Boulton-Paul Defiant Mk 1 (NF) by Realworkingsailor - FINISHED - Airfix - 1/72

[realworkingsailor]

Since my shoulder is still under strict doctor's orders to not do any lifting, I will happily keep myself busy with another small kit from Airfix, and maybe another later on.

 

The Boulton-Paul Defiant would definitely be categorized as one of the more bizarre concepts offered to the RAF in the late interwar period. The basic premise was that a fast interceptor could infiltrate itself into a stream of enemy bombers, and with little maneuvering required, decimate the enemy craft with it's "heavily" armed turret. Due to it's slower top speed, and inability to dog-fight effectively, it has become a somewhat maligned aircraft (unfairly if you ask me). When deployed with well trained crew (especially well trained in tactics), in the role for which it was intended, with Spitfires or Hurricanes providing adequate cover, the Defiant was a somewhat effective fighter, and it proved to be an even more effective night fighter until the introduction of faster and better armed Beaufighters and Mosquitoes into the role. 

 

For a better basic history of the airplane, check out here.

 

 

The Airfix kit comes in its usual red box with some nice cover art. The contents consist of three grey sprues of parts, along with one clear sprue for the canopy and turret.

 

 

All in all the parts are cleanly moulded, but there is a bit more flash in the sprue with the lower wing section. It doesn't look too bad, and should pose too much of a problem getting the parts cleaned up prior to painting/assembly.

 

 

There are multiple options for the cockpit canopy to choose from. An interesting feature, the Defiant had two fairings, one forward and one aft of the turret that could extend or retract pneumatically as the turret rotated. Airfix allows you to choose how these fairings are displayed. The decals are once again from Cartograf and two options are available, either a day fighter from 264 squadron (the first Defiant equipped squadron) or a night fighter from 151 squadron.

 

 

 

The instruction booklet is printed in full colour and features full painting guides as well as a separate sheet showing the locations of the stencils (of which there are a lot), common to each paint scheme.

 

I'm planning to paint this one as the night fighter version, a bit of a break from the "sand and spinach" of my previous builds. I will take some liberties from the specified paint scheme, to highlight some of the details, such as the turret interior and the landing gear bays, if only to avoid them getting lost in an otherwise sea of black. Plus, the airplane features a pretty nifty shark mouth (and eyes), which should make it stand out nicely.

 

Hopefully this kit will be as fun to build as my recently completed Hawker Hurricane.

 

Andy

 

 

 

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by realworkingsailor

[Javlin]

Which scheme Andy? or do plan on holding that till the end?

[realworkingsailor]

3 minutes ago, Javlin said:

Which scheme Andy? or do plan on holding that till the end?

The night fighter version, all black 😁

[AJohnson]

I’m in, a fun build I did one of these in the daylight version, but the black “Shark-mouth” is the best. 
A mental concept, add a turret to a fighter, so it can only engage the enemy when running away! (Or maybe when flying in formation with the baddies!) 🧐

 

[Old Collingwood]

Im in on this  one  aswel  Andy.

 

OC.

[realworkingsailor]

27 minutes ago, AJohnson said:

I’m in, a fun build I did one of these in the daylight version, but the black “Shark-mouth” is the best. 
A mental concept, add a turret to a fighter, so it can only engage the enemy when running away! (Or maybe when flying in formation with the baddies!) 🧐

 

It seems nutty, but it was based on a sound principle. This video about the Blackburn Roc (I would argue a good candidate for the absolute worst fighter of WW2), explains the concept of zero deflection shooting:

 

 

Andy

[mtaylor]

Thanks for the video, Andy of a virtually unknown aircraft.  

[ccoyle]

25 minutes ago, mtaylor said:

virtually unknown aircraft

 

Not to airplane nerds! 😅

 

I have the 1:33 scale card model of the Defiant from Orlik. Sadly, I don't have a preformed canopy for it, and the turret construction looks awfully intimidating.

[king derelict]

I had the Airfix Defiant kit about Fifty five years ago. I painted it as a night fighter then. It looks like the kit has got more sophisticated since. It's a lovely model and a nice concept but it made an indifferent aircraft. Lots of weight that could have been used elsewhere

Alan

[realworkingsailor]

23 minutes ago, king derelict said:

I had the Airfix Defiant kit about Fifty five years ago. I painted it as a night fighter then. It looks like the kit has got more sophisticated since. It's a lovely model and a nice concept but it made an indifferent aircraft. Lots of weight that could have been used elsewhere

Alan

This would be a new tooling from Airfix, released in 2014 (ok, so not new, new, but new).

 

As stated in the video, both the Defiant and Roc were perfect examples of what happens when concepts and realities work at cross purposes. Sounds like a good idea on paper, not so much when the laws of physics and aerodynamics decide to get involved. 

 

Andy

[Egilman]

4 hours ago, realworkingsailor said:

It seems nutty, but it was based on a sound principle. This video about the Blackburn Roc (I would argue a good candidate for the absolute worst fighter of WW2), explains the concept of zero deflection shooting:

 

Andy

 

3 hours ago, mtaylor said:

Thanks for the video, Andy of a virtually unknown aircraft.  

 

3 hours ago, ccoyle said:

 

Not to airplane nerds! 😅

 

I have the 1:33 scale card model of the Defiant from Orlik. Sadly, I don't have a preformed canopy for it, and the turret construction looks awfully intimidating.

 

Or modeling nerds....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/165900957344?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=165900957344&targetid=1263104806246&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=9033423&poi=&campaignid=14859008593&mkgroupid=130497710760&rlsatarget=pla-1263104806246&abcId=9300678&merchantid=112317872&gclid=CjwKCAiAxP2eBhBiEiwA5puhNet30xlKK3a03DHVJG-ANoIChhD6_U6ygjqQyBazfDZjne_NOVDafxoCMLwQAvD_BwE

 

Only one of several different versions/scales available...

Edited February 6, 2023 by Egilman

[Dave_E]

I’m in. 🍿🥤

[shipman]

The Defiant is credited with 148 victories early in the war....not entirely 'useless'.

See it listed at the beginning of this video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L7veLuzF1E

 

[Canute]

Andy, I'm in. These Airfix 2.0 kits are a quantum leap over the earlier ones. 

 

Shipman: Possibly unescorted Stukas. Or early in the Blitz with the night bomber raids. This second item was what they were designed for. They just were inadequate for daytime use.

[shipman]

Canute, I did say early in the war; see vid above, first aircraft mentioned is the Defiant. Amazingly, quite a few bf109's downed! Until the Germans changed their tactics.

 

[shipman]

Up to mid 1942, roughly the period the Defiant was operational (148 victories), the RAF M1a Mustang managed 185 victories.

[realworkingsailor]

59 minutes ago, shipman said:

Canute, I did say early in the war; see vid above, first aircraft mentioned is the Defiant. Amazingly, quite a few bf109's downed! Until the Germans changed their tactics.

 

 

I think most of the victories against the 109s were more due to cases of mistaken identity more than anything. From a distance the Defiant does vaguely  resemble a Hurricane, so when the 109s would bounce a flight of Defiants from the rear, they found out the hard way that that’s where all the guns were!

 

Otherwise the best defensive tactic for a flight of Defiants, when engaged by enemy fighters, was to form a descending Lufbery circle. This tactic was developed and proved by 264 Squadron, however when other squadrons came online with Defiants, some ignored this advice and incurred heavy losses.

 

Andy

[Canute]

The Bf 110s adopted that tactic, too. Forced the Luftwaffe to tie the 109s as close escorts.

[realworkingsailor]

Thanks everyone who's joined in on this build (and those just passing through)!

 

In between waiting for paint a glue to dry on my Wellington build, I have been picking away at the odd pre-assembly job on this build as well. My Wellington needs to sit for a bit to make sure everything is cured before I add the final shot of Dulcote, so I decided today would be a good day to start some assembly on my Defiant. This will only be a brief interlude as I've told myself I must finish my Wellington before I really get stuck in on this one.

 

Like pretty much every Airfix model, assembly begins in the cockpit. There's a fait bit going on with this one, as it is a two seater, although to be fair, at this point the only thing going in at the rear is the turret support ring.

 

 

The rudder pedals and control stick are particularly small, even for this scale. They're about half the size of the ones in my Hurricane. The control stick mounts in an odd location at the front of the seat (if you shake it more than twice, you're playing with it!🤪). I still need to add the instrument panel, but right now I'm waiting for the instrument decal to dry. Once that's set, the panel will be installed and the fuselage can be closed up. 

 

Jumping ahead a step, I've prepared this wing, so it will be ready to go on once the fuselage is assembled:

 

 

Diverging from the instructions slightly, I've painted the insides of the landing gear bay the same colour green as the cockpit, and I've picked out some of the cabling/wires in gunmetal colour. The instructions say to paint everything black, but as I said in the intro, I feel that some of these details may get lost in an otherwise monochromatic paint scheme if they were all the same colour. I will be doing something similar with the details inside the turret, eventually.

 

So far the model has gone together reasonably well, the only real issue I had was extracting the control stick from the sprue. Despite my best efforts the ring/handle at the top got a little a lot mangled. I was able to save it with a quick application of glue before the various bits wandered off into the ether, so no harm done. For anyone else attempting this kit, do beware of this particular part, it's booby trapped!

 

Andy

 

 

[realworkingsailor]

Now that I am finished my Wellington, I can forge ahead, guilt free, with my Defiant.

 

It didn't take too long to finish up the Defiant's interior. The last remaining item was the instrument panel:

 

 

This panel looks like it will be more visible compared with the Hurricane build I did earlier. Some thought could be given to getting an after market PE instrument panel, but I opted to keep things out of the box. Yahu models makes sone nice PE instrument panels for a variety of aircraft, if anyone is interested.

 

 

It didn't take too long and things began to look a little more airworthy. There is a fairing on the upper fuselage just behind the turret, the kit offers the builder a choice of having this fairing raised or lowered. On the prototype, this fairing was operated pneumatically, and raised and lowered automatically as the turret was rotated. A similar  moveable fairing was located between the turret and the canopy. I've decided to model both these fairings in the raised position, as it does give the aircraft a slightly more streamlined appearance. With the fairings lowered, things look a little disjointed, and realistically, they would not be lowered for any great length of time, unless the turret was paused in a position that required them to be down.

 

Following the main airplane assemble, it was time to turn my attention to the canopy and turret masking. The canopy was fairly straightforward was more surfaces are flat and square. The turret offered a good reason to build this kit only once!

 

 

If I had to do it again, I would probably try to track down a masking set. Prior to painting, I have since sprayed the turret and canopy with some Glosscote to seal the tape. I did this with my Hurricane and had zero paint bleed, or, at least, no coloured paint bleed as the Glosscote left no marks as far as I can tell!

 

Painting is coming up quickly, although being all black, it should be nice and simple. No issues with wayward camouflage bands this time!

 

Andy

Edited February 11, 2023 by realworkingsailor

[realworkingsailor]

Thanks for all the likes, everyone!

 

Painting has begun in earnest. Although being a simple scheme, it hasn't taken too much time and effort. I feel a little bit like Henry Ford... "You can have it any colour you like as long as it's black"

 

 

 

I think it's going to look quite striking when it's done. The monochrome colour scheme really focuses the attention on the details of the aircraft.

I'm really pleased with the way the landing gear bay came out:

 

 

Prototypically, yes everything is supposed to be black, but I like this look better. I am currently working on the radiator and air intake cowlings and they will be attached soon. Afterwards a layer of gloss and it will be time to begin the lettering process. There is a ton of stencils to go on this airplane. The gang at Boulton-Paul were a little obsessive with labeling apparently. I wonder if they had a "label maker" label on their label maker......

 

Andy

[Canute]

You can add them on to the strains of "Paint it black" by the Rolling Stones.😁

 

This is coming along nicely. Looks good.

[realworkingsailor]

Thanks, once again, everyone for the kind comments and likes!

 

Well, this proved to be a rather quick little build, especially with the simplified paint scheme. Applying the multitude of stencils proved to be the most time consuming task. Had I the proper materials (and a little bit of practice under my belt), I would have tried maybe adding some chipping and done other weathering effects to beat up the paint a little bit, but I only have pastels on hand. I may add tome brownish burn streaks from the exhausts, just to liven things up a little bit, but for all intents and purposes, I think I will call this build done!.

 

 

 

 

To me, the all black makes for a rather striking, and not often seen (unless you google "Airfix Defiant"), paint scheme, and that shark mouth really stands out! Unlike it's contemporaries, the Hurricane and Spitfire, the Defiant had an underslung radio antenna. One fixed arial was located between the main landing gear, a second arial was located just forward of the tail wheel, with an antenna wire strung between them. The rear arial would retract when the landing gear was extended (for obvious reasons). 

 

 

I'm happy I went with the "unprototypical" green landing gear bays... notice the numerous stencils 🤪

 

 

I'm also glad I diverged with the turret interior colours as well, the small details around the gun stand out nicely.

 

 

You can see how "girthy" Defiants were in order to accommodate the turret. Notice how the plane widens as it goes aft of the engine. 

 

All in all, this was another great kit offering from Airfix, the turret definitely added a bit of interest to the build, enough to keep a more skilled builder occupied!  For the same reason, I wouldn't suggest this kit for a first time builder. The detail level is in keeping with all the more recent offerings and there were no real fitment issues.

 

I think I will be taking a bit of a break from building for a short while (until my fingers start to get itchy), but I have one more 1:72 airplane lined up, as well as some figures to try my hand at painting. If nothing else a little time is needed to catch my breath. I hope to see you all at my next build!

 

Andy

[Edwardkenway]

Looks great Andy, the black is striking as you say. A good looking aircraft. 

[ccoyle]

Great job, Andy!

[AJohnson]

Very nice Andy!    What's your next 1/72 you have for when you get the "itch" again?

[realworkingsailor]

Thanks guys! 
 

5 minutes ago, AJohnson said:

Very nice Andy!    What's your next 1/72 you have for when you get the "itch" again?

I’m kinda torn between the fun of keeping it a secret, and the excitement of announcing what it is.
 

Suffice it to say, it’s an airplane from later in the war, and I’m thinking of chancing mucking about with the decals to reflect an aircraft of the RCAF. (Even though one version of the included decals schemes was actually flown by a Canadian during the last winter of the war, it was still an RAF aircraft).

 

Andy

[AJohnson]

1 minute ago, realworkingsailor said:

Thanks guys! 
 

I’m kinda torn between the fun of keeping it a secret, and the excitement of announcing what it is.
 

Suffice it to say, it’s an airplane from later in the war, and I’m thinking of chancing mucking about with the decals to reflect an aircraft of the RCAF. (Even though one version of the included decals schemes was actually flown by a Canadian during the last winter of the war, it was still an RAF aircraft).

 

Andy

Tease! 😝

 

I'll have to wait and watch out for that log then Andy! 😁

[Canute]

Turned out great, Andy.👍

[Landlubber Mike]

Wow nicely done Andy!!  Sharp looking plane there.  Great job on the masking for glass - I'm sure the turret was fun  

 

Hope your shoulder is doing better.