The Buffalo is a plane I've wanted to depict ever since I was a kid - and so here it is - for the 2010 Garry Beebe Memorial build:
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This is my approximation of New Zealander Geoff Fisken's Buffalo of 243 Squadron RAF, Singapore, in which he scored his first victory - an A6M2 zero - on 12/16/41. Colors are Tamiya Olive Green AS-14 and Testors Gloss Brown 1240 above, Tamiya Light Blue AS-5 and Matt Black TS-6 below - both over a Tamiya Gloss Aluminum undercoat and chipped via directed latex spattering. Although land-based, these aircraft had many naval ties - particularly as 243 Squadron had been assigned initially to cover HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, before being pulled to defend Singapore proper - including their own home airfields. Even then, Fisken faced mainly IJN opponents, the entire Singapore assault being an amphibious one - so that almost all his victories were over naval aircraft, and pilots.
Required modifications from Tamiya's USN F2A2 kit included a scratchbuilt belly plate (left, bottom and center, right) containing two oval viewports filled with white glue (which unfortunately fogged from superglue but may slowly be clearing). Two similar oval vents on the sliding canopy (right) were made from PE railings, their ends rolled into "U"s and centers flooded with white glue in place. The Tamiya canopy is very thick (right), and when opened would not sit in its groove until fitted with small rails. The round headrest (right, bottom) though inaccurate for a Buffalo MkI (which mounted one on a triangular armor plate) nevertheless looked too good to discard. Decals are primarily AeroMaster's Buffalos Over South East Asia set (Thank You, Kevin!), with key additions/substitutions for the code letters and black cat figure (above and right, top).
Even with the canopy 2/3 closed (highly implausible, without a pilot inside) the cockpit instruments and controls (above, left and center-left, bottom) are highly visible, and could have benefitted from more detailing. The British MkIII gunsight is largely imaginary, made of an inverted "U" of PE, filled with white glue, mounted in a plastic base. The black "cat" decals were cut from an unrelated (Imperial Lion, or possibly Black Panther) marking, as the closest available to Fisken's hissing "Wairarapa Wildcat" Fisken subsequently painted on a later (P-40) plane. The kit wheel wells (center-right) are cavernous, lacking not only detail but even structural innards (none of which were addressed). The unusual forward-placement of the wing roundels (right, bottom-right) appears to have been done in order to avoid overpainting the ailerons.
Markings include a bashed-together "WP", accurate for 243 Squadron, though the aircraft "F" is completely arbitrary. Note the difference between the different decals' renditions of "Sky Blue". The serial "AS430" is not from 243 Squadron but a 4 Photo-Reconnaissance Unit Buffalo, in the same theater, and same time. A strong tendency for even these (mostly) high-quality decals to silver (on the matte finish) was effectively suppressed (see especially right, top) by repeated flooding and scrubbing with Testors decal setting solution, during placement. The caudal "fighter stripe" I am convinced is accurate as rendered in Tamiya Matt White TS-27 - not sky blue - based not only on repeated photo evidence, but also the apparent, general agreement that, contemporaneously in the same theater, other Allied (i.e., Dutch) Buffaloes carried exactly the same stripe, painted in white.
The degree of paint-chipping postulates a survival and continued use of this airframe throughout Fisken's next 6-8 victories, up to late January, 1942, when he regrouped (to score yet more) with 453 Squadron RAAF. The Tamiya engine (left, bottom and center, top) has good detail, with the assmbly trapping the prop shaft, to spin very freely (center, top-right). The wheels (center, bottom) though not designed to turn, were very easily modified to do so. A final, custom-mod was the enlarged tail wheel (above and left, top) whose hub is in fact the tiny, original USN wheel from the kit.
And that, at long last, is my depiction of a Brewster Buffalo. And not just any Buffalo, but the plane of Geoff Fisken, highest-scoring of all Commonwealth aces in the Far East. I know all the above made it a bit more complicated - and a whole lot more thinking - than you would have endorsed, Garry. But it was something I've wanted to do since I was 8 - so I know I'm on the right track, there! RIP, buddy.