Manufacturer: Matchbox
Scale: 1/72
Additional parts: from spare part box
Model build: Jun - Jul 2015
Luftwaffe Blackburn Buccaneer
Matchbox
1/72
1/72
Barcadi Feeling
The Caribbean sun beat down on Lieutenant Commander Hans Richter’s neck as he surveyed the flight deck of the German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin. It was July 1968, and NATO exercise Barcadi Feeling was in full swing. Unlike the American carriers packed with sleek Phantoms and Crusaders, the Graf Zeppelin boasted a different kind of muscle - ten Blackburn Buccaneers, squat and purposeful, lined the deck like coiled vipers.
Hans adjusted his helmet, the roar of the Buccaneer’s Rolls-Royce Spey engines a constant thrumming in his chest. The Buccaneer was a beast of an aircraft, a far cry from the nimble F9F Panthers Hans had flown before. This twin-engine bruiser packed a wallop, perfect for the low-level strike missions they were tasked with in the exercise.
“Alright, Fritz,” Hans said to his Weapon Systems Officer, Captain Friedrich Schmidt, strapping himself into the ejection seat. “Let’s show these Yanks what German engineering can do.”
Friedrich grinned, his excitement a mirror of Hans’. Together, they had honed their coordination into a well-oiled machine. The Buccaneer was a two-man show, pilot and navigator working in perfect unison to unleash the fury the plane held.
The catapult launch was a brutal shove into the sky, G-forces pressing Hans into his seat. In seconds, they were hurtling towards the designated target - a mock enemy destroyer. Following the pre-briefed route, Hans skimmed the turquoise waves, the Caribbean a breathtaking backdrop to the imminent action.
Suddenly, Friedrich’s voice crackled over the intercom. “SAM launch detected, Hans! Two o’clock, low!”
Hans cursed. Surface-to-air missiles – a constant threat in these exercises. He threw the Buccaneer into a violent corkscrew, the g-force momentarily stealing his breath. A glance back confirmed the missile streaking past, a plume of smoke marking its frustrated trajectory.
“Good one, Hans!” Friedrich yelled, his voice laced with adrenaline. “Target in sight, ten miles ahead.”
Hans focused on the instrument panel, his years of training kicking in. He brought the Buccaneer in low and fast, hugging the water like a phantom. The island the mock destroyer was “anchored” by loomed large, a jagged green sentinel against the blue sky.
“Fire!” Friedrich’s voice cut through the tension.
Hans squeezed the trigger, rockets screaming from the Buccaneer’s undercarriage. A plume of fire erupted on the mock destroyer, debris raining down into the turquoise water. Hans pulled the plane up in a tight loop, the world a blur of sea and sky.
As they banked away, Hans glanced at Friedrich. A wide grin split the navigator’s face. “Bullseye, Kommandant!”
Hans chuckled, a wave of exhilaration washing over him. The Barcardi Feeling exercise was proving one thing – the German aircraft carrier, with its Blackburn Buccaneers, was a force to be reckoned with. They may not have had the numbers of the American carriers, but their strike force packed a powerful punch, German engineering on full display beneath the relentless Caribbean sun.
When the German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin was recommissioned after its major reconstruction in spring of 1960, a more capapble attack aircreaft was looked for.
Since then, the carrier only had licht attack aircraft, but now a heaver alternative was preferred. In late 1961 it was decided to introduce the British Blackburn Buccaneer. With its low-evel attack capabilites, two men crew and two jet engines, the plane opened much more operational optins than before.
As the Buccaneer was a much bigger plane then the F9F Panthers and Seahawks which operated on the ship before the reconstruction, only 10 of then could be carried simultaniously.
With the introduction of US build carrier aircraft in the early 1970s, the Buccaneer were put ashore with their main focus on the Baltic Sea.
The model shows a Blackburn Buccaneer on the Graf Zeppelin in July 1968 during the NATO exercise "Barcadi Feeling" in the Caribbean.
Its a 1/72 scale Matchbox kit, build OOB. As for most old Matchbox kits, its quite easy to build. Despite the box art, the kit contains no weapons at all and I did not find anything good in the spare parts box. Painted with Revell Aqua Colors in a typical German Marineflieger scheme. Decals are a Paddinghaus decal set for a Marineflieger F104.
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