Tamiya 1/48 Brewster F2A-2 Buffalo

Started by Bob Torres · 32 · 1 year ago
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    Bob Torres said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    This will be my entry to honor Jim Sullivan.

    I think this is going to be the 3rd entry with the same kit. I started on my build about 3 weeks ago and I better start writing down the progress for this build.

    My kit is from the 1974 boxing, and I'll be making the U.S. Navy Brewster F2A-2 (BuNo 1412) of fighter squadron VF-2. Yes another Yellow Wings "Flying Chiefs." USS Lexington 1941.

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Bob Torres said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    When I started this build, I was also eyeing to have it built for our local club meeting but was not able to have it ready. So I did not take any shots while working in the cockpit area. This is a pretty nice kit, and things were moving along quite rapidly.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

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    Bob Torres said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    The instrument panels were flat with no raised details. This kit provided decals to go on to the 4 individual instrument panel pieces. The pieces that are glued onto the side walls of the cockpit did add some very nice details to this area.

    This kit provides two sets of cockpit seats, canopies, gun sights, spinners, propellers, pitot probes, head rest with or without the life raft/DF system. So while building this kit, I had to make sure the correct parts were selected for the USN version.

    6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Bob Torres said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    For this build, I decided to use the decals that came with this kit. I was a bit worried at first because one of the decals used for the instrument panel fell apart when applying onto the panel. I still managed to use part of it and painted the rest to mimic the indicators on the lower right panel. So what I decided to do, when I do apply the decals onto the wings, tail and fuselage I am going to use Microscale's decal maker.

    My next little issue on this decal sheet is the yellowing. I took a shot at how it looked in the beginning and after 8 days taped on the window facing the sun, it did lighten up. The slight yellowing disappeared on the clear film and the white part got a little whiter.

    3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Bob Torres said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    The engine detail I felt was pretty decent. I took my time painting the different parts and highlighting the igniter plug cables. I kept it simple and was happy with the results.

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Bob Torres said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    Here are some shots of how the cockpit details looks after having the fuselage halves glued together. The seat belts were actually molded on the seat but I felt it looked too small, so I applied cut strips of masking tape and placed them to where they existed on the seat.

    All and all, I think this kit did provide a pretty decent cockpit for this build.

    4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Bob Torres said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    The nose cowl is finally glued into place, some filling and sanding was needed. Same with the fuselage and lower aft part of wing to body. When the blending was all finished I used a light grey Tamiya paint that I mixed to primed the kit.

    Later I mixed the Lemon Yellow, I lightened the Tamiya Yellow XF-3 with Tamiya White XF-2. Then it was airbrushed onto the empennage area.

    I also hand brushed the black strip on the wings with Tamiya flat black.

    4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Brian Mennenoh said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    @v1pro - This is a great build so far Bob. Very nice work. The cockpit looks great. I'm still amazed that sunlight can be used to lighten/remove the yellowing of the decals.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    Great entry and ditto start, Bob @v1pro
    The cockpit does indeed look beautiful.
    I'm amazed as well how sunlight did improve the looks of the decals, perfectly white now.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    Amazing entry and great progress so far, my friend @v1pro! Awesome looks!

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    Bob Torres said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    Thank you Brian @brithebuilder, John @johnb and Spiros @fiveten. I am pretty happy with this build, I do like the way the cockpit came out.

    The sun has saved a few of my older decals. It does take longer on the old Hasegawa and Tamiya decals, the old ESCI bleaches out the yellow a bit faster.

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    gary sausmikat said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    Another welcome entry and some great progress.

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    Bob Torres said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    The yellow for the wings in the direction calls it Chrome Yellow and gives me a ratio of orange and yellow to mix. I went ahead and did some research on this. I ended up with a ton of different ratios to get the right color. But one I did like very much and this modeler used Tamiya Flat Yellow XF-3. This modeler also called it Insignia Yellow. This made me pretty happy, I have used this color on most of my models with the Finish and Romanian Air Force WWII color schemes and they do have that hint of orange in the yellow. So this is what I used on my Buffalo's wings.

    Then the blue for the stripes and cowling was called True Blue. Here I winged it, used Tamiya Blue XF-4 and put in a few drops of Tamiya White to give me the color I was after.

    The silver was done by spraying Testor's Gloss Metallic Silver from a rattle can. I also used this on the landing gears, wheel hubs, its gear doors, propeller and spinner. I love the way this silver goes on and how smooth it looks.

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Brian Mennenoh said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    @v1pro - Looking great Bob! That color scheme really pops.

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    Bob Torres said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    Thanks @brithebuilder, this is my first time painting the yellow wing scheme. It is an eye-catching scheme.