Airfix 1:48 Boulton Paul Defiant Mk.1

When the British Air Ministry issued a specification in 1935 for a turret-equipped single engine fighter, it would have seemed logical since - single engined fighters and light bombers featuring as gunner behind the pilot had been common since World War1. However by the time the Defiant entered squadron service with the RAF in May 1940 the speed and armament of likely enemies had advanced dramatically.

The Defiant met the specification well. The problems lay in the flawed concept which anticipated that enemy air fleets would obliging cruise along while Defiants penetrated their formations with a concentrated broadside of gunfire, or attacked from below.

Defiants of No 264 Squadron RAF went into action from Manston, Kent, in 1940 covering the chaos of the British retreat from France and Belgium. The squadron claimed sixty five kills in one month when the Luftwaffe had seemingly mistaken Defiants for Hurricanes and attacked from the rear to be exposed to gunfire from the turrets. It transpired that the kills claimed had been greatly exaggerated in the confusion of combat. The enemy learned quickly and within days the Defiant squadrons were badly mauled and had to be withdrawn from daylight operations. By 31st August 1940, 120 aircraft had been delivered and over 60 had fallen to enemy fire.

The Defiant remains a curiosity of design and a flawed concept. It required great courage and dedication from its crews to go in harm’s way at a severe tactical disadvantage, but desperate times demanded it.

The Defiant went on to a more successful career as a night fighter and fast target tug.

Airfix’s. kit has been boxed in three different versions, including an all-Black night fighter. It is beautifully detailed and has over 100 parts.

There are plenty of options since the kit has been cleverly designed. The ailerons, elevators and rudder can be posed deflected. The radiator intake flap and crew step can be extended or retracted and the main gear fixed up or down, but requiring the purchase of a separately available display stand. However, it is in the crew area that Airfix’s designers have excelled. The Defiant has distinctive fairings forward and aft of the gun turret. In combination with the pilot’s cockpit hood being open or closed, the turret can be mounted facing forward, aft, or on the beam with the fairings extended or retracted. The clever option is an abeam –trained turret with an open back. An optional clear turret top has two separate petal-type windows that can be glued in place to simulate the outward sliding access doors. There are no less than eight clear parts devoted to these options.

In the well detailed cockpit the pilot’s bucket seat is fixed to a bulkhead with a pair of brackets and then to a curved floor section that follows the shape of the wing centre section and runs from the engine bulkhead through to the gun turret. A forward bulkhead is detailed with a large oil tank.

The cockpit interior was sprayed overall green using Tamiya Acrylic XF-71 Cockpit Green with the pilot’s seat back padding picked out in Dark Brown. Two ladder-type side frames provide detail to the cockpit walls, cleverly moulded to include a representation of the throttle boxes and switch gear, which were picked out in Flat Black. Some seat belts from masking tape were added to the pilot’s seat. The long interior assembly was glued into the left fuselage half, followed by a one piece upper section that runs from the pilot’s head rest to the rear of the gun turret.

The right hand fuselage half was glued up and, as with most recent Airfix kits, it is a very snug fit. This is no serious criticism of well -engineered products, but even the thickness of a coat of paint can throw things out of alignment.

The wing is designed to be built up as a one piece structure to be fitted under the fuselage. Three panels form the lower surface and the centre section runs to the dihedral break points. A one piece gear bay insert provides the walls and roof of the undercarriage bays. The upper outer wing panels are in one piece from root to tip. Everything closed up neatly and firmly and will fit just fine providing all of the tiny mould tags are trimmed away. The fuselage was glued down over the wing centre section, ailerons added and the whole assembly set aside to harden overnight. The tail assembly was added, together with the intakes under the engine cowling and centre section.

The gun turret can be treated as a sub assembly and the detailed interior is built up from sixteen parts. The structure comprises the turret ring, ammunition boxes, side support brackets for the guns, and a central pivot for the two pairs of twin Browning machine guns. The turret interior and exterior is painted Black, relieved only by the guns ( Tamiya XF-56 Metallic Grey) and a brown seat (XF-64 Red Brown). About two thirds of the turret’s structure will be buried within the fuselage on completion, so little of the interior will be seen on the finished article. The ten turret windows are best masked before assembly.

The turret assembly proved to be a very tight fit when attempting to slip the one piece glazing over the guns. Eventually it was persuaded to close up after tiny amounts of plastic were shaved off the side of the gun breeches.

The airframe was undercoated with Mid Grey Auto primer from a rattle can and the undersides airbrushed in Xtracrylix XA 1007 RAF Sky which, after overnight drying,then the upper surface base coat of Xtracrylix XA 1002 Dark Earth was applied. The upper surface was masked with rolled snakes of Blu Tack low tack putty and Tamiya tape, andthe exposed areas airbrushed in Tamiya XF-81 RAF Dark Green. While painting was in progress the undercarriage parts were sprayed in XF-16 Flat Aluminium and the outer faces of the gear doors in Sky. When all the paint had dried the airframe was given two coats of brushed on Future/Klear floor polish a base coat for the decals.

The decals reacted well to Micro Set and Micro Sol decals fixing solutions and conformed to the inscribed surface detail.

The airframe was finished with two misted coats of Xtracrylix flat varnish. Clear plastic lenses for the lights at the wing tips and leading edges were secured with Humbrol Clear Fix. Airfix have done a good job in engineering a sturdy undercarriage, the main legs being formed as one piece to include the large curved lower sections and the angled rear brace, the whole unit fitting positively into square sockets in the wheel bay. Construction was completed by adding the centre gear doors, the large pitot tube to the wing leading edge and, in a counter–intuitive fashion, adding the aerial masts to the underside, where they keep the aerial clear of the arc of the turret. Finally the gun turret was eased into place, which required much fiddling and fettling since it was a very tight fit.

This is a kit that requires some care in assembly, so it is a little above the beginner’s category, but if the instructions are followed as recommended by the manufacturer there is every chance of a satisfactory result. It makes an interesting comparison with Spitfires and Hurricanes of the period.

FRANK REYNOLDS