Matchbox 1/72 RAF Buccaneer S.2B converted to an FAA S.2A

[Stuart]

Hi Guys,

I'm just off to bed but I thought I'd throw open a new thread on my latest work, Converting an old Matchbox 1/72 Blackburn Buccaneer from an RAF S.2B...





...to an early FAA S.2A...







Along the way I'll be doing some upgrade work on the basic kit n areas where it's lacking.

More to follow!

Cheers Shipmates!

[BlackSheep214]

Wait for it...…..

[Stuart]

Go on Lyle, out with it!

[Stuart]

So to progress this, I've been working on this kit for a few weeks now and have have started fiddling around with some paint. The old Matchbox kit isn't that bad considering it was tooled in 1973 but there are a few minor issues that I wanted to sort out...

1. The cockpit

There isn't one, but as I was so arsed off with all the internal gubbings on the Airfix kit, I just painted the hole black and added the pilots. One of the things that got with the Airfix kit that even after you fitted the fiddly cockpit, you couldn't see any of it anyway!

2. The lack of vortex generators

These were added with some plastic strip. The locations were copied from the Airfix kit. There're not 100% but should look okay under paint.





3. The lack of any pylons

Using some plans I have (and the airfix kit) I measured out and drilled some location holes. As I used the slipped tanks and some AM Martels for my previous build I have a full set of spare pylons with ordnance to use on this kit.







4. The horrible undercarriage

I'll take some pictures later but I've purchased a set of white metal gear and some resin wheels that test fitting shows will go nicely and do a lot to lift the appearance of the build



5. The exhausts were flat plate with no holes

I drilled these you and added some drinking straws! They actually look good under some black paint.



6. Missing wing tip pods

These will need to be scratch built, I just need to find some plastic rod the right diameter.

Oh and the biggy if I'm going to convert this to an S.2A from a B... The B had a large bulged bomb bay and the S.2A didn't

This was fun. I cut out the bay and after trying a few methods ended up back-filling the hole with strip plastic and filling the gaps over the top. It's not looking too bad now. I've not scribed in the detail. I'm going to use some black decal strips to mark out the bay after paint. If you see photos of the undersides of these aircraft the bay is quite a pronounced black line so this should work well.



There was a lot of filling to be done on this, but it's looking okay now.





Oh and obviously I have some AM decal for a early aircraft flown of HMS Victorious in 1966.



Anyway, sorry for the long and probably boring intro - on with the build!

Cheers!

[BlackSheep214]

Long and boring? No. Your improvisions are impressive. Bring it on and let's see more! Having spares is never a bad thing. You never know when you'll need these spares.

[Handiabled]

Looks like you are beating this into submission. Watching for more!

[LyleW]

I know not of what you speak. Simply marvelous work, Stuart!

[LyleW]

So, How much does it cost a pirate to pierce his ears?

[Stikpusher]

Looking good Stuart! You might want to check the positioning of the vortex generators. They should be parallel with the direction of airflow over the wing, and not perpendicular to the leading edge of the wing.

[jkim]

Nice! I love the bright-colored plastic from Matchbox. Well, I wouldn't actually love it if I were the one having to build it but... you know what I mean!