BerndM Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 Looks great, interesting project. Sadly the Hasegawa Buffalo kits are darn expensive here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted January 12, 2017 Author Share Posted January 12, 2017 Thanks Bernd; they can be quite pricey here too, but the patient man can occasionally catch a bargain... Cheers, Stew 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beard Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 I hadn't read your post properly Stu, I didn't realise you were talking about the age of kits. Nice progress, by the way. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GREG DESTEC Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 Hi Stew, nice bit of progress there. The Hase kit looks really nice. I may have to invest in one as I had to order a new set of transfers for my Airfix kit, and it has some great options on it. I look forward to your next update. Cheers Greg 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 Nice chubbies Stew. You're supposed to fit the wings before the nose? Weird... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted January 12, 2017 Author Share Posted January 12, 2017 2 hours ago, Beard said: I hadn't read your post properly Stu, I didn't realise you were talking about the age of kits. Nice progress, by the way. Well, age and availability really, I wasn't exactly clear in what I was trying to say anyway, and I thought the Airfix kit was older than it is - only a couple of years older than the Matchbox 1 hour ago, GREG DESTEC said: Hi Stew, nice bit of progress there. The Hase kit looks really nice. I may have to invest in one as I had to order a new set of transfers for my Airfix kit, and it has some great options on it. I look forward to your next update. Cheers Greg It's worth keeping an eye on ebay, you can - sometimes - find the single boxing for less than a tenner, though you might have to get a new tail for some variants, as I did... 56 minutes ago, CedB said: Nice chubbies Stew. You're supposed to fit the wings before the nose? Weird... Thanks Ced; yes, that's exactly what I was thinking... Cheers, Stew 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted January 17, 2017 Author Share Posted January 17, 2017 I got the wings and tailplanes fitted: They're definitely getting that tubby F2A look now I would have thought this would be the moment to fit the engines, but Hasegawa suggest I defer my gratification further by adding the undercarriage now instead. I find this very odd indeed, but I'll put my faith in the instructions and do as they say - fortunately in the case of both aircraft the main landing gear and the wheelbays seem to have been painted the underside colour, so it won't require any careful masking (otherwise I would ignore the instructions and fit the landing gear at the end). Cheers, Stew 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beard Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Nice progress Stew. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob85 Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 They are definitely starting to look like buffaloes now stew (the aircraft of course not the animal... that would be stupid) Rob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Oooh the tension! They're looking good Stew, and 'cute' if you can ever say that about a warplane. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob85 Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 (edited) 58 minutes ago, CedB said: Oooh the tension! They're looking good Stew, and 'cute' if you can ever say that about a warplane. If you cant call the buffalo cute then surely nothing else can be! Rob Edited January 17, 2017 by rob85 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Very Buffalo-y Stew. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 They look so friendly. Like they might be made of plush. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Coming along nicely Stew! I built one of these ages ago and made it into a Dutch one. Mike. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted January 19, 2017 Author Share Posted January 19, 2017 Thanks gents; yes, for a combat aircraft you would be hard pushed to find cuter ones than the Buffalo and the I-16. One of the parts of the next step is to add the ventral window panel to the F2A-2 and an opaque blanking panel to F2A-3 which had the ventral window deleted. This raised some interesting challenges... Eduard provide masks for the little panes which are 1) incredibly tiny and 2) the wrong shape for the rearmost panes. Hasegawa provide the framing as a transfer, so I used this instead: I think it is a neater job than I could have done with the masks, and I hope that the grey colour used is near-enough to the Aluminium paint used on the underside of the Dutch Buffalo that it will not be noticed. However the central section of the window and the parts around the rearmost rounded panes should be solid - I painted these in in Aluminium. The F2A-3 is provided with an opaque blank, but thanks to the links included in Alan's post here it is apparent that the last two panes - the rounded ones mentioned above - were retained for access purposes. I sanded the un-needed panels from the other clear part included in the kit and will use the back part of the Hasegawa transfer to replicate this - it is half-done here along with the re-painted clear part for the Dutch Buffalo: That's where I am now, Cheers, Stew 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 Wow, that's great work Stew on what must be tiny parts... the paint looks like a good match in the photo. Good job! Twenty tiny masks to apply? Reminds me of a very old Max Bygraves song (showing my age). What were they thinking! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seahawk Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 (edited) On 04/01/2017 at 6:47 AM, Stew Dapple said: The Airfix Buff isn't at all bad - for a long time it was all we had as far as I remember - it is a product of it's time (which was in my early years), and is a bit rivetty but it can build into a good representation of the real thing. Also the pilot figure is good, far better than the one not provided by Hasegawa I don't think the Airfix kit is in their current range but when their new-tool one comes out in 2018* that won't really be an issue any more. There was also the much earlier Revell F2A, which wasn't that bad as I recall but probably had even less interior detail. The Airfix Buffalo should have stolen a march on it but suffered from a too narrow nose, best tackled by using the Revell cowling and widening the nose to match. Edit: oops, you've already mentioned it! Edited January 19, 2017 by Seahawk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverkite211 Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 I seem to recall reading somewhere (it might have been here on BM) that those oval shapes in the window on the underside are actually openings, they are for venting fuel vapors from the cockpit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BerndM Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 Your Buffalos looks pretty good and the clear part has a very neat finish ! Applying Eduards tiny self adhesive masks is a challenge too and disappointing when they don t fit. Hopefully everything will go well together. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 That's some intricate work on the belly windows Stew, nicely done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmaas Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Hi all, hope I can add a bit. The oval thingies on the ventral panel are in fact openings - they were on the rear fuselage of the F2A-1/Model 239, but moved to the rear portion of the ventral window on subsequent variants. The colors for the ML-KNIL aircraft have received a lot of study over the years. They should be two shades of green and at this point Dutch experts believe that the two greens in the 1970's USAF SEA camouflage FS 34079/34102) are the best match. Also, the antenna wire for the Dutch aircraft, unlike others, goes to a white insulator on the starboard forward fuselage. A little point about bumps - the kit has two bumps on each wing over the machine gun bay. The smaller one actually has a rectangular window on the inside facing the pilot, because it is a cover for the gun's round counter. I'd go with a little rectangle of gloss black decal. And those round counter bumps did not appear on the F2A-3 (I guess Brewster figured out how to put them in the cockpit). So leave the big bumps, sand off the little ones for your F2A-3. Hope that helps. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Nice work Stew. I've got a real soft spot for these tubby little things, but I've only got the old Airfix kit in the stash.....Is it even worth building? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted January 31, 2017 Author Share Posted January 31, 2017 Thanks gents and apologies for my absence, I am visiting friends in England at the weekend and am struggling to finish a HobbyBoss A-10 Warthog for my friend's son - not the sort of thing I would normally attempt but he did specifically ask for one... Thanks for your comments and your intel on the various holes, windows and colours* (Jim - I have your Squadron 'In Action' book for the Buffalo ) I'll see what I can do regarding mine, I suspect the little oval windows might have to remain windows on mine as I can't conceive that I might successfully drill those out of a clear part without cracking it or ending up with a wonky oval. Andy - I liked the old Airfix kit and enjoyed building it, it is a nice little kit and looks pretty good when it is done... but I can't say for sure how you would feel about it knowing there are other kits available now. Cheers, Stew * I've just put an order in with Sovereign Hobbies for the colours in question 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted February 13, 2017 Author Share Posted February 13, 2017 On 1/30/2017 at 7:12 PM, jimmaas said: ...They should be two shades of green and at this point Dutch experts believe that the two greens in the 1970's USAF SEA camouflage FS 34079/34102) are the best match... ... and these are the two colours in question - please don't take this picture to be an exact duplication of the shades, my camera only does 'approximate' not 'actual': ... if you scroll down here you can see the scheme on the Buffalo replica at Soesterberg Museum in the Netherlands. On 1/30/2017 at 7:12 PM, jimmaas said: ...A little point about bumps - the kit has two bumps on each wing over the machine gun bay. The smaller one actually has a rectangular window on the inside facing the pilot, because it is a cover for the gun's round counter. I'd go with a little rectangle of gloss black decal. And those round counter bumps did not appear on the F2A-3 (I guess Brewster figured out how to put them in the cockpit). So leave the big bumps, sand off the little ones for your F2A-3... Thanks Jim - done - B339C at left, F2A-3 at right: Once that was done, I gave the ladies their legs: ... and now - finally, now - Hasegawa's instructions let me start on the engines: Note the extra length of the F2A-3 nose which was extended to hold an extra fuel tank, which probably didn't degrade the aircraft's performance at all (/sarcasm off). I also built up the props, the cuffed spinner-less prop of the F2A-3 and the uncuffed prop with spinner for the B339C: ... and that's where I am now. I have the day off on Wednesday ... as I am rostered to work Saturday so I hope to get a bit more done then... Cheers, Stew 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted February 13, 2017 Share Posted February 13, 2017 14 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said: ... if you scroll down here you can see the scheme on the Buffalo replica at Soesterberg Museum in the Netherlands. Weird. The Buffaloes are looking good, albeit a teeny-tiny bit ridiculous with their absurd landing gear. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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