Now for something a little different: 1/48 Boulton Paul Defiant

[BarryW]

I have always had a soft spot for the Defiant. On social media there was a thread about it being the worse aircraft of WW2 and that, of course, is utter nonsense.

The Defiant was designed to be a bomber destroyer with its rear turret but was clearly not suited to take on nimble single engines fighters. There were tactics developed to defend formations against fighters and these were a success when used but, ultimately, the Defiant was removed from front line daytime action due to mounting losses and was switched to the night fighter role. It was in that role where it was able to shine and it’s nighttime successes deserve recognition.

There being no 1/32 scale Defiant I decided to build one in 1/48 scale with either a Trumpeter or Airfix to choose from. I chose the Airfix after looking at reviews.

This will be a simple, quick, out of the box build with just some seat belts added. A bit of fun and light relief...

The box


This does seem small to me, just four sprues of the soft plastic. Well molded it should come together well. The only issue I can see if how soft and brittle the plastic is...

The internals all ready for priming..


Black primer then Aircraft Grey Green interior to do...

 

[Deleted member 5496]

Interesting Barry.

Rather like the Lysander not suitable for its original role the RAF clever as usual found it another role.

Pity lower the pilot & a fraction taller the turret & it could have become a winner as a fighter. With a movable turrett & movable guns on the vertical plane it woud have been a potent aircraft.

Nice start Barry.

Laurie

 

[KarlW]

By all accounts this is a cracking kit, there was a flood of completed ones on FB around the release date but I look forward to your take on it.

 

[Dave Ward]

Barry,
I did this back in July, as part of Colins' Battle of Britain GB, albeit in a slightly different boxing - nice model - I used the Eduard instrument panel & belts & Montex for masks, and BoB markings - a nice model to make - but the turret is a bit of a pig to assemble & is a really tight fit!
Dave

 

[BarryW]

Thanks everyone. Yes, Dave I was aware of the turret being tight. Forewarned and all that.

Laurie, I understand that there were proposals for some design improvements such as forward firing guns etc. Pity they never did proceed with that.

 

[Jim R]

Hi Barry
An interesting aircraft and a departure from your usual scale. I am sure you will turn out a cracking model.
Jim

 

[stillp]

Strange that the Defiant seemed to have little success against bombers compared to the German schrage musik upward-firing guns.
Pete

 

[Fernando N]

Neat kit Barry and you seem to have latest release.
Currently having one of these on the bench but it's stalled a bit due to the mods for pe flaps.
Just oob will give you a nice model as the big parts will fit without any trouble

 

[papa 695]

What colour scheme are you going for Barry?

 

[Neil Merryweather]

Strange that the Defiant seemed to have little success against bombers compared to the German schrage musik upward-firing guns.
Pete

I think by the time the Germans were doing it Radar was much more effective for night fighters.
At the time of the Blitz airborne radar really was in its infancy, and as I understand it only fitted in larger, twin engined aircraft like the Blenheim and Beaufighter
Don't forget the ME110 is a twin also- was there Schrage Musik in single seaters?
I don't know

 

[rtfoe]

This is going to be a nice build Barry as the review and some of my friends have said. I have one in the stash waiting for an OOB feel good time to tackle it. I had a bad experience with the old 1/72 kit but managed to bring it up to respectable levels.

For you scaling down from 1/32 to 1/48 is like for us down to 1/72 so go easy and enjoy. Will be watching the progress.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[BarryW]

Strange that the Defiant seemed to have little success against bombers compared to the German schrage musik upward-firing guns.
Pete

The key difference was the the Defiant was not radar equipped.

 

[BarryW]

What colour scheme are you going for Barry?

The Day Fighter scheme

 

[Mickc1440]

I built the night fighter version and it was a lovely kit to build.

 

[BarryW]

I am really enjoying this, Aifix have done a very good job. The perfect stress free build.....

OK the plastic is that horrible soft stuff but, in this scale, any warping won’t give the problems it gives in 1/24 scale, besides, there is no warping in this kit. The main problem this plastic provides in this kit is a fragility for small parts, such that a swipe of a sanding stick risks snapping a piece in two. I have had several breakages like that, but fortunately, a repair has always been easy. The parts are nicely molded with just a little bit of flash and they fit very well, as well as even the best Tamiya and that is high praise indeed. One of the good things with this plastic is how well it sands, but you do have to be careful not to use too much cement, the plastic melts very easily, so care in needed and less is more....

To me, used to 1/32, the detail is OK but is somehow lacking in subtlety, the panel lines are a bit deep and wide for the scale. But there is nothing I cannot live with and I have seen a lot worse.

First, the control column was broken on the sprue, I did a repair that seemed to work but, picking it up in the locking tweezers, after the repair, it pinged off, hit me in the face and, well, disappeared. I have searched everywhere and there is no sign of it, carpet monster or a black hole, it has gone. Fortunately Airfix have the best spares service of any manufacturer, I emailed them and got a reply apologising that because of COVID there are delays to getting spares out and it might be as long as 7 days.... come off it, apologising because it’s 7 days! it would be a relief to get a spare from any other company within 14 days let alone 7 days! Apologies for 7 days are not needed.... So, there might be a bit of a delay in the build but, while waiting, I will press on with what can be done....

Now, one problem mentioned with the kit is the fit of the turret. So I did a couple of basic things to alleviate any possible issues, hopefully before they become an issue....

After priming, spraying interior green, detail painting, varnishing and applying a wash, I decided to cut away some plastic earlier than the instructions suggest. You can see the instructions telling you to cut it away after the two fuselage sides are joined. You can also see where I have cut it away earlier before the sides are joined. Obviously this plastic is there for strength during this part of the build, but when looking at it I decided that it was firmly enough glued in that, with a little care, there should not be a problem doing this now.


I still have a bit of work to do above, sanding away the remaining stubs but the advantage is that I can test fit the turret before joining the fuselage halves. This means any fitting issues can be dealt with much more easily now.

A quick shot of the other interior parts, painted awaiting a semi-matt coat and some dry brushing...


The i.p. has a decal to go over the raised detail. That is never a good way to do an i.p. but I ran with it. The decal is very thin and had a tendancy to curl, not great but in the end I got an acceptable result, a bit of gloss varnish on the dials and it’s fine.

Below is the first turret test fit, it seems to be perfect. I will, however, make sure that there is some ‘tolerance’ as I expect the fuselage to squeeze it in a little bit. I might fit the turret before joining the fuselage halves but I am not decided on that yet.


The second turret test fit, I am doing this at various stages in constructing the turret.


I have decided to make sure the guns elevate as I think that will help the painting and fitting. I don’t normally bother with moving parts. So I am taking extra care with where I apply cement.
L



I have progressed now to the point where all sub-assemblies are complete to where they can be without joining the fuselage and all parts are off the sprue and cleaned up.





I can proceed with some more internal work and some subs can be painted. I am still awaiting the canopy masks and seat belts which should arrive in the post any day now and, of course, the control column.

I may be able to carry on with this for a few days, provided the masks and seat belts arrive, then it depends on that control column....

by the way, you can see some small transparencies still on stubs of sprue. I have done this to make sure the parts don’t get lost, while still being able to separate out what I need to use and clean them up as much as possible.

 

[stona]

Strange that the Defiant seemed to have little success against bombers compared to the German schrage musik upward-firing guns.
Pete

EDIT:
I'll leave my post below, but I think I misunderstood your gist, for which I apologise. As Barry said, the problem for the poor old Defiant was that it couldn't find bombers to shoot down by night

Because the Defiant was operating in day time against heavily escorted bomber formations, something it was never intended to do. German night fighters had a good run against British bombers which had no effective protection other than darkness, until Germany lost the technological battle, blinding the Luftwaffe's night fighters and making them vulnerable to British night fighters and other counter-measures.
Don't forget that when the Defiant was designed the idea that enemy (meaning German) S/E fighters would be able to operate over the UK was not a consideration. France was continental Europe's pre-eminent military power and nobody could have imagined its defeat, providing the Luftwaffe with bases 25 miles from the English coast!

 

[BarryW]

I think he was referring specifically to the Defiant’s night fighter role in which, unlike later night fighters, it did not have the benefit of radar fitted to find their prey. Comparing the (early night fighting) Defiant with the later aircraft equipped with what was new technology is not a good comparison.

 

[rtfoe]

Looking good Barry, just wondered whether both kits from the different box tops are the same and if there were any differences to Mks and variants or just decals. I just searched for it and it's wedged under a pile of other kits so will extract it later to compare the parts.

Looks like it's going to go together nicely. Your test fit of the turret means I don't have to cut those lugs just yet as they help with alignment. Look forward to your canopy masking.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[stona]

I think he was referring specifically to the Defiant’s night fighter role in which, unlike later night fighters, it did not have the benefit of radar fitted to find their prey. Comparing the (early night fighting) Defiant with the later aircraft equipped with what was new technology is not a good comparison.

Yes, I may have misunderstood. I'll edit my post.

Great choice anyway Barry. I did think about this one myself, but wanted something I knew I could complete for the GB. I will definitely be following along to see how it goes together.

 

[BarryW]

Well done Airfix. The control column has arrived.....

On the meantime I have cemented the fuselage halves and wings together. There is space to dice the control column in place.

The Eduard seatbelts and masks arrived.

Pics of the pit tomorrow.