SPA Modeler

Hi All,

After seeing Carlos's fabulous build of the Tamiya 1/48 Buffalo I was really tempted to build one in 1/72 to add to my WWII RAF fighters collection - as the Buffalo in played an important part in the catastrophic defence of Burma early in WWII.



The options in 1/72 are pretty limited as far as I can see. There is the old Matchbox and Airfix kits, but not a lot else - the most modern tooling I could find was this Hobbyboss kit (tooled in 2012) which I picked up for £9 on Amazon.



There's not a lot to the kit - the whole thing fits on one sheet of A4 instructions.



The cockpit is three parts...



As you can see - not much detail. I'm going to try and scratch-build an IP and some sidewall detail just to jazz it up a bit. I'm also going to try and replicate the roll bar and headrest on the rear decking. The only AM parts I'm going to add is an IP decal and seat harness from this old Promodeler sheet - the wildcat one should be close enough.



As for markings... I'm a bit limited. There are a few decal sets on Hannants but they're a bit costly - I don't really want to pay £15 - £25 for a multiple Buffalo only sheet as I'm not likely to make another one. There is a Buffalo/Spitfire sheet but again that's quite limiting. However, what I might be able to do is get some Generic RAF Roundel and Code sheets and figure out a scheme based on what I find on the internet.

This is the sort of scheme I'm going for...





Cheers!

A few bits of plasticard here and there...





Not accurate or to scale, but at least it looks like something!

Looks great, Stuart! I got to get one of those?

Very nice Stuart! That's one of the few US Navy aircraft I don't have yet.

Wow, interesting engineering here. I like how they split the fuselage to upper and lower halves instead of left and right halves. But a solid one piece wing as well. That’s a big chunk of plastic. Nice job adding the roll over frame! One other area you may need to address is the tail cone fairing as the export land based Buffaloes had no tail hook, and a pneumatic tail wheel instead of the carrier based solid wheel.

You’re off to a great start!

Thanks Gents!

Stikpusher wrote: ↑Wed Dec 14, 2022 10:38 am Wow, interesting engineering here. I like how they split the fuselage to upper and lower halves instead of left and right halves. But a solid one piece wing as well. That’s a big chunk of plastic. Nice job adding the roll over frame! One other area you may need to address is the tail cone fairing as the export land based Buffaloes had no tail hook, and a pneumatic tail wheel instead of the carrier based solid wheel.

You’re off to a great start!

Thanks Carlos- yeah it's one of Hobbyboss's easybuild kits. Minimal parts and simplified construction - hence the lack of detail. Thanks for pointing out the lack of the fairing - I'm sure I'll be able to sort that out. There is no tail hook detail however so that's one less problem.

I've added a bit of paint here and there and added some decals. It's not much to look at but looks okay under the clear part.









I need to add the gunsight and then it's time to close it up.

Cheers!

It's a real shake-n-bake kit this, just the sort of thing you used to build on a Sunday afternoon.



Cheers!

I picked this up a few days ago in order to get it finished. I've added the gear and primed it...





I fixed the issues with the tailwheel and tailcone as per Carlos's suggestions



And then I've only gone done airbrushing....

Okay, so the finish is pretty crap, but nothing I can't tidy up. I had some splattering which I fixed by thinning the paint a bit more, and a run because I held the brush for too long over one area, but overall I'm pretty pleased with my first attempt at actually putting paint on a model by means of an airbrush.

neat project. looking quite lover-ly, too!

Nice work Stuart! Im sure that you're gonna enjoy airbrushing. It can never fully replace hand brushing, but using both methods can make things look a LOT better.