Probably some of you had this problem…With this kit or not…
Well I bought a Buccaneer from Airfix and the fuselage halves are very warped… I tried to fix it with hot water and the results were not good… Now I am a little in doubt to use hotter water and permanently damage the kit…
Looking at the internet a found a article of a guy telling that he had to cut the fuselage and add a piece of plastic to compensate this on this model…
Did anyone had problems like this? I will need a lot of putty to compensate these differences…LOL
are both fuselage halves warped?.
I would dip the fuselage halves in warm water and place on a flat surface and put sufficient weight on it to straighten it out and leave for a few days.
If you can , use liquid weld type glue (dichloromethane or Methyl Ethyl Keytone) if you have 1 straight half , dip the other side in warm water and dry, then glue to the warm side to the good side
As mentioned above heat the parts using either hot water or a heat-gun/hair-dryer.
Rather than trying to “fix” the deformation I would rather try to glue them together using a method called “stitching”.
On one part of the joint place small drops of Super-glue/CA along the joint than join the parts, align them and maybe hit them with an accelerator.
After that is done run thin glue along the joint the glue should run into the joint and fuse the two parts together.
This has worked on a variety of models for me using a selection of materials(Vinyl, Plastic, etc)
Not fond of using Super-glue for filling seams or most other glue applications, only use them for small parts that have no weight/stress on them or when I need to glue them onto a painted surface apart from that I prefer to use 2-part epoxy glue…
let me tell you[:D],
DO NOT and i stress DO NOT put them in boiling water. you will definately end up with a short half and a long half. I tried this with a p-51d and it was not pretty[B)]. I will never use water again. I would try gluing them together as said above.[:)]
I use Tanex7 and glue it as I go along. Takes a while but there will be no warp when your done.
If I may, I am – with plenty of warning from other modelers not to even try it – building the very same kit seven years after first starting, then losing, the kit. The fuselage is not warped. This kit is famous for this awful flaw, and it has defeated better modellers than many of us can ever dream of being. I have heard of several ways to fix it, or hide it, and been told by many who built it that hot water will only make the problem worse. I use what MM called “stitching” on models made up of large components which must fit perfectly, like the 1/48 SR-71 and the Testors 1/72 XB-Valkyrie, and it has served me well, though I call it “tacking” because it’s similar to the welding technique you can always see on Monster Garage when they test fit components.
But back to the point, I have read one Buccaneer builder say he had success by cutting plastic circles and ovals as bulkheads to fit inside the engine bays, where the problem is worst, and that it worked. The problem, by the way, is that the bottom half is bigger than the top, and the only way to make it work is to sand down the larger part as much as you can stand to sand, and them simply distort it to make it fit using clamps, rubber bands, accelerator and prayer. I wish I could give you better advice, but I’m afraid you are simply going to be engaged in a wrestling match with your model, just as I am right now. I have used a scalpel to shave a lot of the outside of the larger half near the seam, until I reached the critical point, then I stopped. I’m going to use a variety of techniques, but this beast will not defeat me, and I hope it doesn’t beat you. Please let us know how you make out.
Oh, and you’ll notice that a lot of people fold the wings, using the great Eduard frets for this kit for the folding mechanism and cockpit. It hides some of the flaws, and detracts from it too. Good luck.
Tom
I have that Buccaneer kit back home in Canada about part way done. Same flaw in it too.
I created some alignment tabs from the really thick Evergreen styrene sheet stock (1/8" thick I believe) and superglued them at regular intervals along the edge of the wider fuselage half.
I squeezed the wider section enough so that the tabs would sit inside the narrower section and spread it out a bit. Once I was satisfied with how the halves came together, I ran super thin CA glue into the seem and set it with accelerator, sanded the seam smooth and started filling with gap filling CA and accelerator.
To steady things out, I drilled holes at corresponding spots on either side of the narrow half and ran thick styrene rod through the fuselage at those points and superglued the rod in place, first with super thin to fix the rods in place, then thick stuff after I had cut the rod ends flush to the fuselage.
It had been that way for a year before I left Canada and showed no sign of stress threatening to undo the seam or pop a rod end loose.
My Buccaneer has three rods across the fuselage from just aft of the tailpipes to just ahead of the airbrake section another two further forward, one just ahead of the intake and one just ahead of the cockpit.
Lots of work, but the best solution I could think of.
And I tought I was the unlucky one…LOL
You are right sharkskin…The bottom half seems to be bigger…But for my fortune (?) only the top bottom seems to be warped (or more distorted than the other…LOL) and the problem is more visible on the engine covers…
I will try your suggestions and glue a part each time and try to align the fuselage while doing the surgery…I am just afraid to have this model opening after some time because of the stress of the warped pieces…
Thanks for the advices and the suggestions!
Well, after reading Upnorth’s ingenius solution, I think it might be the ticket. If you use the tacking method, just make sure the joint is glued well on the outside, and at the very least reinforced with expoxy or thick superglue along the inside seam. But using the strip or rod as a stiffener is tried and true on real airplanes, why not on models that don’t even have the stress of G loads or heavy cargo?
Tom
Yes Sharkskin…Upnorth’s solution is very good and is the first time I heard about it…I will study how to do it on my model…
Thanks for the good comments about my solution “ingenius”?! I called it a shot in the dark 
I wish Airfix had engineered the molds with the injection molding limitations in mind. That huge enlarged area just aft of the tailpipes should have been molded seperately as vertically split halves incorporating the vertical stabilizer.
Good luck, however you solve your problem.
Can anyone say: Monogram B-58 and F-100?
Good, I knew you could.
Sounds like upnorth’s suggestions would work on these kits as well.
Thanks