Special Hobby B-339E Buffalo Mk.1

Cockpit taking shape. Lots of fiddly bits and semi-poor fit but nothing too bad. The plastic is soft, not quite enough to spread on toast, but close...which is good because it's easy to shape and sand. Some bigger parts are warped though and that will need some attention. 

Not a big fan of instrument panel "sandwiches" but this one turned out better than most.  

Yoke still to be added. 

Had to fab some bits. A resin piece was lost to the carpet monster and a throttle handle added. 

 

Overall fit is not great, but pleasantly surprised at how well the bulkheads and everything else fits. This is w/o glue. 

Still need to tone down with a few washes and correct some overpaint. The cockpit color is something of a guess. The F2As left the factory in an aluminum lacquer and certainly the only surviving airframe (in Finland and all original...pulled from a swamp) shows this, but source differ on whether or not RAF planes were painted RAF cockpit green or not. Consensus seems to be that the pilot area was painted, whlie the rest was left alone in original finish, so that's what I went with. The instrument panel of the Buffalo was kind of dull, mostly black without many colors of buttons to break up the monotony. More details still to add, but most of it will be hidden in the end. 

Firewall detail. Not really wanting to go all-in on detail since it will all be closed up, but at least something will be visible though the large wheel wells, so had to add the basics. 

PE belts weren't too bad to work with. Few touchups needed where the superglue got a little out of bounds. 

The SH guns were quite basic so nothing more than a little drybrushing done. No idea on the color of the ammo boxes so just added a little chipping that probably won't even be seen. 

 

Weekend goal was to get the fuselage closed up. Did that, but a lot of sanding and filling ahead as it was pretty warped from being so soft. I will say at least everything fit where it was supposed to go, even given the almost total lack of locating tabs. 

Surprisingly, no parts interfered with each other but you have to place them exactly where the instructions show or you're in for trouble. 

Nope, won't see much once it's done. 

The engine mount is very fiddly to get right. Arrow shows where some scrap molding pips were. Wasn't sure they should be removed because the mounting plate for the engine looked like it was supposed to rest against these but no, if you do that, the engine will be way to far forward. Basically never glue anything on this kit until you're sure where it goes if you ever build this kit. Instructions are at least somewhat helpful but be ready to trim parts. 

More slow progress. Not a whole lot will be visible once the landing gear goes in, but there needs to be something. 

Engine section attached. Whether by accident or design, the standoff distance of the engine from the main fuselage seems to be correct. This kit has been sculpted more than assembled. The right side of the fuselage bulged out really far from the engine cowling, so it literally had to be shaved down and contoured to match the left side. Luckily the soft plastic made this less of a pain than it could have been. Not sure if this was in the molds or just my bad luck on the kit but you could see that half of the fuselage molding was almost twice as thick as the other. That's short run kits for you I guess. 

Portside gap, looks OK but might need a little tweaking. Added lost hinge detail to the top where lost on sanding. 

Engine detailed with some wiring and a "data plate" made from a small bit of painted foil. Will add oil stain, etc. during weathering. 

Overview. Wings were badly warped but got them stuck together with minimal fuss. Two important tools snuck into the shot. The dental pick is great for cleaning sanding debris out of panel lines and the UMM-USA scriber/scraper is a great piece of kit. If you don't have one, get one (no they didn't pay me, it's just really good). 

More sculpting. The tail cone did not fit well even with the addition of a styrene plug to help blend the steps. A fair amount of super glue and sanding later it's acceptable. Replaced the lost-to-sanding tail reinforcement strips, but they need to be shaved down a little to be back to scale. 

Landing lights treated to some stretched clear sprue "bulbs" and more sanding. There are no locating tabs whatsoever on the wings or fuselage so this will be fun. Probably will add some sort of spar for strength, but the cockpit glass on bottom will make that a challenge to hide from view... 

Marble/doodle coat over silver/hairspray for chipping done. 

 

Blend coating with masks is a pain and nearly always requires touchups. Not too many in this case. 

A little overspray to take care of but nothing major. 

Decent tonal variation and should take some light chipping and weathering well. 

Interesting scheme on the Buffalo, the two-tone black/grey the RAF used early on in the war. 

The black came out pretty well. No pics of the doodle coat but it was a mix of Nato black (XF-69), German grey (XF-63) and a couple of lighter greys on the flaps and control surfaces and a few panels for variation. 

Just need to add the sky band on the rear fuselage and it will be ready for some chipping, then on to decals. 

Little bit of grey overspray on the black, easier to take care of than the other way around. 

Getting there! 

Need to fade the markings a little. Decals in this kit were quite good. Painted the upper wing roundels because I wasn't confident they would conform over the formation lights, but other than that, all decals and they behaved pretty well. 

Just some weathering to add. The black/grey underside recognition scheme is pretty cool and modulating the black was good practice for the F7F I have in the stash! 

 

Definitely need some decal fading to go with the light wear and tear.  

 

 

Exhausts to add, paint the MGs and touch up the formation lights. PVA/Elmer's glue makes a really good mask for lights. Does well with anything lacquer or enamel based you can throw at it but it pops right off with no residue when you're done.  

The paint tone variation turned out pretty well so will not need too much oil work I think other than some streaking. 

Underside window was a pain but the masks did a good job. 

Canopy masks too but still to remove of course. Still to touch up the red nav light. The glue mask did take off the water-based clear red. 

Finally calling this one done. 

 

 

 

 

Exhaust stains not really visible in the pic but they are XF-19 and XF-1 highly diluted with isopropanol and applied in a number of passes at low pressure. Good trick and lets you build it up slowly rather than having one shot at getting it right. 

 

 

 

 

 

Closed canopy shot, but it will probably stay open because it doesn't fit well closed. Too bad, as I like the looks of it shut. 

 

The PE gunsight parts were extra fiddly but worked in the end. 

 

 

 

Another closed canopy view. Antenna is EZ-line. Great stuff, get some if you don't have any. 👍