+++ FINISHED 06-09-2018! +++ Boulton Paul Defiant Mk I (Airfix 1/72 Dogfight Doubles)

[jrlx]

This thread started life as one of my entries to the Battle of Britain GB back in 2015. As usual, I didn't finish in time and it remained in the shelf of doom till now.

 

I'll try to finish it now...

 

-------------------------------------------

 

 

Dear All,

 

this is my first entry in the BoB GB: Airfix's Defiant from their 1/72 Dogfight Doubles boxing, which also includes the Dornier Do 17z.

 

These two aircraft met over Britain in August 1940. The Defiant managed to shoot down the Dornier but was, in turn, itself shot down next by an escorting German fighter.

 

The aircraft I'll be building was based in Martlesham Heath, where BT Labs were later built. This is quite meaningful, personally, because I did my MSc. Project there in 1993-4 (on self-pulsating lasers for fibre optic communications systems, by the way).

 

Here is the box, the Defiant sprues, the PE and masks I'll be using for the build:

IMAG2300

 

I won't be starting this any time soon, because I still have to finish my three British Phantoms for the Phantom GB. I'll start planning the building of the Defiant (and Dornier) this coming weekend, however.

 

This is a very ambitious build for me, since I still haven't used any PE in my previous builds. So, with three kits to build (the Defiant and the Dornier of this box - WIP here, plus a Tamiya Bf 109 E4 - WIP here), limited time and a lot of PE without previous experience of it, what can go wrong?

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

[GREG DESTEC]

Nice choice. Are you building them "in flight" using the stand??

[Fatboydim]

Sounds good Jaime. I'm sure you will make a good job of all three. Joe

[PlaStix]

I think this sounds like another fine project to follow. Looking forward to seeing what you do with them (once you get around to starting!)

[jrlx]

Nice choice. Are you building them "in flight" using the stand??

Thanks Greg. No, I always build my aircraft "wheels down" and with as much exposed detail as possible (opened canopies, dropped flaps if available, etc). Mind you, the box comes with a stand for displaying both aircraft "in flight".

Sounds good Jaime. I'm sure you will make a good job of all three. Joe

Thanks for the kind words, Joe. Coming from you, they mean a lot!

I think this sounds like another fine project to follow. Looking forward to seeing what you do with them (once you get around to starting!)

Thanks for your interest Stix. I hope I won't disappoint.

Cheers

Jaime

[Fatboydim]

Thanks Greg. No, I always build my aircraft "wheels down" and with as much exposed detail as possible (opened canopies, dropped flaps if available, etc). Mind you, the box comes with a stand for displaying both aircraft "in flight".

Thanks for the kind words, Joe. Coming from you, they mean a lot!

Thank you Jaime, that's very kind of you.

Thanks for your interest Stix. I hope I won't disappoint.

Cheers

Jaime

[rob85]

Hi again Jamie.

Looking forward to this as well i have one and it look a great kit! I can imagine it turning out very nicely in your capable hands

Rob

[jrlx]

Hi Rob, that's very kind of you. I just hope I can be up to your expectations.

[Pawel Szczudlyk]

Great kit.

I have done a defiant some time a go.

I will be watching

Cheers

[jrlx]

Hello again,

 

I probably won't be able to start building in the next two weeks, but I'm using some time away from the bench to start planning this build.

 

Last night I managed to go through the instructions and made a listing of the paints needed. I won't be using the pilot figures, so here are just the colours needed for the aircraft. I converted the Humbrol call outs to the Gunze paint codes I'll be using:

 

Hu 24 (trainer Yellow) = H34 Cream Yellow (propeller tips)

Hu 29 (Dark Earth) = H72 Dark Earth (camouflage)

Hu 30 (Dark Green) = H73 Dark Green (camouflage)

Hu 33 (Flat Black) = H12 / XF-1 Flat Black (for most flat black parts)

Hu 33 (Flat Black) = H77 Tire Black (just for tires)

Hu 34 (Flat White) = H11 / XF-2 Flat White (Propeller spinner)
Hu 53 (Gunmetal) = H28 Metal Black (for guns)

Hu 53 (Gunmetal) = H76 Burnt Iron (wheel wells, wheel hubs, exhausts) - is this correct?

Hu 78 (Cockpit Green) = H312 Green (cockpit interiors)

Hu 90 (Beige Green / equiv. Sky) = H74 Sky - Duck Egg Green (undersides)

 

As said above, I won't be using the pilot figures but noticed an odd colour indication: Hu 90 (Beige Green, equiv. Sky) for the faces?

 

Also, were the wheel wells and wheel hubs really gunmetal coloured?

 

Thanks for looking

 

Jaime

[Stew Dapple]

Hi Jaime,

I'd go with interior green or sky for the wheelbays and aluminium or black for the undercarriage legs - aluminium for the wheel hubs. Feel free to ask around though, I'm not an expert

Cheers,

Stew

[jrlx]

I'd go with interior green or sky for the wheelbays and aluminium or black for the undercarriage legs - aluminium for the wheel hubs.

Thanks Stew. Curiously enough, the instructions direct us to paint the undercarriage legs black and the inner surfaces of the wheel well doors sky (!)

[Stew Dapple]

Hi Jaime,

Well, it is feasible, the undercarriage legs may have been lacquered black and the wheelbays and doors may have been sprayed sky when the underside was repainted in that colour in June 1940 - equally they might not - the problem is the Defiant's defining feature is that big turret on the back so most pictures taken include that, which means you generally can't see the undercarriage or the wheelbays

Cheers,

Stew

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

I'm starting the work on my BoB GB entries, at last. I'm beginning with the transparent parts, just to mask them and put them to the side right from the start.

 

I'll build the Defiant with an open canopy.

 

As in the Dornier, I used my recently acquired RB-productions micro saws to cut the parts off the sprue. Here they are, just after cutting:

IMAG2524

 

I made the cuts well away from the parts, in order to avoid any damage from mechanical stress. I can say that the micro saw used works really well.

 

The excess plastic was removed with x-acto blades and sanding sticks (see my technique in detail here). Here's the final result:

IMAG2526
 

I washed the parts with water and dishwasher liquid, to remove all dust, and then gave them an Aqua Gloss bath. Here they are, ready for the bath:

IMAG2529

 

And here they are, drying:

IMAG2530

 

When dry, I had to remove a few specs of dust that attached themselves to the wet varnish and then gave the parts another Aqua Gloss bath.

 

They are fully dry now and look really good: brilliant and transparent.

 

Next step: masking. For this I have Eduard's mask. It'll be my first use of pre-cut masks and I hope it's worth the price.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

[Fatboydim]

You've been very busy Jaime. Another good set of transparencies. Joe

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

Continuing the work on my GB entries, yesterday was the turn of the Defiant.

I took the main fuselage, wings and cockpit parts off the sprues and spent some time cleaning them of moulding marks and subtle flash. Not as bad as the Dornier, though, but the plastic is also on the soft side. Here are the parts after cleaning:

IMAG2620

 

Fortunately, the ejector marks on the inner walls won't be visible after assembly of the cockpit parts and closing the fuselage.

 

I did a dry-fit test, to check for potential fit problems:

IMAG2621

 

IMAG2622

 

The fit is good, just with a slight misalignment of some panel lines on the fuselage. The main problem may be with the wing root of the port wing.

The wing root of the starboard wing seems to be perfectly aligned with the fuselage:

IMAG2623

 

However, on the port side the fuselage is just a tad wider than the spacing between to top wing parts:

IMAG2626

 

This can be solved by bending the port wing slightly downwards, resulting in perfectly horizontal central wing sections, with no dihedral. I've check some documentation (https://boxartden.com/reference/gallery/index.php/Modeling-References/Camoflage-Markings/08-Boulton-Paul-Defiant/Boulton-Paul-Defiant-8-04-960) and its seems this is correct (at least the top surfaces of the central wing sections seem to be perfectly horizontal). Please note that I didn't install the piece with the wheel wells that goes in the centre of the lower wing part and which, by itself, may make this apparent problem non-existent.

 

So far, so good, then

 

The next step is to start building the cockpit, with its associated PE parts.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Jaime

[CedB]

Looking forward to this one too Jaime - good start

[rob85]

Yes indeed what the little black dog above said! Love your builds Jamie, and can see this being just as good

Rob

[jrlx]

Ced, Rob,

Thanks both for your interest and support

Cheers

Jaime

[GREG DESTEC]

Its a great little kit the Defiant, you'll enjoy building this one. I look forward to the PE additions, and how it looks in place. Good work!

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

I've done some work on the PE parts for the Defiant.

 

Some of the PE parts are pre-painted but the interior green they used is not similar to the one I'll be using. So I will repaint these PE parts as much as possible. Some of them have two colours, as can be seen here:

IMAG2627

 

So, I started by masking the black areas:

IMAG2628

 

Then, I applied the only two PE parts that go on the inner cockpit walls and can be painted together with these walls:

IMAG2631

 

IMAG2644

 

Following this, I took care of the plastic parts that also go on the inner walls. These will be painted black and after painting some PE bits have to be applied.

 

I had to cut out the throttle quadrant from this one (before / after, side by side):

IMAG2629

 

IMAG2630

 

On this one, I had to remove some raised detail that'll be replaced by PE (before / after, side by side):

IMAG2632

 

IMAG2633

 

The next step was to deal with the seat, that is completely replaced by a PE part that must be folded and bent. Here's the part's top and bottom sides:

IMAG2634

 

IMAG2635

 

Before folding, I had to create the depression on the seat's centre. This was done with the tip of a brush's handle:

IMAG2636

 

Then, it was folded. Here it is, side by side with the kit's original seat for comparison:

IMAG2637

 

The seat is mounted on the rear bulkhead by a supporting structure, like shown in the PE instructions:

IMAG2642

 

The part was bent:

IMAG2640

 

And glued to the back of the seat:

IMAG2641

 

The rear bulkhead must have a hole made for the seatbelt to pass through:

IMAG2638

 

This was opened with a pin-vice and x-acto blade and the PE part nº 3 was applied:

IMAG2639

 

IMAG2645

 

Here we can see most of the cockpit parts, both plastic and PE, as well as the original kit's seat:

IMAG2643

 

There are a few additional PE and plastic bits to take care of before assembling the cockpit base, seat and bulkhead. Then priming and painting with the interior green will follow.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

[CedB]

Wow, great work Jaime - I hope your eyes aren't aching too much!!

[Dan]

Very impressive! No way would I be able to work with PE in this scale.

[jrlx]

Ced, Dan, thanks for your kind words. I use a magnifying glass while working with PE

Cheers

Jaime

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

I spent the weekend away, but I managed to do some work on the Defiant last night.

 

Continuing with the cockpit work, I applied, on the seat's front, a PE part where the control column will be inserted:

IMAG2647

 

Then, I assembled the cockpit's base parts. The bulkhead supporting the seat is not yet glued to the base, because I think it will be easier to paint these separately. The pedals also have PE applied, representing the pedals' harnesses. The kit's seat is shown for comparison:

IMAG2648

 

Having done this, I moved to the instrument panel. This will be made up of PE parts instead of the decal provided with the kit. The PE panel is a multi-layer affair, consisting of several self-adhesive parts.

 

We start with the plastic part that comes with the kit:

IMAG2649

 

The lower stub, representing the compass, is cut off and the first PE layer is applied:

IMAG2650

 

Then, the second PE layer is applied. This one comes with the compass, which must be bent and set in the horizontal position:

IMAG2651

 

The final PE layers are applied. resulting in this:

IMAG2652

 

To finish with, I removed the small area of plastic that can be seen just above the compass, on the lower edge of the IP. I should have done this right after the application of the first PE layer:

IMAG2653

 

Here are all the parts that are ready for painting:

IMAG2654

 

I still have to mask the transparent parts before painting.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Jaime