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Airfix 1:72 Boulton Paul Defiant Mk.I Build


Lindsey C

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Hi Guys and Happy New Year to you all.

 

Am in early stages of BP Defiant build, (Airfix Kit A02069 1:72) for the BoB shelf.

 

I've been searching for a while now and drawn a blank on a few things about the aircraft I am wondering about:

 

1. Does anyone know where the rear Sutton Harness cables ran after passing through the armour plate. I presume there were cables or was it a solid fixing on the plate? Hardly.

 

2. I have failed to find a shot of a defiant on the ground showing the lower antenna wires while the rear aerial was retracted for landing. I presume the middle wire, the one running from the main wire to fuselage, pulled up automatically into the fuselage? It was hardly left flapping about.

 

3. Would a Defiant of July 1940 had the IFF equipment fitted and hence, had the IFF wires running from Fuselage to leading edge of tail plane tips? I would not have thought so given it was early in the Battle of Britain? Many illustrations and kit instructions show them.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Lindsey

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The harness was fixed to a frame directly behind the seat, connecting into the centre of it. 

Unsure ref the aerials, but all my images don't give the detail needed. One would have thought that when the rear aerial retracted, it pulled the cable more or less flush with the fuselage. In the pilots notes it mentions that if the air gunner had to exit via the hatch in the fuselage, then the undercarriage had to be lowered so as to retract the aerial to prevent them getting caught in the cable.

IFF - I have many images of 141/264 Squadron Defiants and all show no IFF. These images are from May to September 1940. 

 

HTH

 

Andy

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Thanks very much @AndyL.

 

Very helpful.

 

Makes sense to lower undercarriage. The aerial cable would be up at the exit hatch under the fuselage and would have been pushed to one side presumably or maybe a 'weak link' at rear aerial mast broke and freed cable? The gunner hardly had control of the landing gear and presumably had to have a live and coherent pilot to make the abandon aircraft call or to ask same to lower undercarriage. It throws up some scary scenarios that may well have occurred during the Defiant's operation!

 

Regards,

 

Lindsey

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Thanks @AndyL

 

At present I am just building the provided 264 Sqd, L7013 PS-U Defiant for the BoB shelf since I have no other decal options. But if there is a more interesting option for the BoB shelf and available decals I could build that either. I want the shelf to be informative to the uninitiated and definitive stories of bravery, adversity etc. make it more informative of what those brave lads went through. I tried to source the now out of production Eduard cockpit PE set but no luck. I was originally only going to build one Defiant going by the perceived reputation but on reading more of the history of this much maligned aircraft, there may be others built. It performed it's designed task well but was not used to it's full potential by the RAF and Sqd Ldr Richardson of 141 Sqd has a lot to answer for its bad reputation! Not even responding to both requests of contact from 264 Sqd Ldr Hall to explain how to use the Defiant and tactics, after their spectacular success over Dunkirk. He has a good few lives on his conscience! Do you know of any particularly interesting individual Defiant's that fought in the BoB and if there are decals available? The individual stories are really what brings it home to people. I may well build one of the Defiant night fighters later (as I did as a young kid). They look sinister but at present there are a good few BoB Emils, Hurricanes, Bf109's & 110's, Do17, Ju88's & Ju87's looking down from the stash and wondering when 'a start' will be made on them! 😂

 

Regards,

 

Lindsey

Edited by Lindsey C
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Hi Lindsey,

 

There's a few options I could offer, including Squadron Leader Dickie Richardson's personal Defiant, as you mentioned him in your post. I don't think history has been kind to him with regard to 141 and the Defiant. True he was one of the pilots vocal about not being keen on the type ( and there were a few, in both 141 and 264 ) but he is always measured by the events of 19th July. Common misconceptions are his failure to follow how 264 operated in combat, the formation they were flying, that they were bounced and caught totally unaware; it's all pretty far from the truth. He was an exceptional pilot, and flew on 23 Squadron's pre-war aerobatic team and by the end of July 1940 had over 1800 flying hours to his credit. I could go on, but this has been covered in depth in my history of the Defiant which is being published by Pen and Sword this year.

Another Defiant I can offer is L6996 PS-L that was regularly flown by David 'Bull' Whitley and Robert 'Sam' Turner of 264 Squadron - Sam was from Reading, where I live and was killed in action on 28th August 1940 along with Bull. I have more options for the night fighters if you're interested - a nice one is N1773 PS-H, fitted with the Bluenote exhaust system and IFF. I've attached one of my favourite photos - it's from when Life Magazine visited 264 Squadron at Debden and did a session with them ( along with 85 Squadron at Castle Camps ). When finishing a Defiant, one thing that Airfix got slightly wrong was the size of the gas patches located on the port wing, the decals are a tad undersized. 

 

dciqq6d.jpg

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Thanks for the info @AndyL.

 

Great shot.

 

I have yet to find a period photo or film clip that shows the antenna wires. They must have been finer than a Hurricanes or Spitfires with many shots of them showing the antenna wires.

 

Just a quick one if you could indulge me. Undercarriage and wheel well colours for a daytime BoB Defiant. I'm going with aluminium wheels, aluminium paint for wheel well floor, inner colour on doors and Sky S for wheel well walls. Sound right? Undercarriage legs. Would they have been aluminium paint or would any of the black/white paint of the earlier scheme have carried over on the legs?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Lindsey

Edited by Lindsey C
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On 1/10/2022 at 9:50 PM, Lindsey C said:

Thanks for the info @AndyL.

 

Great shot.

 

I have yet to find a period photo or film clip that shows the antenna wires. They must have been finer than a Hurricanes or Spitfires with many shots of them showing the antenna wires.

 

Just a quick one if you could indulge me. Undercarriage and wheel well colours for a daytime BoB Defiant. I'm going with aluminium wheels, aluminium paint for wheel well floor, inner colour on doors and Sky S for wheel well walls. Sound right? Undercarriage legs. Would they have been aluminium paint or would any of the black/white paint of the earlier scheme have carried over on the legs?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Lindsey

 You're spot on. Aluminium bays, and U/C legs. In the attached image it looks like Sky paint on the insides of the doors too. This image was taken on August 6th 1940. I haven't seen Defiants with black/white U/C legs I'm afraid.
nbQu1hI.jpg

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Perfect. Thanks @AndyL. So be it for this Day Fighting Defiant.🙂

 

I did see an image of a Defiant with black or Night looking legs if I remember correctly? I will have to see if I can find it again.

 

This well known image of fitters working on the Merlin shows pretty dark stanchion sliders (I only know motorcycle terminology for forks!🤣). Though they are shiny looking. This is 1942 and well after the BoB.

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fitters_working_on_the_Rolls-Royce_Merlin_engine_of_a_Boulton_Paul_Defiant_of_No._125_Squadron_RAF_at_Fairwood_Common,_Wales,_January_1942._CH4607.jpg

 

Regards,

 

Lindsey

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hi guys,

 

I am in half a mind to not add aerial mast wires at all! I have trolled through an awful lot of period images and have only found 2 (one maybe & one definite) that show the wires. Have found a good few images that one would think are a close enough shot and of high enough quality that should show the aerial wire. There seems to have been a connector block or something similar just forward of the rear mast on the 2 images that seem to show the wires. This is absent on the other good images. Do we know for sure that all Defiant's had aerial mast wires fitted?

 

Regards,

 

Lindsey.

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