does anyone know where i could get a set of markings for marine buffaloes at midway? i am building a 1/48 buffalo. nobody respects buffaloes [:(!] i have a great uncle that started out in Buff’s thru wildcats and finally hellcats and he says he loved all 3 aircraft i guess im rambleing i’ll be greatful to any help available
Well, if you have the new Special Hobby F2A-3, it already has some VMF-221 Midway Buffs on the decal sheet. That kit is currently the only one that can be built out of the box with only a few minor mods to depict a Marine Brewster from Midway. All other kits on the market, Hasegawa, Airfix, Revell and Aoshima in 1/72 and Tamiya in 1/48 requires some extensive surgery and modification to represent a Marine Brewster from Midway.
Another point is that currently, there is not any photographic evidence available that shows a VMF-221 at Midway, except for a pic of a F4F-3 with a some Brewsters way off in the background. So the best guess as of now is that they simply wore a “MF-X” side code with the individual aircraft number repeated on the wing leading edge, along with the national insignaia in all six places, with out red centers and no tail stripes.
I hope this helps, and if you dont mind me asking, who is your great uncle and I am assuming that he was USN and not USMC since you mentioned F6Fs and very few USMC pilots flew them, although the possibility does exist he was one of them.
Good luck and let me know if you need more.
BW
Aeromaster did a couple of Buffalo sheets quite a while ago & at least one had Midway markings. They are OOP, but you might find one on eBay or a model show.
Regards, Rick
I would have to get ahold of him again to find out his rank and ship but my great uncle is clifford burke and he was USN he later ended up as a technician with NASA and worked on the space packs that went to the moon