint and the outer wings would not have sufficient strength to allow the model to be lifted by the wing) and this needs to be reworked with spar support unless the model will never be picked up by the wings. There are reasonably done vortex generators on the upper wing. The underwing slipper fuel tanks are very oddly engineered as a three component assembly that is difficult to achieve satisfactory alignment. Decals are provided to represent the cockpit instrumentation. Ordnance provided includes two slipper fuel tanks, one AIM-9L Sidewinder missile, one AN/ALQ 101 electronic warfare jamming pod, one AN/ALQ-23E Pave Spike laser designator pod, and two Sea Eagle missiles. A new tool S.2B is due from Airfix soon and will likely resolve the engineering and mold issues as did the recently released S.2C/D kit. Unfortunately, until the new tool S.2B is released the old kit is the one providing the bulged bomb bay of the Buccaneer S.2B. The old Eduard photo etch cockpit set #48132 was installed for added cockpit detail. In addition the Kits World decal set KW148140 that provides decals for all six Buccaneers sporting pin up style nose art during the 1991 Gulf War deployment was used.

For satisfactory construction of this model a planned approach is needed to deal with the various problems of fuselage warpage and poor component fit. My original plan was to build the model as an out of the box build but I decided to add the cockpit photo etch as the closed canopy fit was sufficiently imprecise to warrant leaving the canopy open. The upper and lower fuselage warpage is a significant complication that must be overcome. The kit instruction sequence was generally followed although some deviation was needed to facilitate painting and eliminate risk of small part breakage. The Eduard cockpit photo etch set required removing some of the molded in detail in the cockpit and ejection seats with substitution of various photo etch assemblies. These were assembled and glued in place using VMS cyanoacrylate glue. Once the photo etch with the exception of the instrumentation was installed the cockpit sidewalls, tub and ejection seats were painted with Tamiya XF-19 Sky Gray as the base color as well as primer. All details were hand painted with Vallejo Acrylic colors. The instrument panels were installed and painted separately. Once complete, the cockpit tub without the ejection seats installed, was glued in place. Two ounces of lead weight was glued into the upper and lower nose cone areas using five minute epoxy glue; this is safe for styrene plastic and once cured has no petrochemical residue that will soften or deform styrene while providing excellent adhesive properties to keep the lead in place. The bulged bomb bay (part #88) must be glued in place in the opening in the lower fuselage half. Since this component has raised panel lines they were re-scribed. The bomb bay was then glued in place with Tamiya Extra Thin cement and the longitudinal joints with the fuselage reinforced with Evergreen strip styrene cemented in place with Tamiya Extra Thin cement. Much test fitting was utilized to determine areas of misalignment in the fuselage join process. In addition it was clear that the engine intake assembly would lead to major fit and misalignment that would require filling and recontouring if the kit assembly process was followed. If the originally intended simple joining of the upper and lower fuselage halves is accomplished with no added shimming test fitting showed that there would be a significant contour mismatch where the projecting lower fuselage wide alignment tab joins the ventral part of the engine intake cowling. Because of this the assembly of the engine intake cowlings was changed in the following way. The lower tab that was required to fit into the cut out of the cowling was carefully separated from the lower fuselage with a micro saw. It was then glued into the cut out in the cowling and the minor seam filled with CA gel/talc. To determine the fit the fuselage halves were temporarily held together using rubber bands revealing that shimming of the area around the intake would be needed to avoid significant contour mismatches. Shimming was done using Evergreen 0.020 sheet styrene 90 degree angle strip glued to the top and bottom fuselage halves at the join line where it was needed. Some shaving of the rearward shims is needed to obtain an aligned joint at the forward wing root. To maintain alignment along the remainder of the fuselage join 0.020 inch thick sheet styrene tabs were glued at intervals along the join line from the nose to to the tail. Relying only on the molded in locating pins is insufficient. The fuselage halves were then glued together using Tamiya Extra Thin cement along its length in stages over a few days to allow each section to completely cure before moving on to the next section. Heavy rubber bands and clamps were needed to maintain the correct compression and alignment in the process. It is impossible to obtain alignment without doing the gluing in stages over time. After allowing the horizontal join line to cure completely it was reinforced using five minute epoxy layered along the join line. The resultant reinforced joint was sufficiently strong to withstand the usual handling and manipulation that would follow with no risk of seam separation. Areas of misalignment and small contour defects along the seam were corrected using Loctite CA gel plus talcum powder as a filler; it cures rapidly and is easily carved, filed or sanded to a seamless transition if worked within 24 hours. Unlike any surfacing putty compound like Bondo or similar it will not pull up with tape masking. Since this build my current favored method for larger area filling and contour correction is now Amazing Sculpt epoxy resin due to its longer working time and ability to be smoothed and shaped before curing. It is more coarse in texture than the CA gel/talc formulation so with high gloss or metallic final finishes more priming to seal the surface is needed. All obscured panel lines were re-scribed using the superb Tamiya 0.01 mm scribing blade. The next significant work involved attaching the intake cowlings and their trunks. The kit intake trunks are capped at the end with the compressor face. The cone at the compressor face is severely undersized so I built a larger cone and cemented it in place. The intake trunk is white color so this was airbrushed with Tamiya XF-19 Sky Gray followed by Tamiya X-2 Gloss White. The compressor face was painted Tamiya X-11 Chrome Silver and when cured the part was cemented onto the end of the intake trunk. The cowl required a significant amount of fitting, shimming with 0.020 sheet styrene, and filling with CA plus talc to obtain a good fit. Once this was achieved the bright chrome ring of the cowl was achieved by priming with Tamiya X-1 Gloss Black followed by several light airbrushed coats of Alclad Chrome. Once cured this was oversprayed with a light coat of Testors Glosscote lacquer. The intake trunk was then cemented to the cowl and the entire assembly was cemented in place. The exhaust trunks required less work to fit in place but also needed to be painted before assembly. Unfortunately the exhaust is molded in two halves with a lengthwise seam. I could not readily find a correct diameter tubular component to replace it so installed it after painting with Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black and over sprayed with a thin coat of Tamiya X-10 Gunmetal rendering the seams invisible except to direct flashlight illumination. The vertical fin was cemented in place and any join seams addressed as needed followed by attachment of the horizontal stabilizers. The modeler has the option of the folded wings or unfolded wings and the appropriate end part must be cemented into the open section of the fuselage wing panel. If you have concerns about doing a folded wing on a Gulf War Buccaneer a simple internet search will reveal several images of these aircraft with their wings folded. The fold attachment part is very basic and devoid of detail so most will want to rework it for a folded wing version. Although a Air Waves photo etch wing fold set is available in my assessment it lacked convincing realism and robustness to warrant the cost. The model has the option of either the open or closed unique clamshell air brake. I decided to do the open version and this assembly was painted separately and finished for installation during the final assembly steps. 0.020 brass rod was used to make attachment pins for the underwing pylons, Sidewinder missile, slipper fuel tank, and pods. Additional pins were made using fine guitar string wire for the multiple antennae to be attached later as well as the in-flight refueling probe. 0.030 brass rod was used to make pins to strengthen the main gear leg attachment to the fuselage gear wells. After all painting and weathering was completed the multiple small parts were attached such as the various antenna, pitot tubes, senor probes, ordnance and pylons, and clear lights. The inflight refueling probe is molded at an incorrect angle and this was corrected by cutting and reattaching the horizontal section at the correct angle before installation on the fuselage. The ejection seats were glued in place using five minute epoxy followed by attachment of the clear canopy sections using Micro Kristal Kleer. The underwing pylons and weapons suite was attached using Loctite Professional CA glue.

The wheel wells were treated by adding small gauge copper wire to represent hydraulic lines and were then masked off and primed with Tamiya X-1 Gloss Black; when cured the wells were airbrushed with Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey followed by detail painting with Vallejo acrylics. The canopy opening, engine intakes and exhaust ducting was carefully masked followed by a wipe down of the surface with a cotton patch wet with 70% isopropyl alcohol as a degreaser. After a wipe off of any contaminants with a tack cloth the entire fuselage was primed with Tamiya X-1 Gloss black thinned 40% with generic Kleenstrip lacquer thinner (sold at Home Depot) using the so called “black basing” technique. The outer wings were assembled per instructions and the builder must select the correct wing tips for the standard RAF versus the Gulf War aircraft. Note that not all twelve of the Gulf War Buccaneers had the same wingtips and photo verification is needed when modeling a specific aircraft. A small amount of seam work was needed on the wings prior to priming. All Buccaneers sent to the Gulf War were overpainted in ATRF (Alkali Temporary Removable Finish) “desert pink”; a color reportedly close to Federal Standard FS30279. After viewing as many color images as I could find it appeared that the FS30279 shade was excessively dark even if significant fading and scale effect is factored in. With experimentation with the goal of trying to reproduce the very weathered/faded desert pin the final mixed paint color is closer to FS32360 so that is what was used from mixing appropriate Tamiya acrylic colors. Several light and intentionally non-uniform airbrush applications were made giving tonal variation throughout the different aircraft components. Additional light overspraying in areas of the undersurface and specifically on the wing pylons and pods was done with mixed paint closer to FS30279 for contrast interest. The painting required several sessions over multiple days until a final result was reached. After a rather lengthy period when model building attention turned to other simultaneous ongoing projects the components were gloss coated with Future thinned 1:1 with 91% Isopropyl alcohol. This mix dries rapidly and several light coats were applied; control to avoid runs is very easy with this thinning ratio compared to airbrushing the unthinned Future. Several days of curing is always best after the clearcoat in my experience before moving on to decal application and weathering. 

The decals used are the kit decal roundels and Kits World set KW148140 that provides decals for all six Buccaneers sporting the pin up nose art. The original kit decal sheet is large and impressive providing complete stencils and markings for the No.12 Squadron aircraft XW530 or No.208 Squadron XX900. The Gulf deployed aircraft markings are for XX889 and employ only a few of the sheet decals as most stencils were overpainted. Testing the decals revealed disintegration when placed in water so the entire sheet was airbrushed with Testors GlossCote lacquer thinned 50% with lacquer thinner. When cut from the sheet the decals need to be cut close to the original film outline otherwise the dried lacquer will transfer to the application site. I have used Microscale Clear Decal film but have had no success with it on these particular decals to prevent fracturing. The Kits World decals are very thin, easy to apply and are excellent in quality but for XX885 the pin up art appears undersized when compared to photos of the original aircraft as marked. All decals were applied using Micro Set and Micro Sol. 

These aircraft weathered heavily and were quite dirty in appearance during the short deployment so weathering was done using Tamiya brown, black, and gray panel liner, Grumbacher artist’s oils, airbrushed heavily thinned Tamiya XF-1 flat black and pastel chalk. After weathering was completed a final clear coat of Testors clear lacquer in a mix of about 50/50 gloss/dull thinned about 40% with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner was airbrushed to seal the finish with a satin to dull finish.

Paint product safety notes: Kleenstrip lacquer thinner is a traditional formula lacquer thinner and will craze and with prolonged exposure dissolve styrene plastic. I use it for thinning priming paint or compatible primers to obtain absolute adhesion of the primer layer that will prevent any paint pull up with masking. If applied by airbrush in thin coats there will be no visible styrene damage but never brush on paint thinned with traditional lacquer thinner. Please note that traditional lacquer thinners contain complex ketones, esters, and alcohols demonstrated to be toxic so adequate respiratory protection (outside venting spray booth and wearing an organic filter respirator) and skin protection (nitrile gloves) is required when used.