MPM 1/72 Boulton Paul Defiant
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 9:40 pm
Well, all done with this one. Couple of words about the kit. Overall a good kit, fine panel lines, great little resin cockpit, various vac form canopies and a sheet of PE, all included. I did end up cutting off most of the locating tabs to get things to align, but that's not uncommon with these types of kit.
It was really let down by the turret clear parts. Really thick and fit was impossible. It comes in two halves and no matter what I did it just looks awful. This was really annoying for two reasons. First, if they can supply four variants of vac form canopy, why not a vac form turret? Second, the turret internals are provided in resin and PE which looked great, but I ended up having to carve most of it up to get the turret to fit! These problems are compounded by the fact that the turret is the main focal point on the defiant.
So, would I recommend it? Yes, if you really want a defiant, as it's way better than the horrible airfix alternative. No, if you can't get a vac form turret!! Lol!
A bit of info on the Defiant...
The Boulton Paul Defiant was a British interceptor aircraft that served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. The Defiant was designed and built by Boulton Paul Aircraft as a "turret fighter", without any forward-firing guns. It was a contemporary of the Royal Navy's Blackburn Roc. The concept of a turret fighter related directly to the successful First World War-era Bristol F.2 Fighter.
In practice, the Defiant was found to be reasonably effective as a bomber–destroyer, but vulnerable to the Luftwaffe's more agile, single-seat Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters. Lack of forward armament proved to be a major weakness in daylight combat and its potential was only realized when it switched to night combat.[1] It was supplanted in the night fighter role by the Bristol Beaufighter and de Havilland Mosquito. The Defiant found use in gunnery training, target towing, electronic countermeasures (ECM) and air-sea rescue. Among RAF pilots, it had the nickname "Daffy".
And now the pics,
As you can see, I didn't have much luck with the turret, but there it is, warts and all, lol!
Thanks for looking guys
It was really let down by the turret clear parts. Really thick and fit was impossible. It comes in two halves and no matter what I did it just looks awful. This was really annoying for two reasons. First, if they can supply four variants of vac form canopy, why not a vac form turret? Second, the turret internals are provided in resin and PE which looked great, but I ended up having to carve most of it up to get the turret to fit! These problems are compounded by the fact that the turret is the main focal point on the defiant.
So, would I recommend it? Yes, if you really want a defiant, as it's way better than the horrible airfix alternative. No, if you can't get a vac form turret!! Lol!
A bit of info on the Defiant...
The Boulton Paul Defiant was a British interceptor aircraft that served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. The Defiant was designed and built by Boulton Paul Aircraft as a "turret fighter", without any forward-firing guns. It was a contemporary of the Royal Navy's Blackburn Roc. The concept of a turret fighter related directly to the successful First World War-era Bristol F.2 Fighter.
In practice, the Defiant was found to be reasonably effective as a bomber–destroyer, but vulnerable to the Luftwaffe's more agile, single-seat Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters. Lack of forward armament proved to be a major weakness in daylight combat and its potential was only realized when it switched to night combat.[1] It was supplanted in the night fighter role by the Bristol Beaufighter and de Havilland Mosquito. The Defiant found use in gunnery training, target towing, electronic countermeasures (ECM) and air-sea rescue. Among RAF pilots, it had the nickname "Daffy".
And now the pics,
As you can see, I didn't have much luck with the turret, but there it is, warts and all, lol!
Thanks for looking guys
nice build 
