Airfix Defiant Mk.I, 1/48. 'The Daytime Daffy'

This 'Daffy' was built during a quick break during training, I didn't have anything in the stash that I thought would be a quick build so I ended up going to the only model shop left in my area and picking this guy up, and then later ordering some brass gun barrels for it.

Some Basic Background

Entering into WWII the RAF originally envisioned that it would defend the skies with 3 main fighters, the cheap and quick to produce yet capable Hurricane, the sleeker and better performing yet slower to produce Spitfire, and then the oft-forgetter Boulton-Paul Defiant.

The Defiant came about from the idea that 'the bomber would always get through', and that the RAF would need a dedicated bomber interceptor to deal with this threat. With bomber performance in speed and defensive capabilities rapidly increasing during the 1930s, as well as the lack of range for enemy fighters crossing the Channel, it was assumed that large formations of unescorted bombers would attack the UK and that the Defiant would simply be able to fly beneath these formations and using the accuracy of the turret be able to quickly dispatch of the enemy.

In reality a number of issues unsurprisingly arose in this theory. Firstly the Defiant was never quite as fast as it needed to be, while it was faster than the German bombers it wasn't faster by much which lead to issues with getting into an offensive position. Secondly, the bomber formations would be escorted which meant the Defiant couldn't get into these positions without great risk.

Initial combat was mixed when the type first saw combat. It's first Engagement on the 12th May 1940 by 6 Defiants, escorted by 6 Spitfires, versus a single Ju 88 unsprisingly resulted in a successful mission. The next day 6 Defiants managed to shoot down 4 Ju 87s, but escorting Spitfires were unable to protect the Defiant's from coming under fire by Messerschmitts and losing 5 aircraft, highlighting the inability for the Defiant to survive against enemy fighters without a great deal of luck.

Over Dunkirk the performance of the Defiant was similarly mixed. Flt Sgt Thorn and gunner Sgt Baker claimed 9.5 kills over in the Defiant in just three days of covering the evacuations, making them the most successful Defiant crew (it's worth noting that in the RAF a kill was credited as a kill to both pilots, unlike the USAAF in their P-61s were the gunner and pilot got a ½ kill each). The Defiant's claimed 48 kills for 14 losses, but in reality only a maximum of 15 Luftwaffe aircraft were truly shot down.

Very quickly into the Battle of Britain itself it became obvious that the weakness against enemy fighters wasn't going to change, only 4 missions were undertaken by the Defiant before it was removed from Day time service. During these 4 missions, 19 bombers were claimed for the loss of 11 Defiants which was an obviously unsustainable loss rate and one which proved that the 'bomber interceptor' was less effective than the contemporary fighters in RAF service.

After this the Defiant went onto become a night fighter, having more success than other RAF aircraft pressed into an ad-hoc night time interceptor role though that wasn't saying much, it wouldn't be until trh Beaufighter entered service that the RAF had a truly effective night fighter. With over 1,000 Defiants produced it would find itself pushed into different roles beyond the front line, appearing as a useful target tug, some limited use in air sea rescue, a testbed craft for turrets and even ejector seats, and also being used in the first electronic warfare aircraft.

The Build

Like I said, I wanted a simple build for this one and the kit is generally quite a simple and decent build. It has the normal 'airfix jank', but it builds up quite nicely despite being made of plastic that can break and bend from looking at it the wrong way.

For markings I wanted to replicate an aircraft possibly flown by Flt Sgt Thorn and Sgt Baker, but unsurprisingly there isn't a whole lot of good information on the 'Daffy' and it's schemes out there and while I'm sure there's a book, a two week break from basic training wasn't really the time I wanted to spent doing an in depth research hunt. What I did find is that the Defiant went from having white/night undersides in late 1939, and then some conflicting information on whether they had the standard RAF fighter scheme over Dunkirk of retaining that underside or having the all night underside for night operations like aircraft such as the Fairey Battle had. Regardless, I gave it the half and half because I enjoy the look and if I really wanted to I could change it at a later date.

Two crewmen were used, one Elan13miniatures I had became the pilot and one PJmodels was cut in half and stuffed into the very cramped turret. I painted the model up with a mixture of Tamiya and MRP paints, leaving it in a fairly clean look aside from some brush painted chipping.

Overall it was a pretty enjoyable build, it certainly builds up to be a unique subject. While I don't exactly love Airfix, I suppose a lot of that is due to building mostly Tamiya and Eduard kits which generally cost less for a better fitting and far more detailed model which brings me to the main issue with Airfix kits I have which is that they look sort of plain. I get that in reality not being able to see rivets and such is more 'scale realistic', but seeing that the wing consists of just a handful of panel lines creates a rather plain look.

I would like to see someone tackle the Defiant in some of it's more unique schemes, such as when a couple end up being two seater liason aircraft for random American squadrons.