The Little World

Having decided to convert a perfectly inoffensive Brewster Buccaneer with no purpose in life into a perfectly inoffensive Brewster Bermuda with even less purpose, I am now left with a kit that silently screams for something to call attention to itself

Never mind that it has a dual rear machine gun with an armoured shield…that’ll be under the canopy. Never mind that it has bomb racks on the wings – they don’t appear to be fitted in the two internet pictures I’ve seen. And the camouflage scheme is the standard British early war green/brown/sky. I don’t even get to use the massive spinner over the propellor – I’ll have to make up a central prop shaft.

So what can I do that makes this stand out – well Special Hobby have the answer – they’ve moulded the dive brakes in four parts and given them accurate attachment points. With a little careful fettling and some PVA glue, I could attach them all in an opened position.

I don’t think that the RCAF would have condoned a dull red interior surface of these dive brakes as the US Navy did. I’ll be painting them aluminium. But they are the first deployed dive brakes in any of my builds. That should make the mark.

I’ve been thinking longer on the reason the RCAF got these planes – apart from bad luck. Suffield is a large Canadian Army base and it’s possible the RCAF was thinking in terms of army cooperation. Land attack dive bombing?