Airfix Boulton Paul Defiant 1:72

[klr]

A late entry for this GB, as I decided not to build the Hasegawa F-106, for reasons I explained in the chat thread. After some contemplation, I chose the "new" Airfix Defiant:

 

 

If there is one thing that has bugged me (to put it mildly) with quite a few Airfix kits from the past 10-15 years, it's the thickness of the trailing edges of the main wings and control surfaces. Look at the ailerons on this kit. Being molded in full on the lower wing, you'd think they would be nice and sharp, but not a bit of it:

 

They must be at least 1mm thick, equating to 3 inches in 1:1. Naturally, this looks completely unrealistic. I carefully removed them before assembling the wing, having also thinned down (somewhat) the trailing edges of the rest of the wings.

 

I will reattach the ailerons only once I've thinned them down. This thinning will be done on the under side, at cost of the surface detail there. This loss of detail won't be that visible much, partly because it's on the underside, and partly because I have chosen the all-black night fighter version. Having just a single overall colour will help hide the fact that the trailing edges everywhere will still be too thick. Were I building the day fighter version, I would take a much more aggressive approach, to the extent that the wing/fuselage join would need some inserts. The best thing that can be said is that the engineering of this join is compatible with what I'd like to do in that scenario. As I have two more, both part of the "Dogfight Double" set with the Do 17, this will likely happen at some point.

 

The cockpit looks as if it will be much more straightforward:

 

Edited February 28, 2021 by klr

[Col.]

Good start to this one. Had a quick look at some walkaround images and while the trailing edges were not razor sharp they certainly are not so thick as Airfix depict!

[klr]

The cockpit assembly was impressive, but I managed to lose the instrument panel, and had to fashion a replacement:

 

The main airframe assembly was very good, with almost no filler and very little sanding required:

 

 

No reason not to start painting ...

 

I thought there was a blemish on the port rear canopy section, but of course it's meant to be there.

 

The Cartograf decals are very good ...

 

... but I'm still struggling with silvering caused by the rough matt black paint, which not a gloss undercoat could fix. Also, one of the MG barrels got broken off.

 

The photographs show the kit in a better state than it actually is, but I'm still hopeful of getting it finished by Sunday evening.

[klr]

Well, the kit is physically built and fully decalled, but it still needs cleaning up, so I'll miss the gallery deadline. The upside is that the photos of the finished kit, when they do come, will be taken in natural light.