Which Buffalo kit......

[Army of One]

Dear all...........I have recently moved house n my Aircraft of the Aces Finnish Aces is in a box somewhere.....a quick question please....which Buffalo kit is suitable for the Finnish airforce? After a brief look on the web the choices seem to be between Airfix,Revell,Matchbox and Hasegawa.....the Matchbox one depicts (app) the export version as I don't think the Finnish a/c had the arrestor hook on.....Hasegawa is probably (stereotyping?) the best quality kit......many thanks in advance for any help.....I have googled it but have not come up with anything conclusive.....


Just found some more info.....BW-372...pulled out of a lake in 1998 is app a former US Navy  mod 239.....were different examples supplied to the Fins?

[Jschmus]

I had a look, and it seems as though any Buffalo kit will work, as most of the differences in the Finn machines were internal.  The Finns were supplied with a de-rated version of the Navy F2A-1.  These were fitted with the R-1820-G5 engine, and stripped of cockpit armor, self-sealing tanks, and tailhooks, plus all armament.  Once these "B-239s" arrived in Finland, they were fitted with armored seats, metric instruments, a local gunsight and four 12.7mm machine guns.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster_Buffalo

[Aircav]

The 1/72 Airfix kit was good from what I remember but if you want it in 1/48 then Tamiya is the way to go.  

[Army of One]

It will be in 1/72 so I think the Airfix one will do....got access to a couple of cheap ones....I think the others are harder to get anyway. Many thanks for the advice......basically remove/don't att the hook and adjust the gun armament if neccassary...?

[Tojo633]

Hi
I think you may find that there are special releases of the Revell Buffalo with Finnish decals available in Finland strangely enough. Although I am sure European releases have the PC post war Finnish markings as well as the USN ones. I think the Finnish releases may have the correct wartime decals, suggest you ask TSR Joe who can clarify this point as I am sure he bought a few when he was out there on one of his trip.
Cheers
Sandy

[Army of One]

Many thanks for that.......I got two sheets that seem to match up with the pics in the Osprey a/c of the aces;Finnish....wanted to do the a/c used by Hans Wind n Illmari Jutliannen (spelling ?) as I like the cam scheme/kill markings.