When I was building the Monogram P-40B for the GB, I ran across a story told by Eric Schilling about a dogfighting contest between the P-40 and the Buffalo, to settle a perception some AVG pilots had that the P-40 was inferior to the Brewster. Who would have thought that, given the heat the Buffalo has taken in the years since WW II. That got me interested in building the Tamiya Buffalo, I thought it would be a quick and easy build, something I found attractive because of the beating the Eduard Siemens Schukert D.III is giving me in the WW I GB. Of course, that idea of quick and easy totally discounted the billion frame lines in the Buffalo’s canopy and that useless group of windows under the cockpit, And then after I had the canopy masked and painted, I managed to melt it when I was trying to “speed dry” a small paint repair at the right wing root. Talk about self inflicted abuse! My second Buffalo kit will be built as a USN bird, as it is now short the canopy for other versions now.
Anyway, it is done, except for a few little details that escaped me until I looked at the pictures. Like painting the exhaust stacks. Whatever. They are rather small. I now have a Brewster Buffalo to put next to my P-40/Hawk 81A-3 in the display case. The only aftermarket was Eduard seat belts. It’s a nice kit. Markings are for 67 Squadron RAF in Migaladon Burma, the RAF unit that supplied the Buffalo. The story of the duel is here:
When I posted pictures of the P-40 recently, there was a comment that the colors looked off by one person. The P-40 is in Dark Earth/Dark Green FS34092/Light Grey, the Buffalo is in Dark Earth/Dark Green (British) over Sky and Flat Black. I noticed in one of the photos that I took today that the Dark Earth seems to take on a very different appearance depending on whether it is in light or shade. This is most apparent in the picture of the Buffalo from the left rear, where the vertical fin and right wing tip are next to each other in the photo but one is in some shadow and the other is in full light. It’s the third picture down. It’s all Model Master paints from the same bottles except the Sky, which is Floquil Sky Type S. It’s hard for me to judge colors as my color vision is not “normal” so I just try to go by what the bottle says and listen to other opinions.
Sharp-looking builds, John…both of 'em! Nicely painted, decaled, and the assembly looks spot on. One question…what was the consensus of the AVG in the comparison of the two?
John, nice work on both of these birds. I’m hoping that same Tamiya kit will show up under my Christmas tree this year from either Santa or my wife, whoever shows up first. [:)]
Just curious, though - in the photo of the underside, it appears that the antenna is not connected to the airframe. Did you remove it for the photo or did you have a wee bit of an accident there?
I love what you’ve done with the Buffalo, John. That’s one of the few WWII Navy birds I have yet to model and your build doesn’t help aany to resist the temptation to run out and buy the kit!
It loos great next to the P-40, as well. Good stuff as usual, John! I’d be curious to hear the response to Mike’s question about the AVG.
As one John to another - good job on both! I can totally sympathize with you having just recently finished the Tamiya Buffalo myself. I thought I was gonna go blind trying to mask all those lines on the bottom.
Do you think the pilots back then REALLY used those windows in the bottoms of the planes (buffalos, early corsairs, etc) that much? Seems like they’d be a pain to keep clean from engine oil, dirt thrown up from the field, all the crap in the cockpit that would fall down on top of them, etc. To me it seems like it would be more pain than it’s worth to try to look thru those and figure what you’re seeing all the while trying to pilot a fighter plane - possibly in combat . . .
Thanks to everyone for the kind comments, it is not without its flaws but somehow it did arrive at a pleasing sort of look.
Steven, that is my special antenna mod, I knew it wouldn’t hold the model up for the picture but I just had to try it. Once a dummy twice a dummy, I guess. It was an easy fix. For anyone building the Tamiya Buffalo, that antenna mast is very much to scale, and it is a test to get the antenna wire straight without bending the mast back from the tension. Might be better to work out a metal replacement before all the paint work is done.
Mike, the link doesn’t give quantitative information, but Schilling won the first two out of three mock combats, and was able to engage or disengage if he needed to, so there was no third contest. However, it does bring out the fact that the British were also one of the more successful Buffalo users, but they used tactics that did not involve attempts at turning combats with the Japanese like the Chennault doctrine and the AVG. I don’t get the impression that the Buffalo was out and out inferior to the P-40’s, but the P-40 did have speed and climb advantages. You should read the link in my post, it tells much more than numbers about the times.
I’m quite sure they never used the windows in any stressful situation, John. Turning your head down to look as would be necessary for any use of those windows is a sure invitation to vertigo. One of the first things you learn as you work on instrument flying is to never do that except slowly, if at all.
Nice work on the corpulent little Buffalo. It makes a nice pair with the P-40. All colors, be they paint, cloth material or whatever appear to change shade color under different lighting conditions. The same item under natural sunlight, incandescent light or flouescent light will appear drastically different to the human eye.
