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Airfix 1/48 Boulton Paul Defiant. She's on her pins!


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Hey everyone

 

I’ve been away ‘up country’ for the past few days so I’ve had no chance for any modelling - until tonight when I made a start on the Airfix 1/48 Defiant. So far its proving to be a lovely kit, well detailed, well engineered and well fitting (I understand the glazing on the turret is a little tight though)...

 

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I have a set of Montex masks so I intend to finish her as N1801 PS*Y, 254 Sqn RAF Biggin Hill 1941..

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I also have some quick boost bit and pieces plus the Eduard masking set.

 

Cheers all

 

Iain

 

In a very wet Kernow (it was sunny up country 🙁)

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Hi Iain, 

 

i built this kit kit last year and it's lovely. I didn't have any issues with the turret glazing and all fit quite well overall. Getting the sliding doors on is fun... a bit fiddly. 

 

Its a shame that the kit doesn't include any decals for seat belts or moulded ones, so if you have some PE ones I'd recommend them as the pit looks a bit strange with nothing there. 

 

Looking forward to seeing your progress. 

 

 

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8 hours ago, Antb said:

Hi Iain, 

 

i built this kit kit last year and it's lovely. I didn't have any issues with the turret glazing and all fit quite well overall. Getting the sliding doors on is fun... a bit fiddly. 

 

Its a shame that the kit doesn't include any decals for seat belts or moulded ones, so if you have some PE ones I'd recommend them as the pit looks a bit strange with nothing there. 

 

Looking forward to seeing your progress. 

 

 

Morning mate

 

Thanks for the info on the turret - I'll look forward to those doors! I'm going to make belts out of tape for the driver and gunner it shouldn't be too difficult to replicate.

 

laters

 

Iain

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7 minutes ago, (ex)Sgtrafman said:

Morning mate

 

Thanks for the info on the turret - I'll look forward to those doors! I'm going to make belts out of tape for the driver and gunner it shouldn't be too difficult to replicate.

 

laters

 

Iain

Ah of course. I always seem to forget about using tape! 

 

 

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Just now, The Spadgent said:

Coool! I have this too. Looking forward to this one going together. I’ll tag along if you don’t mind.

 

John.:penguin:

Morning fella

 

If you can fit it in between doing your Lancaster build you are more than welcome :D

 

Iain

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Hey everyone

 

A quick update before the Scotland / France game. I’ve managed some very basic painting in the cockpit and although I have the Yahu instrument panel I think by working with the Airfix example I can make a passable replica. 

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As you can see it is VERY basic painting that needs alot of clean up.

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The Airfix instrument panel has had the dials drilled out and its been thinned to with an inch of its life. I need to order some more dials from Airscale but that wont stop me painting her up.

 

Right the rugby. Laters

 

Iain

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Hello Iain, mind if I pull up a pew? I have this kit on the shelf and am planning to build it for the RAF Centenary group build starting in April. A bit of information gathering on how it goes together should really help. It's looking nice so far :)

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  • 1 month later...

Morning everyone and Happy Easter!

Well it seems like I haven’t done any modelling since for ever so the other night I put that right. After my last post I did manage to get the main components together and that was back in Feb so I decided to make a start on the main colour of my Defiant the dreaded black.

First off I pre shaded it with Tamiya Flat Black followed by a light mist of NATO Black and German Grey in the centre of the panels just to give it some variation.. 

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...Although the camera flash makes it look alot greyer than it really is I’m very happy with the results. Later today I’ll make a start on the national insignia, for these I’ll be using Montex masks I’ve had quite good results with these in the past.

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I didn’t use the Yahu IP in the end (I lost it DOH!) So I carried on and used the kit one and I think it actually turned out ok.

 

Have a great guys n gals and hopefully I’ll have an update later on.

 

Cheers

 

Iain

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The IP turned out nice! Black's a tough one, but I like the effect you've got. Think I'll stick to green/brown camo when I build mine :smile:. I've seen some photos of battered Defiants with peeling and scratched black paint revealing some of the daytime camo scheme underneath.

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11 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Nice black paint. I’ve been wondering what pre shade black with NATO would look like for my Lanc. It looks goooood. I’m cribbing that one. Thanks. :yahoo:

 

Johnny

Morning Johnny - I was concerned that Flat Black was going to be too strong for the pre shading but with the use of NATO Black and Dark German grey it turned out better than I imagined and it doesn't look like a toy which was my real concern.

11 hours ago, mackem01 said:

Just catching up with this one - well impressed at your speed of progress. Smart finish too.

Many thanks.

10 hours ago, monsjmse said:

The IP turned out nice! Black's a tough one, but I like the effect you've got. Think I'll stick to green/brown camo when I build mine :smile:. I've seen some photos of battered Defiants with peeling and scratched black paint revealing some of the daytime camo scheme underneath.

Morning - The IP did turn out pretty well, to be honest because the Airfix detailing was so nice it was easy to paint and that black could've turned out to be a night mare but I think I've gotten away with it.

I've also seen pictures of the paint work weathering really quite badly - that's an effect I'm going to try and emulate later on in the build as weathering can hide a multitude of sins (as you will see later)

8 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

Hello Lain,

really good job on your defiant ! Congratulations !

Mine is waiting for her turn on the shelf !

Good job !

Sincerely.

CC

Hey CC - Cheers bud, thanks for the kind words!

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Morning

Yesterday morning I spent some time on the insignia and I don't know if it was because I haven't done any modelling for a while but I made a bit of a mess of them - or at least made life hard for my self. The Montex masks themselves behaved as they always do flawlessly but for some reason I decided to paint the roundels white (to enhance the colours) but in doing this I ran the risk of some of the white being visible and when I exposed the final roundel and low and behold.....

  

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When I removed the masks...

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..You can see a white ring around the main wing roundels DOH!! Its not the end of the world as in real life they aren't as bad and I am going to weather the heck out of it, however I didn't need to spray white first and I could've saved myself a bit of extra work, plus I was very tardy with my masking and managed to get some overspray underneath the fuselage again nothing really to write home about but it was very avoidable.

 

Anyway later today I spray the Sqn codes and add the couple of decals before sealing it all with a semi gloss cote.

 

Cheers all

 

Iain 

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18 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

Nice work! You might get away with running a thin wash of black around the roundels to cover the white?

 

Regards,

Adrian

Morning Adrian - My thoughts exactly! I think once its all been sealed and weathered that white 'Halo' will disappear almost entirely, TBH its not as bad in real life. Oh and thanks for the kind words.  

9 minutes ago, amblypygid said:

Very nice. The yellow on the fuselage roundels is striking!

Morning - It looks different doesn't it? I actually quite like the whole black thing that's going on and I think once its finished it will look quite striking.

 

Cheers

 

Iain 

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