Kit: No. AP45
Scale: 1/72
Manufacturer: Hasegawa, distributed by Marco Polo Import, 532 S. Coralridge Place, City of Industry, CA 91746
Price: $15.98
Comments: Injection molded, 67 parts, decals.
The Brewster F2A Buffalo may have been the biggest flop among American aircraft of World War II. But in Finnish hands, it raked the Soviets with a 26 to 1 kill ratio.
Hasegawa's Buffalo is a jewel with few flaws. The flash-free parts have beautiful recessed panel lines and crisp detail. Several parts go unused, destined for future variants. (The three-piece forward fuselage and separate cowl front will be swapped for the longer F2A-3 parts to come.) Separate cuffed and uncuffed propeller blades are provided, but you use only the cuffed ones on this model. The canopy is molded in three pieces.
The instruction diagrams are small but clear, and the Gunze Sangyo paint numbers also provide color names. The decal sheet has markings for two "yellow wings," Buffaloes of the VF-2 "Fighting Chiefs," circa 1940.
The pilot's seat, stick, and footrails sit on a two-part cockpit floor. There is no sidewall detail, but the cockpit looks busy anyway. All of the interior parts fit well, but test fit and trim the roll-over pylon to be sure it doesn't interfere with the canopy later.
The fuselage halves fit well, but you'll need to cut an opening at the tip of the tail end for the tail hook. According to my references, VF-2 crew chiefs moved the antenna mast from the right side of the forward fuselage to the left wing just outboard of the wing gun because of complaints of excessive vibration. The instructions suggest filling the hole on the fuselage for the original mast, but there is no wing mast. I used the original mast anyway.
The wings went together well, but I ended up with a small gap between the lower right wing surface and the fuselage. I filled it with tile grout.
The instructions would have you paint the fuselage light gray, but by the time the Buffalo came along the Navy was using aluminum dope on fabric and metal surfaces. I used Testor enamels for all colors except for AeroMaster 9004 blue on the cowl.
In an effort to counter translucent decals, Hasegawa provides solid white underlying decals for most of the light-colored markings. This works well on the insignias, but I had trouble getting the two-layered wing chevrons to snuggle down over the wing-gun fairings. The decal for the complex belly-window framing is a nice touch. It's printed gray, but you can barely notice the difference next to the aluminum paint.
This kit turns into a beautiful model, and it scales right on the money with the dimensions in Jim Maas' Buffalo in Action (Squadron/Signal). It took about 25 hours to build, a little longer than usual because of the colorful paint scheme and doubled-up decals. I'm looking forward to the camouflaged F2A-3 and the Finnish B-239s.
Jim Terry