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Boulton-Paul Defiant Mk I

Kit Review
The Defiant has been in the Airfix catalogue since 1960 and that original tooling was way overdue for replacement. Thankfully, Airfix currently have an on-going interest in retooling old popular subjects and the Battle of Britain period, so a brand new Defiant makes perfect sense. Inside their usual style box you will find three light grey-coloured sprues for all the main components and a separately bagged clear sprue. The product is typical of their most recent kits in that the parts feature fine engraved panel lines and a limited amount of rivets or fastener detail, in this instance the latter mainly around the engine cowlings. The instructions are their current style, with clear diagrams and items added in the previous stage highlighted in red. The fuselage halves feature the ribbed texture that is seen in the real aircraft and the separate sidewall detail (#C8 and C9) makes perfect sense because it stops shrinkage that would have occurred had these details been moulded in situ. The front bulkhead (#C4), will fit either way round, so make sure you get it right (yes, I got it wrong to start with, a case of not reading the manual!) You can build up the cockpit section from stage 2 and then add the gun turret decking in stage 4 without securing the cockpit in place, just position it to align the gun decking and later you can unclip it so that you can spray all the sidewalls and the turret surround in one. The instrument panel has a very basic decal, so hopefully the aftermarket boys will come up with a replacement in pre-painted photo-etched. Fit of the separate wheel wells into the wings was excellent, as was the fit of the wings to the fuselage. The only thing to watch is the fitment of the escape hatch (the round projection) at the back of the lower area of the wing, as a bit of sanding was needed to get it to fit just right into the corresponding hole in the fuselage. The wings do not have separate clear wing tip lights, so the corresponding area was removed with a JLC razor saw, then a block of clear stock had a small hole partially drilled into it, a drop of Tamiya Clear Green or Red paint added, and then the block was secured in place with superglue. Any gaps around the block can be filled with superglue, quickly set with accelerator, then you can trim the block back to the basic shape. Next the unit is sanded back to the final contours and at the very end the clarity is polished back in. These units then have to be masked with tape, so you can continue with the build and painting stages.
The option of having the decking aft of the turret either up or down is included, although I suspect most will go with this in the up position. The ventral radiator unit has separate matrix front and rear, while the carburettor intake under the chin has a single matrix; fit of both of these is very good indeed, although the latter has no locating lugs, so just position it as far back as the moulded ridge under the cowl will allow. The rudder is separate, but all the other control surfaces are moulded in place. I did like the retracted undercarriage doors (#B11 and B12), as these allow you to paint and weather the wheel wells and then ‘mask’ them off with these during the remainder of the assembly. As I went for the all-black option this did not matter, but when I do the next version in the day scheme, it will. The undercarriage legs are nicely detailed, with separate retraction arms, but watch out for the combined compression links and tyre scraper (#C12 and C13) because the latter element of each is so small, and the attachment gate so large on the sprues, that is it all too easy to chop the scraper off thinking it is the sprue! The mainwheels have good hub detail and the tyres are not weighted, which is good because I always feel it is over-done in 1/72nd. You get a pilot and gunner figure and these are not the same, plus the gunner is complete, gone are the days of the legless figures! The interior of the gun turret itself is quite acceptable in this scale, the only real addition required are new gun barrels, as injected plastic can never match resin or metal for this type of detail. You can use any of the Browning 0.303in barrels from Quickboost, or the superb Master Model brass ones, as they are very focal on a subject like this. I had neither for this build, as I just wanted to make it from-the-box, but the day fighter version that will follow will have the Master barrel (AM-72-031). Two styles of exhaust stack are included and I liked the way the propeller assembly was built up and added towards the final assembly stage. The ventral radio masts are included, although with the undercarriage down you need to cut the rear one as indicated in the instructions, because it retracted automatically when the undercarriage extended. Both the landing lights and pitot were replaced, but that is covered a bit later. The clear parts offer the canopy in the closed position either with the aft decking up or down, plus there is also a three-piece version depicting the canopy slid back. All the clear parts had superb clarity, but I have to say I found the framework inconsistent, the frames being nice and sharply defined at the top, but becoming more vague as they went down the side. The turret was the worst effected, with the frames virtually disappearing at the bottom

Colour
You get the option of two schemes for this one, one in the day fighter scheme of Dark Earth and Dark Green over Sky, and the other a nightfighter in overall black. I have wanted to make the black option with the sharksmouth for a while now, so opted for that one this time. The overall model was primed with Mr Surface Primer, then the first colour down was NATO Black (XF-85) in a light overall coat, not attempting to make huge solid areas of black. Once this was dry the panel lines etc., were all highlighted with pure black (X-1). Once this had dried a 50/50 thinner/paint mix of XF-85 was misted on top to build a solid colour that still retained some ‘darker’ areas around those panel lines. Once satisfied with the result, I sealed everything with Humbrol Clear and left it for 24 hours to dry.
The decals are fine, they are satin and have a little carrier film to contend with, but I was working over a nice even gloss surface and with careful use of a new scalpel blade I was able to trim all the excess carrier film from the codes etc. Once all the main markings were applied I added the small number of stencils and these were dipped in water and once they released from the backing sheet, they were picked up with tweezers and touched onto a pool of Humbrol Clear before being applied and pressed down with an old handkerchief. This seems to get rid of any chance of these small markings silvering, ever over black. The final coat of Humbrol Clear went on to level everything and then 24 hours later a coat of Xtracrylix satin varnish was applied, simple because I felt matt varnish would have looked just that little bit too flat.

Final Assembly
The landing lights are the typical cut-out in the wing with no detail and a thick-ish clear cover. I therefore boxed in the bays in each wing, sprayed these Interior Grey-Green, then added the superb etched landing lights from Marabu Design (#M72002) before finally making a new cover with Sellotape carefully trimmed to

extend just outside the perimeter of the opening. The pitot was also replaced with a new one made from a length of Albion Alloy aluminium tubing and a length of copper wire because this means you can paint the tubing black and leave the tip unpainted because it was a brass colour on the real thing anyway.

Verdict
This really is an excellent kit, not too complex, which is where I think Airfix are going wrong with some of the larger subjects of late (younger modellers and those just wanting a nice simple build do not need all that internal structure), so it is therefore very easy to build. I actually built and painted this one in about four evenings of work. The fact that another is already on the stocks to be built shows how much I enjoyed the experience, so this is a kit that I can highly recommended to any modeller, regardless of experience.

Paints used;
Alclad II
White Aluminium
Jet Exhaust

Tamiya Color
X-1 Black
X-25 Clear Green
X-27 Clear Red
XF-64 Red-Brown
XF-71 IJA Cockpit Green (+ a touch of Dark Green)
XF-85 NATO Black

Xtracrylix
Satin Varnish