Steve's 1/72 Boulton Paul Defiant

[stona]

I've decided to try and squeeze another model into this GB. There's no chance of finishing a large scale effort, so I've gone with another 1/72 kit, which gives me at least a fighting chance.



The box says you need to be 8+ years old, so I'm well in there, and that the kit is skill level 1, so I've got a chance there too!

[PaulTRose]

its a nice kit, i enjoyed doing mine

[papa 695]

If it's anything like there 1/48 offering Steve, it should be a good build.

[Guest]

I've just acquired an Airfix 1/48 version of the Defiant and have an MPM 1/72 kit in the stash, so I will enjoy observing your efforts on this one, Steve. It's an aircraft that seems to have had it's reputation diminished post war, and whose actual performance was far better than the current reputation suggests. I've recently bought a couple of books on the Defiant which make for interesting reading.

[dave]

As Beowulf said it is a nice little kit and went together with no issues when I built it last year.

[stona]

I'll check out your builds, any tips gratefully received :smiling3:

I'm going to do this one on the ground, assuming the undercarriage looks up to it. It will vaguely be based on this picture, as far as the position of the fairings and guns go (he said optimistically!)



There are the rather basic Airfix figures for a pilot and a gunner included, but I'll save them to serve somewhere else.

At least with the undercarriage down that aerial at the back retracted, one less thing to knock off :smiling3:

[adt70hk]

Will be following this one with interest Steve.

Out of interest was there any link between Hawker and Bolton Paul?

I have always thought that they bore a very close resemblance to the Hurricane (turret accepted of course!!).

ATB

Andrew

[stona]

The only connection between Hawker and Boulton Paul that I can think of is that BP had been sub-contracted to build the Demon.

Hawker also designed a turret fighter to F.9/35, the Hawker Hotspur (which had some components in common with the Hurricane), but for one reason or another the B P Defiant eventually won out.

The resemblance is largely coincidental, more a reflection of the fact that none of these aircraft were designed in a vacuum than anything else.

If you take the turret out of a Defiant you end up with something even more like a Hurricane.



I actually toyed with the idea of taking a swing at this, but discretion got the better part of valour!

[adt70hk]

The only connection between Hawker and Boulton Paul that I can think of is that BP had been sub-contracted to build the Demon.

Hawker also designed a turret fighter to F.9/35, the Hawker Hotspur (which had some components in common with the Hurricane), but for one reason or another the B P Defiant eventually won out.

The resemblance is largely coincidental, more a reflection of the fact that none of these aircraft were designed in a vacuum than anything else.

If you take the turret out of a Defiant you end up with something even more like a Hurricane.

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I actually toyed with the idea of taking a swing at this, but discretion got the better part of valour!

Thanks Steve. A quick glance and you would mistake it for a Hurricane!

I dare you to have a go at a turret-less version next time!

ATB

Andrew

[Tim Marlow]

Best thing about the BP Defiant was that it wasn’t a Blackburn Roc......always had a soft spot for it though...looking forward to this Steve.

[stona]

Best thing about the BP Defiant was that it wasn’t a Blackburn Roc......always had a soft spot for it though...looking forward to this Steve.

It was better than that. The concept was not in itself flawed. When the turret fighter specification(s) were issued and even after the Defiant first flew nobody, absolutely nobody, foresaw the Fall of France. We often forget that France was regarded as continental Europe's pre-eminent military power in the 1930s.
It meant that the bombers arriving in UK airspace were escorted by S/E fighters, based quite literally just across the Channel. The Defiant was supposed to provide a formation of fighters, each equipped with a heavy battery of guns which it could bring to bear on the enemy bomber formations. It was the presence of enemy fighters that put paid to that.

[Allen Dewire]

Hi Steve,

I have always like planes with a rear turret like the BP and the TBF Avenger. When I see a model of one, I immediately think of the scene in Indiana Jones 3 where Sean Connery mans the twin MGs and proceeds to shoot his own tail rudder to bits. I have often wondered if this could have happened in real life combat or in the BOB...

I would tend to think it could because in the heat of battle and with a 109 coming around behind you, your only thought is to shoot him down. If this did happen and your pilot was lucky enough to land back at the airfield, I think one would have to lie about what really happened up there. Maybe "There were so many Jerries shooting at us from all directions....Man, we were lucky to get away with this amount of damage to our BP. Of course if the truth did come out, one would definitely get the "Squadron Idiot of the Month" award as well as a few angry words from the commander...

Just thinking out loud here and I'm in for your build too.........

Prost
Allen

[stona]

Some turrets had rails which acted as cams, preventing the guns from firing when aimed at parts of their own aircraft. The mid-upper turret of the Lancaster and Halifax are examples.
I don't know whether such a system was used on the Defiant. I've just discovered that the fairings were retracted automatically, pneumatically, by a cam actuated system when the guns approached them, so an interrupter system would not have been impossible.

[rtfoe]

Hi Steve, looks like the new mold you'll be building with. You will definitely enjoy it rather than struggling with the older kit which I had to go through. I suspect they will give you proper undercarriage legs not like the one rod structure I had to deal with. :smiling6:

Will post my build some time later as I noticed I hadn't featured it in this forum. The Defiant is weird but odd as it is it's a nice plane to have in the collection as it played a small but disastrous part in the early days of BoB

Cheers,
Richard

[stona]

I've been flicking through 'the library' finding all possible pictures of Defiants. One thing has become clear, you really can't pose the gun turret fairings wrong. They appear in all possible configurations, both in the air and on the ground!

I did find evidence of a trial flown by Squadron Leader Phillip Huntley, the second man to command No 264 Squadron, the results of which certainly surprised me.
To investigate how the Defiant could be handled against Luftwaffe fighters, Hunter arranged to fly a steady course between Northolt and White Waltham, while Fl. Off. Robert Stanford Tuck of No. 65 Squadron would attack how and when he liked in his Hurricane. In a turning fight which lasted ten minutes, Tuck did not use any of his cine-gun film, because he was never able to bring his guns to bear, but Hunter’s gunner used all of his, able to fire across the arc of a turn, and on one occasion Hunter was even able to get behind Tuck, and slightly below, so his gunner could fire forward and up into the Hurricane’s belly.

It seems many Defiant crews, even after a couple of defeats at the hands of the Luftwaffe, felt that the withdrawal of the Defiant was premature and that it could hold its own, even in contested skies.