Tamiya 1/48 Brewster F2A-2 Buffalo By Dave Manter

History

Designed in 1936, the Buffalo was the US Navy’s first monoplane carrier fighter. Delivery to the Navy started in June of 1939. VF-3 aboard the USS Saratoga became the first Navy squadron to be equipped with monoplanes. Shortly after that Brewster began to equip the Buffalo with a more powerful engine (F2A-2). Many countries used the Buffalo early in the war and the fighter was able to give a good accounting of its self in the hands of a capable pilot. British, Australian, Dutch and Finnish all produced Aces with the Buffalo. The Japanese pilots that encountered the Buffalo referred to it as the “Flying Beer- Barrel” due to its short and stubby airframe. The US Marines put several Buffalos in the air at the famous battle of Midway and while most of them where shot down they were fighting against overwhelming odds.

Construction

Before I began construction of this kit I had decided to build it “out of the box” for a nice change of pace. I wanted to do a “quick build” without worrying about photo etch or resin detail sets! If you find yourself in a modeling rut try this out! It really works! This kit dates back to the early 1970’s and features both raised details and recessed panel lines. I had wanted to try out my current painting methods on a kit with raised panel lines for some time anyway. Assembly began with the cockpit and I found the fit very good. I painted as I went along.

Once the cockpit was painted and assembled I glued the fuselage halves together and set them aside. The next step was the assembly of the wings and again I found the fit quite nice. The landing gear was next, but I left these off until the main painting was finished. The wings and the tail feathers were assembled to the fuselage next and the wing joints were pretty good, requiring only a small amount of filler. Once all of the joints were sanded, I masked off the canopy with Eduards Express Mask and attached it with white glue to the fuselage. The main airframe was now ready for painting.

Painting

I first painted the bottom of the aircraft with Tamiya Neutral Gray. The landing gear struts and the propeller hub were also painting at this time. The top of the airframe was then painted Tamiya Intermediate Blue. The top color was then lightened with white and sprayed over the center of all the panels for a faded look. The same technique was also used on the bottom of the aircraft. While this was drying I mixed up a small amount of black and sprayed the prop and the wheels. The next step was to apply a very this wash of black to the entire airframe. This helps blend the paint out so it does not have too much contrast between the base coat and the fade coat. Once this had dried, I applied a “pin wash” of Van Dyke Brown to the entire aircraft. This adds a nice dirty look to the aircraft. I then mixed up a thin mixture of Tamiya German Gray and sprayed it around all of the engine access panels.

The Wright Cyclone engines were notorious for throwing oil everywhere and I wanted to convey this. After allowing all of this to dry over night, I dry brushed a light blue over the upper surfaces to add a highlight to the raised areas. The final step was to use an artist silver pencil to apply some paint chips around access panels and such. The landing gear and the prop where added next and weathered accordingly. Several coats of Future were sprayed in the areas where the decals were to be applied. After drying over night the decals were applied and several coats of Micro Sol were used to snuggle the decals around the surface details. After drying the decals were weathered to blend them into the aircraft. A final flat coat was applied to even out the overall finish.

Conclusion

If you find yourself struggling to finish a project because of the complexity of some of the recent kits, not to mention super detailing, resin conversions, etc., etc., try doing a “quick build”. Grab an older kit, the Tamiya stuff is great, and put it together. Don’t worry if the fuselage is a scale inch to long, don’t worry if you can’t find the exact shade of gray, just build and paint it. Enjoy it, finish it! I had a great time with this one!