Buccaneer S2C (RN)

[Dad Paul B]

It took a while to get round to acquiring one of these. It was worth the wait. The build was entirely out of the box apart from the use of low-visibility Roundels to represent a late 1970s aircraft on HMS Ark Royal to go along with the Phantom I did a few years ago. This kit is nicely engineered with some very good detailing in the main undercarriage bays, although the positioning of the legs was a little vague.

The intake cowls had very tight tolerances so needed some care, as did those for the jet pipes but the final effect is very impressive. The lack of ordnance for the nicely detailed bomb bay is disappointing but not an issue for this build as I have it landing on Ark Royal, which required a little work with a scalpel on the arrestor hook to fit it in the down position; an odd omission on Airfix's part as they had both options on the Phantom.

The deck was made from scrap board, painted using deck photos and the plans from Airfix Model World for the bow catapult station in the issue with the first Phantom build.

[T2B]

Your Bucc looks very good and dirty Paul. I like your display base too!