SH32064 F2A-1 in 32nd scale – finish details

One of the June new releases is also going to be a limited re-issue of the first version of the F2A Buffalo naval fighter plane in 1/32 scale.
The model will be available under catalogue number SH32064 and will offer the modeller with four, and I would say rather appealing, camouflage schemes...
 
and these are as follows:
camo A
F2A-1, 3-F-1, Bu.No. 1396, VF-3 (Fighter Squadron 3), USS Saratoga aircraft carrier, 1939. Flown by a VF-3 Commanding Officer  Lt/Cdr John Smith Thach. In 1942, Lt/Cdr Thach excelled during the famous Battle of Midway. By the end of WW2, he had been credited with six victories. Having pinned on his fourth star, he retired in 1967 as a full admiral.
Bu.No.1396 machine was converted to F2A-2 version in May 1940, remained in service until 1943.
camo B
F2A-1, 3-F-17, Bu.No. 1389, VF-3, USS Saratoga, No.2  a/c in Section 6, 1939. Generally speaking, the tail colour indicates what aircraft carrier the plane was assigned to, the colour of the wing chevrons and the cowl tells the section, the coloured part of the cowl ought to identify the plane´s position in the section and the fuselage band (when applied) and full cowl band means that the plane was flown by the section leader.  However, in the case of USS Saratoga Buffalo fighters (at least 3-F-17 and 3-F-18), it seems that the top cowling was painted white. Here, Buffalo 3-F-17 had the lower cowl left in Aluminium lacquer. The next in line Buffalo, 3-F-18, seems to have carried appropriatelly painted lower cowl in Lemon Yellow, indicating the third machine in the sixth section.
Bu.No.1389 machine was converted to F2A-2 version in May 1940, remained in service until 1944.
camo C
F2A-1, 3-F-18, Bu.No. 1388, VF-3, USS Saratoga, No.3 a/c in Section 6, December 1939. The machine was seen and photographed in two various appearances while having VF3 squadron markings. At first, still not being equipped with the armament nor the gun sight, its wing panels above the machine gun bays flat (not bulged - see camouflage scheme drawing), and later with the machine guns and sight already in place. During its career with the US Navy,  the plane had two accidents, the first of them happened  on May 20, 1940 while flown by Ens. R.H. Prince, the other one occured the same year on October 9, that time with Ens. R.S.Lemmon at the controls. Following the second accident, the plane was converted to dash 2 standard and used until 1944.
camo D
F2A-1, Bu.No. 1393, while being used as a training machine at NAS Norfolk in 1941, the machine received new overal grey livery that had been introduced in November 1941. In March 1940, while serving with VF-3 aboard USS Saratoga (3-F-13 fuselage code), this plane with Lt.Cdr. Thach at the controls ended up its landing run in the crash barrier and tipped onto its nose.






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