Special Hobby F2A-3 Buffalo

Date Completed: 2014
Aftermarket Used CMK Armament set,

Decals: Montex masks

Another double build in which was eventually a pretty productive year after a few false starts!
From memory these Buffalos were lovely kits to build, being fairly straightforward, even the CMK gun bays fitted without too much scraping and grinding
The completed models were painted with extra colour paints which were my preferred brand until export restrictions stopped them coming into the country. I still have several tins I am slowly using up on current projects.

For the USN one, I could not go past those oversized early war stars, which I found on a Montex mask set. This were the second set of markings I had masked after my dakota I found the process a little more difficult lining up all the elements and there was a fait bit of touching up to do. I cannot remember what colour I used for the USN blue grey, the underside grey was Extracolour with a dark wash from Flory Models. A small piece of brass mesh was inserted behind the oil cover opening. Looking at the model now, you can see I have rushed the weathering with none on the undersides or gun bays. Despite this, it still looks nice sitting in the cabinet with those big stars.