I love Buccaneers. And I love this Airfix kit. Of all the 1:48 kits I've built, this is by far the worst of them. Nothing fits, it needs certain shape corrections and the interior parts are absolutely useless. I have no idea how this kit ever passed the quality exam or if there even is one but I'm very glad it didn't. It just wouldn't be fun otherwise.
This kit is a bit of a cult classic and you can pay anywhere up to £100 for one with a few after market parts on Ebay. There are plenty of accessories for the detailer and bags of after market decals. Personally I tend not to bother with the photo etch sets for this kit because they're not much better. The instrument plating from Eduard doesn't fit at all. If you're going down that road then it's best to get the resin parts, but if you ask me, the only bits that matter are the ejection seats. You can't really see in unless you go for an open cockpit - and I rarely do.
If you can overlook the horrible interior parts, the rest of the kit scrubs up quite well. You can get away with not buying after market parts. The only bit that really demands more detail is the wing join if you plan to have folded wings. There are PE parts for this but I wasn't impressed. They didn't add very much. I think that's where you might want to play around and scratch build something.
This kit has a notoriously awkward fuselage join requiring a quite a lot of sanding and filler, and managing it without erasing panel lines is quite difficult. I recently invested in a panel line scriber but I'm not quite brave enough to use it yet. This kit is missing a few key panel lines that would make it look more convincing.
The best part, though is when the hardest job is done, everything else just falls together. I much prefer the painting to the building. I happen to have three of these and this latest Desert Storm variant won't be the last. I plan on a Raspberry Ripple version.
As a word of caution, though comprehensive the decal sheet, I think, isn't very good. They're low resolution and highly prone to silvering or just not sticking at all. In fact, paradoxically, there is nothing much good I can say about this kit yet I still love it the most. HobbyBoss could make one of their modern kits of the Bucc and I would love to see that but I would still occasionally go back to play with this one. There's a real "essence of modelling" to this build experience, and modern kits seem to have lost that. There's no real build challenge in HobbyBoss builds such as the SU-27 unless you're prepared to upscale to 1:32.
I would say to manage your expectations with this kit. No matter how good you are, this kit won't quite reflect your skill level because it is such a dog. To make this look right you have to be a master and go to town on it. I've seen it done once or twice but most efforts, including mine, are decidedly average. All the same, every self-respecting modeller should have one.
On this particular one I went with the Operation Granby scheme not least to try out my newly acquired pre-shading techniques. It didn't work. The recommended desert pink for this is the Alclad RAF Desert Pink but I was only able to locate an enamel which I've not really worked with since the days of Humbrol tinlets. The pre-shading worked ok but then I started running low and didn't have enough for corrections. For that I mixed my own desert pink from Tamiya remnants which didn't quite match so ended up doing a complete overspray, losing the pre-shading.
That then created problems of its own because Alclad products seemingly take a while to dry and there was still a gummy layer between the acrylic coat and the primer, so when I go the decals on I noticed partial fingerprints and other intolerable imperfections (after I put the decals on naturally). I spent much of the evening forensically sanding areas back and rebuilding the coat. Though it's a serious pain the the arse, I do quite enjoy these little problems. I've never had a bug free build and this was no exception - particularly since the airbrush had been playing up the whole time.
Weathering wise I've used a san coloured pigment powder and a black wash along with Tamiya panel liner for the staining near the nose. Though I've got my finished photo, I suspect I will revisit this and add some exhaust soot. In this house, a model is never truly finished. They're only ever waiting for their next weathering tweak.
As a rule it's best to stick with what you know. I like acrylics and venturing out on enamels was a mistake. Mixing up a desert pink isn't actually that hard. I started with red and white to make a barbie pink then topped it up with buff, a dash of desert yellow and to get it flatter, a light sky grey. I'm sure there's an easier way but that's the way the experiment went. You develop an instinct over time.
I think next I'll be having a bash at the Revell Tornado GR4. The Bucc and the Tonka sitting together is a nice shelf combo. Though I think I'll stick with the medium sea grey for that one.
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