The British officially decided, in a Defence White Paper in 1957 that missiles, not manned aircraft, were the way of the future. However, since there were a few programs that were already too far along to stop, these “last few” were allowed to reach completion. On aircraft was the legendary Lightning interceptor. The other was the Buccaneer, an large, fast and tough naval attack aircraft. Eventually the Bucc’ went on to serve not only the Royal Navy, but also the RAF, taking part in the 1991 Gulf War with great success.

However, while it was a great plane, the poor Bucc’ didn’t do well on the export market. The only customer was South Africa. Their small force of Bucc’s long outlived the RAF versions, and while not a lot of people know about them, they performed yeoman service against the backgrounds of crippling sanctions and worldwide political disapproval.

No surprise then, that I wanted to build the Tamiya 1/100 Bucc’ as one of the South African ones! I do love the oddballs and little-knows, and it helps that a.) the kit comes with nice SAAF decals, as well as b.) their paint schemes are really cool. The little Tamiya kit might be old, but it’s still a great built, with a bit of attention leveraged in the right spots!

Check out this little old gem here, and let me know what you think!

https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/model-kits/planes/tamiya-1100-buccaneer-s-2s-50/

That's really cool Adam, I had always thought the Buccaneer to be a peculiarly British aircraft.
I never thought it to be an elegant design with it's odd split-tail air brake and rear-heavy look but it had it's charm nonetheless when I saw it at airshows back in the day.

Your model looks great and I like how the SAAF scheme shows off the lines of the plane better than the usual RAF camo.

Thanks!

I agree that while it's a bit oddly shaped, the Bucc is a cool plane. I wish I could have seen some fly!

I find the RAF cammo very good at being disruptive, but it does hide the lines of the planes a lot. Another one to suffer was the Vulcan, in my opinion. A beautiful plane but it was hard to get a feel for anything but the outline of it when it was in full cammo.