[MKM144045] Brewster F2A-2 Buffalo/B-339B/D ‘US & Belgian Colours’

Description

The stubby Buffalo fighter, designed and built in the late 1930s by the American Brewster Aeronautical Corporation, was one of the first U.S. Navy’s monoplane aircraft destined for carrier-borne operations. It was a single-seat, all-metal mid-wing monoplane with fabric-covered control surfaces and a retractable undercarriage.

The F2A-2 was the second variant, replacing the A-1 on the production line in the spring of 1940. Powered by a Wright R-1820 Cyclone radial engine, it was equipped with cuffed Curtiss Electric propeller, large spinner and four machine guns of the same calibre – two in the nose and one in each wing.

Forty-three aircraft were ordered by the Navy, while another eight F2A-1s were modified to A-2 standard. Belgium ordered 40 Brewster B-339B aircraft, a de-navalised F2A-2s with a longer tail, but in the event, none of these planes reached the destination country. The Model B-339D was originally built for the Netherlands East Indies; following its surrender a handful of aircraft were transferred to the U.S. 5th Air Force in Australia and then lent to the RAAF.

Colour schemes included in the kit:

1) Brewster F2A-2, BuNo 1412, Black/White 2-F-7, VF-2, US Navy, USS Lexington, spring 1941

2) Brewster F2A-2 Buffalo, BuNo 1431, White 24, US Naval Air Training Command, US Navy, NAS Miami, Florida, U.S.A., summer 1942

3) Brewster B-339D (Buffalo), White 3120/Yellow 7 (ex-Dutch B3-120), 5th Air Force, US Army Air Forces, Australia, autumn 1942

4) Brewster B-339B (built for the Belgian Air Force), White NX56B, Brewster Aeronautical Corporation, Newark Airport, New Jersey, U.S.A., April 1940

Assembly instructions:

MKM14445 Buffalo F2A-2_B-339B_instr web