Unfortunately, not much can be seen once the fuselage halves are brought together.
It’s a real tight fit in there.
Airfix connected the 2 parts of the rear deck with 2 spars, which span across the opening for the gunner’s turret. This is likely to ease fit and position of the rear deck inside the fuselage during assembly. The 2 spars need to be removed once the deck is installed.
There’s a very slight dihedral to the outer wings which Airfix addresses by molding them separately.
The fit is decent here and to Airfix’s credit, the seam lines are at the bottom so the top side where people will see more often is smooth.
I didn’t manage to align the halves together so the flaps didn’t fit quite right in the up positions. Lucky I can pose these in the down position.
The kit also offers position options for the stabilizers and tailfin but I’ve kept the letter straight.
What makes the Defiant interesting is the gunner’s turret behind the pilot. It is very detailed and is designed to slot into its space without cement. You can’t traverse it after it’s been slotted into position though.
The barrels for the 4 machine guns are blanked off so I drilled them out with a 0.4mm pin vise.
The turret is neatly stowed when in neutral position pointing to the rear.
A panel in front and a section of the spine lowers for the guns to clear when the turret traverses. Somewhat over-engineered but quite cool.
I prepped and painted the 2 areas where the inlet and outlets are.
They are nicely detailed.
But the insides can’t really be seen once installed.
The prop is designed to be able to be painted separately.
The landing gear parts are cleaned up and set aside till the painting stage. Note that the wheels are flattened on one side. I’m probably one of the few people who doesn’t like these since you have to align them properly to look right.
Next is canopy masking. I decided to take a short cut this time and buy a set of pre-cut canopy masks.
Very short work indeed! I’m a convert now especially when it comes to WWII aircraft canopies.
I’m going with a closed canopy like all my WWII builds. The turret will be a separate build and only inserted at the end.
Next is the fun part: fixing gaps. Yay.
Build Log
Part 1 – Cockpit | Part 2 – Construction | Part 3 – Painting | Part 4 – Finishing
