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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