tonyot Posted June 24, 2021 Share Posted June 24, 2021 Hiya Folks, The little Buffalo has a rather chequered history and has been vilified, but was it all justified? OK, it wasn`t in the same league as the Hurricane or Spitfire but it was still a modern, all metal stressed skin fighter and did see some success in British Commonwealth and of course Finnish service. The main problem with those in British service were their reconditioned ex civil engines as production of new Wright R-1820`s could not keep up with demand and added to this was problems with the armament, part of which was the inexperience of the armourers working with live ammunition and of course the lack of a modern integrated air defence system, as found in the UK. Most communications around the Malayan and Singapore region was by telephone but there were not enough lines available and it became almost impossible to keep open communications between the RAF stations and their HQ`s,...... and to add to this was a lot of peacetime nonchalance, despite a war raging in Europe combined with a large smattering of incompetence, as many of the best personnel were sent off to fight the war against Germany. Into this situation were added a lot of newly trained and very inexperienced pilots and ground crew from Australia, New Zealand and the UK and you can understand the problem. Despite their inexperience and the chaos into which they were thrust, many of these pilots performed well and took a heavy toll of the enemy,..... just imagine what they could have done if they had been controlled and deployed properly. Although it was formed on the Buffalo amidst this situation, 67 Sqn RAF was deployed off to Burma just before hostilities commenced with Japan and alongside elements of the AVG with their Tomahawk`s, they were responsible for the air defence of the entire country! Despite being totally outnumbered,.... this units Buffalo`s proved much more effective as a well organised, improvised reporting and air control system was set in place. The Burma front was swiftly reinforced by Hurricane`s from the Middle East and they eventually replaced the Buffalo while Singapore also received a large consignment of Hurricane`s too,....... but they were too late to save Singapore and the surviving Hurricane`s and Buffalo`s flew to Java, where the Buffalo`s were given to the Dutch who also flew the type. The Royal Navy also flew ex Belgian contract Buffalo`s which had been rejected by the RAF after 71(Eagle) Sqn flew them for trials and although flying in defence of the fleet at Scapa Flow from Hatston, most were deployed to the Middle East where they flew with 805 NAS from Egypt on convoy protection sorties, although three were deployed to Crete and captured by the Germans on the beach where they had been abandoned without engines. Anyway,.... onto the model; Here i the Hasegawa kit with the Pavla conversion which includes resin and vacuformed parts to build the British variants, plus decals for a number of RAF, RNZAF, RAAF & Fleet Air Arm aircraft; The Pavla set; The Hasegawa parts; I also decided to use another Pavla set of resin flying surfaces which included open gun bays,.... seen here with the decals and instructions from the other set; Work started with the cockpit,...... I know that some say that the interior was silver as in US Navy service,..... and being a direct purchase the RAF could also have specified RAF Interior Grey Green,...... but my gut instinct rightly or wrongly decided to use US Interior Green. I have assembled the nose and engine (and yes Chris,... I`ll paint the crank case grey later!) and the resin wing and flying surface parts can be seen laid out too,..... the kit rudder has already been removed ready for the new resin part; And then the fuselage halves were joined and the nose section added; And that is it for now, Cheers Tony 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alhenderson Posted June 24, 2021 Share Posted June 24, 2021 Nice, I recently built a 1/48 Buffalo. Started out thinking it was quite the ugliest model I had done, but I've come to be rather fond of it. Al. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyot Posted June 24, 2021 Author Share Posted June 24, 2021 2 hours ago, alhenderson said: Nice, I recently built a 1/48 Buffalo. Started out thinking it was quite the ugliest model I had done, but I've come to be rather fond of it. Al. Cheers,..... yeah the ugly ones tend to grow on you,...... all in the eye of the beholder! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted June 24, 2021 Share Posted June 24, 2021 Lovely, I do like the chubby fighters, I was impressed by the 32nd scale Special Hobby kit, which was lovely. This looks great with the Pavla goodies to and you've done a great job Tony. It's almost all together in the first post. Excellent work and progress. Chris 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyot Posted June 24, 2021 Author Share Posted June 24, 2021 21 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said: Lovely, I do like the chubby fighters, I was impressed by the 32nd scale Special Hobby kit, which was lovely. This looks great with the Pavla goodies to and you've done a great job Tony. It's almost all together in the first post. Excellent work and progress. Chris Cheers Chris,..... I`m quite tempted to do a US Marines one in the early war Blue Grey and Grey scheme with big stars too. I have the 1/32nd SH Buffalo and the Mohawk,..... but been putting them to one side until I`m in the mood for a challenging build,........ but if the Buffalo is OK then I may bump it up the list. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted June 24, 2021 Share Posted June 24, 2021 Nice idea for a build Tony, I'll watch with interest against the day when I "ahem", build mine. Steve. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edge Posted June 25, 2021 Share Posted June 25, 2021 Great start Tony! Following along to hoover up any tips. Edge 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grey Beema Posted June 25, 2021 Share Posted June 25, 2021 Great start there Tony. The Buffalo does make my Skua look slick though... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted June 25, 2021 Share Posted June 25, 2021 17 hours ago, tonyot said: Cheers Chris,..... I`m quite tempted to do a US Marines one in the early war Blue Grey and Grey scheme with big stars too. I have the 1/32nd SH Buffalo and the Mohawk,..... but been putting them to one side until I`m in the mood for a challenging build,........ but if the Buffalo is OK then I may bump it up the list. No worries, from what I recall it was a case of just taking it steady everything built up okay and I think it was fear of issues but it goes together fine. Your Revell/SH Hudson would give more issues IMO. Be good to see you doing the 32nd one. Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2996 Victor Posted June 25, 2021 Share Posted June 25, 2021 Hi Tony, I'll pull up a chair, too, if I may? The Buffalo is one of my favourites and I've got the Hobby2K re-boxing of the Hasegawa kit in my stash, destined to become an ML-KNIL B-339. I probably need a couple more..... Incidentally, as you said, the Buffalo is much-maligned, and somewhat unjustly so. The Dutch pilots liked them, but their machines had the higher-powered military-rated engines. Plus they found that by using a partial fuel load and ammunition load, the "added lightness" increased the maneouvrability and rate of climb. Their biggest problem, apart from sheer lack of numbers, was the light calibre armament. The RAF found by following Dutch practise, their machines were much more able to hold their own against the Japanese. Looking forward to watching your progress. Cheers, Mark 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heloman1 Posted June 26, 2021 Share Posted June 26, 2021 Another interesting build mate. I'll be watch... Colin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyot Posted July 2, 2021 Author Share Posted July 2, 2021 Thanks for the comments Fella`s,......... here is another bit of progress,..... After sanding the fuselage and then adding filler to any dodgy seams,....... I added the resin wings and tailplane; I also filled in the recess for the naval style tail wheel as the RAF variant just had a standard and larger fixed tail wheel instead. Note also that the resin tip to the extreme tail has also been fitted; Cheers for now, Tony 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted July 2, 2021 Share Posted July 2, 2021 Nice progress! Like Mark, I have a couple of the Hobby2000 boxings to make Dutch East Indies examples with this sheet.. Pulling up the proverbial chair! Cheers, Andtr 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2996 Victor Posted July 2, 2021 Share Posted July 2, 2021 5 hours ago, Hook said: Nice progress! Like Mark, I have a couple of the Hobby2000 boxings to make Dutch East Indies examples with this sheet.. Pulling up the proverbial chair! Cheers, Andtr Nice sheet! I've got one of their sheets for the Catalina and Hurricane Mk.IIb, but I could do with this one! Have you seen this book? Cheers, Mark 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted July 2, 2021 Share Posted July 2, 2021 Great progress Tony, it's great to see this coming together . Chris 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted July 3, 2021 Share Posted July 3, 2021 11 hours ago, 2996 Victor said: Nice sheet! I've got one of their sheets for the Catalina and Hurricane Mk.IIb, but I could do with this one! You know you want to. 😉 Quote Have you seen this book? I am eying it! Not released yet, I believe. Cheers, Andre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2996 Victor Posted July 3, 2021 Share Posted July 3, 2021 1 hour ago, Hook said: You know you want to. 😉 I am eying it! Not released yet, I believe. Cheers, Andre Hi Andre, Yes, I do! I've put in my Big H cart, but it'll have to wait until next Friday! The book, as you say, isn't available yet but I've got it on back order. The Fokker G.1 and Hawk 75 books in the same series are very worthwhile acquisitions, IMHO. Cheers, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyot Posted July 25, 2021 Author Share Posted July 25, 2021 Well I`ve got a first coat of paint onto the Buffalo,.... Cheers Tony 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antti_K Posted July 26, 2021 Share Posted July 26, 2021 Great project Tony and beautiful work with the details! Are we having a "RAF in Singapore -theme"😉 Very tempting... Cheers, Antti 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2996 Victor Posted July 26, 2021 Share Posted July 26, 2021 Lovely work, Tony, looking forward to seeing this one progress! All the best, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corsaircorp Posted July 26, 2021 Share Posted July 26, 2021 Hello Tony !! Waow, you're so fast.... Great looking Buffalo, I'll take a seat if you don't mind it ? I have 2 in the stash, Tamiya and SH ones.... Now, you sparked the idea of having a British one added to the stock Sincerely. CC 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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