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Tuesday, 4 January 2011

The Defiant: Back to the painting tray and finished

The holiday season allowed a brief respite from twenty first century life with some R&R time. I find it no less demanding than work. With the family it's a rather a different sort of work to do in the holiday period, partly due to the hectic North (up to Scotland) and South (back down to England) travel schedule, but I did slip away for a few quiet hours in the 'middle of the night'.

The result was a "plane attack" on those nearly finished kits lingering on the painting table, or rather in boxes pushed to the side of it since June. I can now proudly present the (Airfix) Boulton Paul Defiant in the 'day' fighter scheme of 141 Squadron, RAF Church Fenton, September 1940.

Ooops it's not a Hurricane after all! Arggh.


Top View (Front): Vulnerable, but if you come in too high those guns may still get you yet! Same altitude, level and head-on is its weak-spot/vulnerability.


Side View (Left): Those Browning's will traverse on you.


Side View (Right): Those Browning's are still going to traverse on you.


As seen from an attacking Me109 once it recognised it was not in fact a Hurricane.


Eventually built, "ah bisto" (as per the famous English TV commercial), as part of my Airfix single-engined fighter/bombers of 1940 project. My only complaint being the decals tendency to disintegrate as I shuffled them into position.

Kits still to build:
  • Westland Lysander
  • Gloster Gladiator MkI
  • Fairey Battle
Postscript: I should have said it was a disaster of a day-fighter, as the concept of the two-seater fighter (pilot/gunner) did not transfer well from the First to Second World War. Hats off to anybody who had to fight in one of these things, especially for the gunner who had a hard if not impossible task to bale out if he needed to. 
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    10 comments:

    1. Tim Gow4 January 2011 at 15:26

      Nice work! I pass by Church Fenton from time to time - I must try to have a look at the airfield when I have a chance.

      ReplyDelete
    2. Geordie an Exiled FoG4 January 2011 at 18:05

      Having heard you say you pass it I could not resist a Google ;)

      There is an interesting 'unofficial' site:
      http://www.rafchurchfenton.org.uk/

      ReplyDelete
    3. John Lambshead4 January 2011 at 19:04

      The famous death trap MkI. Whoever dreamed up that one ought to have been made to crew it.

      ReplyDelete
    4. Paul4 January 2011 at 19:58

      Blooming nice build Geordie, the ddecals still look good mate.

      I look forward to the rest of this build project.

      Regards Paul

      ReplyDelete
    5. Paul´s Bods4 January 2011 at 20:04

      I´ve always liked this plane. Firstly it must be cos of the name :-D and then it looks like a hurricane but with more firepower.
      Cheers
      Paul

      ReplyDelete
    6. Al4 January 2011 at 20:36

      That's an awesome looking model Geordie, a really accurate paint job with nice clear markings

      ReplyDelete
    7. Geordie an Exiled FoG4 January 2011 at 20:44

      I should have taken a photo head-on as there lay its true weakness as a fighter.

      That turret was so heavy that they could not afford the weight for guns in the most useful position (facing forward)!

      They tried to offset this by ramping up the Browning's in the wrong place and as stated by John et al created a truly "lame duck".

      Note: The WWI concept was valid for BrisFit (Bristol Fighter) as it had both a forward firing mg as well as the rear gunner with an excellent arc of fire and it could keep up with contemporary fighters.

      PS Decals: There is a fair bit of paint hiding the joins on those decals Paul ;)

      I am hoping Airfix will send me another set after I complained via there web-site

      ReplyDelete
    8. Geordie an Exiled FoG4 January 2011 at 20:57

      Cheers Al, some of those nice clear markings had to be 'assisted' by hand with a spot of:

      Tamiya Gloss Blue
      Tamiya Flat Red (all I could find)
      Games Workshop Codex Grey
      Tamiya Flat Yellow
      Games Workshop Sunburst Yellow
      Games Workshop Chaos Black

      Yes, it was that painful. But it's good to know the blue in an RAF decal is a good match to Tamiya Gloss Blue :)

      If you look at your model you will see it has serial number L7000, whereas mine has L7111, as all bar the first two fights "floated away in tiny, tiny pieces". he other pain was filling the gaps between the broken grey lettering!

      My Microsol and Microset two part decal fixer kept me sane and allowed me to at least get parts of the disintergrating decals on.

      I then sealed the whole thing in Humbrol Matt Cote, which is the best matt varnish I've found to date (I'll have to get myself another few jars and start applying it on my armour when [if?] I finally get round to decalling them)

      Thanks again for your seal of approval :)

      ReplyDelete
    9. Thanos5 January 2011 at 08:08

      Very nice Geordie!!!
      I see you made your contribution to the plane month!
      T.

      ReplyDelete
    10. Jon Yuengling5 January 2011 at 18:50

      That looks great. I also liked that plane. Was fun to fly in some of our Fighting Wings games. Not to bad as a bomber interceptor.

      ReplyDelete