**** DONE: 1/48 Brewster Buffalo - Allied Manufactured Aircraft

Good work!

Nicely done so far!

Nice work!

At last, I got some time to spend with the Brewster build after other non modelling ralated issues needed attending to...

Thus far the old Tamiya Bufallo turned out to be a rather pleasant build. The kit being + 40 years old comes together quiet well and the fit is pretty ok. I'm also surprised that the kit has some nice details and is generally accurate overall.
The seams however will need some attention. I think I have a very early box(ing) of this kit, but there is some sliding in the molds.
But it's been a relaxing build so far (apart from the fidly Eduard photo etch, mostly due to my own fault and using not the best CA glue)

Even though I initially planned to make this build not too complicated, I decided some things needed extra attention.
So I scratch build a few things.

# cockpit painted and test fitted with the Eduard thingies.

# wheel well...Hmmm this looks way too empty to my taste and there is a nasty seam visible...

Ok, plastic card, some ref. matarial from the various 1/32 Special Hobby on line builds and we got this;
Already with a lick od paint on it as I forgot to take a pic prior...


And with some extra paint for the gearbox;

And this is how it looks like in the fuselage. Much better imho then the empty can;

And this is what will be visible thru the wheel openings;

The rest of the time was spend glueing the fuselage, engine and various other things;

And this is where the Bufallo stands now;
(yes, that's right...The Kawanishi N1J2 also got some attention after being neglected due to the finishing of the Ki-67. I hope to get the N1J2 finished together with the Bufallo)

Looks like that Buffalo needs to check his 6 or he's going to be in a world of trouble. Nice job so far. The improvements are definitely worth it!

Nice work so far.

Looks great. I like what you did with the wheel wells. Good decision.

Well done!

The added detail visible through the wheel wells is an excellent touch!

Looks good so far!

Very nice mods.

Geo

Thanks all for the nice comments!

I'm slowly getting towards the painting stage. Kit needs a bit of filler at the wings roots and I need to install the last pieces on the aft dack of the cockpit. The cockpit transparancie isn't the best in this kit. It shows it's age as it is overly thick. But it will have to do. I'm gonna try to polish it up with some mr. polish from the Gunze range to give the hood some shine. Detail is ok and the fir is allright.

Since there are no more well stocked modelling stores in Antwerp left, the kit part will have to do.
Though, an arts and crafts suply store in the neighbourhood carries the Humbrol paint range, so I was able to find some paint for the Bufallo.
I would prefer Model Master paints, but these are not that easy to get by these days. But the Humbrol Super Enamel range is also pleasing to work with when mixed with their thinner. Almost as nice as Model Master. But as of late, I seam to be using more Revell and Humbrol paints as these are the ones I can find locally...
Hopefully I can post some more progress pics soon.

Sounds good!

Yep...

I had some time on my hands, so more progress was made on the Bufallo.
Time to glue the fuselage and install the last cockpit bits. I noticed the Eduard Zoom set only has seatbelts for the US NAVY version, so out of the "leftoverpartsdungeon" I dug some Extratech Luftwaffe belts...(blasphemy, I know!, but they looked the closest to a Sutton? harnas.
I also installed (after some inner debate) the BW 339 headrest armour that is included with the Tamiya kit. Not all R.A.F. Brewsters had this armour installed, but in the Osprey volume I found some pics with and without armour. And since I wasn't too impressed with Tamiya's "roll over structure" I opted to instal this part.



For some reason, I could not get the BW 339 canopy good. There was a big scratch moulded in the rear part of the canopy. After some serious sanding and polishing, it still looked not good. So I took out the small saw and cut both BW 339 and NAVY canopies. Kept the front part of the BW 339 and the rear part of the NAVY version to get an acceptable canopy...


MAsking the canopy proved a chore...The frames on the canopy are very small, allmost invisible (partly due to my envious polishing).
After and hour or so it looked like this. I precut the masking tape and carefully installed the cut out frames on the canopy. As I did not want to ruin this part.

And, then ant last! Got some paint on. I used Matt Black No. 8 from Revell, this is compareble to "cockpit black". I find straight matt black too dark and out of scale on 1/48th.
For the Blue part I opted for Humbrol "Duck Egg Blue" I know this is debatble, but imho the best match I could find for the underside colour.
From pics I could see a distinction between the "Sky Blue" tailband and the underside colour. So "Duck Egg Blue" was also suggested on other fora dealing with the Brewster R.A.F. colours.
I did some pre- and post shading on both the black and blue. I tried to be subtle, which I think I achieved...Or at least I hope I did
I did not blank off the window on the belly. The BW 339 had this window installed, though not visible on all pics, there are some good pics of R.A.F. Bufallo's with this window hanging open under the belly. I also opened up the "Vent" holes in this window. (and stuffed these for painting) + I added an extra landing light, as the R.A.F. BW 339 (cantrary to the Dutch and Belgian version) had one landing light in each wing. Yup, the Bufallo is a HUGE learning curve for me!!!

Sweet brother!

Looking good Jerry. I know how you feel about the clear parts. The frame work on the bottom was almost invisible, probably mold age.

Geo