AndyL

Well, maybe it's about time I built another Defiant (the Airscale 1/32 one is staying on the shelf for a moment) so I have decided to crack on in the next few days. As a few of you know, the Defiant is 'my thing' and there are many I'd love to build, but the one I will be doing is one that has always been near the top of the list. What isn't widely known is that 141 and 264 Squadrons flew occasional intruder operations over France, with the first actually being flown in November 1940. however my choice is the one flown by Flying Officer Edward Guy Curtice of 264 Squadron. Known as Guy, he had success in May 1941 on intruder sorties, with one incident where he was chasing a He 111 so low over the airfield that he hit the ground with his wingtip while breaking off contact. I have a nice photo of Guy sat in the Defiant he flew on intruder ops, and it confirms the code and serial, which are PS-N N3326, and the Defiant is fitted with the 'Bluenote' exhausts (the six port version). So here's a place marker - hope to be back very soon with progress pics. As to Guy Curtice, he was transferred to a Turbinlite unit and was killed in a flying accident in September 1941 at West Malling.

Another one done, which didn't go as planned because once again, builder errors and ham fistedness. I finished it in Mr Hobby acrylics, with detail work done with Vallejo acrylics and a couple of AK paint markers. I know the kit option (it's the Weekend edition) shows X4036 with IFF cables, but I wasn't too convinced as - a. I went through my 234 Squadron photos and couldn't see IFF on the Spitfire photos I have (I've got over 200 photos relating to 234) which then led to b. laziness won out and they stayed off, bearing in mind a. I might make a better job of one next time considering I bought the Eduard 'The Few' edition at half price direct from them. Anyway, here's a few snaps. Thanks for looking.

The hot weather prevented some progress but this is where we are with some pastel and pencil wear and tear. Next jobs are to add the door, aerial, rig the IFF cables and a final coat of varnish.

And on with a little wear and dirt. I'll be honest, I really don't do much on the undersides of the aircraft I build - yes painted, markings applied, and varnished. But rarely do I make an effort to attempt to add some 'realism' to it. I mean, it sits on the legs, and you can't see under it unless you pick the model up, so why bother? I am pretty much a lazy modeller aren't I? However, I've approached the model with the aim of making the undersides look like a dirty 234 Squadron Spitfire, so I have laid down some oil paints to start making that centre section of the fuselage look grubby. Interestingly, I have a photo of a 234 Squadron Spitfire coming in to land at St Eval. The photo was taken by my late friend Bertie Wootten who was on 234 at the time having joined them in September 1940. The Spitfire passed over him and he took a snap which shows a dirty centre section and a lot of 'soot' on the cartridge ejection ports. I notice that modellers put cordite streaking on both the wing surfaces aft of the gun ports - this one has it's doped patches in place but the areas aft of them on the undersides are clean. Maybe because it was easy access for ground crew to actually clean the marks off, however it's a nice photo which I am going to use for this Spitfire. So this is where I am - a little panel liner put on and wiped off, then oil paints in the centre section; the latter is at at stage where I plan a little more work. For the upper surfaces I have lately used oils to blend it all in. I may give that a miss or just do a dot filter with a couple of colours and rely on the rest using pastels, which I always do when it comes to the exhausts and wing roots. While the undersides are ongoing, I need to do some touch ups on the propeller.

Not much to report but I've been chucking paint at it and got to the decalling stage.

My fifth 109 of the year, the G 41 AS from the Profipack boxing finished in the colours of III/JG4. I used Gunze for the main colours and Vallejo for any detail work. As per my builds, they're good 4 footers and as is par for the course suffer from me missing bits due to sheer stupidity. But I enjoyed myself Thanks for looking.

Well I've completed the Bf 109 G14 AS (pictures to follow) so decided to have a break from five 109's in a row and I started the Eduard 1/48 Spitfire I Weekend boxing, with the aim of finishing it as Bob Doe's AZ-D X4036. I have always had a very strong interest in 234 as I was friends with a pilot who served with them from September 1940 and spent a lot of time on the squadron. I also have some fragments of X4036 too, so extra interest. I was also tempted to build it as the 501 Squadron option - the presentation Spitfire 'Caithness' which was destroyed when on an OTU and was being flown by a pilot from my home town. I might revisit that idea at a later date. So here's where we are so far - thanks for looking.

I think I'm done for today as I don't want to over weather the G14. It's now on it's legs and I'll start getting the fiddly bits together Thanks for looking.

Well now all I have left to complete is the G14 AS and I thought I'd do a little more weathering on this one because the finish is rather bright. So it's been toned down with a little oil dot filter, and I'm now putting on a little wear and tear. The chipping is done with an Dove Grey artists pencil as I think that a silver one can look too stark at times.

Well, I've completed two out of the three. Both are from Eduard Weekend editions finished in Gunze, Tamiya and Vallejo paints. Not perfect, but that'll do donkey, that'll do! Thanks for looking!

Well that's the G10 Erla and the K4 done after the application of 'fiddly bits'. I'll sort some better images for the RFI section later!

I just thought I'd add this - it's N1811 when with the Fighter Interception Unit in early 1941 and can be called the only pure MkI with A.I. albeit development sets.

@gingerbob The figures for A.I. Defiant airframes comes from a technical file held in the National Archives, Kew. It also contains work orders which give serial numbers, which M.U. undertook the work fitting the system and which units they were allocated to. The eleven airframes are referenced in the file too. But when it comes to A.I. being fitted into the Defiant, it proved to be a total waste of time and resources, for the return of just one He 111 destroyed. Defiant A.I. was first mooted as early as March 1940, but there then followed arguments as who would be responsible of operating in the aircraft. Initially the Air Ministry wanted the air gunner to operate it, and do the gunnery - and we can see how impractical that would be. But they saw some sense and decided that it was to be the job of the pilot. One of the reasons the Defiant wing gun project was cancelled was to redirect resources into A.I. fitted airframes. The development work was done by the Fighter Interception Unit at Ford with the first Defiant being N1811 which was transferred from 264 Squadron in December 1940. During this work it proved just how unreliable the system was, with a common issue being the failure of multi pin connectors manufactured by E.M.I. It was unreliable in it's limited service and suffered from 'heavy handling' by ground crews which made airframes U/S for periods of time. Why they continued to push for A.I. Defiants is beyond me, as it's successes were all in the 'cats eye' role, and it was at the time when we actually had some on the frontline that the Defiant was seriously struggling against faster German bombers. The turning point was when several of 151 Squadron's aircraft engaged a flight of bombers at Dusk over the North Sea in February 1942 and claimed one destroyed but the Air Ministry felt that that 151 should and could have done much better in the situation! One of the Ju 88's engaged actually chased one of the Defiants and made a determined attempt to shoot it down. This engagement started the ball rolling that saw them taken off operations later that year, being replaced with Mosquitoes with A.I. systems that actually worked on the type. I have a letter to 151 Squadron from Air Ministry photographer James R. Watkins lamenting the failure to send them copies of their recent visit and only being able to send them one print, and this print was from a negative salvaged from a bin and he wrote: "The negative this one is printed from was a duplicate which I salvaged from a waste tub and I dare not ask M.A.P. for the loan of negatives showing "Whiskers". This obviously references the A.I aerials and I recently managed to locate a copy which does indeed show a Defiant fitted with radar. But this was very close to 151 losing their Defiants for Mosquitoes, as the visit was in May 1942. But it shows 151 also had at least one A.!. Defiant on strength. HTH! Regards, Andy

And if anyone is interested, here's the GA drawing showing the locations of the A.I. aerials on the Defiant.

It's a fiddly bits morning adding replacement pitot heads, aileron counterbalances, etc. Unfortunately I broke the fin off the G14 AS and that reminded me to use a little more glue and not handle stuff so heavily. In mitigation I suffer from a good dose of clumsiness and sausage fingers so this is par for the course for me, along with losing bits along the way. With luck the G10 Erla and the K4 will be finished by tonight. Thanks for looking.

Indeed I really should have considering it's place in Defiant history; the only A.I. victory and the last night victory too. I'll get back to you as soon as I know something. @Gazontipede - I have close up images of the aerial arrays in place and I'm happy to send you these via email. Drop me a PM and I'll sort something out.

@Troy Smith @Gazontipede @Jure Miljevic Ref Defiants fitted with A.I. and used operationally only numbered around 11, with the majority with 264 Squadron. Known airframes are: AA317 and AA320 were with 96 Squadron and although in the AA serial range, the first 63 of the block were built to Mk I standards. These were MKI's. Known Defiants fitted with A.I. serving with 264 Squadron were AA398, AA377, AA398, AA406, AA410, AA414, AA437 and AA439. These were MkII's. The other unknown (at the moment) A.I. fitted Defiants were probably serving on 151 Squadron as I have images with some showing the aerials in place but no positive airframe identity. The A.I. screen mounting was very much a lash up affair with it mounted in thick aluminium sheet and rivetted in position on the top left of the instrument panel. The control boxes were fitted on both sides of the cockpit, set at thigh height next to the pilots seat. Ref the claim involving Mervyn Maggs, ex RFC, this was, as far as I am aware the only Defiant A.I. success. I do not know the individual code letter, but I do have a source within the Maggs family and I will ask about what may be recorded in his log book, assuming the family still have it. Hope this helps! Andy

Not much to look at but I've been running a neutral brown panel line wash over the airframe, and I'll leave that to settle overnight, before sealing it in with a matt varnish tomorrow, and then a little oil paint rendering to tone down the markings.

Well decals have set, and I started the peeling process. All fine up until a upper wing cross but I'm not going to moan about it, nothing that a fine brush and some white paint won't cure. Then disaster! Postie arrived this morning bearing a thank you from Peter at Airscale. Talk about something that to me, will be a massive distraction. Must focus...

Thank you all for the kind comments. And now we're at the step I utterly detest - decals. Yet strangely, since chucking a few Eduard 109's together I've found it to go much better, especially when I decalled two 1/72 kits. And yes, I did peel the carrier film after, and I know Eduard say you're not supposed to do this but I've had decent results so far. Now it's time to leave them to settle for 24 hours before I attempt to get the carrier off and if anything goes wrong well it's totally down to me. Before decalling, I very lightly wet sand with a 3000 grit sponge, then add two coats of Tamiya semi gloss varnish. The the usual solutions when applying the decals. Tomorrow will see if this one has worked.

I think this will do for now. Not 100% accurate but I'm happy with it.

Once again slow progress, but this time my attention has been on the G14 AS. The RDV band has been done and masked off and the basic colour scheme has been laid down. The next step will be the mottling and to feather the edges of the camouflage to make them less pronounced. With luck I might get that done today.

I must admit that I like the little Eduard 109's. I'm not a 1/72 builder but after I bought a couple of dual box Gustav editions I've rather enjoyed it. And I'm enjoying this thread too.

The G14 AS is more or less together, I'm just dealing with a few seams and couple of tiny gaps which were more likely caused by me.

The kitten was doing wonderfully until Blossom came back into season. Talk about awful timing. Then their focus is to mate, they stop eating and of course they lose a large amount of their milk production. We were doing supplemental feeds but he lost weight two nights on the trot, so things weren’t looking good. We actually had arranged to take him to a foster cat on the previous Monday morning. He seemed in good spirits on the Sunday night, into the early hours of Monday morning but we found him at 7am in the kitten bed having passed in a three hour window. We inherited four of the neighbours cats (who had 29 at one stage)and three are female who are all getting spayed in the next couple of weeks because we can’t keep repeating their pregnancies and we certainly don’t want the heartache of going through it all again. Blossom is really happy about living indoors and I’m sure she’ll stay an indoor cat but still pop out occasionally. But it’s nice to have her sit with me when I’m at the bench or at the computer. The only issue at the moment is cat hair all over my cutting mat, it’s swept every morning while she’s moulting 😀