The SAAF Forum

Hi.

I'm having a go at building the new Airfix Buccaneer in SAAF colours but I need some help. I bought the new Xtradecal markings and I was wanting to use these to try and build a later scheme, but as they are just generic markings, there are no stencils or guides. Did this scheme have any warning stripes running across the wing surfaces in front of the flaps / ailerons?



By the way, for anyone wanting to use the Xtradecal sheet, be aware that the fuselage castles appears to be oversized? (I had to use a couple of smaller castles from a very old Ken Smy decal sheet that I've been hoarding for about 30 years)



From what I've heard, the wing roundels for the Mustang on one of their other sheets is also oversized.

Many thanks

Mike

Hi Mike,

Try this link within the forum http://www.saairforce.co.za/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10670&hilit=buccaneer

Regards
James

Cheers James.

Many thanks for getting back to me. Much appreciated.

Mike

Ken Smy's decal sheets are the best with the correct proportion of the bastion's of the Castle, Springbok, etc..

The sheet also has the correct sizes of the Castle, fin flash, numerals and numeral font that a modeller needs to make a great model.

The Buccaneer in the first paint scheme had the following sizes;

Fuselage Castle 36"
Upperwing Castle 48"
Underwing castle 36"
Fin flash 48" x 30" ( h x w)
Fuselage numeral 12"
Underwing serial 36"

From the photo's in the Buccaneer books that I have there is no upperwing stencilling that I can see and I can say that the Buccaneer's that I have seen don't have any upperwing stencilling.

The Buccaneer in the first paint scheme never had Vortex generators on the upperwing, the Vortex generators were only installed when the aircraft went for the "600" modification.

After the "600" modification the Bucc's "yellow" ( fibre glass colour) was painted the same as the existing upper and lower fuselage colour (Dark Sea Grey upper with PRU Blue undersides) as what you have on your model.

I don't recall seeing any underwing stores as what you have on your model and I don't think that the SAAF used that type of equipment, I may be wrong though, I will go through the books when I have a chance to do that.

The leading edge of the wings had a natural metal strip for the "blow air" system that all the Bucc's had and used.

Hope this helps a bit?

Hi AT6C.

Many thanks for your valuable input. Looks like I'm going in the right direction

The underwing stores that you can see on my model are the RWR fairings that came with the kit. I found a couple of photos on the Internet where these appear and although they are visible on the photo of the Linksfield museum Bucc, I wouldn't be surprised if this is actually a late version painted up in the original markings? Anyway, as I've seen more photos without than with, I've removed them off my model.

While we're on the subject of underwing stores, I've got four aftermarket rocket pods but I've been thinking just using two of them on the outstations with the larger fuel tanks on the inner ones? Not sure if this configuration was ever used as I've not been able to find any photos of such a set-up.

If anyone would like to chip in, please feel free. (As my wife would say "You've been put on earth to be corrected" )

Best Regards

Mike

Hi AT6C

The Ken Smy's decal sheets you mention. Where does one get them?

Unfortunately Ken Smy's decal sheets are very scarce, he stopped importing them ( made in UK) some years ago.

If you can get your hands on any of Ken Smy's sheets, grab them.

Ken brought out 4 decal sheets, Springbok Castle, Springbok roundel, WW2 roundel and the 4th sheet escapes me at the moment.

I will have a look and see if I can find the 4th sheet.

Some modellers may still have some of Ken's sheets?