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1/48 F2A-2 Buffalo COMPLETED


Stikpusher

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So as my latest project winds down, it’s time to start another. This is my Tamiya’s 1/48 F2A-2. Last nite at IPMS I started construction and built most of the interior up to where I needed to start painting. The original molds date back to the mid 1970’s, and overall the detail in not too bad.

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More to come once I’ve got some paint on this one…

Edited by Stikpusher
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I'm always surprised at how large the Buffalo and Wildcat were, compared to a P-36, Zero, or Spitfire.  Barrel shaped fuselages that had to be mostly empty.

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Thanks Mark.

John, this thing sure was tubby. More in the likes of the P-35 than the Zero, Spitfire, or Bf-109. But from what I’ve read, the F2A is basically a chopped down two seat scout bomber turned into a fighter.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So today was a lot of painting… and masking… I found some good photos of the F2A-2 prototype cockpit, and went with those as a guide. As you can see, the cockpit is typical of the Yellow Wings era, and mostly aluminum lacquer, but with black sidewalls above the consoles.

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So I painted an aluminum base coat, and masked off the areas that would be black. Plus some Metalizer Steel on the engine to start that out

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Next up is detail painting…
 

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  • 1 month later...

After several weeks away from the bench including a trip out of state and then a bout with Covid, I was back at the bench recently.
I was able to get the cockpit installed on my F2A, get the fuselage closed up, and then attach the wings

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After seam clean up is complete, I’ll get the stabilizers glued on then a few more things before basic painting can start. 

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Thanks Gil. Yes, it’s way more fun when the aircraft starts taking shape. 😉

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  • 3 weeks later...

Due to a steady stream of houseguests here since the Labor Day weekend, I haven’t had much bench time. Until this weekend. I resumed work on my F2A.
First up I installed and drilled out the exhaust stubs, and then glued the landing gear struts in place. Since all of this will be aluminum lacquer, there is no worries about adding those parts at this point

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next I detail painted, added a wash, then installed the engine

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lastly I have added the horizontal stabilizers and the engine cowling front.

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I’m just about ready to start some paint soon!

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Well I’ve finally started slinging some paint onto this bird. 
First up I tried out Tamiya Lacquer Flat Aluminum on the fuselage, empennage, and wing lower surfaces. I also airbrushed on some Tamiya Flat Black Lacquer in the wing walk areas. Then after letting that dry and cure over 24 hours I airbrushed on a coat of Tamiya Acrylic Lemon Yellow on the empennage for the Saratoga Air Group ID color

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I’ll have to mask off the wing walks before I do the Chrome Yellow on the wing upper surfaces.

I then airbrushed the propellor with AK Real Color Aluminum, which is brighter and shinier than the spinner in Tamiya Flat Aluminum. I like the contrast between the two

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More to come in a few days…

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Looking good! You might double check your references,.....IF you're wanting to do a Saratoga plane, the tail should be white. Yellow was assigned to the Lexington, and specifically, this would be VF-2, not VF-3.

 

Gil :cool:

Edited by ghodges
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i have always thought that the Buffalo was a victim of a lot of "Monday Morning Quarter Backing". Everyone compares it to the "Zero" which was an unknown quantity at the time. Yes, the Japanese 'beat' us in developing longer ranged carrier aircraft, but the Buffalo wasn't all that far off from what was at the time a sound aircraft. Engineering was moving so fast that aircraft development could hardly keep up with all the advances. Many Dutch and Finnish pilots liked the aircraft and used it effectively against their enemies. They found that pilot training/expertise and tactics could overcome enemy technical superiority for at least a while. In the long run, however, the better machines won out and the Buffalo succumbed to it's technical superiors. 

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22 hours ago, ghodges said:

Looking good! You might double check your references,.....IF you're wanting to do a Saratoga plane, the tail should be white. Yellow was assigned to the Lexington, and specifically, this would be VF-2, not VF-3.

 

Gil :cool:

You’re quite right about the Air Group ID tail colors. That was a brain fart on my part. This one is going to be VF-2 Flying Chiefs, not a Felix the Cat F2A. I don’t know why I boned that part up on my narrative.

20 hours ago, Ron Bell said:

i have always thought that the Buffalo was a victim of a lot of "Monday Morning Quarter Backing". Everyone compares it to the "Zero" which was an unknown quantity at the time. Yes, the Japanese 'beat' us in developing longer ranged carrier aircraft, but the Buffalo wasn't all that far off from what was at the time a sound aircraft. Engineering was moving so fast that aircraft development could hardly keep up with all the advances. Many Dutch and Finnish pilots liked the aircraft and used it effectively against their enemies. They found that pilot training/expertise and tactics could overcome enemy technical superiority for at least a while. In the long run, however, the better machines won out and the Buffalo succumbed to it's technical superiors. 

Most of the bad press the Buffalo gets is due to Midway. At least here in the USA. And when you look at the fact that the Buffalo was outperformed, outnumbered, and flown by mostly junior inexperienced pilots against the most experienced Naval fighter pilots in the world, flying the hottest carrier based fighter of that time. It’s hard to expect any other outcome could have been possible. In the East Indies and at Singapore, the Buffalo did give a better account of itself, but again the odds were quite against them in the long run. The Finns on the other hand showed that it could be quite the agile killer that it was originally designed to be when flown by well trained pilots and not overloaded.

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So I’ve been back to work on the colors of my Buffalo, but it took a couple of days…
First up I airbrushed some Tamiya White Liquid Surface Primer onto the upper wing to help give a more vivid top color of the yellow

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After letting that dry overnite, this morning I airbrushed on a coat of Model Master Flat Insignia Yellow onto the upper wings. With the white base it gave a nice rich color.

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Then after lunch and giving the flat base time to air dry, I airbrushed on a coat of Model Master Chrome Yellow

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I’ll have to go back and hit the wing walks again, as the masking  bled a tad bit, but otherwise, it’s all good so far. I’m quite happy with the yellow now.

Next color will be the True Blue fuselage band, cowling, and wing chevron…

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Just a bit of progress today…
First up, I added the life raft canister/headrest and the rollover bar onto the rear deck

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Then I masked off the canopy and cemented that into place. Masking took quite a while….

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I also glued the forward antenna mast into place then cut it off, as VF-2 did that and instead mounted the antenna wire running from the tail to a stub mast on the left wing. Tomorrow I will resume painting on this one…

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Today, after lots of masking, I airbrushed on the True Blue section leaders band, cowling, and wing chevron

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Next up is lots more masking, then airbrushing all of the aluminum lacquer areas of the fuselage and wing undersides…

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Gil & Mark, thank you! Well, todays airbrush session was good, but,  as always, there were complications….

The aluminum coat went on just fine on the fuselage and underside of the wings

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Unfortunately when removing the masking, some of the paint on the tail area came up, so I need to do a touch up there, plus on the blue fuselage band. So a day of touch up paint, then dry time before the gloss coat. But at least now all the base colors are on…

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Today was the decal session, and now this sucker is really colorful. I used a combination of kit decals, which looked a bit questionable, some Microscale decals for national cockades and the squadron badge, and some Yellow Wings Decals for the propeller markings

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Now to get this bird all wrapped up

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Well today was working on the gloss clear coat prior to panel line wash, and on my flight deck base. I painted that up in pre war colors for now…


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I also painted up and test fitted the wheels & prop… almost to the finish line!

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The past couple of days I was working on the panel line wash and getting those sealed up

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Now I have just a bite more detail painting to do, the last small bits glued on, the masks removed, and adding an antenna wire. 
Tomorrow…

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As of this afternoon, I am calling this one finished. This morning I did the last bits of painting, took of the masks, and added the last little bits.

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Tomorrow I’ll get a proper set of multi angle photos posted up…

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  • Stikpusher changed the title to 1/48 F2A-2 Buffalo COMPLETED

Well, here it is, my first “Yellow Wings” build in well over 40 years. This is the classic Tamiya 1975 vintage kit, in a later rebox, finished in the markings of VF-2 “Flying Chiefs” circa 1940. This was the first monoplane fighter plane taken into service by the USN. Paints are Tamiya for the aluminum lacquer & Lemon Yellow, Model Master Acrylics for the Chrome Yellow wing upper surface, and Testors enamel square bottle for the True Blue 3rd Section markings. Decals are a mix of kit decals, Microscale & SuperScale, and Yellow Wings Decals. Aside from adding a 3-D decal harness in the cockpit, everything else is OOB for assembly.

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Posed on an Eduard US Carrier Flight Deck base that I painted into pre war colors

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“Pilots… Man your planes.”

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Thanks for looking, comments and critiques are welcome.

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