Defiant! BP Mk. I in 1/48

[TimT]

Here’s my interpretation of the Boulton Paul Defiant Mk. I, N1801, “Coimbatore II”, from No.264 Squadron, Royal Air Force Duxford, flown by Flying Officer F. D. Hughes and Sergeant F. Gash (gunner).

 

This is another excellent 1/48 kit by Airfix, built entirely out of the box, with a few exceptions; I added a pilot (no gunner, I’m afraid) and antenna wire, plus applied riveting to the surface to liven up the monochrome night fighter scheme. I also used Montex masks so I could weather the roundels, squadron codes  etc.: they were good for this job but horrible for transparencies, peeling away almost instantly.

 

I wanted the challenge of painting entirely in shades of black, hoping I could create enough variety to make something visually satisfying.  Many of the images I used as reference indicate the night black paint the RAF used would chip and fade dramatically, and I imagine the color shifts would be similarly dramatic. Not sure I made that as clear as I hoped, but it was fun to use every chipping technique I could think of to convey the beating these poor, doomed aircraft went through. I used Mission Model paints over a coat of Tamiya lacquer silver, layering greys up to Nato black (with additional colours), chipping through to the layer beneath each time.

 

Although Airfix might not achieve the miraculous engineering of Tamiya or the erudite detailing of Eduard, each kit I’ve built falls together with predictable ease and makes a satisfying canvas to paint on, which is where modeling comes alive for me.

 

Thanks for your time!

 

 

 

[Farmerboy]

That’s a dam fine effort, using the Montex masks really improve the model, good job!

[GRK]

Great work, I’ve always been put off doing all black schemes by the difficulty of making it look interesting but you’ve really nailed it.

[Marc the Builder]

That is a great result, she looks nicely battered. Building one in the daylight colors and hope to achieve something resembling close to what you have done although I doubt I will.

[RMCS]

Fantastic finish 

[dnl42]

Bravo! Very well done! 

[stringbag]

Looks superb.  One of the best night finishes I've seen.

 

Chris.

[TimT]

Thanks for the kind comments, everyone! Much appreciated!

[Wulfman]

Beautiful build and great weathering !

 

Wulfman

[wellsprop]

Oh I do like that! The weathering is particularly good

[shortCummins]

that's an excellent build, the different shades of black work nicely

 

did you "dip" the transparencies before applying the Monte masks?

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[Ali62]

That looks very nice indeed, well done 

[Bobby No Mac]

Gorgeously weathered and it's always a treat to see an aircraft model posed inflight 

[amos brierley]

Shabby looking cheque - well done.    😉

[Spitfire31]

Impressive Defiant! The finish looks very convincing indeed.

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

[Pete in a shed]

Great job weathering the black so it doesnt just look black! very convincing. Great job all round really.

Pete

[Valleyforge]

Lovely work. Love the weathering effect on the plane, especially to the front of the wings.

[TimT]

Thanks for the encouraging comments, everyone! Always makes the efforts worthwhile!

[Nenad Ilijic]

Fantastic work! The weathering is, and especially the color variation makes this all black scheme beautiful.

 

Cheers,

Nenad

[ScanmanDan]

Wonderful results and great to hear that the kit builds so well.  This is a subject I find interesting but always somewhat gun-shy of Airfix engineering.  Nice to see her all in black.  thanks for sharing.