Brewster "Bison" Phoenix Re-build

sequoiaranger · January 27, 2011, 06:22:04 PM

I had never been really satisfied with my "Brewster Bison" buffalo follow-on. It was an early whif, in which I merely put a Curtiss Helldiver nose on a Buffalo. I disliked the "pug" nose of the Buffalo, so did something about it. But, with the extended nose, the rest of it looked "unbalanced".

Recently I discovered that the P-47 razorback has an almost identical, but stretched, rear fuselage section, so an old Jo-Han P-47 will donate it's rear fuselage to my "new Bison".

I will move the distinctive cockpit/canopy forward just a little, add the P-47 rear fuselage, replace the P-47 vertical tail with a Brewster Buccaneer tailplane (modified, but "kept in the family" of Brewster products), and extend the wings about three feet overall (1.5 feet per wing) with 1/80 MRC Helldiver tailplanes. This "next-generation Buffalo" should look kind of like a Brewster-ized Hellcat. I think the proportionality that I disliked will be "corrected". The backstory is that this "Bison" was slated to replace the F4F Wildcat, but the Navy was very reluctant, and BEGGED Grumman to come up with something better--they did, by adapting their "Grumman Gander" floatplane*. It will still be in Dutch Netherlands East Indies A F livery, but with the "rhino" emblem of a famous Dutch ace.

I am off on vacation soon, so probably very little more work will be done on it. But it is my next project.

*Seen at:
http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=2797

Tophe · January 28, 2011, 09:19:55 AM

interesting...

GTX · January 28, 2011, 12:49:45 PM

royabulgaf · January 28, 2011, 04:54:11 PM

How about this, which is my F3A idea for "someday". Get a Brewster Bermuda, and plans for an F6F in the same scale. Set the Bermuda over the plans, and trim fuselage length and wing location to match the plans. Do the dame with wing length, and trim the stabilizers if needed. Dig some bubble or bubbleish canopy out of your spares box, and put it in the approximate cockpit location as the Hellcat.

sequoiaranger · January 29, 2011, 10:00:23 AM

royalb--I have a "Bermuda" (Buccaneer---same difference), and had purchased it to do almost exactly what you proposed, but it is a decidely larger aircraft than even the Hellcat, methinks, with an almost Helldiver-like gargantuan tail. So I will pass for now. But I would love to see what *YOU* can do with it!

My "Bison" will be only a slight upgrade from the Buffalo. As if Brewster was stung by the Navy's rejection of its Buffalo and QUICKLY got an improved version ready to try to woo Navy approval and stave off the Navy's acceptance of the Hellcat for mass production. On speculation, Brewster produced 25 of them and posed them for "propaganda" pictures. Didn't work. "Stiffed" again by the US Navy, Brewster sells the small production batch to the Dutch MLD (Naval Air Service) for use aboard the flight-deck battlecruiser "Molucca"*

*see:

http://www.combinedfleet.com/furashita/molucc_f.htm

sequoiaranger · January 30, 2011, 11:56:03 AM

apophenia: >Always interesting to see what can be done with a Buffalo. As it sits (literally), it looks like that big prop might be the world's largest Weed Whacker. Since you're embarking on major surgury anyway, what about moving the wings (and u/c) down abit?<

The prop really is a SMALL four-blader---I think I got it off a Ki-84 Hayate. It is much smaller than, say, a P-47 prop or Skyraider. This view might show you how small the 4-blader actually is:

re: lowering the wing--I wanted the tubby "Buffalo" look as much as possible, and the surgery required to lower the wing is a whole lot more than I wanted to do (it would require re-figuring the landing-gear, too!). I may increase the length of the landing gear, or the diameter of the wheel a bit, but not much.

I "discovered" that this old Buffalo (Revell?) has simply a blank plate where the engine should be. Without major surgery/re-make, the engine area will look pretty lame. I may just insert "cylinders" halves from some other kit just to add some engine-looking relief to that area. The whole idea is to replace the 9-cyl Cyclone with a later, 14-cylinder Cyclone.

royabulgaf · January 30, 2011, 02:47:39 PM

royalb--I have a "Bermuda" (Buccaneer---same difference), and had purchased it to do almost exactly what you proposed, but it is a decidely larger aircraft than even the Hellcat, methinks, with an almost Helldiver-like gargantuan tail. So I will pass for now. But I would love to see what *YOU* can do with it!

Is the gauntlet being tossed? BTW, fill us in on the carrier deck.

sequoiaranger · January 30, 2011, 05:38:36 PM

Me: >>But I would love to see what *YOU* can do with it!<<

>Is the gauntlet being tossed?<

Well, it's not like "I double-dog-dare you" or anything, but I think your idea has major whiff potential, like a Brewster-ized Skyraider(?). Mine is a more modest project. I had also thought of a whif using a wide fuselage and the Buffalo nacelle "sideways" (like the B-24 Liberator's nacelle look) and making a side-by-side cockpit. Ya never know!

>BTW, fill us in on the carrier deck.<

It's about forty years old, part of a Revell (I think) F4F that had a printed 3D simulated "carrier deck" that was included in the kit box. I have used it many times for pics, back in the '80's, but it is kinda beat-up these days. I also made my own "carrier deck" out of HO train planking that I have for displaying some carrier planes, but it is large and more or less "built in" to my display cabinet.

sequoiaranger · March 10, 2011, 04:59:22 PM

Just got back from Indonesia and Asia. Now my wanting to re-do the "Bison" makes more sense, as it is an "Indonesian" aircraft. Here, once again, is the "original" Brewster Bison that I wanted to "Phoenix":

First was to take a hunk out in front of the canopy (the piece is tucked in back for effect) and move it forward. I liked it instantly, as the nose seemed "too long" in its original form. Now it seems more "balanced" (a Balinese attribute to attain enlightenment).

Then the P-47 was hacked up (did you know that the Buffalo's midsection is LARGER than the P-47, supposedly the largest and heaviest single-engined aircraft of the war?) and the whole "mess" slapped together. Lookin' good, methinks. *LOTS* of work left to blend it all in, and add the wing extensions, vert stab fillet, and tailplanes, but we now have the "look" of the beast. BTW, that is the Jo-Han P-47 kit.

apophenia · March 11, 2011, 03:52:44 PM

That is some major surgury but she's lookin' gooood

sequoiaranger · March 11, 2011, 04:15:39 PM

Thanks apophenia. I think what you see there might be virtually ALL the surgery needed. I was originally going to cut off the P-47 vertical tail and use a Brewster Buccaneer tailplane as a vertical stabilizer, but the shape is virtually the same as the P-47, so...why do it? I may yet put in a curvy fillet a la Buffalo. Same with the P-47 tailplanes. I usually like to "custom-tailor" things, and, in this case, "Brewsterize" other components, but my work is pretty much done for me. So this will be "Phoenix Lite" in comparison to most of my other recent and more exhaustive builds. I don't WANT it to look like a P-47, but I think it will have enough Brewster-ish characteristics that my fears will be unfounded.

I have in mind a "dot-matrix" camo scheme that I will first experiment on some "painting dummy" model but think "irregular polka dots of varying size and colors". I have single-color decal sheets in a bunch of different colors, and thinking of just using a hole punch (three sizes, or at least two) to make the dots. I don't want the patterns to be so "regular" that it looks like a comic book under a microscope, but use the visual effect of blending colors in macro installments (instead of "green", use "blue" and "yellow" in proper proportions, with a dash of purple, black, or white, etc. to make it "dark green" or "light green"). A W.I.P.

sequoiaranger · March 14, 2011, 01:36:28 PM

Though I could ACCEPT the P-47 horizontal tailplanes for my Bison, I really didn't like them---made the Bison rear fuselage look TOO MUCH like a P-47 (I'll re-work the rear fuselage anyway, ridding it of the vents and other P-47 characteristics). I looked through my bin of spare "tailplanes" and found some (I think) DeHavilland Mosquito tailplanes that are the EXACT shape (but larger) of the former Buffalo ones! The joy of parts stashes!!

In the illustration below, there is the white P-47 tail (I even tried to "point" the right one a little to more closely match the Buffalo, but... $:-\$ ), the painted Buffalo tail that I sawed off, and the gray Mossie tailplanes below that I will cut off a bit for the Bison. It'll be a good match, methinks.

sequoiaranger · March 17, 2011, 09:09:05 AM

The "hacked" pieces of the fuselage came together, and I filled most of the empty spaces with cardstock. The old Buffalo curvy fillet for the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer was substituted on the P-47 tail. I slapped on some blue-gray paint similar to what the old Bison was wearing, just to see how looks with color fairly uniform. I now have the proportions and positions, but need to file, trim, fill, and sand to create the Bison look I want. I raised the cockpit just a tad, and of course moved it forward. Will ya look at those "lumpy" rivets?? That's old Revell for ya.

Here is a "flying" view of the shape of the Phoenixed Bison. Not so P-47-ish now, IMHO, and more like the extrapolated Buffalo it was meant to be. Wing tips have been added, but need to be PSR'd. If I K.I.S.S. this, I can get it done in a short while, then maybe work on a Heinkel jet project for the '46 GB. Lots more to do, but the end product is in sight.

sequoiaranger · March 17, 2011, 06:08:06 PM

The cheap MRC kit of the Helldiver (from which I got the nacelle and 4-blade prop for the original Bison) didn't have any indication of an engine in the nacelle (look on the left of the picture for the "cavern" where the engine should have been). There isn't much room there, either. My idea was to use an engine "disc" that had half-round pistons and cut it up and insert it. *MUCH* easier said than done. The current iteration is the fourth attempt, after ruining three vac-formed engine discs trying to drill out the hole for the prop hub. My success was due to a hefty injection-molded engine disc (souce unknown) and 1/32" incremental drills that would gouge out just a little more each time (see lower part of picture). Still a hassle putting them in one cylinder at a time (only two in so far--see right side of cowling) and trying to shape the TINY pieces, but I like the way it looks--FAR better than just a black gap. I also put in the two gunports in the nacelle, and will carefully align the cylinder "halves" so that the heads aren't blown off by the guns.

Don't be alarmed at the weird landing gear configuration. A W.I.P. for future individual wheel axles on the individual struts--right now the axle going all the way across is just a "structural support".

sequoiaranger · March 26, 2011, 09:58:43 AM

I'm at it again, trying to experiment with inventive camo schemes. Here I am after a "mottled" look, but will use two different diameter circles to achieve the effect. I am not sure that the soft edges of "typical" mottle camouflage really make that much difference, especially from a distance. I didn't want "polka dot" rigid patterns with regular spacings, uniform-sized dots, etc, but will seek a "random" pattern much like you see here.

I think that the human eye is especially good at discerning shapes, and maybe giving "distinct" forms is a bad thing, but I also think that any "breakup" of the silhouette of an aircraft makes it hard to discern. I want a three-color camouflage, with a muted blue-green the end result of the effect, so I am going with this "bubblebath" style of hard-edged mottle for my Bison, just for kicks!