Definitely way up near the top of the list of my favorite aircraft is the Hawker Siddely (nee Blackburn) Buccaneer. I remember vividly the first time I was in the presence of one of these beasts, at RAF Long Kesh in Northern Ireland, and I realised the sheer size of these things. In my illustration work, and my model building, I always try and capture a sense of the mass of the subject matter. The Bucc just screemas 'mass', it seems like it is simply jam packed full of bits, with no empty space inside whatever. The one you see here is a Gulf War veteran that was on display at RAF Hendon when I was there in 2024. The desert pink paint scheme offers a great opportunity to observe wear and dirt patterns on a service airframe. The single colour also shows up well the extraordinarily curvaceous shape, taking full advantage of the area-rule principal.
