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Midway Defender - Marine Buffalo ***Finished***


Andwil

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With the Panther now finished I have time for another entry in the GB.  Special Hobby’s Brewster F2A-3, which I will build as the machine flown by 2lt Charles Kunz to shoot down two D3A Vals.

 

The box:

 

49668286306_3bd7d8b231_b.jpg

 

What’s inside:

 

49668286196_52d0609df7_b.jpg

 

One sprue of injected parts, typical short run fare, hard shiny plastic, no locating tabs and wings and tail planes butt jointed to the fuselage.

 

Ejection pins!

 

49668286176_04364507d6_b.jpg

 

Two small bags with the clear parts and resin engine, wheels and cockpit components:

 

49667744903_a0aaae4ea4_b.jpg

 

So far all the parts have been given a wash in warm soapy water.  First item of business will be to separate the resin parts from the pouring blocks and to remove those massive ejector pins.

 

Wish me luck!

 

AW

Edited by Andwil
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Hi AW,

 

I was intending to build a Midway F2 last year but could only find the F2A-2 which would have been wrong - did not know this kit existed!

 

Pete

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Spent a fair bit of time on the Buffalo with not a lot to show for it.  I glued in the cockpit side walls and have done a lot of dry fitting, filing, sanding and fettling to get the forward bulkhead to fit.  I finally glued it into the starboard fuselage half but will have to do it more sanding.  The problem I find is that dry fitting requires at least three hands as the fuselage halves have no location pins and the bulkhead location point is only vaguely moulded.  There are several parts that make up the cockpit that need to be fitted and my plan is to tackle them one at a time to get the right fit.  I also assembled the wings.

 

49696624656_e89eda1c4a_b.jpg

 

49696624721_d05def814f_b.jpg

 

It’s not a quick or easy build, but the cockpit detail is very good and should look great under paint, if I don’t stuff it up.

 

AW

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I built this in the Singapore incarnation a few years ago. It seems to be, ahem, 'inspired' by the Hasegawa kit so it builds quite well, once you get those short run parts to fit.

 

The detailing is superior.  I have this kit in my stash and it's the one by girlfriend always suggests I build when I ask her what I should build next. I am uncertain as to the significance of this.

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On 3/22/2020 at 8:27 PM, rob85 said:

Don’t remember ever seeing this kit built

I think what follows offers some clue as to why this might be!

 

More fettling today and we get to this:

 

49699835686_d350a2fde1_b.jpg

 

Two more parts glued in, the rear deck and the seat support.  The fuel tank and IP are dry fitted only in this photo.  I think this is where the tank goes, the instructions are not clear, but it’s the only place it fits.  This is taking some time as so far not one single part has fitted without a fair amount of sanding or filing.  The resin parts are crisply cast and beautifully detailed but are, without exception, too big.  It would seem that the designer has made no allowance for the quite thick plastic of the injected parts.  I would strongly recommend to anyone contemplating building this kit that they thin the fuselage walls before attaching the resin sidewalls.  The instructions don’t say to do this and I didn’t which I think is the root cause of some f my fit issues.  Still, we live and learn and I will persevere and should hopefully get a good result.

 

AW

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10 hours ago, Andwil said:

I think this is where the tank goes

Hi AW,

 

Yes there is an additional fuel tank under the Pilots Seat (not a savoury thought there ;))

 

Looking good thus far, yes, unfortunately the plastic is very thick, and parts fit not exactly perfection.

But with some elbow grease you can make it work ^_^

(Alan a previous SH Brewster Buffalo builder)

 

Regards

 

Alan

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Thanks @LDSModeller and @Pierpaolo good information guys.

 

Sanded down the blanking plate that replaces the window in the bottom of the fuselage (it easy too big of course) and following information in Pierpaolo’s excellent build, removed the round counter blisters from the top wing.  I also ordered some dark dull green for the cockpit.

 

Cockpit and other sundry parts given a shot of primer:

 

49703502696_56fefb0a25_b.jpg

 

49703819212_f3994f47e1_b.jpg

 

AW

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Gave the non cockpit interior areas a shot of Vallejo Aluminium:

 

49707375432_e1937c81b1_b.jpg

 

The engine was sprayed with Vallejo Magnesium, the crankcase (?) painted engine grey and a dry brush of silver overall to pick out the detail:

 

49707375317_4fc05ca662_b.jpg

 

Now a question that I hope someone will know the answer to.  The kit provides a choice of two tail wheels:

 

49706519168_305766fe6b_b.jpg

 

The instructions call for the lower one in the photo, but that doesn’t seem right to me for a land based machine.  It is not clear to me from the photos I have seen of Marine F2A-3s on a Midway what kind of tail wheel was fitted.

 

Anyway, work on this model will have to wait for the green paint ordered for the cockpit to arrive, hopefully early next week.  In the meantime I shall ponder how to pin the wings to the fuselage, as the kits but joint is not going to be very strong and there is a big chunk of resin directly behind the wing roots.  I may be able to drill into this.

 

AW

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13 hours ago, Andwil said:

It is not clear to me from the photos I have seen of Marine F2A-3s on a Midway what kind of tail wheel was fitted.

Hi AW,

 

Have a look at this link below, reading through it, and looking

at the associated photos, it would appear the that the Marine F2A-3's

were wearing the larger Pneumatic tail wheel at Midway.

 

USMC F2A-3 - MCAS Ewa Hawaii 1942

 

Hope that helps?

 

Regards

 

Alan

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Thanks Alan, a good read.  Confirms my suspicion that the kit instructions are wrong with respect to the tail wheel.  However, it looks like the F2A-3s on Midway were fitted with a fixed tail wheel, which the kit does not provide.  So I will have to have a look through my spares box to see what I have that can form the basis of the fixed wheel.

 

AW

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While waiting for my paint to arrive did a couple of small things today.  Prop made up and tips painted yellow:

 

49711101536_0269b4c727_b.jpg

 

The black thingummy  attached to the rear of the engine bulkhead and given a dry brushing of grey to highlight the detail and a black wash put in the oil cooler:

 

49711101556_0cc0397b8d_b.jpg

 

AW

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Real progress on this build still stalled awaiting the dull dark green for the cockpit.  Ordered and shipped from BNA in Melbourne on Friday, according to Australia Post tracker still in Melbourne this morning.  If I’m lucky I’ll get it tomorrow but more likely Thursday.

 

Amused myself finishing the propellor.

 

49718738038_691d88f44f_b.jpg

 

Painted the boss in dull aluminium and then given a black wash.  A light dry brush of silver on the blade edges for chipping and all sealed in with Matt varnish.

 

AW

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Paint arrived, cockpit and IP finished:

 

49725878823_8f61e99ed1_b.jpg Starboard side.

 

the peg in the background shows how small this is.

 

49725878903_d2d8aea236_b.jpg

Port side.

 

Instrument panel and rudder pedals:

 

49726738342_27a6135d5f_b.jpg

 

Pilot’s seat, lap belt still to be added:

 

49725878698_81f38b1e48_b.jpg

 

Close up photos are unforgiving, but I’m happy with this.  Now I can set about the tubular framework in the U/C bay and closing up the fuselage.

 

AW

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What a difference 24 hours makes.  Yesterday I was feeling fairly pleased with myself, today the model nearly went in the bin.  I attached the engine to the front bulkhead, fixed the IP into the cockpit, both without problem and glued in the fuel tank after a fight and a lot of filing - it fitted fine when I dry fitted it previously but today I had to file off about 2mm underneath in order for the fus to close up without a massive gap.  Then I started on the framework in the wheel well trying to work out how the fiddly pieces go together and where exactly they fit as the instructions are so unclear as to be useless.  After much swearing and rising frustration I decided it would be best if I put it aside for a while.  I put the small parts in one of the plastic containers I use so as not to lose them, when putting on the lid the lid broke, my finger went straight through and broke the propeller.  It was at this point that it all nearly went in the bin.

 

I was so p****d off I forgot to take any photos.

 

AW

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@Navy Bird built this kit a few years back and had trouble closing up the fuselage - here's the link:

 

 

Maybe it could help - sorry I didn't bring it to your attention earlier!

I'm impressed with your self control, it'll look better after some time away from the bench.

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22 hours ago, Andwil said:

  Then I started on the framework in the wheel well trying to work out how the fiddly pieces go together and where exactly they fit as the instructions are so unclear as to be useless.

Hi AW,

 

Sorry to hear of your troubles with your build.

SH Kits are not the easiest to build (fit wise etc).

I have the 1/32 scale kit of your model, tomorrow I'll have a look

at the instruction and see if it shows the frame work, on how to assemble

 

Kind regards

 

Alan

Edited by LDSModeller
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Thanks for the link Cookie, it’s really helpful.  Navy Bird must be some kind of genius to work out that framework from Special Hobby’s “instructions”.  Had I known what I was letting myself in for I might never have started this kit, still I don’t give up easily so will plough on.  I’d better test fit the canopy sections too before I get much further......

 

No work done today, torrential rain stopped me from getting down to the studio.

 

AW

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