1/48 Classic Airframes

Boulton Paul Defiant

by Bill Lachance

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Britain's concept in the late 1930s of the turreted fighter may have looked good on paper, but it was a failure in the opening stages of WW II. Slow and lacking agility, they fell prey to Germany's Bf 109E. Only a couple Luftwaffe pilots attacked it from behind, mistaking it for a Hawker Hurricane. The aircraft were quickly pulled from daylight duty (Defiant Mk. I), and the aircraft had more success as a nightfighter (Defiant Mk. II).

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This is Classic Airframes' retooled version of the Defiant. While the outlines are more accurate, gone are the vac canopies, white metal, and photoetched parts. Only the Mk. II nightfighter issue has photoetched belts (along with the radar antennae), so I used some Eduard items. The injected clear parts are thick and the cockpit and turret must remain closed. This is a pity, as the resin interior is crisply cast. C'mon Squadron! How about some vacs for this kit?

As with most Classic Airframes kits, there are a few areas that demand extra attention. The most noticable is the height of the turret, which sits too high above the canopy if not modified. I glued the halves together and block sanded the bottom until the inner structure of the turret almost hit the top of the "glass." It still sat too high, so I shaved some resin from the sides of the turret ring until it sat at the proper height.

The landing light lenses were larger than their openings. Before I added the resin lights, I filed the sides of the openings in the wings until the lenses would fit. This was done before painting the camouflage, and the lenses were masked.

I needed to enlarge the openings in the resin wheel wells to fit the main undercarriage legs. The retractor arms lack definate locators, so use care when aligning them. The rest of the assembly went smoothly. Dryfitting is a must with this kit.

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The camouflage was sprayed freehand using Model Master enamels. The kit decals went on flawlessly, and the carrier film completely disappeared. My decals were slightly out of register, but it only shows on the yellow "diamond" on the left wing and the right wing roundel.

All in all, I feel this is a very nice Classic Airframes kit. It certainly is interesting, and looks good parked next to a Hurricane in the same scheme.

Bill

Visit my website to see other models of mine, I also build models on commission.  http://www.pix.prettyneatinc.com/

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Photos and text © by Bill Lachance