1/72 Brewster Beefalo

[Brian da Basher]

In 1934 the Chinese were in grave trouble. They were losing on all fronts to the marauding Imperial Japanese Army. Most of the major Chinese cities had been over-run amidst cries of "Banzai!" The Chinese fought bravely but lacked modern equipment. Something had to be done and fast.

In December of 1934 a Chinese purcahsing mission was sent to the U.S. in hopes of acquiring more modern military hardware, especially aircraft. The purchasing mission was endowed with a $43 million war chest raised primarily by the exporting of fortune cookies, duck & soy sauce and  a strategic sale of that "ancient Chinese secret". The mission was lead by Mr. Bach La Choy accompanied by the Chinese Air Marshal, General Tso and Mr. La Choy's comely assistant, Miss Dihn Chau-Mein. Photographic evidence of Mr. La Choy and General Tso have faded into obscurity, but Miss Chau-Mein has become something of a cult-icon due to her short, split up the sides skirts, seemingly endless legs and a flirtatious smile that could melt the stoicicsm of even the coldest New England preacher.

The purchasing commission was able to secure a respectable supply of modern tanks, artillery and rifles for the Chinese effort but was having difficulty in landing a source for a modern fighter aircraft. They approached numerous manufacturers and were rebuffed. Finally a meeting with the management of the Brewster Co. proved fortuitous. They met at a small hotel and bar near the Philadelphia office of Brewster called the Dew Drop Inn and just as it seemed the Brewster managers were going to leave without commiting to a deal, Miss Chau-Mein took a seat facing the men, and in a very Sharon Stone/Basic Instinct moment, smoked a cigarette while convincing them to sell the Chinese Air Force a modern fighter. Discussions were renewed in earnest and later that night, Miss Chau-Mein emerged from the Brewster Co.'s suite with a deal in hand and a blush on her cheeks.

The Brewster Co. agreed to speed development of their newest project, the 299 monoplane to meet the Chinese requirements. Since much of the project was in the early stages, they were forced to omit certain features, such as state-of-the-art retractable landing gear. Instead, the new fighter was fitted with spats that were so streamlined, they made the airplane appear to be moving when it was sitting still. The engine for the 299 was also still in development, but the Chinese decided to accept them without engines as they had a ready supply of left-over Russian engines at their disposal. The aircraft was very heavily armed, sporting two wing mounted 37 m.m. cannon, two .303 machine guns synchronized to fire through the propellor and one .20 m.m. cannon that fired through the propellor shaft. The surplus Russian engines gave a hefty look to this new fighter which was soon christened the Beefalo.

By 1937 five squadrons were equipped with Beefalos which were more than a match for the attacking Claudes and Bettys and quickly turned the tide of the war against Japan. In one famous air battle over Hangchow, 25 Beefaloes destroyed over 100 invading Japanese aircraft, saving the city from destruction. Major Won Hung Lo shot down five enemey aircraft himself, becoming one of the first Chinese aces in a Beefalo. Beefaloes soldiered on past American entry into the war and greatly impressed the commander of the Flying Tigers, Gen. Chenault who stated "I wish our P-40s had cool spats like that!" The example shown here, #79 flown by Major Won Hung Lo can be seen at the Hangchow Museum of Technology.

1st of 9 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

The basis of this project was a mostly-complete 1/72 Airfix Buffalo Leigh tossed in with a box of stuff he sent me. The kit was only missing one propellor but was otherwise intact. Someone had even started working on it by attempting to paint the canopy framing. They also tried to strip off their paint with questionable results. This is why the canopy looks so cloudy on the left side in some of the shots.  I still attempted to detail it anyway :dum:

Here's a shot of that attempt.

2nd of 9 pics.

Brian da Basher

[John Howling Mouse]

Cool!  Very likeable.  And it has SPATS!!!

[Brian da Basher]

I was mildly tempted to build this straight as I really love early W.W. II stuff, but that whiff bug just wouldn't stop nagging at me. In the box Leigh sent me was a spare P-47 cowling. I also had what appeared to be a three-bladed prop attached to a DH-4 radiator. After a little bit of fiddling around, I realized the DH-4 radiator fit almost perfectly into the P-47 cowling which only needed gentle persuasion to be joined to the Buffalo's nose. Here's a shot that shows off that nice big radiator grill.

3rd of 9 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

I had a lot of fun and a bit of trouble fitting this beast together. Soimetimes Airfix's engineering isn't the best, but I plodded along. Thankfully, Airfix is very generous with the parts in this kit and I was able to use left over gear doors as struts for the spats. The spats were made from a wheel cut in half and glued on to the bottom of two drop tanks. It doesn't get any simpler than that. Here's a head-on shot.

4th of 9 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

As with all my recent projects, I spent a lot of time considering the paint scheme and markings. For a while I considered Fleet Air Arm, Swedish,  Finnish and Korean schemes. Then I was looking at my Air Warfare book and it showed color plates of some interesting mottled schemes the Chinese used and I was sold!

Here's an over-head shot.

5th of 9 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

I started this paint scheme by painting the uppers in Testor's Light Ghost Gray. Then I painted the lowers in Testor's Dark Gull Gray. It took me a little bit to work up the nerve to do the next step.

Here's a shot of the udersides. You may be able to notice where I was able to use a piece of blisterpack to cover over the wheel wells.

6th of 9 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

I used two different colors in the mottled scheme, Polly Scale Light Olive and Model Masters Euro Green. The technique is fairly simple. You try to get as little paint on your brush as possble and just jab it at where you want the paint. If you get a blotchy solid spot, you can usually un-do the damage by mottling another color back over it. Once I was done with the scheme I was very pleased by how closely it resembled the color-plates in my Air Warfare book.

7th of 9 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

The rudder stripes were hand-painted, using Testor's White and Artists' Acrylics Ultramarine Blue which was as close a match as I could find for the Chinese roundels.

8th of 9 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

The decals were left-overs from my Academy P-40 kit but I added numbers from a sheet of Soviet markings and the "Chinese" characters on the cowling are from some Japanese markings. I simply turned them 90 degrees so they appeared to be Chinese. I have no idea what they translate to, probably "All your base is us!1"

I hope you enjoyed this little project and backstory as much as I enjoyed bringing them to you.

Last of 9 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Mossie]

Wouldn't like a heavy landing in that tubby wonder with those widely splayed struts, modeled after ther cheif designers meeting with Miss Chau-Mein no wonder, the naughty girl! !

As always Bri, fantastically executed & an old model put to great use!  That camo pattern is just mind boggling!

[Daryl J.]

Oh that is goood.      


Daryl J.

[BlackOps]

Brian, I love the paint job!    

This is one seriously stocky looking aircraft, kinda has that "take your best shot" look about it

[Howard of Effingham]

SPATS!

the coolness meter engineer will be calling later with a replacement....  

[B777LR]

Cool! Spats increase looks x 1000!