1:72 Blackburn Buccaneer S.2 Collection Part.1

Low over the sea and over the German plain

Ten options on one sheet show the whole career of an aircraft designed for a single task: to fly in under the radar, drop its load and vanish. It came about for carrier service with the Royal Navy, where it had to fit into the cramped space of a ship, and its smooth outlines therefore hide a surprisingly rugged structure. When the carriers were paid off, the machines passed to the Royal Air Force and their profile shifted to the European lowlands.

The sheet carries machines from the decks of two ships and from naval air stations in Scotland, aircraft of the operational conversion unit, two squadrons from a base in Germany in the late 1970s and one machine exported to South Africa. The 1970s are represented most strongly, so the sheet covers the period when the aircraft wore the dark naval finish and later gray-green wavy camouflage well. One of the options belongs to the later land-based version and one to the export finish, which allows a machine with different equipment to be built.

Working and use

The product is a sheet of decals printed for 1:72 and it holds national insignia, squadron codes and fuselage numbers. The plastic kit has to be obtained separately. Before applying them it is best to polish the surface with gloss varnish, to cut the individual markings out close to the edge and to help them along with a softener, because the sheet also holds larger pieces that have to follow the curve of the fuselage. A damp brush holds a decal in place better than tweezers and will take a small shift as long as water remains under the marking.