Airfix Blackburn Buccaneer S.2B 1:48 – Mark Rooks build

Full Review with Mark Rooks

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Just before we get started, here’s a look at how this project turned out…

Introduction

On a not-so-sunny day in 1991, 208 Squadron was minding its own business on exercise out of St Mawgan with the Navy, when the Western Coalition went to war over Kuwait, part of 208’s old stamping ground. Everyone was glued to the television sets and then, on 23rd January, the Squadron was called back to Lossiemouth and ordered to deploy to Muharraq, adjacent to Bahrain International Airport, where it had spent its last days as part of Air Forces Gulf just 20 years earlier.
Now, the task was to support Operation Granby, an element of Operation Desert Storm. All this after a press statement had been released the day before saying: ‘I can tell you it is extremely unlikely that the Buccaneers will be sent to the Gulf.’ The Royal Air Force moved with a speed of decision and action not witnessed since World War II as two ‘desert pink’ painted Buccaneers flew out to Muharraq on 26th January, followed by two more the next day and a further two on the 28th. Finally, 12 aircraft and 18 aircrews with ground crew were located in Bahrain.

The Buccaneer fleet flew with such aircraft names as ‘Glenfiddich’, ‘The Macallan’, ‘Glen Elgin’, ‘Famous Grouse’, and ‘Tamnavoulin’. Sounds familiar? I wonder why? During February, 107 sorties were flown without a single mechanical mishap. Initially, the Buccaneers provided laser designation for the Tornados, amongst which their targets were bridges, fuel / oil depots, then airfields, hardened aircraft shelters, silos and storage bunkers. The Buccaneer flew higher, faster and further than its counterpart and ultimate successor, the Tornado GR1. The laser designation of targets worked perfectly, and not one sortie was lost. Then 208 came into its own, carrying its own laser guided bombs as well as the laser designator to take out its own targets, including Iraqi aircraft left out in the open.

In a press conference before the Buccaneers arrived in the Gulf, it was asked of the Defence Minister, Tom King: ‘Why are we sending a 30-year-old aeroplane to a high-tech war?’ The answer came back: ‘to increase the accuracy of the precision bombing,’ which is exactly what it did. But the best quote of all was Wing Commander Bill Cope’s: ‘I compare the Buccaneer with my Grandmother: old, but formidable’.

Wing Commander Bill Cope Stands in front of the ground and aircrew and two aircraft of the Gulf War Buccaneer Detachment.

The new-tool Airfix kit

As the kit has already been built on several occasions in SMN (the Royal Navy S.2C variant), including builds by the Editor, there seemed no point in repeating some or all of what has already been said about this kit, all of which I wholeheartedly agree. However, I have one small gripe not picked up in previous builds – bearing in mind that this build is of a Gulf War Aircraft, and of which Airfix provide markings and stores for – it is disappointing that only one CPU-123 Paveway II LGB is provided. Most sorties were flown with two weapons carried on the port outer and starboard inner stations.

The Build…