Taivaan Helmi over Finland: Special Hobby 1/32nd Brewster F2A Buffalo (Model 139)

By Alessandro Biagetti

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History

The Brewster F2A (company Model 139) was an American fighter aircraft which saw limited service during World War II. In 1939, the F2A became the first monoplane fighter aircraft used by the US Navy. In December 1941, it suffered severe losses with both British Commonwealth and Dutch air forces in South East Asia while facing the Japanese Navy A6M Zero and the Japanese Army's Oscar. It also saw action with US Marine Corps squadrons at the Battle of Midway. Frustrated with the Buffalo's poor maneuverability and speed compared to the Japanese Zero, the F2A was derided by U.S. Marine Corps pilots as a "flying coffin",[1] However, during the Continuation War of 1941-1944, the Buffaloes operated by the Finnish Air Force proved capable of engaging and destroying most types of Soviet fighter aircraft operating against Finland at that time. The name was not Buffalo but “Taivaan helmi” and mean more or less “Skypearl”.

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Model

The Model comes from Special Hobby in 1/32 scale. It’s a full Multimedia Kit with Resin parts, Photo parts and plastic parts in short run. The colours comes from Lifecolor (Italy). I used Future for the transparent parts having a very real glass effect.

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I hope you like this aircraft. For any questions do not hesitate to contact me.

© Alessandro Biagetti 2009

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This article was published on Wednesday, July 20 2011; Last modified on Saturday, May 14 2016