1/48 Airfix Blackburn Buccaneer S2B

Gallery Article by Richard Spreckley on Sept 13 2016

 

      

Blackburn Buccaneer S2B 208 Sqn RAF Red Flag Exercise 1977

This is a kit I have always wanted to build: and being the lucky owner of Airfix twin kit it was time to start. 

Having done lots of research about the kit I knew it was going to fight me, but armed with knowledge I decided to go all the way.

The flying brick is the last all British combat aircraft and what a bird it is. Built for the Royal Navy as a low level strike fighter its innovative design and shape made it a world leader and the best for ultra low level sorties above sea and land. Adopted by the RAF the Buccaneer went to the US for the 1st time in 1977 with 208 Sqn. They applied a temporary desert scheme but found the back wash from the powerful Rolls Royce Spay engines made a mess at the rear. This led to an unusual and striking scheme as they left the rear fuselage in the standard temprate scheme.

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The Red Flag exercise was a total success for the Buccaneer it smashed through every defense put in front of it and made history as not one Buccaneer was intercepted throughout the whole exercise. It astounded all of our allies and just showed that the RAF had a world beating aircraft that could be flown by our pilots at heights no one else was prepared to attempt.

XV352 was one of those aircraft. I wanted to show it off as best as possible so I cut out the access panels for the Spey engine on the port side and fully scratch built the engine. I did the same for the rotating bomb bay and wheel wells too.

The cockpit with its sliding canopy lends itself to an upgrade and the Neomega resin set cannot be beaten. Extra detail was added using the fantastic flight path photo etch set.

This build has taken me four months to get right. Painted with Vallejo Air and washes and weathered with Tamiya pigments. The decals are from various sets mainly RAF aftermarket numbers and lettering.

Richard Spreckley

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Photos and text © by Richard Spreckley