George,
Thanks for the heads up on the masks. I didn't realize there was an "A" and a "B" camouflage pattern on these BP Defiant's. I thought it was only used on Spitfires, so I learned something new here ! Thanks ... Can you start a build journal here for yours ? That would be really cool if you can.

Paul, thanks for the answer on the FAA planes. I have been looking at my F4U stash, and after seeing how Chuck's F4U is shaping up, I'm kind of getting the fever...

Last night I was looking at the Corsair and Hellcat planes in the stash. It's very tempting !

So many models, so little time ! 🙂

Here's a little update with the Defiant.

I have been reading where some have had problems with the fuselage when they were gluing the halves together. This is probably because of the tight fitting tolerance between the parts. It has been reported by some that even something as thin as a coat of paint can throw the fit out of whack. That is how good these New Airfix kits are now.

This is the reason why I opted to glue the parts in place first instead of painting them and then assembling them. Plus you get better adhesion when the plastic parts are not painted.

I installed the cockpit sidewalls and noticed a small gap was present between the side wall and the actual fuselage half. You can see the area I'm pointing at with a small round file.

I used clothes pins to hold the side walls tightly against the fuselage half while the glue dried.


After the glue dried I removed the pins. The parts are where they should be now.

The next step was to spray paint the parts using RAF Interior Green

Here's the cockpit:


Next I painted the little details with semi gloss black.

And painted the instrument panel while I was at it.

The last thing I did was to pick out the tiny switches and levers in red, using a toothpick.
Here you can see the firing button on the joystick is red.

By now the paint has dried on the IP, so I applied the decal on it. I used Solvaset to snuggle the decal in position since the kit part has raised detail.

Next I turned my attention to painting the oil reservoir using Matt Aluminum as the color.
While the oil tank was drying I painted the pilot's seat back pad using a dark brown. I found a picture online and the example in the photo is black in color. I wanted to make mine a little different.

Then I glued the oil tank in position.

This last photo shows how the pilot's cockpit looks now.

Hopefully tonight I'll join the fuselage halves and start building the wings.

As usual comments are encouraged.

That's a great question, Seamus. I don't know the answer; I looked up the BPD on Wikipedia, and it specifies 4 X.303 machine guns in the turret only. Perhaps they could lock the turret in the forward position with the guns aimed straight ahead and then the pilot could fire the guns perhaps for ground attack strafing? Other planes were able to do just that; perhaps these did, too. I hope someone can come up with the correct answer; my answer is pure conjecture.

OK, I continued my research and my guess was right. The turret could be locked in the forward position with the guns locked, then the pilot could fire the guns forward. However, according to my source (Wikipedia) this was very seldom done. It's an interesting concept. I had heard of this method being successfully done with A-26 Invader aircraft that had the machine-gun (8XM2 caliber .50s) where the dorsal turret could be locked forward and the pilot could fire all 10 machine guns, much like a VERY heavily armed fighter being used as a ground attack plane. From my Army career I have fired over a quarter of a million 50 cal. rounds from M2HB machine guns and 10 firing would be devastating to whom or whatever had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of that strafing run!

You guys are correct. Thanks for the compliments Seamus.

From what I have read about the Defiant the pilot could fire the turret weapons. They apparently did have a firing button on the joystick as shown by the pictures I posted with the reply.

I was looking for pictures of the front office in the Defiant and this is what I found.

The rear turret was used very similar to how the Luftwaffe operated their night fighters with Schrage Muzik

On occasion the Defiant crew would fly alongside the enemy plane and fire at it using the turret.

I also noticed that someone at sometime in the past sprayed on some black paint on the pilot's foot troughs and the side walls of the cockpit.

Another thing I found was how the retractable dorsal filler worked.

Good eye Seamus. What puzzles me is how the joystick is mounted to the seat and not the floor ...

But after studying these pictures it looks like it is mounted just below the pilot's seat. The joystick firing button look like it's black in these photos.

Looking good Louis, I have the 1/72 kit, so I may use this as reference !

Guys, I had no idea about this! The achillies heel was the turret and its range of aim. I often wondered about why no forward firing guns, it's predesessor, the Bristol Fighter had one. So did the fighter version of the Sopwith One and a Half Strutter, early on..