I know I may be crossing the line here, possibly abusing our site, but I am a desperate man, and desperate men are capable of anything…ANYTHING I tell ya’!
As I’ve mentioned over and over, I’m building the impossible 1/48 Airfix Buccaneer with the fine Eduard sets that go with it. What I need are Desert Storm/Operation Granby decals. These can be had, but, put quite simply and embarrassingly, at around 20 bucks average, these sheets cost too much for a starving freelancer to buy. (Talk about poor, the guy who traded this kit to me no doubt thinks I’m a crook, because I haven’t had the postage to send his kit back yet, and the Post Office rejected my box originally, because it was wrapped in masking tape. Two-inch wide masking tape, double taped, was not good enough!) So, I’m looking to see if anyone knows of a sheet that maybe includes one of these birds along with some other Desert Storm/Granby a/c, with the Buccaneer part going unused. For example, if someone is making the Tornado, but never plans to build the Buc. I would pay a reasonable price for a fragment of a sheet. I’m still rebuilding from my fire, so the only thing I have to trade are some reference books. Any solution you guys might have for me would receive most heartfelt gratitude (go and try to spend that at your LHS).
Tom[:(]
PS: BTW, by hook or crook I’m going to get some photos of this build, or built up Buc on the site if it’s thelast thing I do. I’ve been so warned about all the pitfalls of the kit, I’m managing to head them off before they become major problems. Of course, I haven’t yet made the dreaded top-to-bottom fuselage join yet. But Edward’s done some fine work detailing the exterior. I can’t for the life of me figure out what this tarnished white pewter-looking PE material is they used for the exterior, but it is almost as pliable as lead, making compound curves a snap. It also makes mistakes and kinks easy. The interior PE parts are the usual yellow brass.
As I’ve probably mentioned before, I have AIrfix kit #08100 sitting on a shelf right next to me. It’s a Bucc S-2B and the kit includes decals for a 1991 Gulf War plane from the RAF Lossiemouth Detachment at Muharraq, Bahrain. More specifically for plane number XX889 “Longmorn”. Btw, the right fuselage side has a pirate’s flag, and strike (GBU) markings are on the other side. If you pop me an email with your address I’ll send the decals and paint instructions your way because mine will be grey and green when I build her (I’ll need the rest of the decals for that, so I can only spare the Gulf War bits). I hope this is enough to build the plane you want.