1:48 Blackburn Buccaneer S.2C/D Full Colour 3D Seat Belt Set (for Airfix kits)

Low over the water

The Buccaneer was created as an answer to Soviet cruisers: it was to fly in under the radar horizon, strike and vanish before anyone could get a fix on it. The designers gave it a strong airframe able to take the buffeting of low-level turbulence, a waisted fuselage following the area rule and, in the later versions, a pair of Spey engines. The machines designated S.2C and S.2D first served from the decks of British aircraft carriers and, after those were withdrawn, passed to the Royal Air Force. Flights just above the water took such a toll on the airframe that fatigue cracks in the structure had to be watched regularly on the later examples. This type had its last major action in 1991 over Iraq, where it marked targets with a laser for bombs dropped by other aircraft, that is thirty-two years after the prototype first flew.

The workmanship of the equipment

The straps and their fittings are printed to their final form and have a perceptible profile, so once seated they cast a shadow of their own. British-built ejection seats come with a fairly complex tangle of belts, and it is exactly that which would be difficult to paint at this scale. The cockpit has a large canopy, so on a finished model the seat really can be seen into.

Advice for the work

Spray the seats, let them dry through and only then transfer the equipment. Lay the individual parts one at a time and press them against the shell of the seat with a cotton swab while seating them. Before you close the cockpit up, check that no end of a belt sticks out over the edge where the canopy would trap it.