I'm thinking about doing a RAAF Buffalo in 1/48, and wondering a little about my options.

As far as I know I have to choose between Special Hobby and Tamiyas kit with aftermarket decals. Any other kits in 1/48?

So now I'm wondering about the ups and downs with each option. Which is the easiest to build, which has the best details.

Any input on the subject is greatly appriciated

Hi Thomas

I don't think there are any other kits available. I reviewed Special Hobby's original F2A-3 and that should give you an idea of what to expect with the RAAF version. Generally speaking, it's much more detailed than Tamiya's 1970s vintage kit, but also far more complex - and its semi- short run nature means you'll have to do a lot more test-fitting and prep. The shape of the horizontal tail is also a little bit off (unless Special Hobby have modified it since the first release).

I hope this helps, all the best

Rowan

Thomas,

Tamiya do a "Pacific Theatre" boxing of the Brewster Buffalo, you would need to add 1/8 or 3mm packing at the rear of the engine cowling, to increase the cowling demensions to the 339 version and has the addition bits for the gun sight and windscreen.
There are a couple of AM decals around for RAAF aircrfat subjects, one is of an RAAF aircraft flown by Sgt 'Mac' Ried during Singapore, which had a dog motif and British style roundals, with the other's being based at Pierce in Western Australia and carrying the standard RAAF roundal of the time.

Let me know which RAAF type you would like too do and I'll go through my refs and decals.

Hope this helps a little.

In nutshell, Tamiya is easy build with plastic and Special Hobby needs more work and skill due to resin and photoetch parts. Choose according to your skilllevel.

I've heard this said many times about the Tamiya Buffalo needing the nose extended to correctly represent a RAAF 339. It really depends on which 339. Everything i have found says that the markings options in the Tamiya kit are correct for the fuselage that Tamiya supplies and could be built accurately as a Singapore/Malaya RAAF aircraft, like the Read aircraft for example- or any of the RAAF 21 SQN Malaya aircraft. The 339E was simply a de-navalised version of the F2A-2 with a different propeller. The nose length was the same according to every reference i have.

The 339-23 on the other hand definately would need a nose job as that was really just an F2A-3..and the RAAF did use those as well- for that the best option really is the Special Hobby (which is for the 339-23/F2A-3) kit which even comes with RAAF markings in one boxing i believe. Otherwise for an 339-23 from the Tamiya kit, yes you would need to exend the nose to be accurate, as well as other small mods as well.

The Classic Airframes boxings of course do the F2A-1 and 239 versions. So which kit simply depends upon which version you actually want to build!

F2A-1 or 239= Classic Airframes
F2A-2 or 339B/E= Tamiya
F2A-3 or 339-23= Special Hobby

Andrew

Thanks for all your input on the subject. The only problem is that while searching for kits on eBay I found Czech Models Buffalo in 1/32, so I'm thinking about building that instead.

Andrew,

'Mac' Ried's markings are not in the Tamiya 'Pacific' kit markings supplied are for RAF, RNZAF {which is the 'Dragon' motif artwork on the box} and Dutch East Indies Sqn's.

Thomas,

Their are 32 scale AM decals available in RAAF service, if you build the Czech model subject.