Brewster B-339 Buffalo, Tamiya 1/48 (No.61094 year 2004)
Hi all,
Already four months ago I received this wonderful gift from my great friend Spiros @fiveten
It was the Tamiya 1:48 kit of the Brewster B-339 Buffalo "Pacific Theatre". Since it had the option to build it for the "Militaire Luchtvaart van het Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger (KNIL)", Royal Dutch-East Indies Army, the choice was quickly made. In the National Military Museum in Soesterberg, they have build a replice of this same type of Buffalo which served in the East Indies. I used this aircraft as an example for the scheme used on mine, a camouflage combination of young and old leaf colors, as they call it.
As expected from Tamiya, the kit is a real pleasure to build, no fit issues at all. All encountered issues are definitely a cause of the builder. The cockpit is nicely detailed, which is valid for the engine as well, no additions done here. The clear parts fit nicely and masks are provided by Tamiya, you do however need to cut them yourself and this means a lot of extra work because the Buffalo has quite some glass panels. The camouflage scheme, as said earlier, is a combination of the so called young leaf "jong blad" and old leaf "oud blad". I used Vallejo 71.014 (Gunship green) for the young leaf color and Vallejo 71.021 (black green) for the old leaf color. To me it does reperesent the colors from the replica aircraft quite well, although the colors on my pictures are not that bright. Maybe caused by the weathering at a later stage. In real it looks slightly brighter though. Decals did work fine but for some reason it was difficult to get the silvering disappear, it is still not fully gone unfortunately. With one of the nose art decals I had a bigger problem, after applying the clear coat, a big air bubble appeared underneath. Piercing through the airbubble caused a part of the decal to come loose so some repair was required. In the end the decal just looks fine, it is the one on starboard side. For the white identification band I did not use the decal but airbrushed it instead. I did use a greyish background for the photoshoot otherwise the green camouflage would appear even darker as it is. Not the best pictures but it shows the color a bit more natural this way.
To summarize, I did enjoy this wonderful gift from my friend a lot. Especially because it could be build in Dutch markings. Regardless of the chosen scheme, this is a really nice kit to get a beautiful Buffalo presented on your shelf.
Thanks to all who followed my build thread and helped me along the way. It can be found here:
https://imodeler.com/groups/work-in-progress-aircraft/forum/topic/brewster-b339-buffalo-tamiya-1-48-knil-1942/
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- 1. Oeps, forgot to remove this mask. Removed after the photoshoot.
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- 1. not good
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- 1. better
Beautiful model, John @johnb! 👍 Man, that canopy looks great! 👏
@garybrantley, thank you, Gary. The masks helped a lot but required quite some cutting.
What a belter.
That's how it should be done.
Cheers,
Alistair
@alistairfgauld, thank you very much, Alistair
Looks Great John @johnb ! Very nice painting.
@ssgt, thank you, Jay.
Super job on a venerable older kit, John (@johnb). You did such a wonderful job masking that extremely difficult to mask canopy. Frankly, I wish my Buffalo looked half as good. Thank you for sharing it!
@matthewfdyer, thank you very much, Matt
Another masterpiece my friend @johnb !
That canopy must have been nerve wrecking when you unmasked it, as it’s always a surprise how things work out eventually.
@alfred, thank you, Alfred. Your beautiful collection of Dutch aircraft definitely motivated me in adding one to my shelf as well. Removing the masks was a challenge, trying to not damage the canopy was not that easy.
Thanks for your kind words.
Will post another one (Navy this time) tomorrow.
That turned out great, John. I’m a fan of the Tamiya Buffalo and NEI subjects in general.
@j-healy, thank you, John. This Tamiya Buffalo did suprise me positively as well.
What a fantastic result, my friend John! Build is excellent and you got the camo just right! An awesome build thread as well.
Congratulations!
@fiveten, thanks a lot, Spiros. Thanks again for this amazing gift, I definitely had a lot of fun with it. It was also a pleasure to have you following the thread.
Very sharp work John! The camo scheme turned out really well.
@dtravis, thank you very much, Dale.
Excellent Buffalo. Your photos do it justice. Well done all the way, John @johnb.
@eb801, thanks a lot, Eric. For some reason I'm always struggling to get decent pictures of dark camouflage colors.
Excellent build John.
@blackmopane, thank you, Rafi.
Well done!
@chasbunch, thank you, Chas
I always think Buffaloes look good. You've captured the tubbiness very well and it's always nice to see a KNIL example. The finish is awesome as well.
@christopher, thanks a lot, Christopher. The Buffalo is indeed a fine looking aircraft, regardless the applied scheme.
Hi @johnb, what a fantastic job you’ve done with Spiros’ @fiveten generous gift. The grey background reflects the camouflage colours very well in the photographs, and your canopy masking, so important on this model, is first class. You must be very pleased with the outcome.
@chinesegeorge, thank you very much, George. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome indeed. Always points for improvement but that's a learning thing.
G'day John (@johnb),
I enjoyed following this build on your blog.
I remember building a 1/72 Matchbox (?) Buffalo in KNIL colours in my youth - it is probably in a box in my shed.
As I recall, the camouflage colours were more like khaki and olive, so I was surprised with the new/old leaf combination on yours. I can't remember if the under surface was painted silver or grey.
I really must buy one of the Tamiya kits (I have a Special Hobby Finish kit to build one day) and replicate your scheme.
It is great to see an aircraft in Dutch orange triangle markings.
Very well done.
Liked!
@michaelt, thank you very much, Michael. Those colors are always points of discussion but since I saw the colors of the replica in the museum and some of the most recent articles, I do believe this young/old leaf combination is very plausible. Would love to see your Matchbox build.
G'day John (@johnb),
I'm certain your colours are correct, it was more a comment on how our understanding of these things has changes since the '70s.
I'll try and dig mine out, if I still have it - and we'll see how good my memory is.
A pleasure to look at your Buffalo! Apart from the fact that the prototype is really interesting, the camo seems to me to be a splendid, well-executed model!
@rosachsenhofer, thank you, Roland.
That is a good-looking Buffalo! Love that scheme.
@gkittinger, thanks a lot, Greg
Wha Can I say? Fantastic build! I love F2A and I hope hat I build it in 1:72 scale. Great Pacific theme!
@lis, Thanks for your compliment, Bernard. Well appreciated.
I really like shade of paints! This plane was reconstructed in Amsterdam Airport?
@lis, the plane is rebuild in the National Military Museum, in the place Soesterberg. This is a former military airfield.
Fantastic! I really admire Your work!
What an interesting paint scheme!
@jdtruby, exactly my thoughts, John.
When I saw the replica of this aircraft in this scheme, I knew exactly what to choose
Beautifully built. I like it very much.
@milantesar, thanks a lot, Milan