Boulton-Paul Defiant Mk I
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KIT REVIEW
Airfix had their first attempt at the Defiant back in 1960 and it was very much a product of the era and thus left a lot to be desired by modellers over the last 20-odd years, plus it was notoriously inaccurate around the nose and tail. That kit was around for a long, long time before at last in late 2014 Airfix announced this all-new tooling. Inside their usual style box you will find three sprues of their current medium grey-coloured plastic and a single o
ne of clear plastic; the latter bagged separately within the main bag to protect it. Surface detail is via finely engraved surface detail, which is much sharper and precise than we saw in Airfix’s first batch of ‘new generation’ kits and the rivet detail is limited to the nose cowlings mainly and seems a little less prominent that with things like their Spitfire kits. Overall detail is excellent though and this extends to the interior with a nice rendition of the odd corrugated skin that lines the cockpit are gun areas. The cockpit area has moulded corrugations on the side walls, but the ribs and side consoles are separate, to reduce the risk of shrinkage, you also get the front bulkhead, just remember to get this the right way round, as it will fit either way. I found it best to build up the cockpit area in stage 2 first, then secure the gun support (#B2) and front bulkhead (#C4) in place and to ensure everything aligns you can snap the cockpit assembly in-between B2 and C4, whilst still being able to remove it later to paint these areas. The instrument panel is bare of moulded detail and has a decal that is frankly, disappointing in its rendition of this area; very plain and boring. The seat does not include seat belts, so I used the new ‘Super Fabric’ early style RAF ones from Eduard (#73-025), which are superb as they are nice and flexible and secured in place with plain PVA glue - easy! You have the option of the aft upper dekling in the up or down positions, plus the canopy comes in three configurations; closed, upper section ‘up’, closed, upper section ‘down’ and open, upper section ‘up’. The gun turret is a separate sub-assembly, complete with gunner figure, and this is designed to be built/painted and assembled before it is fitted into the completed airframe; there are no locks or tabs to secure it though, so it will fall out if the model isinverted. The gun barrels are not bad, but I would recommend you cut them off, drill new mounting holes and use the superb Browning 0.303 barrels with flash eliminators (#AM-72-031) from Master (www.master-model.pl) because they are vastly superior. Other options in the kit include two styles of ejector exhaust and with a bit of surgery, the ventral rear aerial mast up or down, as it retracted when the undercarriage was down.
The kit includes two decal options: L7013, PS•U of No.264 Squadron at Martlesham Heath, Suffolk in July 1940; N3328, DZ•Z of No.151 Squadron, RAF Wittering, Cambridgeshire, February 1941. The first option is a day fighter in the Dark Green and Dark Earth disruptive camouflage over Sky undersides and the second option is a nightfighter in overall ‘special night’ with the distinctive sharksmouth applied to this particular machine. The decals include all the unique markings, a full set of national insignia, the aforementioned instrument panel and a full set of stencils. They are produced by Cartograf and although satin in finish they preform extremely well and settle down nicely onto a gloss surface. You will have to trim the excess carrier from within the codes though, as this will be especially visible on the second option.
Verdict
Superb, a quantum leap from the old kit and at last we have a nice Defiant to add to our 1/72nd RAF collection. I can’t see most modellers just building one though, they are sort of addictive, so it’s just as well Xtradecals have already done alternative markings for them (#72-217) and Print Scale also do a sheet that includes the prototype (#72120).
Buy it (them!) and build it, as you will seldom enjoy making a kit as much as you will with this one.
Note: This kit is also available as a ‘Starter Set’ (#A55213/£9.99) as well as a ‘Dogfight Double’ (#A50170/£21.99) along with their new-tooled Do 17Z
Web www.airfix.com
Airfix had their first attempt at the Defiant back in 1960 and it was very much a product of the era and thus left a lot to be desired by modellers over the last 20-odd years, plus it was notoriously inaccurate around the nose and tail. That kit was around for a long, long time before at last in late 2014 Airfix announced this all-new tooling. Inside their usual style box you will find three sprues of their current medium grey-coloured plastic and a single o
ne of clear plastic; the latter bagged separately within the main bag to protect it. Surface detail is via finely engraved surface detail, which is much sharper and precise than we saw in Airfix’s first batch of ‘new generation’ kits and the rivet detail is limited to the nose cowlings mainly and seems a little less prominent that with things like their Spitfire kits. Overall detail is excellent though and this extends to the interior with a nice rendition of the odd corrugated skin that lines the cockpit are gun areas. The cockpit area has moulded corrugations on the side walls, but the ribs and side consoles are separate, to reduce the risk of shrinkage, you also get the front bulkhead, just remember to get this the right way round, as it will fit either way. I found it best to build up the cockpit area in stage 2 first, then secure the gun support (#B2) and front bulkhead (#C4) in place and to ensure everything aligns you can snap the cockpit assembly in-between B2 and C4, whilst still being able to remove it later to paint these areas. The instrument panel is bare of moulded detail and has a decal that is frankly, disappointing in its rendition of this area; very plain and boring. The seat does not include seat belts, so I used the new ‘Super Fabric’ early style RAF ones from Eduard (#73-025), which are superb as they are nice and flexible and secured in place with plain PVA glue - easy! You have the option of the aft upper dekling in the up or down positions, plus the canopy comes in three configurations; closed, upper section ‘up’, closed, upper section ‘down’ and open, upper section ‘up’. The gun turret is a separate sub-assembly, complete with gunner figure, and this is designed to be built/painted and assembled before it is fitted into the completed airframe; there are no locks or tabs to secure it though, so it will fall out if the model isinverted. The gun barrels are not bad, but I would recommend you cut them off, drill new mounting holes and use the superb Browning 0.303 barrels with flash eliminators (#AM-72-031) from Master (www.master-model.pl) because they are vastly superior. Other options in the kit include two styles of ejector exhaust and with a bit of surgery, the ventral rear aerial mast up or down, as it retracted when the undercarriage was down.The kit includes two decal options: L7013, PS•U of No.264 Squadron at Martlesham Heath, Suffolk in July 1940; N3328, DZ•Z of No.151 Squadron, RAF Wittering, Cambridgeshire, February 1941. The first option is a day fighter in the Dark Green and Dark Earth disruptive camouflage over Sky undersides and the second option is a nightfighter in overall ‘special night’ with the distinctive sharksmouth applied to this particular machine. The decals include all the unique markings, a full set of national insignia, the aforementioned instrument panel and a full set of stencils. They are produced by Cartograf and although satin in finish they preform extremely well and settle down nicely onto a gloss surface. You will have to trim the excess carrier from within the codes though, as this will be especially visible on the second option.
Verdict
Superb, a quantum leap from the old kit and at last we have a nice Defiant to add to our 1/72nd RAF collection. I can’t see most modellers just building one though, they are sort of addictive, so it’s just as well Xtradecals have already done alternative markings for them (#72-217) and Print Scale also do a sheet that includes the prototype (#72120).
Buy it (them!) and build it, as you will seldom enjoy making a kit as much as you will with this one.
Note: This kit is also available as a ‘Starter Set’ (#A55213/£9.99) as well as a ‘Dogfight Double’ (#A50170/£21.99) along with their new-tooled Do 17Z
Web www.airfix.com
