-Brewster Buffalo F2A-1 Hasegawa kit. This kit may be the best Finnish Air Force aircraft you can buy in 1:72. Another great Hasegawas kit, I build it with Inscale72 Finnish Decals. I choose Fighter ace Hans 'Hasse' Wind plane with 41 victory markings on tail (Orange 9). This plane is the only one individual plane in the world with so many air to air kills. So it's very significant aircraft in the history of aviation. -I'll have to made some modifications to the kit, thought the plane is the same type that Finnish Air Force uses in WW2; but elevators are little modified, i'll have to change the navigation antenna in 'hat rack', and overpainting the floor windows, but nothing radical enhancements isn't neccessary, because good overall quality of the kit. Also some cocpit detailing is good to build, because the cocpit is very visible part of the model. -The painting is standard Finnish wartime black/green/yellow with easternfront stripes. Firstly I paint overall plane with U.S metal, and then, when camouflage is ready and dry, i scrape carefully the paint with scraper, so, the managed to 'weather' the plane a quite well, check out some wartime photographs, these Buffalo planes paintjob is really worn. -Inscale decals are very good quality, and attached fine. And with Inscale details, it's possible to build various other Finnish planes too, also a rare 'Humu' which is Finnish build fighter version of the Buffalo.

Brief history of Brewster;
-The Brewster F2A Buffalo was the U.S. Navy's first monoplane fighter, an all-metal (except for control surfaces), mid-wing aircraft with retractable landing gear. However, despite this important first, and its notable service record in Finland, history has not been kind to the Buffalo. -The Buffalo prototype first flew in January 1938, and numerous changes ware made before 54 of the F2A-1 production version were ordered. 11 of these equipped VF-3 on Saratoga in the summer of 1939, and the other 43 were shipped to Finland, which was now fighting off the Soviet Union. A new rudder and more powerful Wright R-1820-40 engine (1200hp) were the major changes in the F2A-2, of which the Navy ordered 43. In addition, Britain ordered 170, Belgium 40, and Dutch East Indies Air Force 72.
-Service with the U.S. Navy had shown the landing gear to be too weak for carrier service. Modifications to the gear, additional armor plating, and stretched nose to accomodate another fuel tank were implemented to create the F2A-3, of which the Navy ordered 108, but these changes simpy added weight to the Buffalo and exacerbated its principal problems: It was overweight, underpowered, and had too little wing area. Eventually, Navy Buffaloes were all transferred to the land-based Marine Corps, while the Grumman F4F Wildcat became the principal carrier fighter.
-The Buffalo's shortcomings proved fatal in combat. British Buffaloes in Signapore, Java and Manila were all destroyed by far-superior Japanese A6M Zeros and Ki-43 Hayabusas ("Oscars") by March of 1942. And in its first and last combat action is American hands, VMF-221 on Midway saw the bulk of the squadron quickly shot by Zeros during the battle for the island in June of 1942. Nevertless, in the hands of Finnish pilots, the Buffalo fought extremely well against the Soviet Air Force for nearly three years, with the Finns claiming 496 Soviet planes downed for the loss of just 19 Buffaloes.

Actual BW-393 tail, on view at SuomenIlmailumuseo, Vantaa.

Brief technical details;
Crew: 1
Wingspan: 10.67m; Lenght: 7.8m; Height: 3.63m; Gross Weight: 2.473kg;
Engine: Wright R-1820-40 (1200hp); Max. Speed: 553kph; Fixed Armament: 4x.50cal (12.7mm)