Vulcanicity's Defiant rebuild

[Vulcanicity]

Hi folks!

 

Last year I built the wonderful Airfix Defiant as the famous N1801 "Coimbatore II", a nightfighter of 264 Squadron RAF, complete with lots of extras including Eduard photoetch, Barracuda wheels, Xtradecals, etc. You can see that build here.

 

This left me with the quandary of what to do with my old MPM Defiant, built something like 9 years previously while I was still doing A-levels! I did take a photo of the model last year but it's  gone astray so you'll have to make do with this one from 2008:

 

 

As you can see, same scheme. I'll hope you'll agree it's not as good as the one from 2016! Anyway, having thrown all that AM at the Airfix kit left me with a lot of bits left over, including most of a decal sheet, a complete set of undercarriage doors, and two spare canopies. So I elected to strip down and repaint the MPM kit, and finish it as a Dunkirk/Battle of Britain machine - attempting to fix some of the worst inaccuracies of the MPM along the way. These chiefly involve the turret and canopy (both 2mm or so too high, the turret is also too large in diameter), and the undercarriage legs, which I'd already shortened by about 2mm back in 2008 shortly after the above photo was taken - but still looked too long.

 

A quick test fit confirmed the Airfix closed canopy made the model look vastly better, and I combined this with sanding the turret down from the bottom. The undercarriage legs were quite badly damaged from being cobbled back together before, so I attached the Airfix door parts directly to the wing undersurface as a height guide and a solid anchor point, then having reattached the cleaned-up wheels I pieced back together and cut down the legs until the right amount of tyre showed underneath the bottom of the doors. This was another 2mm at least removed so the MPM legs are a grand total of 4-5mm too long. That's about a scale foot.

I also had to scratchbuild some replacements for parts lost or too far gone to save, such as the rear undercarriage struts, radio masts etc. As usual it's brush-painted, although the Sky and the flat varnish come from a rattlecan.

 

Decals were from Xtradecal stock, stencils I'd saved from the kit first time around (MPM helpfully provided two complete stencil sets, one in red and one in black!), and the fin flashes from the Airfix sheet. Scheme represents L7006 of 264 just after the Defiant's brief period of glory over Dunkirk. Hope you like it! I think this proves the the MPM kit can be made to look pretty like a Defiant without major surgery, although with the Airfix available it's almost certainly not worth the bother! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly a brief comparison shot. I think the MPM may still be touch plump around the centre fuselage, and it lacks some of the subtle shapes Airfix capture well, but the modifications make it look a lot better in my humble opinion

 

[Steve Coombs]

Sweet work there.

The Airfix Defiant is a thing of beauty though, isn't it?

A new Fairey Battle is required for the RAF Centenary next year.

[Gerrardandrews]

superbly done, and brilliant, and a kit with soul, the Airfix is best, but I have a good idea the one you like best😊

[stevej60]

Excellent work,particularly like the night scheme.

[Buzby061]

Hmm, pimp my Defiant!

 

Very nicely done.

 

Pete

[celt]

Nice pair of Defiants,it looks quite menacing in black.Well tidy mun.